Virginia Maternity Session

A fun maternity session I did in Virginia.

Senior session sharing

Whew! I'm coming up for air, to share with you some of my latest senior sessions.

I'm still working on my "ask me anything" post. So feel free to ask away! 

Y'all have a great weekend! 

Behind the scenes {baby session}

Here I go taking you behind the scenes of my latest session with Cohen. My setup was facing our windows, which I had opened to let in lots of natural light. I used the windows facing the north so I wouldn't get direct sunlight. I think this shot would have been cuter if we could have kept his arms together but he wouldn't have any of that. ;) With kiddos you take what you can get sometimes.

I placed a blanket in the back of the basket to protect his back and to make it cozy. And also out of sight of the camera. 

The blanket used for the backdrop was bought at Kirklands. The basket was bought at Hobby Lobby and the sheepskin at IKEA. What you can't see is that I also had a space heater nearby. When you take the clothes off the babies you want them to stay warm. They will be a lot happier if they are warm!

** (If this post was helpful to you please facebook or tweet it! Thanks!)

Behind the scenes

Here is a video taking you behind the scenes of little man's latest session. I sat him close to the windows in our house that face the north. That way there is no direct sunlight. That kind of lighting always makes for great pictures!

To be able to take you behind the scenes I used my canon rebel for the video, so hubby could record using my 5D Mark ll.

Sweet, sweet baby

(These pictures are copyrighted and may not be copied in any way)

Friday I had the honor to do one of my favorite shoots.....newborn!! Check out this adorable little guy. I photographed his big brother when he was a newborn. Isn't he beautiful?













Which one do you like?

White balance

White balance is the ability to change the temperature in your photo, taking into account your light source.

If you ever wonder why your picture turned out yellow, the snow looks gray not white, the temperature turned out too cool and not warm enough...those are all due to the incorrect white balance setting.

Most cameras have the ability to change the white balance. They have pictures that represent light sources. If your light source is the sun and you are outside put your setting on the picture of the sun. If you are taking a picture in the shade place it on the picture representing shade. You also set your white balance on auto and change it during the editing process if need be. Lightroom is great for changing your white balance.

Sometimes I find that I like the temperature of a completely different setting. So don't be afraid to play with it!

Here are a few examples of the same picture but different white balance settings.

Auto


Cloudy


Fluorescent


Tungsten


Sunlight


Shade



I'll have another post on how to set your white balance manually soon!

Photography Tutorial: Shutter Speed

The shutter speed is defined as the amount of time the shutter is open. The shorter amount of time the faster the shutter and the longer amount of time the slower the shutter. 

It's measured in seconds. When you get into the fractions of a second you are getting a faster shutter speed and less light. 

1/1000 <----- faster      <-------less light  <----freezes motion, more detail

1/500

1/200 

1/100 about midway. I would use a tripod for anything slower than this.

1/50

1/20

1 second

1.5 second

2 seconds

2.5 seconds  <----- slower   <-------- more light <------ captures motion, motion will be blurred

• If you are taking pictures of your child's sports game you will want a faster shutter speed. To be able to capture the details and freeze motion.
• If you are indoors and need more light to capture a photo you could try a slower shutter speed and wider aperture (smaller number),  with hopes of keeping the ISO down.

The following had a shutter speed of 1/160 (shows up 160 when adjusting shutter speed)

The following had a shutter speed of 1/25 of a second. 

Because of the slower shutter speed we captured motion instead of freezing it.


Hubby and I were having some fun with the shutter speed the other night.  We used a flashlight and the shutter speed was set on 2.5 seconds.

 

The Exposure Triangle

We've now discussed all three elements of the exposure triangle. If you change one part of it, it will impact the others. All three work together to achieve the correct exposure.

ISO

Aperture 

Check out the other tutorials! Try shooting in manual!  Another tutorial will be coming next week.

MOB / Photography

(Mothers of Boys) This is a great resource for moms of boys.

Sunday morning my husband headed off to church while I stayed home with my snotty, fever induced, teething 1 year old. Who is currently getting 3 teeth! I put him down for his morning nap and worked on my Beth Moore study.

An hour later it was time to get him up. I could hear him talking. I walk into his room to find him like this. He had wedged his leg into the rails and I couldn't get him out. He was out of my reach and I couldn't move the bed. I called hubby several times and my sister. I took the picture to explain to hubby what had happened.I finally was able to get a hold of hubby and he was able to come home and save the day! While waiting I was reading to little man who seemed to be having a grand 'ole time. I was glad when he was set free. I wanted to snuggle with him but he wasn't having it. We sat him down and he took off running to get into more mischief.

I have been keeping my business load light this summer on purpose. I wanted to be able to spend weekends with my family. This weekend I had a newborn shoot. (those are my favorite!!) I was actually suppose to photograph her birth but this cutie decided that she would come early while we were on vacation. Here are a few of my favorite's from the shoot. I'm still working on editing them but I love these two!

Everyone have a great Monday! 

ISO tutorial

I know I already have a tutorial on the ISO but that one was lame. I didn't have any pictures. When I am learning something I need visuals!

The ISO setting on your camera lets you customize how sensitive the camera will be to light. For example if you have it set on 100 that is the lowest setting, which means that is the least sensitive it will be to light. Which is perfect if you are in daylight and have lots of natural light. But as you can see below an ISO of 100 is not enough light for our image. It is underexposed. An ISO of 400 allows for the perfect exposure. 

100

200

400

800

The only downside is when having a higher exposure you will see more "noise" or graininess in your image. The image below was taken from a birth I photographed. I had to use a very high ISO. Can you see the "noise" in the image? 

To adjust the ISO that will vary from camera to camera. Check your manual to see how it is done with yours. Most cameras have a range of 100-1000. 

Does this make sense? Questions? 

Aperture tutorial is right here and shutter speed tutorial is coming next week!

I don't use flash. I am a natural light photographer. The only time during my shoots I have to use a higher ISO is when shooting a birth. (I do not shoot weddings. I definitely would see a need for flash in that situation.) Every other time I use a wider aperture (1.4-3.0) or I am outside and have plenty of light.