Today’s fancy camera tip: How to take portraits of your own two children together… Yeah, right. I wish that I could offer that advice!

The first one  is my favorite… Me: “James Henry, will you please sit by your brother so that I can take your picture.”

JH: ”Eli, take picture with James.”  You can see James (the red train) by Eli’s foot- and then Eli is looking at me as if to say- “Do you really think this is going to happen?” The last grouping is a lil sampler to show the process. James Henry started way out in the field and eventually made his way back. Ahhhh, at least E stays in one spot.

 I love a little photo journalism, and I love, love images of my boys playing together. I try to be nonchalant about it without my flash, so in the first three I turned up the ISO to 1600. I had a pretty big aperture (f 2.8) and very slow shutter speed (1/50 and 1/25 in another). I am surprised that there is not more motion blur. I usually try not to go under 1/100 sec, especially for children.  Anyway,  I was laying on the ground and therefore steadied my camera a bit that way. I have a problem with camera shake so I usually try to lean on something for support.  The last image of Eli standing, woah! Is that my baby? pulling up?! I did use my flash for that one. Oh, and I was using my wide angle 16-35 mm lens, hoping to show more of the room.

Gotta go lower a crib mattress with all of this new pulling up going on… That Eli will be running away from my camera before I know it!

As a bit of encouragement… I love to see before and after images. It reassures me that not all photographs come straight out of the camera, snap, crackle, and poppin’. I mentioned in an earlier post, about the image of James Henry on the swing, that I brightened it in my post processing. I thought it would only be fair to show the original. I got to thinking… If I am going to offer fancy camera tips, I need to tell the whole story. I do not want anyone without access to post-processing tools to feel discouraged when the outcome does not appear “professional”.

I do not have a studio so I usually take pictures of my boys in our guestroom. It has two big windows, the walls are a khaki color (don’t put out a strange color cast), and the white bedspread works too.  On the left, I did all that I could to get a good shot of Eli. It was in focus and had a good exposure, but still needed some sparkle. After some edits, I was able to eliminate the distracting background and really make it shine. A good photographer doesn’t need big editing software, however, it really can make a good image great.  My best tip for editing  is not to over-do it. Even in Picassa and Snapfish you can do some good edits but take them too far. Don’t forget- You must start with a good image!

 Like I said, I do not have a studio with backdrops or big lighting. I use available light (including my flash) and improvise. Part of the creative process is problem solving.  Here, I draped the scarf that I was wearing over the back of a couch facing a window in my client’s home.  I personally do not prefer excessive edits, extra stuff in my portraits. Everyone has different taste, and so one persons idea of overdone is much different than the next. Ahhh, that is why I love art!  For this image there was something so subtle about her look that drew me in.

After my usual tweaking, I wanted to do something dramatic and fun in contrast to the simplicity of her expression. I went out of my comfort zone and experimented… I adjusted the saturation, contrast, tone curve, warmness, and burned the edges. Next, I scanned a piece of scrapbook paper. I “laid it over” my image creating a new layer in PS. I adjusted the opacity to 8 or 9 percent and then erased it off of her face, hair, and coat. I don’t mean to oversimplify the process, I just hope to show how much fun editing can be! I may be breaking some photography etiquette rule… Like, a lady never edits and tells (I just made that up).  I’m ok with that. If a photographer claims to never do post-processing, I have to wonder if they are telling the truth… just sayin’.

BTW: The hansome  I T guy (Clint) fixed my google reader feeder thingy problem! It is now possible to subscribe to the blog- Just click on the RSS icon in the grey section under the banner… Thanks!

Thank you so very much for coming to visit this weekend. It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen you, and we hope that you’ll come back real soon.

We love you! Clint, Katy, James Henry, Eli, and Buddy Southern

*a fancy camera tip:  The sun had set when these pictures were taken (we were squeezing the last drops of daylight out of our warm weekend!) It was getting pretty dark so I cranked up the ISO to 1000 so  that the shutter speed was still fast enough to stop his motion. It may cause noise or graininess, but hopefully, you’ll get your shot!

p.s. I also adjusted the brightness in my post-processing, it was a teensy bit muddy do to the lack of light.

   There are some really great blogs for photography tips and tricks. Some of my favorites are momtog, pioneer woman, and beyond snapshots.  I would encourage anyone hoping to take better pictures to check them out. They can explain the technical side of things much better than me, but I’ll try…  The best advice I can give, is to know your camera. Even a fancy camera, without knowing how to use it,  is just an expensive point and shoot. I have never been one to read instruction manuals… I’m more of a visual learner. Check out the bluecrane or magic lantern learning dvd that goes with your model. They have really helped me.

   The question that I am asked the most is how to have the subject in focus with a blurry background. The technical term is bokeh. The manual or the dvd can show you how to set the focus points and aperture. After you set the focus point, you will turn your aperture to the lowest number that your lens will go. The lower the number, the bigger the opening, and the more shallow the depth of field. This will cause the background to gradually fall out of focus. You will only be able to adjust the settings if your camera is not on auto mode. I would recommend the P mode. Once you select the aperture,  it is still important to have the correct shutter speed and ISO to achieve proper exposure. The (P)rogram mode will set those things automatically leaving you control over the aperture.  There is much more to say about depth of field but  hopefully that is a good starting point.

   Now, experiment. Why not? You don’t have to pay for film. You can see on the screen if you are gettig close to your goal. If what you are doing is not working, try something else. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.  I had to put my pride aside to ask the Canon rep at Imaging USA how to use the video on my 5D mark II. I felt embarassed that I did not already know (there is lots that I don’t already know).  She was super nice about it, and now I know- so, there you go. Happy shooting!                                                            

BTW: Both of the images are at  f 3.5, 1/60, w/ an ISO of 320. The boys are a few feet back from the books making them extra blurry  in the first image. In the second, the book is the focal point and JH is not as far away, so he’s just a bit out of focus.  (He’s reading , ”Oh Tooooodles!” but if you have a little one, you probably already knew that!)   

I originally titled this post “Experiments in Natural Light”  but decided that may suggest that I gave children beer- Not true! So I renamed it- I should mention that it actually includes 1 yard of fabric, 1 bed sheet, 1 window, 7 precious children and a little CS4 Photoshop-

 I am always looking for fresh indoor ideas that allow me to still use natural light- I have also been wanting to incorporate fabrics in my work. Yesterday when James Henry and Eli had some friends over to play- I thought it was a great time to try out my ideas on some willing (well, most of them were willing!) models….

I drapped a yard of fabric over the back of the seat in our kitchen, turned the bench to about a 45 degree angle toward the bay window, turned up the ISO on my camera  (Canon 5D mark II) to 600 and set a custom white balance- I left the overhead light on by accident but I think that the custom white balance helped to cancel out any funny colored light that may have come from it-  here are the results-

I love that I did not have to use my flash! No yucky pinlights in their eyes or dark backgrounds- Not to mention that I spend a fortune in batteries each winter- I was so excited about my new home studio that I pulled a white bed sheet out of the closet and created a whole new set up-  Below is a snapshot of how it looked in the process of setting it up- The window is at 90 degrees here- It made better light at 45- (they are eating ice, in case you are wondering)

James Henry is of course one of the not so willing models… The other children don’t live with a photographer- I was pleasently surprised when he jumped on the bench to have a turn- It was not so perfect that he was wearing a blue shirt with the blue background but I ran a “pool party” action in PS and love the end results- Sorta vintage looking-

I “ironed out” the wrinkles in my fabric using the clone tool in photoshop. It was easy on the blue and the white but I could not do it on the polka dots- It caused a disturbance in the pattern so I just left them-

 Sweet Lucyon the white sheet- Technically, I “blew out” the right side of the image- The PPA (Professional Photographers of America) would probably disapprove- But I like it- I think that it shows a definate light source and that is what photography is all about- Well, one of the things that it is all about- It is also about having fun…

so here is, SUPER NOAH! I got my metering just right on this one and the colors really popped!! I thought that he looked like a comic book hero and thus added a little artwork to reinforce the idea- A big thank you to the precious models and my lovely assistant and friend Erica (she was the tickle monster who got all of those cutie smiles). Happy Wednesday and happy experimenting with Natty Light!