Photography by Britney Roark

S Family

2010-10-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

I loved taking these pictures of the S family! They're so photogenic. Carmen works with my husband, and you may recognize Steve from past photos I've taken. All 3 kids were so well-behaved and cooperative. It was my first time photographing kids in the 12-13 age range, and I liked it. This is a great family!

Location: Alms Park

I Love Photoshop

2010-09-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more of the C Family. Can I just say how much I love Photoshop? There are so many times that I get home and think, "Darn, these pictures didn't turn out that great." But Photoshop always comes to my rescue, and I can make mediocre pictures look great. Yes, I should get to where I can consistently take great pictures without having to do much in Photoshop. It would definitely save me a lot of work, but for now, I will rely on Photoshop to help me out. I know Mom isn't looking in this next one, but I still love it because older brother has such a genuine smile on his face.

C Family

2010-09-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

I've taken pictures of the C Family before...in the same location in fact. The kids are bigger and Mom is smaller (good for you!). Last time they were dressed in their Easter clothes, but this time was more relaxed. We had more fun this time, although I don't know if there's a cure for a 9-year-old boy who thinks he has had his pictures taken WAY too many times! Poor kid. He and I actually do get along in real life when I don't have a camera in my face. Here's a preview!

What do you think?

2010-07-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

I finished editing my 2 recent photo sessions. I had some fun with some free Photoshop actions from coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com. I held off on using actions for a while because I wanted to learn to do things on my own. They save so much time though, I couldn't resist. I toned down the actions a lot, but I wanted to know what everyone thinks about these photos of M and her parents. I'd love to hear which ones are your favorite and why? A couple of them have already been posted.

Some More

2010-07-13T10:40:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more for you!
She just started posing like this on her own. What a funny girl!
I love backlight! I'm glad the sun decided to come out.

This was pretty much the only way we could get little bro to pose with the rest of the family.

I told them they look alike but with different color hair. Big sister said she thinks she looks like her mom, and little sister said she looks like her dad.

the rest of M's preview

2010-07-12T11:01:00.001-07:00

E Family,

Sorry to leave you hanging! Here are a few more of M's pics.

M ~ 2 Years Old

2010-07-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a LONG and BUSY day! The day started out great though with M's pictures at the Boone County Arboretum. Remember her from my just-starting-out days (6 months ago...lol)? She's a little older now, but just the same spunky and very pretty little girl. 2-year-olds are so exciting to photograph. It's funny, I always end up with a lot of little blurs in many of the shots. I also get a lot of over and underexposed pictures because the little energetic kids run so fast in and out of shadows that it's hard to keep up with changing my camera settings. I've only had a few minutes today to get started, but here is a small preview for the E family.

G Family

2010-07-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

I took these pictures tonight, and I already have a few ready to post! The session was faster than I planned. I like to take a long time to make sure I get PLENTY of good pictures, but when you're working with 3 little ones, you kinda have to go by their schedule. When a 3-year-old has gotta go, she's gotta go! I think we still got lots of good ones though. Here's a quick sample. I'll post more another day.

By the way, these kids were super friendly. They weren't shy at all. It was awesome! Their parents were really nice too. Hopefully we can do this again some time.

Every time I drive by this spot, I want to take a picture with this barn in the background. I finally got to do it!

O

2010-06-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

O Boys

2010-06-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

I met up with the O boys and their mom last night at the Florence Nature Park. It's a cool place for pictures but a disappointment to kids because anything with the word "Park" in it is supposed to have a playground right?! Older brother was my little buddy and totally happy to run around and play with me, but little brother was not too thrilled with the situation. His favorite word of the night was NO. You can't even tell in these pictures though! I wanted to get a preview up for their mom so she could see that little brother actually DID smile for some of the pictures! These are cute boys, and P and I always enjoy hanging out with them and their mom.

Senior Pics Round 2

2010-06-08T18:12:00.000-07:00

It's funny, I always post my sessions in 2 parts. I get excited to share it when I first start editing so I blog right away. Then when I get into it more, I like to share a few more of the good ones. Here are a few more of B, my sister-in-law. I like that I've done all my practicing on toddlers, so when I get a subject that can follow directions and sit still for more than one second, it's so easy! The only hard part is posing, and I definitely need to work on that. There's always something new to work on with photography. Here she is again!

The location below looks very similar to the setting of one of our family portraits that were taken in Cincinnati a year ago. Neither one of us realized that until later when we were looking at the pictures in my camera. Funny.

Y Twins

2010-06-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've finally been able to get some more photos of the Y twins edited. Aren't they super cute?

All Grown Up

2010-06-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

I just got back from Utah last night (actually early this morning), so I have a lot to catch up on including finishing up pictures of the Y twins. First, though, I wanted to give a preview of my session with my sister-in-law. She just graduated from high school last week (the reason for our trip), and she's getting ready to go to BYU in the fall. Besides being beautiful, this girl is smart! She graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA! She plans to study chemical engineering in college.

I've been messing around with some different editing styles in Photoshop. What do you think about these? Which one is your favorite?

Multiplicity

2010-05-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

I've apparently hit the twin jackpot, and there are more coming in the future! Did you know that there are clubs for mothers who have twins? Yeah, I didn't either!

I got to meet these 2 cute kids (and their mom and dad) at Devou Park yesterday. They were pretty much unsure of me the whole time. They're 15 months old (just a month older than my P), and that is a tricky age to photograph. I learned that I need to be more silly. I've started doing it with P, but I need to get better at being silly around kids I've just met without scaring them. It's a delicate balance. Of course, the whole twin factor makes it even trickier because you've got 2 little ones to impress AT THE SAME TIME.

Anyway, I did get some cute pictures. It's been a busy weekend, and I've hardly had time to work on them. Here are a few so far.

More of the Twins

2010-05-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

I'm obsessed...

2010-05-15T10:50:00.001-07:00

...with photography. Since I got my camera in October, I've been eating, sleeping, and breathing photography. Seriously, I can't get it out of my mind. I really want to turn this hobby into a business. (If I can make money doing something I love, why not?) Right now, I'm in the "portfolio-building" stage. I've asked some friends to let me borrow their kids, and Tania was happy to offer her cute little twin girls. I loved the outfits she picked out for them. I'm still working on the photos, so I'm sure I'll be posting more when I get them ready. Here they are!

Holy Cuteness!

2010-05-07T10:53:00.001-07:00

It was so fun playing with these two on the playground! I knew they liked me when they started telling me to "watch" everything they did. It was great!

Exposure

2010-04-28T11:04:00.001-07:00

Wow, what I'm about to tell you combined with what I told you about in the last post has made such a difference in my photos. My pictures went to mediocre to good overnight because of the 2 new things I learned.

So, I was reading about photography on the internet a couple nights ago which I regularly do, and I came across a post on a photography discussion board that talked about metering. At the time I read it, it didn't seem like a big deal to me, but when I started applying it, I realized it was one of the best tips I've received for photography.

You see, when I take portraits, they are generally underexposed. I go in after the fact and adjust each individual photo with software and make them brighter. I never really thought of that being a problem...I guess because I was more worried about other issues. Now that I think about it, I should have been concerned about why that was happening, but anyway, not important now because I have a SOLUTION. My camera has a built in light meter. When I choose the correct combination of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, my light meter goes to zero to tell me that I have a correct exposure. That's what always do when I take pictures. So why are my photos underexposed? Well, the light meter is designed to tell you when something 18% gray is properly exposed. If your subject is lighter than gray (such as caucasian skin color), your light meter will assume that the subject is supposed to be gray and cause you to underexpose. You have to compensate for that and tell your camera that it's okay to make the picture a little brighter. You can do this by using settings that will put your light meter a little higher than the zero mark. On the other hand, if your scene or subject is very dark, your camera will try to overexpose. Then you would need to tell it that it's supposed to be darker by compensating toward the negative side of the meter. If your subject is tan, you don't really need to compensate. Now I know that's the reason my pictures of Steve the bodybuilder came out better than any other ones I've done. His skin color is closer to gray. (Obviously he's not gray, but the amount of light reflected off of his skin is closer to the amount of light reflected off something gray.) I hope that makes sense.

This knowledge also helped me with my white balance issues. I always tried to set a custom white balance by taking a picture of something white and programming it in my camera. Well, if I had an 18% gray card, I could set the light meter to zero, but since I'm using something that is white, I have to compensate and make the exposure one to two stops higher than zero.

Maybe after my next photo session I won't have as much work to do editing, and the photos will look 10 times better.

Here are some examples of photos taken straight out of the camera BEFORE I learned this valuable information. See how he looks like a little smurf? That's because I used a white piece of paper to set a custom white balance but failed to intentionally overexpose the piece of paper.

And here are some straight out of the camera that I took AFTER I learned the new techniques.

Focus

2010-04-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

I learned something new last night, and I think it's going to help me a lot. Maybe I'm the only one who didn't know about this, but I'll still share just in case.

Since I started this whole photography thing, I've been struggling with focus. My pictures just do not come out as sharp as I want them to, and when they do, it's pretty much by accident. There are many reasons why photos can be out of focus. Here are a few:

1. Aperture is too wide. I've had this problem a lot when shooting groups of people. I want the background to be a little blurred, so I try to find the widest possible aperture that keeps everyone in focus but the background out of focus. I usually fail at this and end up with some members of the group out of focus. It's highly dissapointing to find that I made that mistake on an otherwise great shot. Solution: I need to practice using the depth of field preview button on my camera to see what is going to be in focus before I take the shot.

2. Shutter speed is too slow. When you use a slow shutter speed, the subject needs to be very still and the camera needs to be very still. I usually don't have a problem with this because I just make sure that the shutter speed is high enough to capture the motion. Solution: If you can't get your shutter speed high enough, you should increase the ISO or decrease the aperture number. If you can't get your aperture wide enough, you may need to try a different lens. You could also try using a tripod or a flash.

3. Underexposure. This isn't really a focus issue per se, but when your subject is not correctly exposed in the shot, it won't look as sharp or crisp. Even if you adjust it later with software, you lose details in highlights and shadows, so it just won't look as good as it would if you had gotten it right initially. Exposure is tricky. That's why it difficult to take your camera off auto and take your photos manually. Solution: Practice practice practice. I've been forcing myself to use manual mode since I got my camera. I'm still struggling with it, but I'm getting better. It's frustrating when I've been studying so hard, and my photos come out looking way worse than if I had taken them in auto mode, but I know it will pay off eventually to know how to do it manually.

4. Focus fell on the wrong spot. My camera has many auto focus points, but I only keep the center point active. I like to have complete control over what is in focus, but sometimes I miss. This is usually just a problem with a quick moving subject (like a young child). I may focus on the eyes, but when the shot is taken, the eyes are blurry and the shoulder is completely in focus. This is more problematic when I'm using a wide aperture. Solution: AI Servo mode can help a little, but it doesn't seem to work too well for me. Maybe I just don't get it. The thingthat WILL help a lot that I just learned about is back-button auto focus. I've tried it a little, and it makes a big difference. It is really well explained here (for Canon users), so I won't try to summarize it. If you don't have a Canon, just google it to see how to do it for your camera. All you do is program a button on the back of the camera to be your auto focus button instead of using your shutter to focus. I think it's going to make things so much easier for me when I take pictures of kids.

I think if I can get these 4 things down, my pictures will have that nice crisp look to them that I've been trying to get.

I practiced a little on P this morning after he got out of bed. Here are a few.

(focus is intentionally on his hand in the last one)

More P

2010-04-15T13:12:00.001-07:00

My Baby

2010-04-13T17:12:00.001-07:00

My baby is a year old! Here's the best photo from our session today. More to come another day because I don't want to be an "addict" tonight. Plus I'm still working on the C Family.

More C Family

2010-04-12T18:27:00.001-07:00

B just informed me that I exhibit all the signs of an addict. I'm not sure if he thinks I'm addicted to the computer or to photography. If it's photography, he could be right, but I see this as more of gaining an education. When you're in college, you spend a lot of time studying so you can earn more money after you get your degree. Well, I'm spending a lot of time studying photography so I can make money when I start a business in the near future. It's an investment right? If he's saying I'm addicted to the computer, I guess that could also be true. Anyway, here are the photos.

C Family

2010-04-11T18:52:00.001-07:00

My friend Tania, who is also a photographer, asked me to take pictures of her family. I knew it'd be kinda hard because she has twin toddlers, but it was even harder than I thought to get everyone looking at me at the same time. The little girls weren't too interested in me. Little E especially didn't want to have her picture taken. With all the attention on the babies, their older brothers (who happen to be my piano students) got a little annoyed with the whole thing. They really did a good job though. I think this is just the way family photography is. As usual, I just need more practice. I've got to think of ways to make it more fun for kids.

Aren't they such a cute family? Look at these adorable matching outfits.
I laugh when I see this next one because of what the twins are doing. Completely uninterested!
M is fun. He loves to talk to me at piano lessons. He tells me all about what he's been doing in school and karate class. I love it.

Look at how cute this kid is. D is seriously one of the cutest kids I know. E was really unsure of the whole situation.

S was a little happier but still didn't want to look at the camera. haha

Thanks for letting me take pictures of your family Tania!

More Steve

2010-03-31T19:03:00.001-07:00

It's been such a busy day today. I really wanted to get more accomplished with these photos, but I only got a few more ready to post. I'm really impressed by how much dedication it takes to make your body look like this. Steve has been working really hard, and it shows. I wish I had at least half the will power.

Steve

2010-03-30T18:16:00.000-07:00

New photography experiences today....direct sunlight and a bodybuilder. I never thought of bodybuilders as something I'd want to add to my portfolio, but it was really fun and pretty easy compared to other people I've tried to photograph (i.e. toddlers). I may want to do this more in the future. Thanks for the opportunity Steve and Carmen! Enjoy! I'll try to post more tomorrow.

Light

2010-03-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been trying to gain a better understanding of light. I feel like I'm getting a good grasp on it. When I first started learning about photography, I really wanted to be able to accurately capture everything I saw just the way I saw it. I soon learned that it's not possible. The human eye can see so much more dynamic range than a camera lens. With our eyes we can see details in bright highlights and dark shadows all at the same time. Cameras just can't really do that. Maybe one of these days, but not now. I was a little sad that my camera wasn't seeing what I was seeing. You have to make the camera see what you're seeing, and it takes some planning and thought. I've learned some tricks though over the last few months. Here are a couple of them.

1. Available Light

You have to be in control if you want the right lighting for your photo. Even though the sun is very powerful, you can actually control it in many ways. I'm not going to go into various techniques, but one lesson I've learned is to use open shade. You don't have to have the sun shining directly on your subject. Find a building or something that provides enough shade to place your subject in. Position your subject so that they are facing away from the object. The open sky alone will provide perfect even lighting for your subject. I don't have any examples from my own photos yet, but here's one that another photography took of B and P last year. (krysiaphotography.com) See how they're in the shade and facing the open sky (trust me, they are, even though you can't see it) and how nice the lighting looks? It also makes their eyes look nice and bright because they reflect the light from the open sky.

2. Flash

Before I got my flash, I thought I needed it for situations where there was not enough natural light. I learned that unless I'm going to use my flash off-camera, it doesn't really help that much in those situations because a flash mounted on your camera doesn't provide natural-looking light. The thing that it can provide is fill light. When you take pictures in sunlight, you can have harsh shadows. That's not so flattering to faces. It can make your nose look huge among other things. So you can use your flash to fill in those shadows. You don't need it to be very strong, just enough to give more even light to the subject. Here are some examples I took of B the other day. He was SO excited to help me experiment. He asked if we could go behind the house, and I said no because the sun was in front of the house. We were on the front doorstep. He was really embarrassed. I'm sure you can tell which pictures had fill light from my flash. Doesn't it look 10 times better? Since the sun was behind him, his face would have been horribly shadowed. The shadows just don't do his handsome face justice. :)

(I know these have a red color cast to them, but it's beside the point.)
So there's 2 tips for you. I don't even know if anyone actually benefits from the stuff I write. I figure if nothing else, it's just a report of the things I've learned to help me remember it better.

Flash Modifier

2010-03-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make my flash look a little more natural, so I made my own flash modifier. I learned how to do it in a book. The author has a website where you can download the template here. He suggests you use velcro so you can easily attach and detach it from your flash, but I didn't really want to stick anything adhesive to my flash, so I just attached it with a rubber band. I wanted to take some pictures to show you the difference it makes, but it's hard to set up the camera to take pictures of myself, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Here's what I did. I went to Michael's and bought a piece of craft foam for like $0.99. I printed off the template on a piece of paper. I cut out the template. I placed it over the foam and traced it. I cut the piece out of the foam. I attached it to my camera with a rubber band, and tada...a very inexpensive flash modifier similar to some of these products. Here's what it looks like on my camera.

More A

2010-03-18T11:55:00.001-07:00

I couldn't resist posting more. She's too cute. Since I was the 2nd photographer, I didn't get a lot of eye contact from her (I was more of a silent observer), but these are still cute.

Little A

2010-03-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

My friend Tania invited me to join in on a photo session with A. I thought it was really nice of her to include me! She said she wanted to get ideas from me, but I was excited to get ideas from her because she has more experience than I do. A is my son's little buddy. She's a couple months older than him but has way more teeth! She's so cute with those lips! Here are a couple pictures. I may post some more later.

More John and Andrea

2010-03-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

Aren't they cute?

And their dog Stella!

John and Andrea

2010-02-28T17:25:00.000-08:00

I took pictures of John and Andrea today. They're engaged! Here's my favorite photo of the day. More to come tomorrow.

RAW vs JPG

2010-02-27T12:34:00.000-08:00

The last time I talked about RAW and JPG files, I didn't post any examples. The thing about RAW is that you have to know how to process it correctly to make it look good. I still feel like I'm not getting the white balance right. I used AWB (auto white balance) for this photo and it came out very blue. I like things to look warmer. I think my pictures are looking yellow/green because that's how I like to see things, but I also want it to look natural. So tell me what you think.

The first picture is the RAW file (converted to a JPG with no changes). RAW files are dull in color and don't have much contrast.

The second picture is the JPG straight out of the camera. The camera guessed at what it thought the picture should look like, and you can see there's a little more contrast in this one than the last one.
The third picture is the one that I worked on. Does it look too yellow or green? I know it's yellow compared to the other ones because they're really blue, but would you say it's yellow if you saw it by itself?

Two Peas

2010-02-27T11:46:00.000-08:00

There's a cool website called Two Peas in a Bucket. It's mostly for scrapbooking, but there's also a photography section. The thing I love the most is they have 2 lessons every week by different professional photographers about various topics. They're so helpful, and I've already learned a lot from it. I keep anxiously waiting for another week to pass so I can have some new topics to read about. Here's a link to a list of all the classes they've done so far. Each week when there's 2 new lessons added, the links will become available for those so keep checking back if you're interested. http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&forum_id=21&thread_id=2953908

My "Studio"

2010-02-12T14:27:00.001-08:00

I set up a simple studio in our basement today. I bought a large piece of muslin and taped it to the wall. I wanted it right by the sliding door, but unfortunately there's a window there. It's fine for a small baby and it makes a good backlight, but if I want to shoot anything taller than a baby sitting on the floor, the window will be a problem. P was such a difficult subject. He was so into the basement. He's hardly ever been down there before, so it was pretty exciting for him. I could tell what he was thinking, "So this is where all my stuff goes when it disappears!" (We have some of his toys down there and his old baby stuff that we don't use anymore.) Every time I placed him where I wanted him, he crawled to the stairs. I searched our house beforehand for things that would keep his interest and look decent as a photo prop, and nothing worked for keeping his interest. I did get him to look at some fake grapes for a couple seconds while I captured this photo. As soon as he tasted the grapes and realized they weren't real, he was outta there. I'm just going to need someone to chase him around next time so I can focus on the camera.

1/320s
f/5
ISO 400
100 mm
no flash
sliding door left of camera
window behind backdrop

GIMP

2010-01-29T13:29:00.000-08:00

Gimp is pretty cool, and it's absolutely free. I've never used Photoshop (except once for an assignment in my Computer Science 100 class at BYU), but I feel like Gimp can do pretty much anything Photoshop can. At least it can do anything that I would ever need to do at this point. I even downloaded a plug-in yesterday that allows me to edit and convert RAW files in Gimp. Shooting in RAW makes a big difference! I knew that before, but I didn't realize how much of a difference it would make until I actually saw it. I don't have any comparisons between RAW and JPG right now, but here is a before and after of a JPG that I edited in Gimp.

Flash

2010-01-20T11:21:00.000-08:00

I got my new flash for Christmas (430 EX II). I was a little worried about learning to use it because I wasn't sure how to incorporate flash into the exposure, but it ended up not being as complicated as I thought. The real challenge is making the light from the flash look natural. The best way to do it is to bounce the flash off of a larger surface like a white ceiling or wall. If that isn't available, I don't quite know what to do yet, but I think it's going to involve some additional equipment. I guess I could bounce the flash off of a reflector or large piece of white posterboard. I practiced on Superman since no one else would pose for me. He was the best option anyway since he's so patient with me. :) The first one is bounced off the ceiling. The second one is direct flash (definitely not as natural looking as the first one).

M - 18 Months

2009-12-21T06:12:00.000-08:00

I took some pictures of M over the weekend. She's 18 months old, beautiful, and a little ball of energy. Leading up to it, I tried to think of all the 18-month-olds I've ever known to mentally prepare for M's photo shoot. I knew I couldn't expect much from that age as far as sitting for me and looking at the camera, but it was more of a challenge than I thought to keep her having fun, get her to look at me, think about which camera settings to use, AND make sure I had enough light all at the same time! It's all a learning experience!

We were planning to do these pictures at the park, but we woke up that morning to find snow covering everything, so I decided I'd try to do some indoor portraits. I felt a little limited at times since I don't have the best equipment for indoor natural light photos. (Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the equipment I have so far.) I think we got some good ones though.

It was really fun! M is precious. It didn't take long for her to warm up to me, and she was just so excited to have all the attention!

Here are some of my favorites:

Rebel t1i at Costco

2009-12-08T06:07:00.000-08:00

The camera package I got at is a really good price at Costco right now. $849.99 ($949.99 with a $100 instant rebate). That's not a good price for the camera alone, but the package comes with a 2nd lens (55-250 mm) worth about $250, a nice bag, a 4GB memory card, and an HDMI cord. We spent $200 more on this package 2 months ago, but we bought the new one and returned it with the old receipt...pretty easy for $200 of savings. It's a great camera!

First Photo Session

2009-12-07T19:31:00.001-08:00

Our friends were really good sports and let me practice on them. Thanks to their willingness to be my guinea pigs, I learned some valuable lessons!

Lesson #1: Begin each photo session with a completely empty memory card. (Seriously, did I really make that mistake? Yes, I did.)
Lesson #2: Charge your camera before each session. (It never died but it was low.)
Lesson #3: Don't take outdoor photos when it's 35 degrees outside.
Lesson #4: Late afternoon photos are good but not downtown where tall buildings block the sun.
Lesson #5: I really need a good flash! Fortunately, I'm expecting one for Christmas. :)

The L family did awesome though! They looked super cute and they were really fun to photograph. Daughter L is adorable and very camera shy. I love this picture of her.
Son T is such a stud! When it was his turn, he just jumped right in and started posing for me. Totally a natural.
Here's the cute couple!
Thanks again! Despite the weather, it was fun!

Shutter Speed

2009-11-13T08:58:00.001-08:00

I was messing around the other night. I put my camera on a tripod, set the shutter speed to 2 seconds, stood in the frame for about 1 second, stepped out of it for the other second, and ended up with this. You could really freak someone out with this technique.

50mm Lens

2009-11-13T08:37:00.000-08:00

I really love my camera, but the lens that it came with (18-55mm) is very basic. It can give me some slightly wider angled shots at 18mm which will be nice if I ever do any landscape photography, although I would love to eventually get a real wide angle lens. We got the camera kit at Costco, so it also came with a bonus lens (55-250mm). This is a good lens for portraits because it makes the background look further away which makes the subject stand out more. It's important to have a lot of light though for a zoom lens like that. Most of the pictures I take of baby P are inside the house, so there's not a lot of natural light. Since it's my goal to not use a flash, I needed a lens that would allow more light. My friend recommended that I try a fixed 50mm lens. I didn't understand at first because I thought that a lens that doesn't zoom would be annoying, but I soon realized that it was a necessity if I wanted to take good pictures of P in the house without a flash. The 50mm lens can use a much larger aperture than the zoom lenses I had. With a larger aperture (which is actually a smaller number, it's a little confusing), you can use a faster shutter speed. Faster shutter speeds are essential for taking sharp pictures of moving subjects. For example...

I took these pictures with my 18-55mm lens in the house at night without a flash.

I took these pictures with my 50mm lens in the house at night without a flash.

Big difference!

I was even able to take this one in extremely low light.

Don't worry, I still use the 18-55mm lens when the time is right.

Editing Software

2009-11-13T08:35:00.001-08:00

I'm not ready to invest in Photoshop yet. I want to be at the point where I'm taking really awesome pictures before I use Photoshop to enhance it. However, I have messed around a little with GIMP. It's a free alternative to Photoshop. Here's an example of something I edited with GIMP. I tried to have a practice photo shoot with B and P but this was before I learned how to correctly expose. They were sitting under a turquoise pavillion which made them look turquoise. I tried to get rid of that tint, but it's still there a little in the edited copy. I also took out the pole.

Before

After

I also sometimes use basic tools like Picasa or the Canon software that came with my camera. That's if I just need to crop or straighten or adjust the white balance. My goal is to take photos that don't need to be edited though.

Panning

2009-11-12T11:50:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I took some pictures of P swinging at the park. The swing was moving in every picture I took, but you couldn't tell. It looked like he was just sitting there.

I learned about panning (following the moving subject with the camera to make the background blur), and I thought I'd try it out to show that P actually was in motion. He doesn't look too impressed by it, but I think it's an improvement. Now, if I can just get the exposure, white balance, composition, and focus right all at once. Plus, I need to get the baby to make a cute face. This is hard work!

White Balance

2009-11-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

I usually forget to set the white balance before I start taking pictures. I don't always have a good eye for color, so I'd rather get it right when I actually take the picture than have to go in and fix it later. That's what I had to do with these cute ones I took of P.

Here are a few before I adjusted the white balance.

Here are the same ones after.

I also sharpened them a little and may have changed the brightness too. This was before I had my epiphany about using the light meter, so the exposure was a little off.

Understanding Exposure

2009-11-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

I ordered the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. It was recommended by the photographer who took P's newborn pictures. After reading most of the book, it's all starting to make sense now. I didn't even know how to properly use the light meter on my camera before. Now I'm totally comfortable shooting in full manual mode, and my pictures are actually looking decent! I'm still getting some out of focus shots, but it's because I'm shooting in low light which requires slower shutter speeds. Slower shutter speeds lead to more camera shake.

Here are some pictures I took last night in M mode of B playing with P. (You can tell he's not the most thrilled about being my subject.)