Eli's Photography Blog

www.elimurray.com – Wedding Photography Mobile Site

With all of this Apple/Adobe flash debate going on, I just wanted to take quick moment and remind everyone that  elimurray.com is fully mobile and has been from day one. If you’re on the go and want to show  your wedding photos to friends or family, you can do that from your iPhone or iPad. This may be a very minimal feature to want to tell you about, most people probably wait until they get home to their computer, but I do believe that at some point we will all be mobile. When I was first thinking about a website, I thought I wanted a flashy flash site for the glamor, but my good friends at Shift Creative helped me understand that flashy is not always functional. So there you have it. Just a short blog to remind everyone that elimurray.com is 100% mobile. Have an wonderful day!!

All New Wedding Photography Packages – Now Include iPads

I have given a lot of thought into my current wedding photography packages. I wanted to be able to offer the more to my couples. I’m constantly striving to better my skills as a photographer and will continue to work very hard on every wedding that I’m blessed to photograph. Because I felt that my current wedding packages were limited with what I could offer, I’ve decided to modify them. There are a couple things that I am really excited about.

• First, all 3 of the new wedding packages include ALL DAY wedding coverage. This is really wonderful because you will no longer have the difficult decision of choosing what time best fits you. This is your wedding day, the entire day is important.
• Second, I have now had my own iPad for almost 2 weeks and I love this thing. I was thinking about how much I love showing off my portfolio and I wondered if you guys would like to have one to show off your wedding photos too. I’m not getting rid of my wedding albums, this is completely an option for you to choose. You can now substitute a custom leather bound wedding album for a brand new Apple iPad with all of your wedding photos in full resolution to be displayed on it’s amazingly sharp display.

Like I said, I don’t want to get rid of my albums, there’s no substitute for physical prints,albums, or canvas wraps. The iPad is just another product that I can offer and another way to display your beautiful wedding photos around your home for years to come. After all, my slogan is Eli Murray Photography – Modern Wedding Photography for a Classic Bride. That kind of forces me to stay up with the times, huh? Haha

The iPad offers so many ways to remember your wedding. You can create your own photo slideshows with your own wedding music. View your engagement and bridal portraits and send them to friends/family. If you had a wedding video produced, you can also view it on you iPad. All of this in one beautiful package. If you are interested in any of the new wedding packages or if you want a personal demonstration of how the iPad can change the way you view your wedding photos, give me a call. I hope that you are all just as excited about these new changes to my wedding packages as I am. And don’t worry, if you’re a current bride of mine, your prices won’t go up. You’re still getting the same wedding package at the time you signed the contract. Also, if you are a current or past bride of mine and you are interested in added the iPad, give me a call. : )
All New Wedding Packages can be viewed here.

Matthew Huff Music- Arkansas Music Photographer

I first heard Matthew at a wedding I was shooting back in September, he was the live music at the reception. Since then, we made friends and Matthew has played some great tunes at a few more weddings. Matthew loves doing weddings and events, but he’s working really hard on his own music right now. Just finished recording his new county album and has been busy playing gigs all over the south. I asked him if he needed some photos, as it turned out he did, so here we are. These were my first ever music portraits, so I’m glad that didn’t scare Matthew away, haha. We talked a little about the album and came up with this setting for the shoot. He wanted something that represented his album, that makes since right?
Here are a few of my favorites and one at the end to show you my lighting set up, just in case anyone’s interested.
Oh yeah, be sure to check out Matthew’s website here. You should also be his friend on Facebook and if you’re a bride getting married anytime soon, ask him if he has your date available.






Matthew may seem kinda serious, but he did break character a couple times.


Okay, here’s my set up. Not much. One light. I had an SB-900 Speedlight inside of the 28′ Westcott Apollo softbox.  If you are looking for a little more info on simple lighting set ups, you should check out Zach Arias. He has workshops and a dvd called One Light. Also check out another really great photographer David Jackson.

Tuesdays with Eli – Adobe Lightroom Tip #1

Hey everyone, today is Tuesday, that means you’ll be hearing from me again. Since I’ve been doing so much personal blogging lately, I decided to share with all you interested photographers and photo enthusiast a couple tips I’ve learned for my post processing. First of all I want to say I’m no expert, there are plenty of great ways to post process your photos, the key is to just find a great system that works best for you. I’m just sharing with you my current system that’s working for me. The first part of my workflow after capturing the photos onto my hard drive, is using a program called Photo Mechanic. It cost $150 bucks, but makes selecting, re-ordering, marking, and re-naming the original files much faster that trying to do it in Lightroom. I save tons of time doing it this way first. I shoot a lot of pictures, so that means I get rid of a lot too. I like to shoot a lot because sometimes I’m just looking for the difference between a half smile and a real smile. I try to catch that fraction of a moment that’s just right, so I shoot a lot and I’m liberal with trashing the ones that don’t make it. When I ready to import into Adobe Lightroom, I make copies of the selected photos as backups. When I import into Lightroom I always make sure that I’m adding the copyright metadata to the images during import.

I choose to add the photos to the catalog without moving them. You can do it either way, just make sure you have a backup. After the photos are in Lightroom, I go through every photo in order and make my adjustments. In my opinion, the key to great post production is subtle adjustments. You want to get it right in camera before you begin to process in Lightroom. I make small adjustments to preserve the look of the photo. Too much post processing can kill a great photo. Here you can see the before and after. I also want you to be able to see what I adjusted in Lightroom.

I shot this with my Nikon D90 at 1/1250 SEC at f / 1.8 200 ISO 85mm. You can see the original photo was pretty nice as is. I just made a few small adjustment to the photo in Lightroom to make it pop a little more. The older I get, I realize the things that my parents taught me can be used in just about any area of life. “Everything in moderation.” I basically only make small adjustments to the exposure, blacks, sharpness, sometimes vibrance and color. Then After I have processed all the images in that set, I make another backup. You don’t want to have to do the same work over again. Hope this helps, Thanks for listening. : )

Tuesdays with Eli – Community, Helping, Sharing, Giving, Growing.

To quote the KJV Bible in Acts 20:35, Jesus Christ said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” To quote John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address of 1961′ “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” One more quote made famous by Albert Einstein, “The value of a man resides in what he gives and not in what he is capable receiving.” These three men didn’t share a whole lot in common. Their passions, interest, and personal lives were all different, but they all seamed to understand one universal truth. Giving anything to anyone, is much better than waiting to receive. It’s much better because its positive, it helps others, and something magical happens to the giver… they are in turn blessed back. I am sharing this with you guys on my “Tuesdays with Eli” for a couple reasons. One, I’m seeing first hand right now in my life how this basic principle works. Two, I’m hearing the stories first hand of my friends and family that are also working this principle, and three, I hope that this blog post might inspire someone to do the same. With all of that said, I am young and naive to a lot of things in this world. Yes, I did just read a couple books recently that jazzed me up and made me think that it is that easy. But, I’m just telling you from what I am experiencing, that this stuff does work wonders.

Community:  Most of you may know that for the last couple months, I have been organizing and inviting fellow photographers to a lunch meet-up once a month. A bunch of like minded photographers sit down and eat and share with each other. I think this is great for the photography community here in Little Rock, and the feed back that I’m getting is that everyone really enjoys it. I hope that I helped give just a little to the industry. I gave a little bit of my time and now I’m reaping HUGE benefits. I now have more photographer friends who all bring something unique to the table, and I’m also feeling much more comfortable meeting new people. If there are any new photographers reading this that would like to join us in our monthly lunch, please let me know. Shoot me an email, tweet me, or facebook me.

Helping:  I am quickly learning that every successful person has only become successful because of inner drive and more importantly the help of the people around them. The tricky part to this equation is that you must help others before looking for help yourself.

Sharing:  The photography industry is not exactly the same as it used to be. Modern technology has forever changed the face of Photography. Blogs and social media have made sharing information just about as easy as tying your shoes.  However, people still wear slip ons….don’t they?  Sharing is super easy and everyone has something to share. Photographers in this age will NOT survive by hoarding up all their tips and advice because the don’t want others to know their secrets.

Giving:  Just do it. It feels good and good things happen to you when you give. I could share with you all the great things that have been happening to me because of giving, but I’m trying to wrap this thing up. Plus I bet your thinking I’m just going over and over the same stuff by now. Give… just do it.

Growing: Like most of the photographers I know, we are never quite satisfied with our work. I’m always looking for ways to grow and master my craft. Reading books, watching instructional DVDs, taking pictures, and trying new things are all great ways to get better. However, don’t forget about the other ways to grow. “Let the information flow both directions.”

My sincerest thanks from the bottom of my heart to every single person that has ever affected my life and helped me get to where I am today. – Eli : )

Arkansas Sunset