Archives for April 2011

Rain, rain go away, come again another day! What do you do when your stuck inside because it won’t stop raining? Get really close to a window! Have your children play with their favorite toy in front of the window and use the window light. It might be grey out but if you increase your ISO and use a shallow depth of field (make those f-stop numbers look small on your camera) you should still be able to get enough light from the window.

Have them face the window in order to get some reflection in the eyes. This reflection is called catch light. It’s what makes the eyes sparkle and look full of life. We’ll talk in coming posts about other items you can use to get catch light.

I was in a clients home ready to do some professional shots. We were starting indoors because of the weather. While my client finished getting ready I snagged her daughter (a very willing model) and sat her next to the window to see what light I could get.

This extended family was so much fun. They had me smiling and laughing the whole time. I think family get togethers must be a blast!

Love these ideas and just had to share….ways to decorate kids rooms with photography!!

Back in February I took an amazing trip to Oregon with a quick layover in Utah for my cousin’s wedding. I’m finally getting all caught up and I just loved the way some of the wedding photos came out. I wasn’t the wedding photographer by any means. I just took photos for myself (that was the theme of my trip!)

Isn’t she the most gorgeous bride?!!!

Today is going to be a basic summary of what we have talked about so far. I’m assuming that these tips are for those that have a camera they can use in manual mode.

We have learned about ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture, and Depth of Field. I’m going to make some assumptions. I’m going to assume that if you are reading this you have children or family (including pets) or friends that you are photographing and that you want better day to day pictures of them.

ISO – keep it as low as possible to reduce graininess in the photo. Increase in low light

Shutter Speed – Increase the number on your camera (it’s actually a fraction not showing the top so you are really decreasing the number) for faster movement like children. Decrease the lower the light.

Aperture – these are your f-stops. The lower the number the smaller amount of the photo will be in focus. Don’t go too low most of the time or you’ll end up with just the nose in focus. 2.8 is my fav!

 

Please feel free to comment on this post to ask specific questions. Have a great Tuesday!

I was invited to see a beautiful friend and her friends/dates before their prom. I wasn’t there in any official photographer capacity but what a blast it was to be there. I love the excitement!!

Quincie, you are GORGEOUS, inside and out!

I’m trying to get organized, one family photo at a time. What do you do with your older family photos? Are they safe?

I just love these girls! We had so much fun and I go so much personality from them. The problem with visiting the little ones you love is that as you get to know them it’s just harder to be far away from them!!

Woot, woot! Today we get to learn about Depth of field. Have you ever looked at a photo and thought, how do I get that blurry background and sharp foreground? The amount of the photo that is in focus is depth of field. Depth of field is determined by a few factors but the main factors is your f-stops.

The lower the f-stops, or the more wide open your aperture, the smaller the depth of field. The larger your f-stops the greater your depth of field. A larger depth of field is great for landscape photography or when you want to get everything on an even plane in a sense. The smaller depth of field numbers blur out the background making your subject the focus of the shot and giving great bokeh in the background (that’s those round blurry circles!)

I often like to set my camera in Aperture priority mode. What this does is let me set the depth of field (f-stops) how I want them and then the camera controls the shutter speed. This gives me a little less to try and change every time a child or pet runs out of frame!

This photo was taken at f 2.0 so the barn is blurry and some of the grass but the grass right under the subjects are in focus more but the subjects are the sharpest part of the image.

The other great thing about short depth of field is that you are letting in more light as your aperture is open wider. That allows for lower ISO and greater shutter speed. A fast shutter speed can be critical when photographing children or movement. If you are shooting on a bright sunny day and are not in enough shade you may find that you can’t get your f-stops as low as you want. That’s one of those moments where I want to curse the triangle! haha, just go out and experiment with f-stops and depth of field!