What’s a better way to spend a weekend then photographing one of my families. I was very fortunate to be hired to document Gregory’s first week in this beautiful world and almost a year later we’re back again for more of these once-in-a-lifetime portraits. I always enjoy spending time with Eddy and Shella and hope that these photographs will remind them of many joyful moments.
Dear followers and clients. I want to share an exciting news with you! I am now able to provide my premium customers with custom premium templates for printed baby announcement cards, holiday cards and thank you cards.
Choose from 5 types of paper: standard, art watercolor, art linen, art recycled, or pearl. Also add UV coating to the standard and pearl paper for added protection and a high gloss look.
Press Printed Cards are available in 4x5.5, 5x5 and 5x7 sizes both flat and folded styles. Also available are nontraditional sizes and styles including a 5x7 Wide Format, 5x5 Trifold, and a 4x5.5 Accordion. All card prices include envelopes in white or parchment.
Example: Baby Announcement Cards
Example: Season’s Greetings Cards
Sincerely,
Stanley Nov
This has been a great weekend for me. I’ve met two wonderful families and helped them capture memories of joy of their children being playful, happy and beautiful as all kids are.
Here are some of the photographs I took of a Japanese baby named Tsubasa at his home and in Central Park
Yours,
Dear readers. In the following series of articles I will attempt to answer most frequently asked questions about maternity, newborn and children photography.
Q. What are the advantages of environmental photography vs. studio setup?
A. Studio setup allows for more controlled environment but can severely hamper the creative process of capturing a meaningful portrait. Studio photo sessions usually work best for newborns but as the child gets older it becomes harder and harder on the parents and the photographer conduct a successful photo session.
By contrast, environmental photography ensures your child is relaxed and comfortable in familiar surroundings. In addition, every session is unique, these photographs will capture your family’s atmosphere - they will not be identical to those of your friend’s children - this type of experience is unachievable in a studio and requires a higher level of professionalism (technical and inter-personal) from the photographer.
If you’d like to learn more, don’t hesitate an email to stanley@stanleynov.om
Dear fans, I’ve been very lucky with my clients and models lately. This little angle is only 7 days old and yet such a cutie pie already.
http://photos.stanleynov.com/jacob
I will soon post a list of tips for Newborn Photography that many expecting parents should appreciate .. stay tuned.
Yours,
Stanley.
This has been a very busy week for me in terms of photography but my most favorite photoshoot by far was that of Gregory. Gregory was only 5 days old when I arrived at his house with 2 huge bags full of newborn props and a portable photo studio. He was an angel, easy to work with pleasure to photograph. As a bonus, he hasn’t pooped or peed on anything :)
Stanley Nov Maternity and Newborn Photography
Recently, I was approached by several new parents interested in photographing their newborn babies. They asked for tips, advice and guidance around using Point And Shoot and SLR cameras with infants.
From a pediatrician's standpoint, it is not recommended using direct flash in a newborns eyes as the eyes are weak. The musculature of the eye as well as the nerves of the eye need time to strengthen and develop.
When you hire a professional photographer he should know what kind of light sources to use and how, but if you want to practice yourself, here’s what I recommend:
1. Learn the see the light. Identify where the light is coming from (direction), what kind of light is available to you (direct vs shadows, parallel vs diffused) and how many sources you have (ie: window, lamps, flash)
2. Try to isolate the strongest source (usually the sunlight coming through windows) and position the child so that the light paints the subject uniformly. I recommend avoiding direct light and working in the shade.
3. Disable the flash on your camera if you can. For those of you that use DSLRs – I highly recommend investing into an external flash that can be directed at the ceiling and use ceiling to bounce the light.
4. Enjoy the process but thing about the end result. You want quality photographs that are in-focus, well framed, well exposed and create a living memory of those first days and weeks.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me through my website at www.stanleynov.com or find me on facebook.
Sincerely,
Stanley Nov
The young models name is Leon and we had an amazing time photographing today. Leon is almost 1 (I will be photographing the event on behalf of PhotoFXStudio) and is striving to become a boxer like his daddy.
Yours, Stanley Nov
Q. What’s be better than booking a new client?
A. Being re-booked by returning customers!
Recently a very loyal customer of mine signed a 3 session (maternity, newborn and baby) contract to cover her 2nd pregnancy.
Today was the first photoshoot, and, as I’m waiting for them to grant me rights to several maternity pictures I am glad to share with you some photographs of the first child – the beautiful Celina who I also photographed 8 month ago.
I recently had a pleasure of meeting and photographing Angela. She was shy at first but eventually warmed up and we created some very compelling photographs. I was lucky to photograph her on location where she felt safe and comfortable.
Yours, Stanley Nov
Good things come to these who wait .. or those who are persistent. Those of you that know me know where I stand on the topic. You would also know that I’m always trying to expand my talents by experimenting with different types of photography.
Several weeks ago I was asked to be the house photographer for an amazing ballet company located right here in Brooklyn to cover their performance at KBCC. I am very excited about this opportunity.
Today was one of the dress rehearsals and I can tell you one thing – I don’t know how challenging it is to dance but photographing a ballet company is no easy task, but, it was fun, thrilling a very enjoyable.
Yours, Stanley Nov
As they say, it’s not the size of your flashgun that counts but the sensitivity of your sensor (ok .. they don’t say that but they may as well).
The photograph below was made with the flash at ISO 160. As you can see, the flash fired enough to properly expose the objects on the table. When shooting with such low ISO the flashgun assumes the role of Key Light and overwhelms the festivities of ambient lights – which was not what I wanted this image to convey.
The frame below was created with the same Aperture and Shutter Speed settings but the ISO was increased to 1250. At this level of sensitivity the flash functions merely as a fill in and the camera is able to absorb most of the ambient light. Can you spot the difference?
Stanley Nov
Almost every DSLR photographer I meet these days wants to know whether to shoot RAW or JPG.
The answer - it depends. It really does, on the type of photography you do, the kind of equipment you own (not to mention tedious hours of post processing) and your overall artistic aspirations.
I shoot raw for many reasons but primarily because it gives the me flexibility to be creative when I’m behind the camera and to be peculiar and tenacious when I’m post processing my work.
The first image is RAW export straight from my camera ..
The second is the final, post-processed product that my clients love and expect me to deliver consistently ..
Yours truly,
Stanley Nov.
Several weeks ago I came across an interesting idea for a small project - “The Avatar”
Most of us already have avatars cut our from pictures someone accidently took but is this what we really want? We register visual impressions in a fraction of a second, and some of us make the most of that for their online presence.
I personally find it funny that in this day and age some employees actually are using employee I.D. badge photos as avatars for their profiles, letting some guy down in security make your avatar photo on his ID-O-Matic mugshot machine!
This is what I’m offering: 1 Free Individual photo session for up to 5 of my Facebook Friends. This won’t just be a cute photograph, not even an insightful portrait – this will be present representation of the current, cool and loose you – your Avatar.
Reply to this article if you’re ready for your brand new new striking Avatar.
How often do we receive a really nice invitation? A card that has stunning personal images and amazing print quality lets the recipient know that we’re inviting them to a special event and we want to see them because they are special to us.
In 2010 I will be offering bundle packages just for that. The package will include a 90 minute session, custom design cards (min. 25) and several large portraits.
Sincerely,
Stanley Nov.
2010 brings new exciting benefits. Couples looking to hire a team of experienced and talented wedding photographers that specialize in photojournalistic and candid photography.
You’ll be happy to learn that I am partnering with PhotoFX, a famous New York wedding photography studio, for all future bookings. This partnership will bring new choices to you as PhotoFX has decades of production experience and offers a rich selection of all types of products such as Albums (manufactured and Italy and the USA), Portraits and Canvas prints, Cards (invitations, thank you, anniversaries, ect) and much more.
I will still be the main photographer capturing your most precious moments and you’ll have the added benefit of an entire PhotoFX team to help you with pre and post-production process.
I strongly encourage you to make a studio appointment for us to meet and go trough a range of amazing offerings!
Sincerely Yours,
Stanley Nov.
With holidays rapidly approaching, whether New Years or Chanukah, many of start planning family trips, gifts and other joyous chores. Unfortunately we won’t be able to visit all of friends and family we’d like but it doesn’t mean we can’t send them a nice family card portraying our best warm wishes and best intentions.
Starting on November 1st we will be offering a special 3 week combo package. It will include:
These amazing folded 5x7 press printed cards can be printed on standard, art watercolor or pearl papers. UV Coating is also available. Each card comes with a matching envelope!
This package is heavily discounted but to spread the joy, we’re offering and additional 20% off (for every booked referral).
Sincerely yours,
Stanley Nov
As time goes by I find the need to branding my work ever more essential. As many of you know the type of photography I find artistic and offer to my clients is vastly different from “off-the-shelf” children photography services (a.k.a Wal-Mart Photographers).
Recently I’ve decided to put together a FAQ list to help my potential customers (young parents) decide if they are ready for the next step in the art of professional children photography.
Environment photography ensures your child is relaxed and comfortable in familiar surroundings. In addition, every session is unique, these photographs will capture your family’s atmosphere - they will not be identical to those of your friend’s children - this type of experience is unachievable in a studio.
Yes I will. Traditional photography studios may include several prints in the package but when you ask for a DVD with all High Resolution un-watermarked photographs your request will be denied. By contrast, my customers are granted FULL reproduction rights. You will get a DVD with high resolution files that you can use to print, post online, email, create screen savers, slideshows, holiday cards, digital frames and reuse images in any other way without any restrictions at all. This is hugely important because more and more parents are combining photographs over time to create photo books and albums as well as use them in digitally.
There's no best age - your child is changing so fast in these first few years that any time you choose for your session will be wonderful. Photographs of newborns can capture the delightful and often forgotten things - those little hands and feet. And after about 5-6 months of age, your child's back muscles will be strong enough to hold him or her up a little bit more, and the smiles around this age are great.
Try to schedule your photo session at a time when your child will be lively, awake, and playful, often just after waking up from a nap is best. Meal or snack time can be a fun time for photos, so you may want to prepare some snacks for your child for the shoot. Before you plan the timing of your session, watch the way sunlight moves through your house over the course of a day, it's better to choose a time of day when one side of your house is brightly lit with sunlight. If that’s not the case, have no fear, I bring a full arsenal of professional photo lightning equipment to deal with any situation.
Have a few changes of clothes picked out for your child ahead of time. Solid colors work well. Logos, cartoon characters and bright stripes can be distracting in a photograph, so try to avoid them if possible.
For infants, often just a diaper and a bare belly is a great look. The clothes you pick out for very young children shouldn't be stiff, or complicated. We want everybody to be comfortable, and we want the focus in the pictures to be on the child, not the clothes. It's best to have some soft cotton form-fitting clothes in pastel colors (not white) available for very young children. (Pastels tend to photograph much better than white.)
For toddlers, think about the texture of the clothes you're picking out - soft, fuzzy sweaters, corduroy, and terry cloth all though, the clothes should just be simple. As some of my shots may be close-ups, you might prefer to have your children's nails nicely trimmed and their face food free (unless of course we are taking photos of them eating!)
In family photos, you don't need to dress everybody alike, unless that's the look you're going for. Solid colors are best for adults, and that's about it. If you want a bit more information: light colors are good on dark days (because they reflect light up into your face), whereas darker colors are good on bright days. But don't worry too much about clothes, I can work with anything.
You will receive digital proofs within 1 week of the photo session. Once you review them and the final selection is made it takes 2 weeks go manually process your selection (up to 30 images) to make every photograph jump off the page; than ALL the images are copied onto your Master DVD Disk. Your prints will be ready for pickup at the same time as the DVD.
Once you’ve received the prints, you can purchase frames and mats from a variety art stores and do the job yourself, or, you can visit a professional framing studio. I recommend the latter because professional prints deserve professional framing. In Brooklyn, I recommend “Artie Warren’s Custom Framing” located at 2082 Coney Island Ave. They have a great selection of frames and are very competitively priced. For framing studios on Staten Island, Manhattan, Long Island and Queens email me individually.
You can print photographs from our photo sessions anywhere where digital photographs are printed. I suggest using a reputable vendor such as Snapfish. You can also consult this list of photo print services comparisons. Please keep in mind that these consumer services offer satisfactory quality but there’s no guarantee that your prints will have the same skin tones and the photographs. Equipment profiling is the science and art for true professionals.
Your family photographer is also a print master. In addition to profession printer equipment on premises I partner with the largest professional digital printing lab in Minnesota to provide you with prints sized up to 45x30 and canvases up to 20x16. Your photographs will be printed on professional Epson and Kodak Endura paper that is said to have a lifespan of 100 years.
Your truly, Stanley Nov of BestNYCPhoto
Last week I met my new favorite wedding couple Pauline and Pawel in NJ to photograph their engagement session. I was fortunate enough to have my wife with me to assist with light and the models.
Their initial package did not include an engagement session but they made a wise choice of getting it after the contract was signed. This session gave us time to get to know each other, fool around and become more than than just random people you hire for your wedding. Although my models were a bit self conscious at first, we had so much fun photographing the line between the photographer and the subject was completely erased.
Below are my favorite shots from the 90 minute session. Let me know if you like any of them.
Sincerely, Stanley Nov.
We, photographers, are keen on finding a great backdrops and perfect subjects but combining both in a worthy photograph is no easy task.
I’ve always said that a real photographer does not depend on Photoshop or other image enhancing work to make his work really stand out; but sometimes it’s just an easy way out. The image below was taken with New York City in the background generously lit by direct harsh afternoon sunlight. My models were placed in a shade for the same reason. I could have used a gradual filter with an adapter ring (it would take me 10 minutes to put it on) but I decided to capture the moment and deal with the geeky stuff later, in my lab.
As shot
After post processing in LR background details are in the same dynamic range as the models
Your buddy, Stanley Nov.
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