PC2 assignment 1, take 2

I thought I'd try the 12 frames of an object with my viola. Here is what I got:



Do you like the apples or the viola better.

Photo Class Lesson 2

We had photo group today and I never can wait to do my assignment, so I'm finished with part one, take one. I thought I'd do it with a few objects, just for fun.

So the first assignment was to take 12 pictures of the same object. Not 35 shots, pick you best 12, just take 12 frames. I wasn't sure if I could move or reposition the object or not--I did in a couple pictures--but mostly I just moved myself around the object. I chose an apple. I put it on the kids' table next to my big window right about at noon. I'm sure I could have waited for better light, but hey, no kids around.

Anyway, here's a slideshow of my pics. I did a little color editing, but no cropping. I did this pretty much on ISO 400 F3.2 and 1/40-60 with my 50mm lens.



So, I think I'll do this one again for more practice. Any suggestions for another object? I'm supposed to choose my favorite 3 and post them. If I use my apples, I think I know which three I'll choose, but you can vote if you'd like.

The next assignment is to take pictures of 3-5 of our favorite things, or things that describe us. This will be a journal page for sure. I have some ideas, but I'm going to try to be creative in setting them up. Those will take a while. Still, we have a whole month! I'll get some more assignments for myself to fill in the time. :)

Fall Leaves

I am scootching down Kellie's AWESOME tips from her photography retreat, so scroll down and read 'em!

Now, I went out today in what I THOUGHT was a warm, overcast fall day. It turned out to be a HOT, very sunny fallish day and after Felicity, Daisy, and I ran around the lake looking for autumn-colored foliage for a while, we gave up, Felicity went home, and Daisy and I dragged my very sleepy child to the Harris Teeter parking lot where there were pretty leaves. Awesome. It was hard to avoid traffic and get good shots of a girl who just will NOT sit up, and who is ALWAYS my subject. So that said, here are some. Also, I sharpened these, per Jeri's tip, but I STILL don't have my photoshop, so I just used my DPP to sharpen it. I believe I overdid it a little. 50mm lens for all of these.

She just wanted to eat the leaves.

1/800 F4.0 ISO 400

Also, she is ALWAYS sucking her thumb.

1/800 F4.0 ISO 400

One of the only smiles we got today! Trying to avoid the road in the background.

1/800 F4.0 ISO 400

Tired and distracted Janey gave lots of profiles today.

1/1250 F4.0 ISO 400

I feel I oversharpened this one. I like the glowing yellow leaf in the middle, and the ALMOST heart-shaped patch of grass.

1/1250 F4.0 ISO 400

I was lying down with Jane on my legs. Her chin is cropped out to avoid my knee.

1/400 F7.1 ISO 400

Here's one of the swing shots I got. She is FLYING!

1/1000 F4.0 ISO 400

There we have it. Leaves take ONE. I had a cute fallish sweater for her to wear, but I swear it was 90 degrees! Yuck.

Top Tips from Creative Photography Retreat

Okay, at Cami's request, here are a few things I learned, in order of the strength of the AH-HA! response it elicited in me and my pal:

1. Spend a day observing the light in an open door in your house. Find times when the light is bright outside, but shady just inside. Every portrait pro I had a class with regularly uses wide open doors (placing the subject just on the shady side of the line between the light and the shade) as an easy way to get good, open shade. Sometimes they use the door frame to frame the shot but more often they don't. By metering on the subjects and using a large aperture, you can make the inside of the house darken to shadow and blur out.
2. This was also suggested by every teacher I had: If the light is tricky (dark background, backlit subject, etc.), rather than metering on the whole composition, Walk over and get really close, meter on the subject's face using aperture priority, note the settings, then move back, put the camera on manual, recompose, then set thesettings according to the metering. Ignore your camera telling you it's wrong.
3. The best way to get good photographs of people is to get out of yourself and really talk to your subjects. Take your time and be willing to be silly, firm or friendly. Take risks and really observe your subject. Don't ever criticize or make a photoshoot into a task for the subject. Be honest about the time the shoot will take, i.e., "We are going to spend about 10 minutes with this pose, so stick with me till we get it right."
4. Focus right between the eyes so that if the focus falls off to the sides, you still have nice sharp eyes rather than soft eyes and sharp ears.
   
5. Celebrate and capture the goofy expressions. Ask for them so you can build the trust to then ask for the nice faces. "Come on, I need 8 more funny faces, PLEEEAASSE?"
   
6. Try different approaches to figure out HOW you like to take pictures. The last two teachers I had had a significant personal impact on me because their approaches were so opposite but yet both get wonderful results. Don't try to copy someone else. The first of these last two teachers uses only film and limits every shoot to 72 images. She challenged us to slow down and do the same thing, even in digital-limit our next photo shoot to 72 images. This teacher is calm and commanding. She greets her subjects with, "Hi, I'm Karen and I'm in charge of the photo shoot." She is serious about her work and moves slowly. She follows all the classical rules of composition (never cut off a limb, never cut off any part of the head, always show creases in limbs to let the viewer know they are connected, etc.). The next teacher I had uses the "Spray and Pray" (her words) technique of photography. She uses an 8 gb data card, puts her camera in continuous shooting mode and takes tens or even hundreds of images of each pose with the mantra, "ONE OF THEM'S GONNA BE GREAT!" She interacts with her subjects like a broadway actress crossed with a motivational speaker-she is affectionate and demonstrative. She frames photos in unusual ways and cuts off limbs, ears and parts of heads all the time. She says that she's pretty sure the mom knows the child has all their parts, even if one is missing from the photo.BOTH OF THESE WOMEN TAKE PHENOMENAL PHOTOS.
7. Every professional digital photographer uses Photoshop heavily to post-process their photos. It is not cheating. It is the digital darkroom and, while the photographer should still use all the technical know-how they have to make a good image in-camera, almost every image can be and is enhanced using the basic fixes of sharpening and contrast. The next group of fixes that every pro there mentioned included exposure, skin smoothing, and adjusting color.Thus, it is a priority for a digital photographer to learn to use Photoshop, Photoshop Elements or Gimp (a reasonably powerful freeware substitute for Photoshop). I'm getting wordy here, but even though I have learned to use Photoshop, I always felt faintly like I was taking the easy way out. Not so. Even the film photographers use Photoshop to some extent.
8. One of the best instructors there, Jessica Sprague, has online courses and tutorials directed at moms with cameras (some free, some with tuition charges) here.
   
9. If I don't upgrade my software, I am going to seriously consider purchasing the Adobe Camera Raw Plug-in for Photoshop. It was quite magical for those basic fixes and can be used even if you don't shoot in the RAW format.
   
10. Photoshop Elements 7 is about to be released, so you might be able to find a deal on version 6. Elements is incredibly powerful and more than enough software for any mom with a camera in her hand.

I don't want any heads to explode so I'll stop now. Interestingly, there was little hands-on shooting in the classes. They were all lecture and slideshow. My friend and I wanted to relax and catch up so we didn't enter the crazy scavenger hunt for prizes, so I have no images from the weekend. I have tons of notes, though and I'm going to start practicing. Evan says he'll let me take photographs of him.

An Early Autumn Walk

Today I felt like my colors were a little muted for my taste, so I played with saturation and sharpened up the images a little, just for fun. Here's an example of what I got:





I was going for sort of cartoony even on that last one. It was fun to play with for sure. This is just an example. I put the rest of them on Flickr.

Just Practice

I mostly wanted a picture of Janey in this cute outfit, so I thought I'd practice while I was at it. I've found, I CANNOT get good catchlights in any part of the back of my house--at least, not at the time I'm doing pictures--usually the afternoon. But I thought I'd move on up my f-stop and see how I like those half-profiles, because I'm always getting the one eye in focus shots. I am happy to see that I was able to get more of them in focus than usual, but there are still a large number out of focus. Probably, she's just moving too dang fast. I was shooting at ISO 200. Maybe that's just impossible with Janey-pie. I can go up to 400, use a much faster shutter, and then maybe it will work better. Hard to know at the time, eh?

I'm not going to put all the stats, unless it varies. I pretty much stayed at f5.0 and moved the shutter between 160 and 250. I think I may have used the shade white balance. It was around 2:00.

A funny smile.

Closeyup for those eyes.

So, I like this balance a little better. Not SO out of focus on that back eye.

Here's one that would have been out of focus at a lower f-stop.

She started falling asleep on top of the picnic table.

So I am happy that I was able to get a little better focus on most of these. I guess I just have to keep trying and experimenting. I'd like to get some more creative shots next--not just portraits. I can't wait for our next photography assignment!!

In other news, I was forced to get some prints (5 8X10s 5 5X7s and 10 4X6 for free with my camera by Sept. 30th) and I am not SO happy with the way they actually turn out printed. Totally different than I expected on some of them. Hmmmm . . .

Naughty Boys

My boys HATE when I try to take pictures of them. They LOVE to take silly pictures, but they will not sit still for one shot. Really, HOW am I supposed to practice taking pictures with such subjects. But I told them I will NOT buy the $45 ugly pictures from school, so I bribed them with afternoon pancakes if they'd try to take some pictures. I accidentally left it on ISO 800 for the first shoot, so I took them out later (when Jeffy changes his shirt to match) and tried again with worse results because there was no pancake bribe.

Ethan Vogueing

Jeffy's "Portrait"

Ethan's "Portrait"

Ethan's idea of an awesome picture.

What's up with Jeffy's hair?

Ethan made about 50 faces like this.

This is the boys in their natural state.

Sick of taking pictures.