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This last Friday my new back drop paper arrived. It is Savage Seamless paper in Thunder Gray. When I see photos with this paper it makes me think of Gap Kids ads. Noah and I pulled the paper out and set up "our photography studio" in the dining room on Saturday morning, while Nate and Nicole were at gymnastics. Noah even picked out a few shirts he wanted to wear during his photo shoot and a hat. In addition to playing with the new paper I also had the opportunity to bust out my new gray card. I have never realized the power of the gray card until I found myself trying to edit 40+ photos for my workshop where there wasn't anything in the picture to set as a "neutral gray" for white balance. Using a gray card saves me a lot of time since most color casts and skin tone issues that need to be corrected in ACR/PS are quickly fixed with a single click of a button when I correct the white balance with the gray card. I could also set a custom white balance in my camera (this is great if you only shoot jpegs) too.
But the title of this post is about what happens when I try to copy someone elses post-processing style. I copied the editing style of Brenda Acuncius over at F8 Kids. She is one of the instructors of the Bloom Photography Workshop that I am taking. I absolutely adore her work. You'll see below that in the picture of Noah with the hat, that the edits just doesn't work. I actually like the SOOC best. The edit looks "muddy" for this photo and doesn't convey the "sweetness" of the SOOC shot. I am not saying that the editing style used is a bad one, just that it doesn't work for this picture and that each person has to find their own style, obviously I am still in search of mine but getting closer (see next set of pictures).
The second edit is another picture of Noah, where he decided it was time for a wardrobe change. Just for information we got his hair cut later that afternoon. I already miss those golden locks. The edit on this photo is much more my style...color, but a bit subdued, but not desaturated. I don't know if that makes ANY sense to anyone but me. Oh well!
The point of this post, is that I like it when I can turn something around in my brain. I had it in my brain that Brenda's post-processing style looks great all the time. Truth is it does, but on her photos with her style applied to it. I have to find my own style for my photos and for the style of photos that I take. Seems like I should have already known this little tidbit, but for me it took some experimentation.
SOOC:
Edit: Brenda's Color, Urban, Pink Haze, Vignette, Crop, Sharpen
SOOC:
Edit: Brenda's vibrant color, FB Velvet, Blue Haze, Vignette, Crop, Sharpen
I am finding that I am scared of the sun. As someone who is developing a passion for photography, it is funny to me that I am afraid of the most powerful thing that brings light to photographs. I defintely won't take my camera into the mid-day sun and take a picture. It almost sounds like I am describing my camera as vampire-like (heehee). No, really I just don't know how to shoot in the mid-day sun and not get blow outs, and harsh shadows. If I do take pictures in the middle of the day, I always find a patch of shade, or overhang of some sort.
So I've decided to stop being afraid and work with the beautiful light God gives us and challenge myself to shoot more photographs in the sun. I am not jumping into the "deep end of the pool" here and going out mid-day to photograph the kiddos. I am not that brave, yet. Instead, I'm embracing that warm golden light before sunset by taking pictures of Noah and Nicole after dinner.
Here's a recent one where I was working on getting that really popular hazy/flare look. I think I got in this one.
My sweet little boy was picking flowers for his mama. Love him so much!
Edited using ACR and Florabella Hibiscus and Bluebell actions from Spring Sets I and II. I think that I like the grass in the SOOC shot...less muddy looking. I need to figure out how to get the best of both the edit and the SOOC. Oh, well next time!
Straight out of camera (SOOC)
It has been absolutely gorgeous weather here this last week on the San Francisco Peninsula. It doesn't get too too hot here, but it does get really windy, especially in San Mateo/Foster City where we live. The last couple of nights the weather's been warm and not too windy, and perfect for taking the kiddos outside after dinner to run around. During these nights, both Noah and Nicole have discovered dandelions and flowers. And much to my delight, they love to bring me bunches of flowers (and a few weeds mixed in for good measure). These photos were taken of Nicole the other night. She loves to hunt and search for dandelions and loves even more to blow them away. The photos were taken with my 50 mm 1.8 in manual mode. The first picture is the post-processed version. The photo was adjusted for skin tones. Notice that in the SOOC shots that her skin looks a bit gray. I've learned that digital cameras do this to skin tones and she has a bluish color cast from the shade she was in, so sometime this needs a bit of fixing later in post-processing. I than ran a color boost action from Brenda Acuncius, and Pioneer Woman's Color Boost action. To top it off I added a soft pastel wash from the Child's play Workflow set. Lastly, I cropped, resized for the web.
This is SOOC, no adjustments.
The one week break from the Bloom Photography Workshop ended last weekend and I am again "one" with my camera. This session of the workshop lasts 3 weeks and is titled "Create". This session is much more challenging in that it is requiring me to delve deeper into what I want my pictures to say, mood to convey, emotion to evoke, and how to get it in-camera. I read this morning the following on The Creative Mama Blog, an interview with photographer Erin McCobb:
The art I produce is (has to be) created through my lens. Not the lens on my camera but the personal filter that dictates how I see the world.
This is what I aim to achieve.
This is a photo from the other night. When Nate and I ask them to sit next to each other they sat 10 feet apart from each other. So we tried a different tactic, Nicole sit in Noah's lap...her interpretation of this is to sit on his lap! This picture to most would be perfect if Noah and Nicole had looked at the camera. But for me, I love that I captured a moment of happiness, where you can see the tenderness in both of their sweet faces. And oh yeah...Nicole is holding a camera, just like her Mama!
Well, I caved today and bought the new Florabella Luxe action set. I justified it because I had a 20% off coupon for being a "loyal" customer. I love Shana Rae's stuff. The woman is seriously talented with Photoshop. Here is my first go with the London action with a bit of icing on top. I adjusted many layers within the action to "taste".
The photo was taken on the 4th of July. Noah has a love/doesn't like so much relationship with my camera, and errors on the "doesn't like so much" side most of the time. But, when I can actually get him to look at my lens, I can get the most gorgeous photos of my sweet boy. I am blessed that God chose me to be his Mommy!
Florabella Luxe: London plus some other edits
Straight out of camera (SOOC)
A couple of weeks ago we took a "Staycation". So instead of going somewhere warm and tropical like Hawaii we stayed at home and had vacation, San Mateo style. We had a wonderful time with the kids just doing things in and around our own city. So often Nate and I forget how close we still live to the beach. Half Moon Beach is only a 20 minute drive over highway 92. During the months of May - August there are a organic farms that have "U-Pick" strawberry fields. As part of our Staycation, we took the kids to the Swanton U-Pick Strawberry fields. The strawberry fields are just across the road from the ocean. It is beautiful there.
You can bet that we came home with lots and lots of strawberries. The farm charges you by the pound, so I think that we also should have weighed Noah and Nicole before and after picking! Both of them couldn't help it, they saw a strawberry, it was picked and very quickly made it into their mouths. It was also really great for Noah to see where strawberries grow because up until now I think he thought they "grew" in the aisles of Trader Joes.
Lastly, because this also my photography blog I have to tell you a little bit about the layout of the photos for this post. I am using MCP Action free BlogIt Boards. They're free on her website and super easy to use! Also, I won the self-portrait contest in my photography workshop (see post below). The prize I one was a set of workflow photography actions by Child's Play. All of the photos in this post used an action or two from the new set.
More vacation photos to come soon.
Thanks for keeping up with the Franklin's.
