The Apartment Photography

The Apartment Photography Husband and wife destination wedding photographers from Vancouver BC. Where real emotion meets editorial imagery. Available for select worldwide destinations

09/09/2026

When you’re setting up your flash for a flat lay and you don’t want the ambient light to affect the image at all, here are the settings you need to get that done.

With your flash or transmitter ON, your camera will automatically show you a perfect exposure on the back of your camera. It does this, regardless of your settings because it doesn’t know how your flash will affect the image so it just shows you a perfectly exposed image.

The fastest way to deal with this, is to turn off your flash or transmitter. This will make your camera show you the true exposure and let you see how the ambient light is affecting your image so far. Set your camera to 1/200, f/2.8 and ISO 400. If you can still see the light coming in from the window or the lights in the room, increase your aperture to f/4 or lower your ISO to 100.

Once it looks dark on the back of your camera, turn on your flash. Now no matter what your camera shows you on the back of the camera, you know the light coming from the flash is the only light affecting your image.

I like to put the flash 45 degrees away from the lens or sometimes I like it from behind a little to give it a backlit moodier vibe.

This was episode 277 - I’m Jeff Chang of The Apartment Photo and if you’d like to learn more about wedding photography, editing and the business behind it all, consider giving us a follow and I’ll see you on the next one.

Thank you to the workshop organizers: .wahlman and thank you to our participant and for her beautiful detail photo!

09/03/2026

Just before we left for the location a random spurt of creativity hit us. What if we brought one of their reception chairs with us to the shoot. It would involve carrying it through a trail but the potential for something new and different sparked our creative curiosity. 

Back story: Our bride really wanted to have a few photos out along the river but between rapidly changing conditions, weather and the schedule, it wasn’t something that was guaranteed. Knowing how important it was to her, the night before, Cat and I drove out to scout the location, found a dry spot above the waterline and coordinated with the wedding planner. On the day of their wedding we were able to propose a quick adjustment to the schedule to accommodate our bride’s bucket list photo spot and we were able to make it happen. 

What do you think of the results? Did the chair add to the vibes?

09/01/2026

A collage of detail images can be so much more than just pretty things. An intentional approach can create a gallery of images that can transport you to a time or to a place. You can almost hear the music, the atmosphere. You can taste the food and feel the warm vibes. Detail photos are some of our favourites on a wedding day because they help support the story of the day. They can establish a scene and give context to a moment. 

So when you can, take a moment to zoom out and look for those little details, because it can be those little things that can bring an entire wedding gallery together and take it to another level.

We’re Jeff and Cat of The Apartment.

Huge thanks to the team behind this incredible wedding day, Smitten Events | Wedding Planner BC Francesca Stevens Fairmont Hotel Vancouver PK3 Jazz Trio About Town Entertainment | Vancouver DJ Company PaperOcelot | Mahshed H Kahlia Koncept Event Design

08/27/2026

1/3 In a series of reels teaching flash photography from a workshop.

composition first is my go to when adding flash to my photography. Since you’re adding a variable that has lots of options, it helps to frame your images before adding in light.

In the next reel we’ll demo how to setup your camera and light.

this was episode 267 – I’m Jeff Chang and if you’d like to learn more about wedding photography editing, and the business behind it all, follow along and I’ll see you on the next one

08/25/2026

Can you relate?

It’s a type of creative stress we encounter once in a while. There’s something you need to photograph, you want to make it special and beautiful, but you have no time and the clients have to go. 

We’ve come to embrace these moments on a wedding day. We’ve learned to breathe, to take a moment to assess, and give space for the creativity to flow. We know from experience that you can take 300 photos in 5 minutes and have nothing to show for it, or take 20 photos in the same amount of time and have 2 incredible images that you’re proud of. We prefer the latter. 

Quality of quantity every single time. We know it’s not easy when you’re stressed. The go to is to over shoot. But if we had any advice we would say, pretend your camera is film, and you only have 10 shots left. How would you use them now? How would that affect the way you approach your five minutes?

08/20/2026

As photographers, we are often drawn to grand spaces and locations that look good from any angle, but the challenge we face more often than not, is making the best of spaces that aren’t your typical “photogenic” spots. 

In this example, we’re here in a parking lot, a PARKING LOT! Definitely bottom of the list for photo locations, haha. But, when you zoom into this little corner, by a tree, with the sunlight dappling through, suddenly, you’re transported to a whole new place.

And that’s the idea, and what sets us, as professional photographers apart from everyone else. We have or can train our eyes to see these little windows anywhere, like literally anywhere! 

So next time you’re stuck, zoom in a little further. Ask yourself, where are the textures, where is the light? If I get low, do I see something different? If I get up high, can I see something new?

I’m Jeff Chang of The Apartment Photo, and this was episode 271, if you’d like to learn more about wedding photography, editing and the business behind it all, consider giving us a follow and I’ll see you on the next one.

Also how good is Andrew Wille | LA Photographer? Check his work out and give him a follow!

Two words to describe these two… Maximum Energy! The flow and the vibes did not stop throughout this incredible day. K+A...
08/18/2026

Two words to describe these two… Maximum Energy! The flow and the vibes did not stop throughout this incredible day. K+A know how to have fun and hopefully the photos represent that!

Big ups to the team involved!
Wedding planner: Amanda Marie Events | Est. 2017 ♡
Ceremony venue: Cecil Green Park House
Reception venue: The Vancouver Club
Photography: Jeff and Cat Chang - The Apartment Photo
Videography: Robin Nuber
Cocktail hour catering: Sage Catering
DJ: Relly, Tabletutors Dj Community
Hair: KINK’d Beauty | Your Bridal & Events Hairstylist 🫶🏼
Makeup: Paige Griffith | VANCOUVER ＭAKEUP ARTIST
officiant: Young Hip & Married, Officiant
flowers: Sandra Der Woon
rentals: Bespoke Decor | event rentals + designers
photobooth: snapboothstudios

08/18/2026

Face Retouching just got a facelift in Lightroom. 

We know the two best ways of skin smoothing and blemish removal in Lightroom. The first is to mask the face and apply a gentle amount of softening by lowering the clarity and texture. The second is to remove blemishes and pimples one by one with the remove tool. Yes, you can batch process skin smoothing, but that means everyone, regardless of age, or necessity receives the same amount of processing. And yes, there are third party programs that can seek out and remove blemishes and pimples very quickly, but require you to export the images from Lightroom. Meaning, more time, and your catalogue not being the source of all final images. 
What I like about the way Imagen has incorporated their face retouching tool, is that it happens before I even start editing in Lightroom. While Imagen processes my images, adds my colour profile, and balances the exposures, it also scans every face and applies a gentle amount of skin smoothing. What’s cool is that it’s age aware, meaning it only applies skin smoothing where needed. On top of that, it also removes blemishes and pimples while leaving permanent features like freckles. 

Once I’m in Lightroom to edit and review, the process is complete. Meaning, I don’t need to export or edit outside of Lightroom to fix things like skin smoothing. Personally, I like all my final images to be within Lightroom, so if I need to make changes later, want to export an image in B&W or for whatever reason, I don’t have to re-edit the faces in another program. 

This workflow just makes sense to me and what’s important is that it works and it’s non-destructive. You can always turn it on or off within Lightroom. 

We’re Jeff and Cat and if you’d like to learn more about wedding photography, editing and the business behind it all, consider giving us a follow and we’ll see you on the next one.

08/13/2026

Comment “FLASH” for all the details

Everything you need to know about off camera flash to create these dramatic detail images.

Start with these camera settings (shutter 1/200, Aperture f/4, ISO 200) 

Now with the transmitter attached to your camera’s hotshoe, make sure you’re on the same channel, ID and group. 

If you’re holding your flash while shooting, TTL should accurately determine the correct flash output.

But, if your flash is stationary and you’re moving around for different angles, manual is the better choice.

You can start around 128th power and adjust from there or use TCM. Every camera brand calls it something different, but it basically says, “Hey, whatever TTL just did, I like that, let’s keep it”

It takes the last automatic exposure and converts it into a manual power setting, so now you don’t have to guess your starting point. Instead just fine tune from where you are. 

For close up details, having the flash slightly higher than the camera and slightly to the side will give you that classic evening feel. 

While placing the flash slightly in front of the camera will create a haze effect. 

For all the camera and lighting settings and equipment, save time and comment FLASH.

We’re Jeff and Cat of the Apartment Photo and this was episode 270. If you enjoy this style of micro learning, follow along and we’ll see you on the next one.

07/30/2026

Comment “gallery” for all the info

While I appreciate all the new design templates in Pic-Time 2.0, I’ve personally been waiting for the ability to upload my own custom fonts and to choose my own colour palettes.

To me, this is the only way, I can really make the gallery feel cohesive with our brand and our site.

What’s really cool is that after I’ve chosen the three colours to represent a gallery, Pic-Time automatically generates a full palette of 20 colours to compliment my choices. Everything from what colour the buttons are when you hover over them, to the colour when you click it. And of course you can see all your changes live in the designer tool.

Super cool that Pic-Time keeps updating and making the platform better and better.

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8580 River District Crossing
Vancouver, BC
V5S0B9

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