“The only way to catch an uncatchable woman is to offer her a wedding ring.”

Here are the top five things I learned when photographing my first wedding:

1) ALWAYS go to the wedding location, prior to the wedding, at the same time of day that the wedding is to be held.

This is imperative to getting great shots!  My first wedding was an outdoor wedding in Alaska of all places.  I had no idea of what to expect, so I wanted to be overly prepared.  I went to the venue at 10am the day I got to Alaska just to check things out and took a few test shots.  The bride had not decided whether she wanted the wedding outside or inside, so I just took both.  Fast forward a few days to the rehearsal…the rehearsal was in the afternoon, not in the morning like the real ceremony was going to be.  She decided that she wanted the ceremony outside, but the lighting was HORRIBLE.  (See sample shot)  Luckily, I had already been to the venue at 10am which was the time of the wedding (yes, that was totally luck!), and I knew the light was OK in the morning.  I was able to tell her that a morning wedding would be fine outside, and we ended up getting some great shots.

2) ALWAYS attend the rehearsal for the ceremony.

This is very important so that you don’t miss those important shots.  In my opinion, it’s just a few minutes that will give you a wealth of information.  You can find the best places to stand, you can see if you are going to have adequate lighting, and you can get an idea of the schedule so that you are in the right places for the entrance, exit and kiss.

3) Make a shot list of the family pictures to be taken after the ceremony.

It’s best to sit with the bride and groom prior to the ceremony to make the shot list.  Write down EVERY shot they want to get…mom and bride, mom, dad, bride…bride and her favorite cousin…etc…there is nothing worse than realizing, after it’s all over, that you didn’t get the shot of the groom with his dad and 100 year-old grandfather!  When it is all written down, you can keep control of the chaos and keep things moving.  Remember, you are in control!

4) Wear comfortable shoes!

You will be on your feet for a long time, and you never know where you’ll need to climb…be ready!

5) Don’t forget the detail shots.

Think of creative ways to get shots of the food, rings, shoes, etc…these are the pictures that will document the whole experience of the wedding.  They will also be very important when you are putting together the wedding book!

“You’re a regulation hottie!”

Making people look beautiful in a photograph takes a lot of expertise…much of it on the computer.  This short article is going to show a couple of those tricks that photographers use in Photoshop to make their subjects glow!

1.  Skin Smoothing:  of course just about every photographer has the expertise to get rid of some of those blemishes that we all have in our skin, but some even go further and completely make the skin flawless.  Here are the steps:  Select/Color Range/Click on the skin tone to select that color.  Then choose Filter/Blur/and you have many choices of blurs (if you want to go over the top, choose gaussian blur).  Play with the numbers until you get what you like.  I typically like to turn the opacity of the layer down so that you can see some pores and skin tones through the blur so that it looks somewhat natural!

2.  Eyes:  the eyes are the most effective thing to tweak to make a huge difference in how your subject looks in the photo.   Even the most beautiful eyes can look dull in a photograph.  The first thing to do is to whiten up the whites of the eyes.  You can do this by using a white paintbrush with soft edges on a low opacity (probably about 8%).  You’ll see a huge difference in the eyes of your subject just by doing this.  You can also take that same white brush and make small dots over the iris of the eye and this will help the color pop.  There are many other more detailed ways of making the eyes stand out but this is by far the most simple and makes a big difference.  Be careful not to add too much because it can be a bit overpowering to the overall photograph.

Happy Shooting!

“Mother Superior is stifling my creative flow.”

Did anyone watch The Trouble with Angels when they were a kid?  One of my favorites!  You can’t beat Haley Mills in a Walt Disney classic : )

This post is all about ways to get creative with your camera.  It’s really easy to get bogged down in a bunch of photography rules and forget that it is an art form.  Don’t block your creative flow by worrying so much about what is “right” and think out of the box!

What are some ways to get creative with my camera?

My favorite way to get creative is in Manual mode (usually the “M” on your DSLR).  Light can be your greatest friend and your worst enemy in photography, so this is a way to manipulate light and therefore get some great images.  (See previous posts on how to manipulate the settings to get the correct exposure to your shots.)  By playing with light, you can get a dark foreboding picture, or a washed out over-exposed photo…even those they may not be “technically” correct, they can be great works of art.

If you don’t have a DSLR and can’t play with manual settings, try to manipulate the light around your subject to get a great shot.  Use colored lighting, or diffuse light through a white sheet.  Bounce light off of a mirror or a white wall onto your subject and see what you come up with…anything goes!  It is also very interesting to use different sources of light like flashlights, computer monitors, cell phone glows, candles, the possibilities go on and on.  Sunset is a great time to go out and get beautiful silhouettes and warmly lighted shots.

Another way to get creative is in post production of your photos.  In Photoshop, you not only can manipulate the lighting in the photo, but you can also put filters over the photo to change the texture and finish.  It is amazing what this program is capable of, but it is very difficult to learn.

If you are in the market for a new computer and are thinking about purchasing Photoshop, I recommend getting a Mac and purchasing the “One to One” sessions.  It is really inexpensive, and you can get a lesson once a week for a year on anything you want, including Photoshop.  It is a great way to get the basics down.  After that, another great place to get instruction is YouTube.  There are thousands of tutorials on Photoshop and photography in general.  There are many other websites that offer a lot of instruction like CafeMom.com, DigitalPhotographySchool.com, and CoffeeTeaPhotography.blogspot.com.

Here are a couple of ways that I have needed to use Photoshop to get creative…

Life moves pretty fast…part two!

OK, if yesterday’s post was mind-numbing, I’m sorry!  In order to get the most out of your DSLR, you MUST understand how those things work together though.  From here on out, it’s cake : )

Now that you know how your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO work together you are fully capable of shooting in manual mode.  Many photographers shoot exclusively in manual mode, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you must or that you should.  Although it’s great to have that capability, technology is also great, so you might as well use what your camera has to offer!

Like I said yesterday, the most important thing is to know the type of shot you need.  Is it an action shot?  Is it a portrait?  Is it a landscape?  Here are the two most important modes that you will be using in your photographs and how they work…

Action Shots

Anything that has movement will tell you that the shutter speed is your most important feature.  Look at your manual and see what your shutter priority mode is…it could be an “S” or “TV” most likely.  When you use this mode you have the control over the shutter speed, but the aperture and ISO decisions are made by the camera.  For example, if you know you want to freeze the baseball just as your daughter is swinging into the pitch, you probably want to set the camera to 1/500ths of a second.  Maybe you want her swing to be frozen but you want to get all fancy and have the speeding ball blurred…maybe try 1/100ths of a second and see if that works.  This mode is great for this type of artistic touch.

Portrait Shots

Aperture mode is most likely the most important to you for portrait shots.  This will probably be an “A” on your dial.  Remember if you want your subject in focus and your background blurred, you want a WIDE aperture and therefore a LOW f stop number.  This mode will allow you to make the decision regarding the aperture and the camera will compensate with shutter speed and ISO.  When might you want a portrait with a larger depth of field (in other words when would you want the background clear and sharp too)?  Recently, a client wanted me to take a photo of them in front of one of their billboards.  Of course he could have gone and stood under the sign, and I could have gotten a picture of a tiny tiny man and a great big sign.  That would not have looked good!  What I had to do was get him to stand very close to me across the street from the sign so that he was normal size in the picture, and the sign was smaller in the background but still visible.  If I had used a wide aperture, the sign would have been blurry in the background, but by using a narrow or larger aperture, even the background was clear and the whole picture was sharp.

When you are in aperture mode, you have to be aware of what shutter speed is needed to get enough light in your picture.  If it’s a dim situation, your camera may have to make the decision to slow down to such a slow shutter speed to let enough light in that your picture is blurry.  You may need a tripod if this is the case.  That being said, if you switch to manual mode, you might be able to speed up the shutter to a normal speed and bump up the ISO to give you more light.  Even though that might create some noise, it may be the only way to get a clear shot in that situation.

The most important thing to remember is that you don’t want to miss a great shot because you are fumbling with your camera.  Practice when you have time to move slowly and think about what you are doing.  You always have automatic mode if you get in a rush and need to make sure you don’t miss a shot.  The other modes are great because they aren’t fully manual, but they do give you a lot of control for practice.  I hope this was helpful to get you to start truly understanding what your DSLR is capable of.

Happy Shooting!

“Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once and a while, you could miss it.”

Every day, there are tons of great pictures that you could be taking of your family, but who has the time to learn that new DSLR!  This will be a two part posting that will give a few tips about what mode is best to use to photograph your child in quick situations.  Of course you can always use the automatic mode for anything, and the camera will do the choosing for you, but this doesn’t always get the result you want.  When you learn how to use the different modes on your camera, you can get much better results.  In order to use the modes though, you have to know how three things work together….Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO.

What is Shutter Speed, Aperture, and ISO

Shutter Speed:  how fast your camera can take a picture (key:  the faster the shutter speed, the less light is entering the camera)

Aperture:  how wide is the opening in the lens when photographing  (key:  how much light is able to get into the camera because of how wide the aperture is)  **You must read the prior posting on aperture/f stop for this to make sense!

ISO:  In a nutshell, ISO determines how sensitive the image sensor is to light.  (key:  if you need more light, you bump up your ISO)

Everyone learns differently, but here’s how I practiced in the beginning.  I put my camera in fully manual mode (usually an “M” on the dial) and practiced until it was second nature how these three things worked together.  When practicing, I always shot without the flash so that I could see how the natural light was coming in through the camera.  The key to doing this is learning how to read your meter on your camera.  Look through the eye piece and you will see a bunch of numbers and a meter at the bottom, which probably doesn’t mean a whole lot to you at this point!  All of these things are important.  You’ll need to get out your manual to see exactly how your camera is set up, but the numbers will correspond to those three important things:  shutter speed, aperture (f stop number) and ISO.  The grid at the bottom is your meter.  When the line on the grid is to the left of center, then your pic is too dark.  When the line is to the right, then your pic is overexposed and is too light.

First, set up a still object with average lighting.  Shoot at a really fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second (slow would be 1/2), a medium aperture or f stop number of f16, and ISO of 200.  You’ll probably see that your picture is too dark.  That’s because the settings you’ve put in the camera are all preventing light from getting in the camera (fast shutter, small opening in lens, and low ISO).

How do you fix it:

One way is to bump up your ISO…look at the meter inside the lens and start adjusting your ISO (usually adjusted by a rolling scroll or it may have it’s own dial).  You’ll see the meter moving as you bump up the ISO to let more light in the camera.  When the meter is directly in the middle, the picture should be properly exposed.  Take the picture.  This way is the easiest but not the best way to lighten up your picture because the higher your ISO, the noisier your picture.  Noise makes the photograph kind of speckled, and you don’t want that.

The second way is to slow down your shutter speed.  (Sidenote:  the numbers of your shutter speed are done in fractions…1/500th of a second, 1/2 of a second…by knowing this, it makes sense why 1/500th of a second is a much faster shutter speed than 1/200th of a second, for example).  Move your ISO back to 200 and start to slow your shutter speed (notice your meter again, you are always trying to get the line right in the middle).  Making your shutter speed slower will let more light in.  The key is that if you get the speed too slow, then your picture will be blurred because either your subject or the camera will move.  When you have really slow shutter speeds, you always need a tripod or at the very least a table on which to set the camera.  When you are photographing something relatively still, you can probably hold your camera steady enough at about 1/60…when you start to get down to 1/20th of a second you’ll probably see some blur in your photo because you’ll be moving as your holding the camera.   Make the speed as slow as you need to get the light correct and take a picture.  Your picture may be too blurry…if it is, I’ll tell you what to do in a minute.  For now, try the third way.

The third way is, you guessed it, adjusting your aperture.  Put your shutter speed back on 1/500th of a second.  Making your f stop number lower, makes the aperture wider in the camera, and thus lets more light into the camera.  Put your aperture to the lowest point it will go (this will be different for every camera but it will probably be somewhere close to 5).  If your meter is still to the left of center that is telling you that the most your camera is capable of in this light setting is not enough light to take this picture correctly.  What can you do?…YES!  Adjust your ISO up a little bit to let more light in the camera.  What’s another way to let in light?…YES, lower your shutter speed.  Play with these settings until you have the shutter speed fast enough so that there’s no blur, and the ISO as low as you can get it.  Get your meter in the middle, and take the picture.

HERE’S THE KEY:  What kind of picture are you taking?  Is it your child playing in the yard?  Is it a baby sleeping?  Is it your dog playing frisbee?

If it is a fast object–>shutter speed is most important for a clear shot, so you will set that to what you need (probably over 1/300 for a fast moving child) and adjust your aperture and ISO to let more light into the camera.

If it is a still object or portrait–>aperture is probably most important because you might want to focus in on one area like the face and make the rest of the background blurry.  With that wide/low aperture, you might be letting in too much light, so you have to speed up your shutter and lower your ISO to keep some of the light out.

Is it a person standing in front of a sign and you need the background clear too–> then aperture is important again because you need the background clear along with the subject in the foreground.  Make it a mid to high f stop number, lower your shutter speed to let more light in and up your ISO.

Your goal is to balance the shutter speed and aperture while having the lowest ISO possible so your photograph isn’t noisy.   See the example of noise below.  Notice the speckled quality.  This is because the ISO was set very high to get enough light in the picture.  Sometimes, you want noise in a picture for an artistic touch to make it desaturated and antique looking like this one, but most of the time, you want to try to avoid noise.

Happy shooting!  See you tomorrow to learn which quick settings are best so that you can save yourself some of this extra work!!

“You know, black and white would just capture the moment so nicely…”

OK, yesterday’s movie quote was from the movie CLUE…yes, I was the only person who watched that movie in the 80s, but I know there were plenty of you who watched this one!  You may not recognize the quote, but I know you girls LOVED this John Hughes classic : )

Obviously today’s tid-bit is about black and white photos.  And yes, they can capture a moment so nicely.  They are however, not easy to master.  I was asked recently on another posting if I shot in black and white from my camera or if I converted to black and white after I shot.  There are many talented photographers who shoot straight out of their cameras in black and white, I personally shoot in color and then convert to black and white and here’s why…

For my style of photography, I typically like to set the “mood” of the session with color.  Is it going to be a classic family portrait where everyone wears black shirts and jeans, is it going to be a whimsical child’s session where they can wear bold colors and prints to capture personality, do I want to create a fairy tale story with muted colors and blurred landscapes…etc.  Once I start looking over my photographs, there are always a few that jump out at me as being great black and white photos and those are the ones I convert first.  Typically, I end up converting all the photos to black and white by the end of it because my clients like it, but for my own archives of what I love in black and white, this works best for me.  If I shoot in black and white, inevitably there is always at least one picture that I wished I had in color…this way I can have my cake and eat it too I guess!  Doing it this way allows me to create those fun, artistic pieces that are a combination of color and black and white too.

How do I convert to black and white and make the tones “pop”?

Converting to black and white is an art form all its own.  Yes, you can just click the “convert to black and white” button on whatever program you are using, but that typically doesn’t create an interesting black and white photo.  Many times the colors are very dull and gray and don’t have the contrast that you want.

Here are a few ways to make the color pop:

1) If you have a highlights and shadows slider, boost up the highlights and lower the shadows and see what you like.

2) If you have Photoshop, use the saturation bar and completely desaturate the picture.  This will give you one version of black and white.  If you don’t like it, use the curves setting and lift the line just a bit on the top right end and lower it just a bit on the lower left end (it will be a long “S” shape across the curves box when you’re through.  Play with this until you like the color.

3) If you have Photoshop, use the saturation bar and completely desaturate, then use your channel mixer to see what you get.  It can create some great black and whites.

4) There are many things online called “actions” that are made to work with photography programs that can also create black and whites for you.  Many of them cost money, but some are free.  Check out www.coffeeteaphotography.blogspot.com for many FREE actions.  I use quite a few of them for different things but they almost never work straight away…I always have to do a little adjusting and combine actions before I like the result.

Play around with black and white photography, and I think you’ll start to love the results!  Remember also, that converting to a black and white is a great way to salvage a photo done in color that didn’t turn out quite right.  If it was overexposed (too light) or had a weird color cast that you can’t fix, convert it to black and white and see if you like it.  Some of my favorite pics happened this way!

I’ve attached some photographs from a maternity session where we purposefully wanted to get some dramatic, romantic black and whites.  It was a bright day so we used a sheer curtain in front of a sliding glass door and got some great shots that were almost like silhouettes.  She was a beautiful pregnant woman!

Happy shooting everyone and thank you for reading.

I appreciate all the Facebook comments!

“And to make a long story short…too late!”

OK, if anyone can tell me what movie contained that quote, you’ll be my new best friend!  I think I was the only person in the 80s who loved that movie!

But in truth, this will be a LONG story and I’m sorry, but that’s the story of Depth of Field.  It’s a complicated topic, but I am going to condense it as much as I can, and put it into as simple of terms as possible.  Here we go…

How do you make the background of the photo blurry while keeping your subject in sharp focus?

This is what is known as your Depth of Field (DoF)…how much of the photo is in focus from foreground to background.  If your child is in focus but the greenery back in the distance is blurred, then this is known as a shallow DoF.  If everything is in sharp focus in the whole photo, this is known as a greater DoF.  Now how is this accomplished?  In a nutshell, your camera has numbers called F stop numbers.  These correspond to the opening in your lens.  The wider the opening in the lens (aperture), the shallower your DoF will be.

In other words the LOWER the F stop number, the WIDER the aperture, the SHALLOWER your DoF.

As the F stop number gets HIGHER, the lens opening gets NARROWER in the camera, and everything in your photo becomes SHARPER.

Remember those six words and practice with different settings on your camera, and you’ll see what I mean.  If you have a DSLR, put your camera in Aperture mode (usually an “A” on your dial) and change the aperture to different settings and practice (usually there is a rolling scroll dial on your camera that will adjust the F stop number).  If you’re wanting that blurred background effect, put it on a low F stop number and start practicing.  The closer you are to your subject and the further away the background is, the blurrier the background will be.  A good way to practice is up close with flowers.  The camera can really focus in on the flower, and everything behind the flower will be a blur.

If you don’t have a DSLR, then most likely you cannot adjust your aperture manually.  Check to see if your camera has a portrait setting or a flower setting and these should be the ones to give you the widest aperture possible to help you accomplish a shallow DoF.  If you can’t accomplish the blur that you’d like to see straight out of the camera, then there are many ways in post production to alter the photograph.  I am only versed in Photoshop (CS4) but if anyone would like to see the steps of how to do that I’ll be glad to share.

Here are a few examples…

Happy shooting!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Photographer…how to get great shots of kids!

Come down to the child’s level

Probably the most important part of photographing children is getting down on their level.  Get your camera lens even with the eyes and you’ve got it made!  Once you’ve got that mastered, you can get creative and shoot at an angle down toward the child…these shots can be great to focus on their delicate features such as eye lashes (if the child is sleeping) or get them to look up at you and you can get a really sweet innocent shot.  In my opinion, rules are made to be broken so be as creative as you can be.

Be aware of the background

One thing that can really get overlooked is the background.  Clear out an area so there is no clutter around the child in your shot.  After all, you want the focus to be on that beautiful face, not on the water bottle that was left on the coffee table!  If you want to experiment, get a white or black sheet to throw up in the background of your photo.  The key to the backdrop is to have the child far enough in front of it that it doesn’t show up in the photo.  There’s nothing worse than having a great shot and then having to edit out a thousand wrinkles from the backdrop, and this is exactly what will happen if the child is not at least 4-6 feet in front of the backdrop.  For this reason, black backdrops are a lot easier to work with than white.  I love the look of just a plain painted wall behind the child too, then all the focus is on the child.

Get ready for your close-up!

Try to get creative when setting up your shots.  Take one straight in front of the child…take another with them walking away from you and looking back…take another close-up of the face…etc.  Close-ups are where you can get some great shots, but that may not be feasible if you don’t have at least a 100mm lens on your camera.   Many children won’t let you get close enough with a regular digital camera.  This is where a DSLR is handy because you can get interchangeable lenses that allow you to hide around the corner and get those great, close-up candid shots without your child even knowing!

Diffuse it or REFUSE it…get rid of the harsh flash

Kids HATE flashes.  If you are constantly flashing away, in no time at all they will run every time they see the camera!  Many cameras have the ability to add an external flash (aka “hot shoe) and these are great.  Not only do they have the ability to rotate the flash so that you can bounce light off of other objects onto your subject, but you can also diffuse them.  A small diffuser is only a few dollars but it makes such a difference.  Your child won’t be seeing spots for five minutes after you’ve taken a picture and it makes the light very soft and smooth so the photograph looks beautiful right out of the camera.

Composition is key-Rule of Thirds

In a nutshell, the Rule of Thirds is a good rule of thumb to get great composition in any shot.  What the rule says is that you can essentially draw a Tic-Tac-Toe board evenly spaced across any photo and if the main points of focus fall along one of the lines or in one of the intersections, then the photo is composed by the Rule of Thirds.  Of course rules are made to be broken, but it’s a good rule to follow.   Here’s an example…

“Go into the light Carolann!”

Sorry about today’s title…I couldn’t think of another movie quote that had anything to do with “light!”

One of the most important things you’ll have to master when taking photos is lighting.  As we talked about in a previous post, white balance can be a problem when shooting in artificial light, so that’s something to always be aware of.  If you must shoot indoors, try to get near a window and use natural light.  You will be amazed at the stunning photographs you can get just by doing that.  Even better, venture outside and start practicing in the studio of your backyard!

Is there a good or bad time of day to take photographs?

That depends on the time of year and the weather.  Generally speaking, natural lighting is most flattering in the morning and in the evening.  As the sun gets higher in the sky, you’ll find that your photos will have harsh shadows on your subject’s face which is not flattering.  That being said, an overcast day can be great to shoot in all day long.  The clouds give a nice buffer for the sun, and the faces of your subjects will be beautiful.

Where is the light the best outdoors?

Find open shade…what I mean is not an area that is so closed in and shady that you have no light at all, but an open area that happens to have a large tree or other object providing shade is perfect.  In an open shade area, your camera has plenty of light coming in for the shot, but your subjects don’t have light pounding directly onto their faces.  If a tree is what is providing the shade, make sure that there are no glaring light spots on your subjects’ faces because that can be a distraction in your final photograph.   If there are some of these spots, this is the perfect time to have an assistant hold up something to shade just the faces so that you can get your shot, or adjust your placement to get into solid open shade.  Example…

Are there any accessories that are “must haves” when shooting in natural light outdoors?

Really, with enough practice you can pretty much find a good spot to shoot most anywhere, without any of the fancy stuff.  It’s amazing the great places you can find after you’ve practiced and you know what to look for.  That being said, there are many great accessories that can help get the light just right in your photographs that aren’t much money.

A reflector is something that most all professional photographers have in their bag at an outdoor shoot.  These reflectors come in many different sizes, but can break down to a very portable size for convenience.  Some have gold, silver, clear or white surfaces and many companies have reflectors that combine many of these features into one case.  Gold variations can create a subtle warm cast to your photo, or a harsh gold tone depending on how dark the gold is.  Typically, I find that I only reflect “open sky” light with my gold reflector, or I tend not to like the result.  Silver reflectors give off a clean burst of light which can be very nice but can be a little too much in some situations.  The white reflector is probably the best one to use in average situations because it gives a little boost to the light, but doesn’t overpower.   The clear one acts more as a diffuser if you want to let the light flow through it onto your subject.

Reflectors can run anywhere from $20 to a few hundred dollars depending on what you are looking for.  I spent around $60 on mine and it is a five-in-one reflector (gold, silver, white, soft gold and clear).   I really like it a lot, but found out quickly that without an assistant, I’d also need a stand to hold the reflector, and sand bags to hold the stand so that it didn’t take flight in the wind!  I spent roughly $100 on the stand and sand bags.  If anyone is interested in specific brands or where I purchased my equipment, I’ll be glad to share.

Thanks for reading, and happy shooting!

“Once upon a dream…”

Today I had the joy of photographing Lily at the Botanic Gardens in Fort Worth.  We have many modern shots of her (sharp focus, bold colors), so this time we wanted something a little more like a fairy tale.  I think we captured just what I imagined!  Hope you enjoy.  I’ll be glad to share the processing tricks if anyone would like to know.

Happy shooting!