From the category archives:

photography

when things don’t go as planned

December 7, 2011

I had these grand ideas for our Christmas card pictures. I was going to dress the girls in cute outfits. I was going to take them to this neat little path tucked away in a corner of our subdivision. I was going to lay down a fuzzy blanket and get a bunch of adorable pictures of the two of them.

I was going to have to spend HOURS pouring over the amazing images just to choose two or three.

It was going to be PERFECT.

Yeah.

That was fun.

My vision flew out the window, and I realized that we were not actually going to get anything “posed.” So I just let them do whatever they wanted to do, and I ended up with three really cute shots for our cards. Which is kind of how it should have been since I actually never do posed photography, and I don’t know why I thought it would work now.

I won’t share the main image until after the cards have been sent out, but I was pleasantly surprised with the final result.

By the way? Those shoes are two sizes too small on Emma, but the only shoes that currently fit are pink and sparkly. Just keeping it real.

Anyway, this whole trip ended with both girls crying at the playground and me laughing at myself for thinking it would turn out any differently.

Remind me next year to start working on holiday pictures around mid-September.

{ 43 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 }

random tuesday … errrr, wednesday

September 21, 2011

in emma,lightroom presets,lucy,photography,pictures

Sometimes, random is all I got. Today is one of those days.

First of all, those color presets I’ve been hinting about? They have been released!!

straight out of my camera:

and after Kellie Hatcher’s beautiful color presets:

I am telling you, folks, these are simply amazing if you are a fan of the more moody and film-like look to your images. Now, what I LOVE about these is what it does to the light … Kellie is one of the most amazing light-finding photographers I have ever seen, and she created these presets to showcase that type of work.

If you are looking for some fabulous clean editing presets, check out One Willow’s new Beautiful Things collection. Absolutely gorgeous. Her presets are always just the right amount of change … they enhance the beauty of the image without turning it into something else. Clean and pure and subtle.

straight out of my camera:

after One Willow’s Beautiful Things presets:

There are a handful of beautiful black and white film presets included, as well:

Anyway, check these out if you get a chance!

We’ve been enjoying the cooler weather lately and embracing the cloudiness without complaining … because we are FINALLY spending time outside without needing sunscreen or hunting for shade.

Granted, we don’t have the sidewalk on our side of the street, so we’ve taken over our neighbor’s sidewalk [and sometimes … his yard] but he busted us the other evening … I think the cuteness of my girls won him over.

And sometimes, the girls have those days where I just know we need to take a walk.

I wanted to say more, but editing and putting together those pictures took way more time than I expected, and I have to get up in approximately 6 hours to run 4 miles. And by the time this posts, I’ll have already done it.

I’ll have more random stuff to say [and more pictures of neighbor front yard creeping] in future posts.

Who is with me on the weekly Pinterest challenge for this Friday? I’m … ummm … not quite finished with mine, yet, but I will be by then! [I hope]

{ 22 comments }

i am a photographer

September 1, 2011

in lucy,photography

It still makes me feel … weird to write that. I think I’ve said it out loud once to someone at a store or an event or something, and it was someone that I knew wouldn’t follow-up and actually see my work, so I felt safer saying it.

I still think of myself as “mom with a camera,” which could be a superhero name. Is there a cape for that? A gold camera that shoot bullets? An Ephiphanie camera bag that doubles as a getaway car?

Just no spandex, please.

But it really hit me today when I uploaded/edited these pictures that, doggoneit, I’m a photographer.

I mean, who else grabs the camera when their one-year old pulls a bowl of applesauce off the table and onto the rug that everyone [including the dogs] step on when they come inside from the backyard?

Who else sits there and lets their kid eat DIRT that has come off the bottom of the DOG’S PAWS just so they can get a few pictures?

Seriously. Who does that?

[okay, I just realized those last two pictures kind of look like they’re supposed to go together - whoa]

A photographer does that.

Me. I do that.

I also arms-length toted that kid upstairs to plop her in the bath, but after noticing the light coming in from the window, took off downstairs to grab the camera to get a few shots before I actually put her in the bathtub.

I. Am. A. Photographer.

If you can’t already tell, I got my camera back!!! Wheeee!! I sure did miss her, but she is working beautifully, as far as I can tell, and I am falling in love with my 85mm again.

[all of these were taken with the cheap 50mm 1.8 that I also love a whole lot and edited with one of my own LR presets that I have added to my “I might just release these one day” folder]

{ 24 comments }

seventh inning stretch

May 26, 2011

in i heart faces,photography

So if there’s one thing I learned at the IHF Dream Big Photography Workshop, it was this … I am most comfortable shooting people that I have grown in my own uterus.

I’m just in my comfort zone at home. Shooting while wearing my husband’s boxers and t-shirts. Not making anyone look at me or even care that I’m there. This was a whole new experience for me, and I’m so grateful to have had it! People who are looking at me! People who actually do what I say! Going somewhere to do nothing but take pictures of these people!! WHOA, Nelly! I don’t know what to do with myself!!

Anyway … Amy styled this shoot with two brothers – Jimmy and Josh. Oh, these two were just too cute for words. I simply adored them.

Since I was assisting in this shoot [i.e., making sure they weren’t getting eaten up by ants … tossing a ball with Jimmy who needed a 7th inning stretch … refilling chocolate milk … making sure the cookies tasted okay], I didn’t get many shots of the boys, but watching them endure strange women pointing cameras at them? Oh man, they were total troopers. I just kept saying to Stacy [their mom], “Um, there is NO WAY I could get Emma to do this. They are amazing.”