Daniel Valente Photography | Omaha NE Wedding Photography

Omaha Nebraska Wedding Photography, Engagement Sessions, Bridal Sessions, Nebraska Photographer

About Daniel Valente Photography

Daniel Valente is an Omaha, NE Wedding Photographer. He is also available for anytime portraits, engagement pictures, and seniors.

Info:

Born in Rochester, NY
Attended: Ithaca College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Birthday: 1/27
Relationship Status: Married to the lovely violinist Annie!
Favorite lens: Canon 50mm F/1.2 L
Favorite Camera: Canon 5d Mk II / Leica M8
Favorite part of a wedding: Sunsets with the Bride and Groom alone
Favorite thing about being a photographer: Playing with light and fast glass that creates amazing, buttery backgrounds
Favorite Song: Lost in the Flood, Bruce Springsteen (Love the Boss!)

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Online Proofing & Print Ordering

Posted in News

Hello all -

I now have my online proofing and automated print ordering system up and running. I have set up a relationship with an amazing pro photo lab: WHCC. The awesome thing is that for all their prints, the printer that they use does not use regular ink like your home printer, but rather color-sensitive dye, so it’s like an actual photograph. After getting the sample proofs back, I knew I made the right choice.

Also, the color correction that they use is top notch!

Printed prices are reasonable and shipping is a flat $5.00 to your door.

I should note that I’ve decided to make everything super simple with the basic printing orders: Everything 8″ x 10″ and under is the same price and everything greater than 8″ x 10″ up to 11” x 14″ is the same price. This is because it takes me the same amount of time to process and fulfill each print regardless of size. All printed images are on archival paper, with Lustre finish and color corrected for the printer – every image from a wallet to a full 11 x 14. Small prints should not mean you have to sacrifice quality!

Custom paper finishes, gallery wraps, and books are also available from your session, please contact me for full details.

You can see you event by going to the proofing website:

http://danielvalentephotography.instaproofs.com/

Also, give the info to your family and friends, they can also buy prints as well as purchase low-resolution digital downloads of individual pics instantly.

Indian Creek Golf Course Wedding: Chris & Katie

Posted in Weddings

This is a story of boy meets girl. Sorry that was a bit cheesy but Chris & Katie had dubbed in this first line of “500 days of Summer” into their slideshow and I liked that movie. If you haven’t seen it, you should for sure, it’s an awesome movie. But I digress. I shot this wedding at the Indian Creek Golf Club in Elkhorn, NE with Jeffrey Pope of Iconic Photography. This was a super fun wedding to photograph despite the super hot day in Omaha. For this blog post, and for all you photographers out there, I’m going to feature a new photoshop action set that I have been using and absolutely love: JHP Actions. If you are not a photographer, ignore crib notes about how the images were processed, and just enjoy the photos, but if you are a photographer and looking for a great way to automate your workflow and save time in editing, I highly recommend you check out these actions.

For less than $100 bucks you get a really complete set of color correcting, retouching and color shifting actions. I’m going to highlight some of the key actions that work for these specific images, but know there are tons more in the actions set. So here goes:

Also if you become a fan on my photography page on facebook, I’ll send you a code for 15% off the full set of actions. Just like my page and leave me a comment, I’ll send you the code!

I really loved Katie’s dress, it was simple, silky, and classy…also some nice shoes and crystal earrings.

Both images above are processed with: High Fashion – @ 80%, Boutwell Magic Glasses (BMG) @100%, Lights on 30% — The Boutwell Magic Glasses I use on almost all of my blog images because it rocks, it’s available from the Boutwell’s as part of the Totally Rad Actions.

Above: Everyday boost – vintage @ 50%, BMG, Cool 50%, D&B – Dodge & Burn (photoshop – create new grey layer, paint white for dodge, black for burn)

I love both of these shots above and below, just after Katie put on her dress. B&W Details, EZ-Burn @20%, BMG % 20

All of these above shots and the one below were shot with my favorite lens, the Canon 50mm f/1.2 L.

I love when couples opt for a first look. You get all of the emotion of the first look at the ceremony but have a little more time to have the couple just be with each other. Both: B&W Details, BMG 100%, Viveza 2 – brighten up faces

I think that the flowers were so cool – very vibrant and fresh and worked well with the color of the guy’s tuxes. Both processed with: EnRich 50% Warm it UP 50% BMG 40%

The full ceremony shot. Pretty cool looking, I think! Pure. Sunlit. 90 degree. Ceremony.

The exchanging of the ring, one of my favorite parts of the ceremony! Processed with Distant Memories at 100%, this is an awesome action for given daylight photos a more vintage look and I really like the way it makes skin tones look.

I think you can tell on the couple’s sun-drenched faces that it was a little bit hot. Still I really love the expressions on the couple’s faces, so intense yet clearly moved by what the Priest is saying!

Yea! First kiss as a married couple! I used Ingrained B&W, which is an awesome B&W conversion for these hard-lit outdoor shots.

Cool flowers, a quick shot while the bridal party was getting group shots done.

Yea! My favorite part of the day, solo couple’s portraits. For these I used a sweet vintage action, toned down a bit: 1978 @ 25%

Cake cutting! I loved their cake and the flowers on the cake. I used some curves to bring the whites back and the magic glasses. I told you I use it on every image.

I used the “everyday boost vintage” on these pics to emphasize the color and I really really like the image on the left, I think it may be my fav detail pic of the day!

We had some time to sneak out of the reception to catch some sunset-lit portraits. I used my off-camera lights for this. The sunset was SO bright, had to tame the shadows…

First dance at a couple, converted to B&W with ingrained B&W. I love the expression on the couple’s faces.

Just in case you forgot where I am in the USA. I think you can see why I had such a fun time shooting this wedding! I used enRich at about 30% and a vignette for the sky, brushing out the effect on the grass.

Thanks you both, the wedding was awesome! To recap – super fun wedding, and if you are a photographer, check out the JHP actions!

Libby & Greg: Engaged

Posted in Engagements

Libby and Greg were one of the first couples that I met when I moved to Omaha last year. They are so much fun and I’m really honored to be able to take their engagement photos. We had the PERFECT day. I mean like-you-read-about perfect. 65 degrees, sunny, 0% humidity and the shoot was full with funny surprises like flagging down some random person to borrow his bike. Yea – good times.

Tons of good lighting on this shoot. Check these out, and Elmwood park in Omaha, as usual delivered the awesome locations.

BAM!

This picture is funny because I was laying on my stomach shooting into the sunset, Libby and Greg down on the grass as well and a pick-up grade-school soccer game going on to the left of us. They probably thought I was crazy. Oh well, so worth it!

Tip for using found locations. This super-awesome purple and yellow building that looks like it could be on the beach somewhere: some random shack in a soccer field. Look around and you can find some really interesting backgrounds made out of boring-on-the-surface places.

Yea for piggy-back rides!

So these next two pictures are awesome for the following two reasons. 1) It was the idea of these fine runners to be part of the background, so we happily obliged. And 2) for the bike picture, that is not in fact their bike but rather some random stranger’s bike that Libby flagged down to borrow. Fan-freaking-tastic. 100% worth it. Props rock.

Some more dancing in just about the greatest light ever.

Saving the best for last! You guys rock, I had a wonderful time with you both!

Susan P. ’11

Posted in Seniors

Senior portraits with Susan P. – we had a nice time at downtown Omaha in the old market and elmwood park. Here are a few of my favs.

Melanie + Richard Engagement Shoot

Posted in Engagements

One of my favorite places to shoot in Omaha is a nice clearing/bridge in Elmwood Park. Unfortunately, there was an unexpected Wedding ceremony going on so we had to grab a few pictures out of site and then move to my other favorite outdoor spot: the Regency Lake and Tennis Club. We had an awesome time and the lighting was PEFECT. Melanie & Richard are an awesome couple and I feel privileged to have taken their engagement pictures. They are certainly a fun & adventurous duo!

This was the first place we hit – I love the contrast between the stone wall and the green woods, plus we had some awesome, diffuse lighting coming in.

Melanie & Richard eshoot Omaha elmwood park regency lake and tennis club

How cool is this location, right? See where that beam of light is coming though the tunnel – the other wedding ceremony was getting starting – it was certainly a shock to see 150 chairs setup and people in tuxes…we got some strange looks, but we tried to stay out of their way.

How cute are they?

So by this park there is a reception hall that sort of looks like an Italian Villa, which was the second spot on my list of places to go, but of course the other couple’s reception was going on in there…we still managed to take this nice one on the back-side of the house (out of site, of course!)We then went to the Regency Lake and Tennis Club to catch the sunset, which while beautiful may or may not have had a *slight* mosquito infestation….