Flashy

My photography class is currently working on using flash in order to simulate natural light. In every other topic that we've covered, I've been way on board. Manual setting? Awesome! Night photography? Sweet! Action photography? Bonus!

So far, in flash class, I'm all...Meh. So. Stinking. Frustrating. We had a field trip with models this week, and I got a couple of nice photographs, but most of them just screamed "FLASH" at me. I'm doing the things - I'm making the adjustments - I understand the physics. I just can't seem to get a photo that makes my heart sing.

Yesterday, I borrowed Joshua for a quick session in the garage to see if I could improve any. First, I took a photo of him just using the light that was coming in through the garage door. Why does my garage have such lovely light? Honestly - in the mornings, it's just a gorgeous place to photograph people. I need to install some curtains to hide all the bikes and junk so it could be an official photography studio. This is what I ended up with...




See what I mean? Gorgeous light. It's soft and even. It fills in his eye sockets and lights up those aqua eyes perfectly. I love the reflection of the sky in his eyes. I love how it evens out his skin tone and makes his freckles completely adorable. I love this photo.

Happy Dance.

Now - flash forward (see what I did there) a few minutes. I had the flash angled away and bouncing off a card, hoping that would soften its effects. I had it turned way down and barely even flashing. I changed a few settings on the camera to lessen the impact. and still...



FLASH!

Ugh. I hate what it does to his eyes - that little pinprick of light just off-center in the pupil. The light is harsh and unforgiving. I don't like the fact that the inside of his nostrils are illuminated. (Is that a weird thing to notice?) In short - I don't like it one little bit.

I really don't understand why I'm struggling so much with it. It may be a mental block, because I used flash so much in the past, in all the wrong ways, and now I can't wrap my head around the fact that it can be lovely and, at times, necessary.

All I can do is press on. Keep practicing. Not give up. I WILL figure this out.

And I'll let you know when I do...

Contrast

I love this photo of Joshua, mainly because he looks so serious, which is completely in contrast with how goofy he really is.

Speaking of contrast, what do you think of the contrast between his neat, semi-preppy clothes and the gritty, urban funky wall behind him? I like the contrast, but I had some feedback from a trusted source that called it into question. I'd love some additional feedback from anyone who'd like to step up and offer it.

Thanks in advance!

5 Simple Steps to Great Family Portraits

With a combination of a little patience and a lot of planning, taking your family's portrait should be a breeze. Build a repertoire of basic group poses, like the ones here, and you'll be on your way to a fantastic gallery wall of your own portraits in no time!

Let's get started!

1. Location, location, location. Scout out your yard or local park to find a nice area with open shade that will give you even, diffuse light. Avoid getting hotspots on any of your family members by making sure they are completely in the shade, not in a dappled sunlight area. No one wants a shiny forehead.

In the shot below, we headed out to the backyard and found some really great open shade that evenly lit Dr. SmartyPants and Jasper, but I really didn't like the area in the background. Pay close attention to the background! It can make or break your shot. Use the playback feature on your camera to really evaluate what is going on behind your subject.

   

In the next shot, below, I moved my view just a little until the weedy parts of the yard were hidden, and nothing but green grass was showing. It always pays to take a few test shots before you get the whole family involved. Which brings me to point two...

 2. Pre-shoot. Find your most cooperative family member, or members, and place them in your chosen area to set up your exposure and focus. The more you do here, the more efficiently your session will go. Obviously, I chose Dr. SmartyPants - man of infinite patience - for my test subject. Chico did pretty well, too.

3. Arrange the humans. Trust me. If you are including your family pets in the photograph, they need to wander around and sniff all the things while you get your humans in place. This applies to toddlers and pre-schoolers, as well. Get all the non-fidgety people placed, make sure your lighting is perfect, then bring in the wigglers.

4. Shoot fast. There's nothing worse than sitting through a session where the photographer just keeps going and going and going. You've got everything set up already - just take the picture! Use a high burst mode to help you avoid the dreaded blinks of half the crowd - you're bound to get one where everyone is looking at the camera with their eyes open. Just fire off a burst, check your settings, make whatever quick adjustments you need, fire off another burst and call it a day. Trust your pre-work.

Once you've done all that, it's time to move on to the last step...

5. Let them goof off. Finish the session by letting everyone loose. Keep the camera firing on continuous drive and tell everyone you're finished. That's when the real family portraits show up!

See what I mean...

 

Alright - your turn! Get out there and grab some great shots of your own family, okay?

Weather the Storm

Do you ever have the feeling that even though the sun is shining brightly, there's a storm raging?

I do.

We are in this strange transition space between childhood and manhood. It's uncharted territory for me, even though I obviously transitioned from childhood to womanhood at some point. (Some may argue otherwise.) They seem so mature and capable and then, POW!

Instant four year old.

It becomes harder and harder to step back and say, "They're children. They have non-functioning prefrontal cortices," even though I understand the science behind it and know for a fact that my brain was equally delusional about life.

So, some days the storm rages through the sunshine and the lightning and thunder overwhelm us completely and we teeter on the brink of tough parenting calls and spiteful decision making (...no electronics until you're 18 for a week!) 

But somehow we manage to batten down the hatches and ride it out. We end up at the end of the day with the light filtering back through and the four of us curled up in bed watching James Bond and unconsciously making sure that everyone is touching at least one other of us. We apologize and reiterate and make sure we all understand that no matter what happens, love is the driving force in this family.

We pray and we hug and we "I love you" each other. We go to sleep knowing that we weathered the storm the best we knew how and nothing was broken or torn apart.

In the morning, the sun shines again.

But First...

Let me take a selfie...

These are more garage light photos. The boys weren't home, and I wanted to work on a couple of things, so I had to use my permanent model. Thankfully, I have a remote control and a great deal of patience...

And a better fake smile than Joshua.

Both of these were taken with my 50mm lens at f/2.8, 1/60, ISO 100. I used my Cowboy Studio target to set the exposure and the approximate area where my eyes would be so I could get good focus. I think I should have worn long sleeves - my right arm is distracting me a little, but it was actually raining outside when I took these, so I couldn't back the camera up to get more arm, and I didn't want a too- tightly-cropped head shot either.

What do you think?

Back in the Garage

Like the post a couple of days ago, this photo was taken in the open doorway of my garage. The light was stronger on this day, so the catchlights in Joshua's eyes are so sparkly!

I always have a hard time getting Joshua to smile naturally. He tends to keep his lips together, show a little upper gum and wrinkle his chin. That's why you may see a lot of photos of him not smiling at all. I'd rather he just stare menacingly at the camera than look like.

Because while he's still adorable in that picture, it's not Joshua. Joshua is a guffaw-er. He's a smiler. He's a funny, happy kid, and that second picture doesn't show that.

So, while he was very patiently posing for me, giving me his fake smile, I started singing.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little...goat,

How I wonder if you...float."

And that's when I found his smile. His real, honest-to-goodness, happy Joshua smile.

Ahhhh. That's better.

Do you have a reluctant smiler in front of the camera? Try singing a silly song. Maybe you'll break through his mask!

You Light Up My Life

This was taken with the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens I rented for a couple of weeks. It's a lens I really (really really) want to purchase, but it's pricey and I thought I should play with it for a while and see if it is practical.

I took this photo of Derek in our garage. He's facing the open doorway with all the soft afternoon indirect light coming in, and the rest of the garage just kind of disappears into the background. I used the lens with the aperture wide open at 2.8, and the focal length set to 70mm, which made that soft, dreamy background like buttah.

Speaking of buttah...

I took this one with the lens wide open as well, but used the 200mm focal length, so the trees in the background just became the perfect foil to Derek's green eyes. Compare this one to the one below, and you can see what the combination of a large aperture and a long focal length have on the background.

I used f 2.8 in this photo, as well, but the lens was zoomed out to 70mm. That's a nicely blurred background, but it doesn't even compare to the 200mm.

I'll definitely have to set Derek up in the garage again, with the lens at 200mm. That just makes a gorgeous portrait! Maybe I can convince Joshua to model for me, too!