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photography tutorials

How To Take Great Pictures with Your Phone [Tutorial]

February 6, 2012

in general photography tutorials,phone pics,tutorials

Let’s face it, we are living in a digital age. Just about everyone has an iPhone or an Android or a Blackberry or a [insert any other smartphone brand here]. And with photo editing apps GALORE, you can easily document your day or month or life with just a few clicks.

So how can you get the most out of your phone camera?

1. Treat your phone as if it were a $2,000 DSLR.

Keep your lens and screen clean. Use a case to protect it from dropping or sticky fingers or drool. Try not to drop it into the toilet.

Also? Clean your mirrors every once in a while. Ha.

2. Frame your shot on your phone just as you would frame it on your camera.

Remember the the rule of thirds, compose your shot, get down on children’s levels, eliminate background clutter … consider the things that you think about when you are behind your “good” camera.

3. Take just as many pictures from just as many angles.

When I’m shooting with my Canon, I’m always thinking of how to capture one moment in several different ways so I can see my children’s lives from many different perspectives. I don’t want to miss anything! I treat my phone camera the same way.

4. Utilize natural light and shadows just as you would with your DSLR.

While taking your picture, touch the screen area that you want to focus on and expose for … let your phone do the rest.

For this photo, I was sitting in Lucy’s room trying to get her to come in and take a nap. I touched the screen at the spot where she was standing, so my phone exposed for the natural light in the hallway, putting the rest of the room in semi-darkness. And after editing a little in Lightbox, I ended up with a more dramatic photo.

5. Take advantage of the ability to take your phone with you anywhere.

There are so many moments I would have missed because I wasn’t able to have my Canon with me, and I am so thankful for these moments on “film.”

sunrise and sunset as seen on different days back when I was training for a half-marathon – all I had with me was my iPod shuffle and my phone for GPS mileage tracking

the Oscar Mayer weiner truck was in a hotel parking lot, so we were able to pull in and get these shots

a mall bungee jump activity that Emma wanted to do – I didn’t have my “good” camera with me

amazing light on a morning run – I obviously don’t take my big camera on runs

6. Download and use photo editing apps.

All photos in this post were edited in either Instagram [my phone is an Android, so I use Dropbox to put all of my photos onto my iPad so I can use Instagram] or Lightbox for Android.

I know, great photographers take great pictures without editing, but when you can download most apps for free and have fun pictures in seconds? Why not?

7. Don’t use the digital zoom.

Digital zoom on a phone will ruin your photo, because it doesn’t actually zoom in – it just enlarges what you are seeing through your lens. Either try to get as close to your subject as possible or take a more wide-angle approach when composing your shot.

8. Get to know your phone camera and it’s capabilities.

I know that my phone takes horrible flash pictures, so I don’t use my flash often. I also know that it doesn’t do well with artificial light, so I try to use natural light as much as possible. But it’s very good at isolating light and shadows, so I work that angle as often as I can.

9. Don’t hesitate to get artistic with your phone.

I think many of us just assume that our phones aren’t really meant for the more artistic images, but we would be totally wrong.

10. Embrace the ability to take self portraits without needing a special lens.

I never take self-portraits with my Canon unless I’m using a mirror or a tripod, because I don’t currently have any wide-angle lenses in my arsenal. It’s nice to be able to take the occasional self-portrait with my phone, though.

Phones aren’t just for calling people anymore.

Favorite Android photo editing apps: Lightbox, Vignette, Pixlr-o-matic

Favorite iPad/iPhone photo editing apps: Instagram, Camera+

Feel free to share your favorite apps for editing photos on your phone!

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{ 12 comments }

applying lightroom presets [a little tutorial]

September 22, 2011

in lightroom tutorials,photography,photography tutorials

I got a couple of comments on my post about Kellie Hatcher’s Lightroom presets …

Tracie: Can you tell me which ones you used on these pictures? I am feeling like they do too much to my pictures were yours look just right.

Sarah: I just got the Kellie Hatcher presets and I agree with Tracie they look just right on yours but look too much for mine. help!

Why, thank you! And I can totally do my best to help, because these presets need to be used.

First thing, do you shoot in RAW? There is a difference on how presets work on RAW vs jpeg … presets written for RAW files end up over-exposing jpeg files. A lot. I thought there was a tutorial out there somewhere about adjusting presets specifically written for RAW to use on jpegs, but now I can’t find it. Gah. I think it just involves lowering the exposure and maybe the brightness and contrast? Anyway, just keep that in mind when shooting … most presets out there are written for RAW files [unless otherwise specified].

So in my post, I have to confess one thing … I used Kellie Hatcher’s Odette on the bear heiney images, but all of the park images are one of my own presets. But I will definitely show you how I applied the preset on Lucy’s tushy.

straight out of the camera:

Three things …

1. I tend to shoot over-exposed by a couple of clicks. I don’t know why I do it that way … I’ve just done that since I started shooting in manual.

2. I use auto-WB for pretty much everything. On this particular day, it was cloudy/overcast. No sun at all.

3. My settings were: ISO 200, aperture f/2.5, shutter speed 1/1250 sec, and I was using my 85mm 1.8 lens.

So I just applied Odette …

Even though the WB looks okay here, I usually click auto-WB in Lightroom to see what happens …

TOO BLUE! TOO BLUE! [settings were temp 3950 and tint 0]

So I warmed it back up quite a bit … temp 4650 [more yellow] and tint +10 [more pink]

Dropped the exposure to +0.40.

And finally, bumped up contrast to +80 and bumped up clarity to +50.

Voila.

In general, my top five adjustments are …

1. exposure

2. white balance

3. brightness/contrast

4. blacks

5. don’t be afraid of the HSL saturation box to get your colors just right

Hope that helps!! I think everyone who creates Lightroom presets struggles with making them as one-click friendly as possible, but it just doesn’t work that way since everyone shoots so differently.

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{ 10 comments }

your questions answered (part 2)

March 23, 2011

in faq,lightroom,lightroom tutorials,photography

I bet you thought I’d never finish answering your questions, did you? We’ve been so busy … growing, teething, playing outside, teething, not sleeping … the usual.

Texan Mama (Gretchen) asked …

Do you prefer zoom lenses or primes? Why?

Here’s a biggie: what is the most common aperture you shoot at? Why? (me personally I’m always messing up between too much blurred background and not enough)

What do you think has helped you grow the most with your technical skills? Forums? A mentorship? Classes? YouTube? Trial and Error? if you have any specific references, please give ‘em up.

I have a hard time with that first question. I think if I HAD to choose, I’d prefer a prime lens, because it kind of forces me to look for the shot I want instead of zooming in or out on the “right” shot. Being forced to find the right shot really makes me a better photographer. But I also really like the flexibility of a zoom lens. I currently have a 50mm f/1.8, 85mm f/1.8 and the 24-70mm f/2.4. I love them all for various reasons, but I think I could do everything with the 50mm if I absolutely had to. The main reason I love the 24-70mm is the ability to shoot wide, because the 50mm and 85mm are not wide angle at all.

As for my aperture, I pretty much always shoot wide open, baby. I am notorious for having super soft images because I just don’t close down my aperture. Ever. That is my biggest downfall, really. I need to learn to close it down every once in a while, but I’m a 1.8 to 2.4 lover.

As for growing technically …

Forums? I am not currently a member of any photography forums. I tried one a few years ago, but my images were torn apart in the most horrid way, and I decided that wasn’t for me. I can handle constructive criticism, but I can’t handle being ripped apart.

A mentorship? I wish I could work with someone amazing, but I’ve never had that opportunity.

Classes? I’ve taken one online course that didn’t really teach me anything I didn’t already know. But it was free, so I don’t know what I was expecting?

YouTube? I use YouTube for tutorials on Lightroom and Photoshop, but I’ve never used it to help improve the actual technical side. Maybe I should!

Trial and Error? Yes, yes, YES!!! I learned how to shoot in manual by turning the dial to “M” and practicing.

If you have any specific references, please give ‘em up. Okay, here’s my secret. Flickr. A few years ago, Flickr was very open and people shared their EXIF data for their images. So I would see an image I liked, and then I would look at their EXIF data to see how they did it. I would put my camera into the same settings and shoot. Over time, I let go of shooting like others and found my own style, but I don’t think I would have ever really found my style had I not been able to look at what others were doing.

Now, a lot of Flickrers have turned off their EXIF data, so it’s not as easily accessible as it used to be. (But mine is always on for the images I take with my Canon!)

Jess asked …

Do you want to try to get back to the Zoo when the weather warms up? We haven’t been since the last time we met up!

You said one time that you weren’t interested in having a photography business because of the pressure you’d put on yourself to capture perfect pictures for your clients. Has your idea about that changed at all lately or do you see it changing in the future?

When I finally get pregnant, I’m going to ask you for sling advice :)

Yes!! Let’s definitely get together when the weather warms up! I would absolutely love that.

I am still not looking to start a photography business. I need to finally be completely honest about this whole photography business deal. So … here goes.

Everyone and their brother has a photography business these days. There are so many people who think that because they have a nice camera and because their mom told them that they take good pictures, they can make a little extra money being a photographer. So they start a business and charge practically nothing to do a session. But they are taking business away from photographers out there who have been working so hard and doing this for many years and that are charging what SHOULD be charged.

Now, I totally understand that every photographer had to start from somewhere. I get that. But my issue is with people who really don’t know enough about photography to be a “professional photographer” – even a beginner professional photographer. I actually created a website and a business name about 5 years ago, and I am so thankful that nothing ever came of it. I was NOT a photographer. I shot in auto mode, I didn’t know how to use Photoshop or Lightroom, I didn’t know the basic rules of photography. I seriously thought, “Well, I have a $1,000 camera – I could do that!” Oh man, I cringe just thinking about it. And even 5 years later, I honestly feel like I am just not good enough to hang a shingle.

Photographs are forever. The pictures I take of my girls will be around for generations to come. I honestly do not feel like I could hold the fate of someone else’s family pictures or wedding pictures or baby pictures that will be in their family FOR GENERATIONS in my amateur hands. I really wish people would think about that before they charge people for those photos.

Also? You have to be ON TOP OF IT to run a business. Our wedding photographer (Plantation Photography, just in case they have Google alerts set up for their business name, heh) lost/deleted/whatever 80% of our wedding photos and NEVER made it right. We fought with them for almost a year before we finally gave up. The only thing they were good at was avoiding our calls and letters and emails. It just goes to show that there is a lot of pressure on photographers, and I don’t think I could handle that at this time in my life.

But the bottom line is that I am not a professional photographer. I don’t play one on tv, and I simply cannot charge people at this point in my life. Will I ever feel like I’m good enough to be Keli Hoskins Photography? I don’t know. I may not ever feel like I am cut out to do this professionally. Not everyone who has a nice camera and who can be a decent photographer needs to be a professional.

Phew. Well, that was probably more than I should have said about that, but there you go. I feel better.

And finally, YES … please feel free to ask me anything regarding babywearing. It’s how Lucy and I survived those first few months.

Elaine asked …

I just ordered a new 50mm 1.4 lens. I’m VERY excited to get it but not really sure how to use it! Do you KNOW what settings to put your camera on for say a picture like you took of Lucy’s beautiful eyes in your recent You Capture post, or do you just shoot and get lucky? Because that is what I do right now with my basic 18-55… Thanks!

First of all, congratulations on your 50mm 1.4!! I’m totally jealous! You are going to love it!

I shoot 100% in manual. So I pretty much know what aperture and ISO I need for whatever and wherever I’m shooting, and then I set the exposure around that. For that picture of Lucy, I had her facing a window on a cloudy day, so I set the ISO to 400. Of course, I pretty much always shoot wide open, so my aperture was at 1.8 on my 50mm, but I probably should have closed down a little bit more to, somewhere around 2.8 so that her entire face and eyes would have been in focus. (See? Not professional photographer material!)

Once I started shooting in manual, choosing the ISO got easier over time. Now, I do let my camera choose my shutter speed based on ISO, aperture and what exposure I have chosen.

I would say I shoot in about 3 different ISO zones – 125’ish when I’m outside, 400-640 when I’m inside, 1000-1600 at night or in dark places. Of course, I use other settings based on what I’m shooting, but those are pretty good starting points.

Okay, there are a few more questions in the original post as well as a few in my part one answers, but since this post is already so long, I’ll post it and finish up the rest of the questions over the next few days.

Thank you!!

{ 6 comments }

how do you edit your photos?

February 25, 2011

in general photography tutorials,photography

How do you get that vintage look?

How do you do that haze thing that’s on all of your pictures?

What you are using when you edit for your washed vintage look?

I get those questions (or a variation) once or twice a week, either on the blog or via email or on facebook.

I mean, you’d THINK that the most frequently asked question of me would be, “How did you get to be so awesome?” but strangely enough, no one has ever asked me that before.

Huh.

Anyway, I always blush whenever I read an email that says something along those lines. ALWAYS. I can’t even believe people look at my pictures, much less care about how I edit them! I still consider myself just a mom who likes to take pictures.

And I usually call Ken or send him an email saying, “Dude! You will NOT believe this!!!”

Yes, I call my husband dude. I call everyone dude.

It really just blows my mind and makes me giddy and flattered and blushy when I get an email or comment asking about my photography.

So it makes it really hard to say, “I can’t tell you.”

It’s not that I don’t WANT to tell you … it’s that I really don’t have a full-proof recipe. I truly don’t. I played around for years to come up with a handful of presets that I use regularly. And I guarantee you, what works on one picture does NOT work on another. So I still have to play around sometimes.

Here is what I will tell you …

I edit in Lightroom almost exclusively.
I use my own presets pretty much all of the time. (But I do love the new black and white presets from Kellie Hatcher).
I’ve worked on my presets for a couple of years and am still working on some.
I use a lot of yellow/tan/cream highlights and purple/royal blue highlights.
I over-expose pretty much every single picture I take by a couple of clicks on the exposure bar (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just hang tight for a week or two).
I use all natural light when I can help it (unlike every picture in this post, which was taken inside of a paint-your-own pottery studio).
I am not planning on selling or giving away my presets anytime soon. I’ve had them tested, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. I feel like they just aren’t good enough to put out into the world, especially when there are so many amazing presets already out there!

I know, that’s not really all that helpful.

But honestly? While I don’t think that my presets are “all that and a bag of chips,” I also want to be a little selfish and hang on tight to the things I’ve learned to do in Lightroom. I guess it’s a little narcissistic to keep people guessing, but … well, yeah. It IS narcissistic.

But if you follow me long enough, you’ll get bits and pieces of my editing "secrets” throughout my blog posts … on here and on I Heart Faces Fix-it Fridays.

Okay, this whole post has made me uncomfortable. I’ve been sitting on it for a while, because I just feel silly publishing this … like I’m some big shot who actually warrants a post explaining how I do things.

So here are some more things you need to know …

I am not a big shot.
I am a better photographer than I was last year, but I’m not as good as I’ll be next year.
I love you for loving me.

All photos were taken at Emma’s preschool friend’s fourth birthday party – I won’t be sharing any other pictures, because they have children’s faces in them, and I am not their mother.

{ 27 comments }

how to :: using graphical watermarks in lightroom

December 28, 2010

in lightroom tutorials,photography tutorials,photoshop tutorials

I decided to take a few minutes and share my tutorial on how to add a watermark in Lightroom. This tutorial will follow my personal workflow, so you may not do it exactly like I’m doing it, but this should get you started.

If you don’t have a watermark, read this first. Stop at step 5. Go on. I’ll wait. And maybe take a little nap while I’m waiting.

Okay, so you have your watermark … make double triple sure that it’s on a transparent background!! Now, change the color of the watermark to white [#ffffff] and save it as a .psd file.

Download LR/Mogrify 2 (follow instructions here, including the installation of ImageMagick if you use Windows)

Here’s the kicker … the program developers do require a donation to use full features, BUT it’s worth it. They only require €2, but that’s like $3.08 in US dollars, and they deserve it for making life this much easier.

Also, my husband is a developer, and I know how much work goes into the programs he designs … I’m always willing to give back to the people who do this for a living.

Open Lightroom and use the Plugin Manager to install LR/Mogrify 2 …

[I selected the wrong plugin, but you get it, right?]

Then, you go to File — Export and you will see this …

Make sure you have “graphical watermarks” selected [the “mogrify configuration” will automatically be selected when you do that] and then scroll down until you see where you upload your watermark. Then, you can play around with the horizontal and vertical insets until you figure out where you want the watermark to go.

Personal note: I set all of my exported images to 700px on the longest side. That’s how wide the images are on my blog, and that way, if someone does steal them to print, then they won’t look very good.

I also save all of the export steps (image resize, where it’s going to be saved, graphical watermark, etc.) as “User Presets” … that has also been a huge timesaver.

Basically, when I am exporting a picture of Lucy, I have a “lucy with watermark” preset that I apply – it automatically tells Lightroom to save it to my special lucy folder, resize it to 700px on the longest side, and add my watermark. All with one click.

I have one called “tilt shift” which tells LR to resize and send it to TiltShift.

You can see another user preset up there called “christmas 2010” … it just resized and sent all of my Christmas pictures to my Christmas 2010 folder.

Anyway, by saving user presets, I don’t have to go through and change the settings every time I export an image or a group of images. Future tutorial? Yay or nay?

But back to this tutorial … the placement of your watermark via LR leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s a fun game to play around and see where it lands once you’ve exported it.

After rereading, I’m going to be honest … my tired and fuzzy momma brain just doesn’t work like it used to for writing tutorials, so if this didn’t make sense or I left something out or if you are sitting there scratching your head in bewilderment, PLEASE drop me a comment, and I’ll try to make it more clear.

{ 2 comments }

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applying lightroom presets [a little tutorial]

your questions answered (part 2)

how do you edit your photos?

how to :: using graphical watermarks in lightroom

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