Doing a little research...

I've always wondered how you would take a photo of a lit tree and keep the warmness that you feel in the room.

So far, I haven't quite figured out how to shoot a lit Christmas trees in a darkened room. My flash always goes off and ruins the whole look I was trying to capture as you can tell in the shot of our Christmas tree this year.



The photo below is the feeling I'm going for. I managed to successfully get the look by switching over to the night shot on my camera and got up close. Not bad, but the shot I took from a few feet away, was a blurred mess.


I decided to do a little research. Here's what I found out from a few photographers. So my question was, "How do I get this look from far away and keep my flash from going off?" Since this is my journal, I am recording what they said here.

• Tripod. From far away, you'll need to use manual settings with a very slow shutter speed to get enough light into the picture. You won't be able to hold the camera still in your hands long enough to do this, or it will be, as you saw, a blurred mess(your camera manual will tell you how to shut off the flash). I would shut off the flash, position your tripod back far enough to get the tree in the frame, set a high ISO (1600), a low f stop (3.5 or lower if possible), and start with a 1-second shutter speed. See how that looks and go slower if you need to. For a less grainy picture, you'll want a lower ISO (400 if you can do it), but that means you have to either reduce the f-stop even more (and you may not be able to) or keep the shutter open longer (with a tripod, that should work).~ G.

• Place your camera on a tripod and frame the shot. You want a very slow shutter speed, a wide aperture and a low ISO. Usually with low light you want to use a higher ISO bc it makes the sensor more sensitive to light, but if you are using a tripod you can go lower bc you don't have to worry about camera shake. ~ W.

• Tripods are essential when shooting this sort of thing. I have a Cannon Rebel so I am not as familiar with the settings on your camera, but the suggestions above are great.
  For (my picture) I posted, I didn't actually use a manual setting, I used my camera's "no flash" setting because my son was taking pics too. Instead of switching manual settings around, I just put it on no flash. Sounds like the setting you used above. BUT, again, you need a tripod. My secret is to take multiple shots. Just keep shooting. If you have the feature on your camera that just keeps shooting for as long as you hold down the trigger, that is ideal. I have many shots of this, mostly all blurry as my son moved quite a bit. I finally got a shot where he happend to be standing still long enough for the shutter speed. Also, I used a tripod. ~ B.

So the consensus among them is USE THAT TRIPOD! I still have so much to learn, but am glad for people that share their knowledge with me as it helps me be better at what I do! So, I will be experimenting in the next few days and if I am successful or not, I will share my trial and error with you.

If you personally have any other helpful suggestions, or if you've had experience shooting at night with only the tree lit, I'd love to hear more feedback!!

So let me get my tripod out of my tool kit and learn how to use it! If you happen to learn a little something along with me, I say, "Great! The more the merrier!!"

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Siblings By Birth, Friends Forever!

I was so honored to be asked by the following couple to do a photo shoot for their family. They were a joy to work with, and the boys, simply adorable! Right up to the last few minutes of our session, even the youngest son was still smiling and relaxed. Really, the only time I had a little problem getting the boys' full attention was when a group, of possibly boy scouts, came out of the woods from a fishing expedition. Now you can't blame them for being a little distracted. Surely fishing at that moment would be more exciting than what they were in the midst of. Giggle!!

I got that same adrenaline rush as each time in the past I've done a session for others. It really invigorated me. So much so, that I felt so excited, that I started to feel like I might be talking too fast!

So, here is the session with them. It begins with the parents. I'd love to hear any feedback. It will help me improve!

(My apologies in advance, please note that the slideshow has to run it's own course. When I try to move ahead manually by clicking the left or right arrows, it freezes up. Thanks for your patience.) If you still have problems, try the following link: http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d5449324e5463774f44513d0d0a&sb=1

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I had a few ideas I had been playing around with in my mind and the boys graciously indulged me. Two of the three concepts I had, didn't work out the way I thought they would, but, the third, I was especially pleased with the result.

I could tell the family genuinely cherished each other in the way the parents looked at each other, the way that the boys wrestled together, the protectiveness of the older boys watching out for the younger ones. It a was very 'warm and fuzzy' kind of experience for me.

So, a great big thank you to Mr. & Mrs. G and their 6 boys for the opportunity to capture them in the moment!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Working on some editing skills...

For awhile now, I've been wanting to learn how others "frame" a picture by darkening the edges. I found a great tutorial here that helped me learn how. It also included however, teaching how to turn it into sepia before adding the framing effect, so I had leave out the sepia step to get the look I wanted. It didn't turn out exactly how I had envisioned it, but in the end, I was happy with the effect.

Original (untouched)

In the first edit, I just corrected the skin tones, cleaned the food off their faces, warmed it up a little and cropped it ever so slightly.

In the next edit, I followed the steps from the tutorial. I changed it a little by playing with the color saturation and tried to age the picture a bit to make it a little more vintage looking.

In the end, I really liked their method compared to others I had tried, but I felt the picture needed a pop, so, after I was done, I layered the 'edited' original underneath and placed the sepia finished one on top, and erased the eye part from the top finished layer to bring out her blue eyes from the colored picture in the bottom layer. I think I like that the best so far. What do you think?

Hope you have as much fun as I did practicing this method. Thanks for stopping by!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Just practicing layers!

My Favorite Time Of Year With My Favorite Little Family...Mine!

What better way to spend a beautiful breezy fall Saturday afternoon.

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Critters, big and small...

Sometimes the best subjects are right in your own front yard. Just a few of the little critters I'd practiced with lately...

Our daughter spotted this caterpillar next to the sidewalk by our front door. This was shot in Macro mode and is unedited. I love the crispness of the picture as well as the contrast of the bright green leaf compared to it's reddish brown colour.


We have a birdhouse under the roof of our porch that was meant for...well, birds. However, it seems to be a hit with anything but the birds.

Here is our regular "boarder" in the birdhouse.


A couple of weeks ago, I caught this squirrel in it.



He didn't stick around for very long, but stayed long enough to give a "nyah-nyah can't catch me" look afterwards...


Around here, we love the lizards because they eat the bugs. The less bugs, the better, I think. So, "Feast on, lovely lizards!"

Here is a 'depth of field' practice shot...


Here is a shot that was taken at night, also in macro mode...


Love the textures and colours up close in this shot. Would you believe, it's no bigger than my pointer finger? Our daughter couldn't understand how the little hole on the side was it's ear and that her own ears were holes too!


I don't know what it is with me and the frogs lately, they just seem to fascinate me! This one was in the same bush as the lizard from the previous shot.


Here are a couple of my favorite shots. The frogs come out mostly at night, stick on the walls and windows with their little suction cupped toes, and feast on the moths and various bugs flying around the house. Let's hope they're helping keep the mosquito population at a minimum.


Here is my latest favorite close up shot. I love the detail, especially in the eyes, it looks like marbling, don't you think?


Well, thanks again for stopping by. I'd love to know which of these is your favorite?

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

I've Been Inspired!

I'm so pleased to have been introduced to the fantastic work of Nadia this past week. I love the whole feel of it! It makes me excited about learning all that I can to produce my best work possible, when doing a photo shoot for my clients.

I was able to purchase one of her texture sets today for my 'toolbox', and couldn't wait to show you how it turned out!

Before, in just plain black and white...



And after, created with one of the textures from her Nadia-Stalgic set #2

It gives the portrait an old-fashioned vintage look to it. I like the graininess of it. This was my first time to practice with it, so, although it's nowhere near as beautiful as Nadia's work, I'm sure going to enjoy practicing.

Well, until the next time I get bitten by the blog bug,

I'm Still Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

An afternoon at the beach...

I took the following shots back when our computer wasn't working, and so I never had the chance to post them. So, with their permission, I wanted to share them with you.

This wasn't a photo shoot, but just my observations of them as a family(personally, one of my favorite families) while we spent a couple of hours at the beach.

From new experiences...

...to droopy drawer experiences.


I thought this would make a cute picture of their son about to stand up. I didn't notice until after I uploaded the photo, that he was actually looking at his own reflection. So this shot, which turned out pretty nice, was actually quite by accident, a really cute accident.


Memories from a great time at the beach!


Great time with great friends!

Leaning on His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Is there such a thing as "mood ring" eyes?

Lately, when I look at our son's eyes, I can't really tell what color they are. I mean, I know they are hazel, but it seems as though each time I look, they're a different color. Usually depending on what he wears, they are a certain predominant color with a smidge of brown in the middle. At times, they appear predominantly green, sometimes blue, and at times, a kind of gray blue. So, when I took the following picture yesterday, in natural light, coming from the patio doors, I thought it would be a great opportunity to find out, by doing a layer mask project with my photoshop elements 5.0 editing program.

Before I begin to show you how I do the layer mask, let me just add that the only preliminary editing to the original picture that I did, was to clean up a few crumbs on his cheeks and sharpened it up slightly for crispness' sake. I did not play with saturation or light or colors, so that I could get a true representation of his eye color.

So, let's begin. Here is the original...


So first, after doing a quick clean up to the photo, as I pointed out before, I then started out by 'duplicating the layer'. To do this, click on 'layer' at the top of the screen and choose 'duplicate layer' from the drop-down menu.

What does that do? Think of this layer mask project as two slices of bread, in which the first layer, or slice, is going to be the original photo and then the 2nd layer, or slice(the duplicate) is going to be the one I manipulate without changing the original layer. This means, if I were to not be happy with the 2nd layer, I could and just delete it and I'd still be left with the original.

Okay, so now I have 2 layers. Next, I went to the 'Enhance' tab at the top of the screen, and chose, 'convert to black and white' from the pull-down menu. I made sure I set my preference to 'portrait' before saving the change. Again, this is only making the 2nd layer black and white. The original layer underneath is still in color.


Once this step is done, I clicked on the pink eraser on the left hand side of the screen. Zooming in on the eye area, I carefully "erased" away the black and white part of the iris and revealed the original layer underneath that exposed the colors.


Because it is so small here on my blog, you may not see a difference yet, so I will crop in for a closer look...


Isn't that neat? I love how his eye color seems almost peacockish (is that a word?) with the mixture of blue, green, brown and a tinge of turquoise? Almost reminds me of those old mood rings we used to get back in the 80's. Remember, I didn't enhance or enrich the colors at all so what you see is the true color of the original layer. If you look closely, you can even see my head in the catchlight of his eye! Giggle!!

In closing, before saving the new photo, you must first click on the 'layer' tab at the top and choose "flatten image" from the drop-down menu.

Why don't you try this on one of your pictures if you've never done it? It's a really fun technique. I tried it on our daughter awhile back, who has vivid blue eyes, as you can see here.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post. I know I had lots of fun doing it.

So until the next time I am bitten by the blog bug...

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

2nd photo shoot with my new camera!

I was going to pick just 20 for the slideshow, but I found it too hard to choose. This was such a fun family to work with! Thanks again, J, for allowing me the opportunity to capture these precious moments for you and your husband, Z, while he is away in Iraq. I hope you are pleased.

Just a note about the tree you will see with the heart carved in it. It originally had a J+E in it, so I just played around with it on Photoshop Elements 5.0, and switched the 'E' to a 'Z' so that her and her husband's initials of J+Z would appear in the heart. Just thought it was a cute idea to experiment with.

As always, your comments, and especially constructive criticisms, are so very welcome!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Finally, this is just a collage I was playing around with. I like how it turned out.

Thanks for taking the time to peek at my photography journal!

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,
Denise

Backyard visitor...just passin' through

I was feeding our son in the dining room, when my eye caught movement in our backyard through the window of the patio door. When I went to check it out, here's what I saw...you know I had to run and get my camera ; ) He was there for less than a minute before taking off again, but not before I was able to catch the picture.

Unfortunately, I don't have a long range zoom lens so this was as close as I could crop it to see it better...

Here's the original...

Any recommendations for zoom lenses for shots like these? I would love to collect suggestions for my resource file!

By the way, I finished editing the photo shoot with the children and their mom and will post some of them probably by tomorrow.

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,

Denise

Just My Cup Of Tea!

Just got a new prop! Isn't it cute? There is also a blue version which I'd love to have, but I'll save up for it another time. I figured this would be more adaptable for either a boy or a girl.

Even cuter now...and yes, he's wearing a diaper =)

Just experimenting...a little milk and sugar Just my cup of tea!

Just for fun...Just the milk and sugar again =)

P.S. Came across another frog the other night...

Thanks for stopping by!

Leaning On His Everlasting Arms,

Denise