School pics

The building I had in my mind-- couldn't find it? The building I used had spider webs on it and my son wouldn't lean against it.  The children were all less than enthusiastic about the photo shoot.  Well, my daughter was on board- but that girl! She won't look at the camera with her eyes!!!!!! I also didn't realize sunset was coming so early and was running late so a time crunch didn' t help.  On top of all that- my shadow or the subject's shadow kept getting in the way.  Pro photographers can probably anticipate that.  I didn't and amidst all the other challenges, was having a hard time problem solving it. I left the shoot feeling very frustrated.  I wish I knew if I have what it takes for this or if I have an unusual amount of difficulties.  I honestly don't know if I have what it takes to be good at this.  This isn't a pity party- just trying to make a real assessment of things.  We'll see what I can salvage in editing- and as for the school picture portion- I remind myself at my own horrible photos from school pictures.  That isn't the issue- the issue is that I want to be able to take school age kids to a location and capture some decent images.  Well, that's not true.  I am not happy with decent.  I want to get some breathtaking images.  I am tired of my mediocre to poor production. grrrrrrrr......

School Pic Goals

I might be mistaken in this-- but I might try something crazy and try to squeeze this school picture goal right into the middle of a bunch of crazy!  We'll see how it turns out- but there's a building I think will work for a backdrop and hopefully light, too- on my way to Turlock on Santa Fe.  I hope it works so I can cross this one off my list!

Before

After

Before

After

I am thankful this evening for this blog, for this editing project, for this learning process, for this creative effort I get to pursue from time to time.  It has been one of those days-- like so many Saturdays- just chock full of responsibilities and never enough time to accomplish it all.  The work that was done brings relief and peace of mind, but so much remains.  Added to that, extended family health emergencies and intensive parenting moments throughout the day.

This-- it slows me down now, it gives me something concrete to work on, provides somewhere healthy for my mind to settle.

Before

After- notice under the eyes, smooth skin, depth of color in the image.

Barbed Wire

One more from my drive yesterday..not too different from my usual repertoire but..I still like it!

Before and After Portraits

The last one is obviously not the right "before" but it is very close to the original so it works. :) I don't feel like searching for the right one again.

A fun quick-take on my drive this morning :)

Will I ever get tired of sunlit woats and barbed wire?? ;)

Editing Goal

Maybe a good goal to start is just to catch up with what I have committed to doing! I want to be done editing this family session by Monday.  I want to be done editing my niece's 1 year photos by next Monday.  I had hoped to spend the morning working on editing but it didn't work out.. maybe tonight I will have some time/energy.

Other top goal is to take a photo of MY OWN CHILDREN to use as this year's "school picture."  I told myself I was going to do that a month ago!

The Beauty of Shooting RAW

Before

After

Look how badly I messed up the exposure in this shot! The great thing about shooting RAW is that the camera has all the original data so if your exposure is not just right or white balance is not right- you can adjust it in post-processing. It was the first couple shots in this location and over time I made adjustments for the lighting- but once I got the light right she had her tired-but-compliant smiley face cemented in place.  This smile looks more genuine than others- I had the HARDEST time getting this little girl to relax and have fun with me.  By the very end of the shoot- I put my camera aside and started asking her silly questions and then asked her to show me her "mad face", "silly face", etc...finally, I asked her to show me with her face what Christmas morning feels like- that was the winner! But, she isn't as nicely posed.  If I was the mama, though- I would want that one on the wall!

For this edit- I adjusted exposure up, brought the temp a little lower.  I sharpened the whole picture and then more sharpening on the iris.  I can now see that this one isn't perfectly sharp at 1:1.  That's a bummer.  It will be fine for up to 5x7, maybe 8x10? but no larger.  I softened skin just a bit and removed shadows under the eyes.  I added a little extra exposure in an oval just on her, cropped a bit off the sides, and added a tad of vignette to give some dimension.

I wish everyone didn't have a hard time commenting on here! It would be great to get some feedback on these edits. :)

Before and After Edit of Couple Shot

Before

After

You can see the after has some darkening around the edges (vignette)--that allows the top portion of the sky to not be completely washed out.  The color temperature is warmer.  I also sharpened eyes, whitened teeth a little, and smoothed skin.  The changes are subtle- I wish I could compare side by side on here but don't know how to do that. :)

Lily

Inspiration

This is a photo from photographer Brooke Shaden.  A lot of her work is weird- a little demented in my opinion..but a few of them are inspiring. This looks like a painting due to her editing style but it is in fact, photography.   I wonder if a wide angle lens was used to get all that sky and also the vineyard and the subject?

I have been learning a lot of things lately and want to try to get some of it down on here before I lose it.  I recently photographed a family with several young children.  It seems I am always disappointed with my portrait sessions-- there is just an incredible amount that I need to know/learn.  But, for this one, I learned several things.  One huge one is that the dynamic of the person or group is a big factor in the type of shots you end up with.  Certainly, as I grow in my skills in the mechanics of everything I will relax more into interaction with the people and that will help.  But, there were also several things I had in my mind's eye that I was trying to implement and could NOT because it apparently went against the mood or personality of the group.  That is not in my control- but it is bound to happen.  It's good for me to realize that now and know that certain things just won't look the way I had hoped.  That's all vague I think- but I don't know how to clarify it.

Another learning point is my lens aperture.  I did not get a wide open aperture with a blurred background as I would have hoped.  Even with my new lens.. not good.  With 6 faces, some of them will certainly be on a different plane and if I tried to shoot lower than f4- the faces weren't sharp.  In hindsight, I wonder if the answer is to use more zoom.  When you zoom in, everything in view is compressed.  If I had backed up further, switched to my telephoto lens, shooting at f4- I think the image might have been compressed enough that the background would have blurred.  Speaking of background-- that brings me to my next point.  I also learned that I really think plain backgrounds work best for portrait work.  Scenic views can work- like in the super big family portrait I did, with an arch of trees/orchard in the background.  But, otherwise- nah. It is a distraction from the subject and I think that is what I have been fighting in editing these family photos.  They just don't look appealing to me- one is the light, the other is the background.  I mean, they're ok.  I just want it to be awesome.  It's nothing to WOW at.  In the future, if I have the choice, I will choose a location with a simple background.

Editing- I got a new program that is also made by Adobe.  I was able to use my Teacher ID from homeschooling to get a teacher discount on the product- saved a ton.  Of course I am learning the program but some features in it are just a ton easier to do than in photoshop, yet other things HAVE to be done in photoshop.  But, I am looking forward to this program and the tools it gives me in editing.

The last note on editing is just that I am really behind! haha! Imagine if I was doing this for real! It takes me so long to edit because I am learning and because I am dissatisfied with the overall outcome and not ready to turn it loose to the people when MAYBE I will learn something in the future to make it better! :)  I wish I could send a couple images to a professional photographer and tell them to edit it and send it back just to see how far off I am.  In other words, is my learning gap in the editing primarily or in the composition?
Enough boredom for now.. I will stop.

Last note is that in using this blog for the purpose of sharing and also for accountability to try to have something worthy to share- I think I should set some goals.  I have to think about what is reasonable, because so many things need to come before photography as I prioritize my time- but I would like to set out to share a certain amount of images each week or 2 weeks and set some other learning goals that I have to summarize as I work on them?  I don't know.  Seems like a good direction to keep me moving on in progress in this venture.

September

Sorrow's Echo

I can write a little about this one.  First of all, it is one of the few times I have set out to take a picture with a particular purpose- or with hopes of finding something specific to convey but not sure at all what the image will actually be.  I had not been taking many photos at all, but picked up my camera with hopes of getting an image that I could turn into a grief/sympathy type of card.  I didn't know that day that I had gotten what I wanted.  As it turned out, I had very little time to compose this shot- mere minutes and with wind and water barriers.  This project also prompted me to step into a whole other realm of photography on a professional level- and that was the LAB.  I connected with a professional developing lab.  Before you can even be a customer you have to set up an account and send them sample images set to certain calibrations so they can mail them back to you as 8x10s to be sure that their printer color matches the calibrations on your monitor!  Pretty cool.  So, I had to do that and then they sent me a whole pack of sample papers/textures.  (SO FUN!) Then, for the cards, I had to choose a style- I chose an ornate cut, had to download the template into photoshop and use it as an overlay for the image.  I was able to sample a leaf for color and use that color to fill in the back of the card.  Then, after front, middle, and back were complete- send it back.  The only bummer in the whole thing is that I had picked a certain paper to use and it wasn't available for the boutique cards.  I then AGONIZED over paper choice for a good while and settled on "watercolor" but the runner up was "pearl."  I wish I had chosen pearl.  My fear was that it would look too shiny and cheesy but the watercolor texture doesn't highlight the reflective qualities in the shot and I think it's an important part.  I do like the ornate cut down the side because it cut out these leaves right up front that are out of focus and kind of obtrusive.  Have I said enough about ONE PHOTO? :)  

stems

Love the color in this one (SOOC)

Some SOOC shots from September

Catching up

There seem to be many things I would want to add on here- they come to mind at the oddest of times! Primarily, I want to say that I am not satisfied with my current layout or style of this blog and hope to learn how to make it awesome.

Secondly, I read an inspiring post from another photographer that typically I would roll my eyes at- but this time, I couldn't be more superior than the inspiring poster ;)  It said something about not comparing your own work to others' work and then feeling like a failure.  But instead, to compare to yourself- are you a better photographer than you were last month? Last year?  That was impacting for me and helped me to be more patient with myself.  I am working on applying that to my negative thoughts.