PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS: Part 3

Sorry this is WAY over due, I started this post back in May but just now did I get back to it. I think I originally had more to say but I think I will just leave this post how it was and I will just continue with more blog posts in the future, and I promise I won't take as long as I did with this one, now that life will settle down a little more now that Summer is almost over.

PLAN AHEAD, WHAT'S THE STORY?:

Planning ahead before you have a photoshoot, or just taking some pictures is always beneficial. I always like the ones I have planned out the night before, week before much better.

When I plan ahead I try to think what I want to tell? What is the story? What am I trying to say in my photography?

Maybe since I was an Illustration major where we focused SOOO much on the story of our paintings I like to do the same thing in my pictures. And for me, I like to tell the story through color, props, angles, composition, and any other story-tellimg elements. Here are some examples that I have done to demonstrate what I mean:

For our Easter Picnic, I actually started planning a week or so ahead, I thought about a lot of things. I thought about the color: I wanted it to feel "Eastery" or spring so I used some pastel colors, with some accent bright colors. I also had us where it was green to get the mood for spring. I had us color coordinate so all of us looked good together. Luckily the "story" part was easy, it was a family going on a picnic, and than Thomas with bubbles. Having Thomas with bubbles worked great because he acted natural and we could see some of his cute personality. With all of this planning a head this series of pictures turn out great with not that much effort.

And yes sometime I plan "the everyday" pictures that don't look planned but I really thought about the in my head. For example for this picture. Thomas does this EVERYDAY, he messes with our bed, and I wanted to take a picture of it because it something I want to remember and also I thought it would be a cute picture because it would tell a little "story" about Thomas. I didn't use "props" for the picture, but I let our bedroom not be picture perfect because I wanted to be real and for me, it tells a better story.

Anyway, Like I said, I will try and post more and sooner!

PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS: Part 2

LIGHTING:


I can't stress enough the importance of good lighting. I don't even know where to begin because there are so many reasons why it's so important.

When I have good lighting in my pictures it's amazing how much better they look, the color is better, it's a sharper image, it's more flattering on the person, helps make the eyes pop more,  and makes editing that much easier. You can't fix bad lighting in photoshop, so a lot of times if it has bad lighting I don't even bother to try and fix it on PS.

EXAMPLES OF GOOD LIGHTING:

This picture was taken mid day outside.

This picture was taken on our bed, with plain wall in background, and I just had our screen door open to get good lighting. 

EXAMPLES OF BAD LIGHTING:
(Exclaimer: I still like these pictures, like the New York one is one of my favorite family pictures of us, but I'm just demonstrating what I'm talking about. Also I want to say do not take a picture because the lighting is bad and miss out an opportunity of a great picture for memories sake, I used to worry so much about getting "the perfect lighting" that I missed out on a lot of good pictures, and like I said I still like these pictures, but I'm just talking about how to get that more "professional" and flattering look.)

This picture Thomas and I are squinting so it's not the most flattering. 

This one isn't too bad, but there are weird shapes on Thomas' face. 

This one Thomas and I are squinting, and Dustin is a perfect example of what I call the  Raccoon eyes, I have it too, and you can see how big my nose is ;)

HOW TO GET GOOD LIGHTING INDOORS:
To get good light indoors can be tricky especially if you don't have a nice setup that professional photographers have. So OPEN those windows, and put your subject in front of that window so they are facing the window,that is the most flattering lighting, because it sort of flattens the persons face, and what do I mean by that? Let's say your model has a big nose, well that nose can cause a nice cast shadow and that will emphasize the nose. So having them face the window takes away all the shadows leaving a more flattering picture. You don't always have to have them face the window, you can have them to the side of the window, which can cause some shadow on one side, but that can be an interesting effect on the face.

This picture they were facing the window. 

The window is on the side, but still good lighting (for the most part).

I know I just said have your model facing the window and not away, but sometimes you can get away by breaking the rules. Here it was a well lit room, and with the camera I knew how to over expose so he wasn't a dark shape. 

Again facing the window.

HOW TO GET GOOD LIGHTING OUTDOORS:
The best time to take pictures outdoors is a few hours after sunrise or few hours before sunset, it's called the "magic hour" I once heard a photographer say, that's the best lighting because it's not too bright and it's even lighting which helps with the lighting on the face. But sometimes you don't have the option to do take pictures during "magic hour", most weddings are during the day, or other activities, so what do you do? You can have the model in the shade, so the sun is not blaring in their face making them squint and have dark shadows around their eyes. Some great places for shade are trees (but make sure there is not sunlight sneaking through the leaves causing weird shadow shapes on the models face), by buildings, or anything that causes shade.

This picture was taken mid-day in bright sun, but I had Dustin and Thomas go by a building so they were in shade and also it gave a nice background. 

This picture was taken in mid-day and he's under a bunch of trees, and luckily he didn't have weird shadows on his face, so it worked out. 

Again, bright sunny day, but they were under an umbrella so there were no strange shadows in their faces.

GET TO KNOW YOUR CAMERA!:

This is a whole another subject, but I just want to say knowing how to use your camera, I'm more talking about DSLR cameras but all cameras can apply, is the best thing for you. When I first had our camera I barely knew how to use it, so when it was low lighting setting all my pictures were blurry and dark, but now I know how to set my camera so that doesn't happen.

This picture was taken at night, but knowing what settings to use on my camera , and a tripod it worked out!

HOW TO CREATE CREATIVE BACKGROUNDS:
There are many ways you can get creative with your backgrounds.  A lot of the time I just use a plain wall, and if I want to later I will add a pattern on the background in photoshop like I used here:
(I'm planning on posting on how to do this sometime, or you can check on pinterest, that's how I learned)

But a lot of times I like the plain solid color.

Another great spot is using the garage wall, because with the garage door open and a nice solid background you can get some good pictures really easy.

Look at your suroundings, when we first moved here in Orlando, I was doing Thomas' 7 month pictures and we had all these boxes, so I just plotted him in front of one of them and loved how it turned out: 

Instead of buying expensive backdrops, here are some ideas you can do and use:

The backdrop is wrapping paper from Walmart, $3 the most. 

• Shower curtains, you can get a nice sturdy one pretty cheap. (You get a nice black for cheap)
• wrapping paper, I've used this one, and it's dirt cheap, especially if you have extra just laying around.
• Create your own, I've seen people use newspapers, sticky notes, balloons.... I thought it would be fun to do old sheet music.
• Use a quilt. 

The ideas are endless. 

Anyway, I feel like I just touched a tip of an iceberg on these subjects, so if you want to know more, there is A TON of info on the web. I will sometime give some of my favorite sites that I read from.

Anyway there is my photography tips part 2.

Some subjects and techniques I will go over in the future are:

Plan Ahead, what's the story you want to tell?
Good composition, rule of thirds.
Photoshop vs Lightroom (I'm still looking into that, but this might be a cheaper route if you can't afford PS) 
How to Use Bridge on PS
How to use Lightroom
How to brighten eyes, and fix blemishes 
How to edit something out of a picture.
How to edit in general, make colors brighter, how to make it look vintage.
How to use PS actions.
How to add a patterned background or change background on PS.

and hopefully more if I don't get burned out!

Also if there is anything you want to know how to do, let me know and I will post something about it,

My Path to Photography

If you have followed my blog at all you would figure out pretty quick that I like to take pictures.

It wasn't always that case.

I actually never cared for photography. I thought it was boring, I remember when I was really young, my brother, Paul, once showed interest in photography (he probably doesn't remember this) and my dad got him a book about photography, I looked through it and thought it was actually really boring, and wonder why people did it for enjoyment.

Most of my life I didn't have a camera and I rarely took any pictures, which I regret now.
I took a Communication class in Jr High because I dropped out of band the last minute that semester, and it was the only class opened that hour, and I really disliked that class. It probably was because of the teacher, but we had to take pictures, and I learned how to develop film in the dark room and everything, that part was actually interesting, but not enough to keep me interested, and if I remember correctly I messed up a lot of my pictures...

My senior year in high school was the first time I probably started looking at photography and saw it more as an art form. I was in AP art and some students had some cool photography projects... but again I didn't show any interest.



Not until I went on my Europe trip after my first year in college did I really started liking photography. I started taking pictures of the amazing architecture and wanting to take pictures of "the feel" of every country, and capture moments of the people around me. Every night when we would be back at our hostels I would go through my pictures over and over and I would say to my room mate almost every night that it became this huge joke, "Did you know every country has it's own color scheme?", I'm not kidding I would say it every night and not meaning to, but I just loved how the pictures just captured the feel and flavor of each country, I was trying to express this to my room mate, also this was the time I started taking all my lamp post pictures haha.


When I got home I would go to the nature park or somewhere else and I started taking pictures. I did that a couple times, especially when I had a lot on my mind, it was a way for me to relax.
Than school started up again, and I stopped taking pictures. That semester I was taking digital illustration class so I was always at the photo lab printing of my paintings and there would be many photography majors working on their projects and I always loved looking at their stuff, again I didn't think anything about photography.

Not until that summer, a year after Europe and was engaged to Dustin did I start thinking about taking a photography class. That's when I started self teaching myself how to edit pictures on photoshop, I would practice on my Europe pictures and I would spend hours doing it. With my tight schedule with illustration classes and my senior project, I figured my last semester I would take a photography class for fun. Well it never happened, since I was going to have a baby my last semester, I just ended up having my senior project and chemistry because I wanted it to be less crazy.

I would tell Dustin several times how I wanted a really nice camera, but I didn't see how we would be getting one any time soon.  Than Dustin's parents got us the PENTAX SLR for Christmas/graduation gift! O my goodness! I was one happy camper, I teased Dustin that it was mine, well I do use it more than him!

I was a little timid about it too, I didn't know how to use it, I didn't know what aperture was, or shudder speed, or ISO, luckily Dustin's sister came to my rescue and told me the basics, but I was still nervous, it took a few tries till I got things figured and not all mixed up.
After that I just started researching a lot and PRACTICED, PRACTICED, and PRACTICED, Thomas has pretty much been my only model, but he's been doing a great job ;)

And now, thanks to my friends and family, and those who would comment on my pictures make me feel confident enough to think maybe I should go into photography. But I'm still not sure for many reasons, 1. because I still love doing illustration so I'm hoping maybe I can do a little of both? 2. I don't know if I have what it takes, and 3. I see this on the internet:

 Than I wonder am I that monkey? 
Fist thing, I want to say is I agree, and disagree with this picture. 

I agree that because of technology and easier access to a lot of programs and cameras there has been a lot of bad art and, in this case, photography. 

But at the same time I feel like being creative is an outlet for people, a hobby they like to do, and if they love it and they like their art/pictures that they should do it proudly and show it to the world. I hope this makes sense what I'm saying? 

Also, as a mom I want to have cute pictures of my kids, but I can't afford to have a photographer at every event in our lives, so yes, I'm going to play photographer. 

So I'm debating if this is something I want to do.... 

Luckily one of my good friends. Aubrey, asked me to take her wedding pictures this summer (which I'm very excited and nervous about) because this way I will see if it's something I would like to do for a career or more of a hobby. 

And I MIGHT, might is the key word, do free sessions for anyone in town that month I'm in Rexburg, so I can get some practice in, learn from mistakes, and to see if this is really something I want to do. 

I've also thought about posting tips and things I have learned about photography, and maybe some editing techniques that I have learned. Also I would love to hear from anyone that has tips or have techniques they have learned as well. 


So here goes my first tip....


Tip #1: Be Inspired
I'm always looking at other photographers' work, being inspired by others can help your creative juices flow. Also this way you can see what style you like, and what type photography you like.


For me I like the nice clean, bright look, and sometimes I like the vintage look that's popular right now. I also like a good pose picture, but LOVE the kodak moment pictures, the ones that tells the story. 


Here are some photographers that I love:


http://www.taraphotographics.com/

http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/

http://blog.peekaboophotos.com/

http://www.vantagepictures.com/

http://julieparkerphotography.com/

Find some photographers that you like and get inspired. I don't know about you but after looking at photography I want to get my camera and shoot away! 


Another source is Pinterest as well, I'm always pinning photographs that inspire me. 


*Anyway, most of my tips will be more in detail than this, but I figured this post was long enough, so if you actually read through this, congrats!