Valentine’s photos are usually much easier for me to manage than Christmas photos of the family.  Since I didn’t get Christmas cards out last month, I just might send Valentines to everyone on my list this year.

I haven’t decided what the pose will be yet, but I’m playing with some ideas.  Do you have any ideas for Valentine’s day?  I’d love to hear them!

Here are the cards my girls gave to their friends the past two years.

This shot was a pretty standard set up.  Large aperture with focal point on the glitter heart.  I ran MCP’s Mini Fusion free action for Elements and popped the photo into a card template.   I attached a Hershey’s Kiss over the heart for class distribution.

The key to getting this photo is to focus on the outstretched hand using a wide angle lens.

What’s a wide angle lens, you ask?  A wide angle is a zoom that goes down to something under 30mm or so.  Or a fixed lens of that size or less.  A lens like a 10-22 or 16-35 would be great.  For the above shot, however, I used my 24-70.

Wide angles make whatever is closest to the lens look larger in proportion to the rest of the image.  That’s what makes the hand seem to pop out of the photo in the Valentine above.

Also, when taking this shot, I stood on a chair and aimed down so that her hand wouldn’t hide those blue eyes.   I used a moderate aperture because I didn’t want to blur out her face too much.

 I cut a slit over the hand in the photo to hold the lollipop, and the kids loved it.  The moms loved it too – this is a great way to spread the word that you are a photographer.  Assuming, of course, that your kids don’t roll their eyes and groan too much when you suggest making a Valentine’s photo for their cards.

Today, wayoutnumbered is visiting Texas Chicks with another excellent post in her Makin It Work series.  Thank you, wayoutnumbered!

So if you’ve read the first two posts in my Makin It Work series, you may have sensed a theme here?  As much as I would love  for all my photo sessions to be filled with glorious light, wide open spaces and scenic vistas…that just doesn’t always happen in my world.

If you haven’t read my first two posts, check them out:

• Using Window Light
• Using Studio Light

Today I want to share a little bit about one of the issues that absolutely gives me nightmares…shooting in teeny tiny spaces.

Even though I love close-up portraits I like to have R O O M to move around at my sessions.  Room = options and options are always a good thing! But here’s 3 things I’ve tried to focus on when I’ve found myself shooting in tight spaces…

FOCUS ON THE DETAILS

I was shooting a Homecoming with a gorgeous girl in a gorgeous dress and I had envisioned lots of gorgeous full-length portraits outdoors.  Us ladies know that Homecoming is all about the dress!  But as fate would have it, massive thunderstorms started as soon as I arrived to shoot and we were too short on time to wait it out.  I had to shoot indoors and I had to do it quickly.

Their home was beautiful but I didn’t want to shoot with anything smaller than my 50mm because I didn’t think it would be flattering.  So in order to get a full-length shot I would have had to back waaaay up and that was really difficult to do in the rooms I had to shoot in.

So I took a moment and started to think about the details that are important in this occasion…the accessories…the corsage…the beading on the dress…and even something as simple as a lovely girl putting on a fab pair of shoes are all the things that will be remembered from this special occasion.  And the best part? Details don’t usually take up a lot of room!

FIND INTERESTING LIGHT

When I was walking around the house at the Homecoming shoot trying to determine my best place to photograph, I noticed that the den had a really cool, kinda eerie diffused light coming in thru one window.  Like I mentioned, it was storming outside so it was pretty dark but I loved how the little bit of light was falling onto an ornate chair.

Even though we were so tight on time cause the lovely girl had to meet all her girlfriends for more pictures, I asked the mom if I could have 2 more minutes for some unique portraits.  She was totally fine with that but was kind of confused when I walked her daughter into the dark den.  The first thing she did…as anyone would…was flip on the lights!  Of course I screamed “NO!” and asked her to leave them off.  She trusted me even though I know she thought I had lost my mind!  We ended up with some dramatic portraits that both myself and the family are thrilled with.  These would have never had the same impact in full daylight or “perfect” lighting.

We actually made an incredible Keepsake Album from this session and I’m so glad I was forced to find other shots besides the “typical” ones if I had been shooting outside with plenty of space to move around.

DON’T FORGET THE PORTRAITS

This one is easy for me because I love shooting portraits of anyone and everyone.  My version of “portraits” here is basically head & shoulders.  The great thing about portraits is they can be done pretty much anywhere in the tiniest of spaces.

At this session my BFF Sharon wanted maternity photos but she was also wanting to document that she was turning 40.  Big stuff happening all at once!  It was January, in Ohio, and actually a bit of a blizzard on the only day we could get together.  The best light in the house that I had to use was in a bedroom that had french doors but there was only about 3 feet between the huge 4 poster bed and the windows.  It looked like this…

Poor pregnant Sharon barely had room to move around so I decided to mix it up a bit and turn our maternity session into a Glam session!   I sat her on a tiny stool in the middle of the little area and I laid across the bed and told her to look at me.  I used the windows as her background so I could blow out the light and get a nice smooth backdrop.   The end results were these memorable portraits…

Would you ever guess these were taken in a tiny corner?  They may not look like your typical maternity photos, but every time Sharon looks at them she knows that she was 40…and pregnant….and apprehensive…and a little scared…and absolutely breathtaking ~ 

So the next time you’re find yourself in a teeny tiny area try and be thankful for the challenge to create something new and incredible and Make It Work!

After all…anyone can create a masterpiece under perfect conditions….where’s the fun in that?????

my name is wayoutnumbered.  i’m a wanna-be photographer who desperately craves more knowledge and shiny new cmaera equipment.  by day, i’m a wife to 1 and mom to 4.  by night, i’m a slave to my photography passion and mac computer.  i let it all out at way-outnumbered.blogspot.com.  come journey with me.

The Speedlight Workshop contest winner is Abigail Kruger.  Abigail, I love your work and I just emailed you information on redeeming your prize!

And for the rest of you, I have a discount code!  There was so much interest in this class, as evidenced by the comments in the contest!  I am thrilled that Zenia is offering it – there is truly a need.  So use coupon code texaschicks for a $50 (25%!) discount on registration in the February class.    Read all about it on The Speedlight Workshop, and register here.

Thank you all for your entries in the comments and spreading the word.  Let’s conquer those Speedlights together, shall we?

Photographs with sunbeams or flare are funny – some photographers consider them a mistake, others consider them art.  I fall into the latter camp!  I love the effect, and often enhance the sunbeams or flare that I capture, or fake them if I don’t.

(To fake them, I use Kaleidoscope overlays.  Tuesday, November 30, is the last day of the year you can buy them at a 30% discount.  Use code holiday10 at checkout.)

1. To capture sunbeams, or rays from any light for that matter, use a small aperture – the higher the number, the more beams.  This is a great technique for capturing twinkling holiday lights. With a small aperture, of course, you’re going to have to trade off  with a long shutter speed or an underexposed subject.  You can use a tripod to minimize blur, silhouette your subject, or use an off camera flash to expose the subject.  (This picture is straight out of camera – the edited version is here.)
2. You know how sometimes you can see sunbeams shining down through breaks in clouds on an overcast day?  Duplicate that effect with trees, a fence, or anything else that will filter the light unevenly.
3. To get the polygon-shaped flare spots in the image, put yourself and the sun at a diagonal to the subject.  Tilt your camera until you find the most flare.  You should be able to see it through your viewfinder.
4. Capturing this kind of light often reduces the contrast in your images and makes them look washed out.  Try increasing blacks in Lightroom or Camera Raw.
5. Take off your lens hood, if you use one.
6. If all else fails, visit the Kaleidoscope store.  Patti Brown is the master at adding light to images in post-processing.  Her light products (Light Play, Lite Flare, and Light Set) work just like textures and are compatible with Elements or full PHotoshop.  You copy them onto your image, move and size them, then adjust the blend mode and opacity until you have just the look you’re going for.  Here are some of Patti’s Light Play creations – click on the thumbnails to view larger sizes.

And remember that you can save 30% off your entire purchase at Kaleidoscope through November 30 by using code holiday10.

Patti’s images do much better justice to her overlays, but here is one of my before and afters using Sun Flare 3 from Lite Play.  As I mentioned above, the flare sapped the color and contrast right out of the image, so I repaired that in Lightroom.  In Photoshop, I added detail and balance by repairing the sky and using the Kaleidoscope overlay to replace the blown out half of the sun.  Click on the image below to expand.What do you do when you want to add a bit of flare to your images?  Share your ideas below – you always teach me so much!

Remember my fireworks photography checklist from the 4th of July?  It worked really well and I am happy with my fireworks photos.  In addition to my family, we were with a group of friends, two of whom are photographers also.  We had a competition where we asked our other friends to judge whose photos were best.  Unfortunately, I didn’t win, but I had a blast!

Here’s a recap of my checklist for getting good photographs on the 4th of July, with my comments on how they worked:

• Use a tripod – check.  This one is a necessity.
• Shutter speed – the longer, the better.  The shutter was open for 21 seconds in the photo above where you can see the city line at the bottom!
• Bulb Mode – I kept my camera in this mode the entire time.  I would depress the shutter button when I first saw the firework shooting up.  I held the button down until the firework started to dissipate.  This was great, because I didn’t have to estimate before hand how long to keep the shutter open.  I mean really, who could guess how long one firework would take anyway?
• Multiple fireworks in one exposure – I used the tip from this Digital Photography School article about holding black foam core board over the lens between fireworks while the shutter is open.  I used a black plastic plate instead of the board, and my friend used a hat.  This method produced that same image above with the cityscape.

This was tough because I wasn’t exactly sure when to remove the plate from the lens and when to replace it.  Definitely will take more practice.  It was also a challenge because the fireworks were bursting at approximately the same point in the sky.  Some of my images taken this way just look like a blob of fireworks on top of each other, whereas I was hoping for well defined bursts horizontally across the image.  I wonder if this would require moving the tripod just a tiny bit while the lens is covered.  Something to practice on next year….

• Multiple fireworks in one exposure, part II — one of my friends has a Nikon that will let you tell it to record, for instance, 5 shots on one exposure.  So, you press the shutter button 5 times to produce one image.  I need to research whether my camera does this.
• ISO – 200 all night long.  There is no noise in these pictures!
• Aperture? – I used f/10 in just about every picture to get good focus throughout the image while letting in enough light.
• Zoomed in shots – I had planned on zooming in really close on some of the fireworks to capture only part of the scene.  This was harder for me.  I wasn’t close enough, for one thing, and didn’t want to waste time putting on my zoom lens.  Maybe next year.

How did your pictures from the 4th turn out? Link to them in the comments to share them, if you’d like!

Is photography on your agenda for those of you in the states this holiday weekend? Last year was the first time I put serious effort into photographing fireworks.  This year, I’m going to incorporate everything I learned into the my photo workflow:

• Use a tripod. This is the key to crisp photos at night.  Using long shutter speeds means you will get more blur just from holding the camera with your hands.  Using a tripod will eliminate this camera shake.
• Shutter Speed – the longer the better to capture light trails.
• Bulb Mode – an easy way to control shutter speed. Set your camera mode to B and hold down the shutter button from the time you first see the firework.  Release the shutter button when the firework dissipates.  Or when the smoke starts – that’s a sure way to muddy up your image and reduce clarity.
• ISO – as low as possible to avoid noise.
• Aperture – use a medium to high number to get an aperture opening on the smaller side of the scale.  Using long shutter speeds will give you enough light to offset a low ISO and small aperture
• I’m going to try, depending on my location and lens, to get a few really zoomed in shots like the one in this Digital Photography School article.
• In the same DPS article, a reader described a technique of using a black foam core board to get multiple fireworks in one exposure.  If I’m feeling good about the way my shots are turning out, I’m going to try that more advanced method.  Have any of you ever done that?  Do you have any tips for me?
• Read this page from Canon about fireworks photography tips. It’s very helpful!

Regardless of where you are, I hope you have a great weekend!  Make sure to link to your photos here if you get some good ones, and share your secret tips too!

Without photographic inspiration, I sometimes get bored with my images.  It usually only takes a quick internet surf to get me back in the mood with new goals and ideas for my photographic journey.   Kelly Willette’s Finding the Joy workshop, which I’m taking right now, is also a great source of inspiration.  You can read more about it below.

Here are some of my latest photographic loves.  Thank you to all these talented ladies for allowing me to link to their images.  Each of them has an Esty shop.  Be inspired by them, and perhaps find some new art for your home in their shops.

Yvette Inufio Photography

Blog:  Morning Light in My Room

Etsy:  Yvette Inufio Photography

I love the subtle pastels and soft focus from this photographer.  Would love to decorate my bedroom with her images.

Much Love

Blog:  Much Love, Anna
Etsy:  Much Love, Anna

Next time I buy a house, it’s going to have lots of pretty windows and perfect spots inside for photography.  My current home just isn’t this photogenic.

Gabrielle Kai Photography

Website:  Gabrielle Kai Photography

Blog:  Dreaming in Pink

Etsy:  Gabrielle Kai Photography (Note that Gabrielle’s Etsy shop will be closed for the entire month of July.   A new baby is on the way!)

I love the subtle range of colors in this image, plus the idea of the stories it might tell.

Life Through the Lens

Blog:  Life Through the Lens

Etsy:  Life Through the Lens

That blue in the background is amazing.  Where did it come from?  I love the the treatment on this image.

More Photography Inspiration

Danni at (oh, hello friend.) you are loved is always presenting beautiful photography to her readers.  I don’t know how she finds the images, but every one of them is amazingly pretty.

Also, I’m taking Kelly Willette’s Finding the Joy children’s photography workshop and loving it.  (Not that you could tell by the amount of homework I’ve turned in.)  I have read every word that Kelly posted and I’ve gotten tons of great info for capturing great photos of kids.  She is super organized and creates the cutest guides and checklists for each lesson of the workshop.

One thing I wish Kelly had not introduced us to was her love of music playlists.  Because I have created more than one playlist since then, but haven’t submitted even one photo as homework!

So, at a time when I already had playlists on my mind, I was reading Joy St. Claire’s blog.  For those of you who don’t know her, she is a very talented photographer.  She also sells a couple of very cool, colorful texture/overlay sets for Photoshop.  And she has a great playlist on her blog.  The music was soothing and motivational for me to work to, so I copied most of it.  I added a few more of my favorite songs and posted it here for you to listen to.  Thank you Joy!

My current photography class has met once. And my mind has been churning ever since. I’ve actually had a lot to think about over the past few days photography-wise, between this class, some guided meditation and my Week in the Life project. The muses have been working together in the mystic realm to take my photography in new directions. More on all that later, after I finish processing my thoughts.

If you are in the central Texas area, I can’t encourage you enough to take one of Michael Long’s photography classes.   You can see some of his work on Flickr.  I recently finished his Natural Light Portraits class. His mastery of lighting techniques is amazing, but, best of all, your camera will be in your hand with shutter whirring at least 50% of the time.

So I have jumped into Michael’s next photography class, Photography for Painters, Poets and Dreamers. We spent the first part of the first class talking about the creative process. His suggestion on how to approach a group of pictures as you import them from your camera to your computer and begin to review them has made quite an impact on my outlook.

Rather than diving in and labeling each picture as good, bad, or maybe with the help of Photoshop, try first to reflect on your gratitude for what you have just had the opportunity to do. Give thanks to the god of your choice for the creative process you have just participated in, the memories you captured, the skills you have built.

And then,as you review your images, try to keep the creativity flowing. Consider how the creative process might be stifled by looking at a series of pictures and labeling the images as good or bad. Yes, we do need to analyze our photography and learn about different ways to work the next time the camera is in our hands, but don’t let a critical judgment keep you from a photograph that does its job.

This mindset has already made a huge difference in my Week in the Life photos.  The photo’s job is to record a memory.  20 years from now, I want to be reminded about how cute my baby is as she eats cereal with her fingers.  I really won’t care if my exposure or focus isn’t spot on.  And this realization is liberating.  I will take more pictures of a higher quality because of it.

So, we finished the philosophizing in class and we proceeded to the nitty gritty:

We photographed rectangles.

Rectangles that continue outside of the image.

Rectangles that aren’t parallel to the edges of the image.

And we discussed whether focus is actually necessary.

I never would have had the courage to post most of these pictures on my blog a week ago.  Thank you for looking at them!  Next up, I’ll share my Week in the Life progress.

Scrapbooking has never been my thing.  I love my camera and playing with photography so much that I just don’t have time to put those pictures in a scrapbook.

But I’m going to try, starting Monday.  Ali Edwards is running her Week in the Life Project again this year, and it starts tomorrow.  It involves keeping your camera with you 24/7 for one week and documenting mundane everyday life.  Stuff to look back on fondly 20 years from now.  My plan is to create something like Ali’s book from 2008:

I really like the formula for this book.  Each day starts with a narrative or journal, plus one image.  It’s followed by a sheet protector for baseball cards, which holds pictures, mementos and decorative elements.  And Ali’s day ends with a photo collage:

For 7 days, I can do this!  Do any of you follow Ali’s blog?  Are you making your Week in the Life scrapbook this week?

If not, you should check it out.  Visit Ali’s blog and look back over her Week in the Life posts from prior years.  (There is no cost to participate in this guided project, by the way!)  She has great ideas to make this a smooth and streamlined process.  I’ve spent a couple of evenings reading and being inspired at her website, and I am totally pumped for this scrapbook project to start.  Read through the comments also – they have excellent suggestions and answers to questions.

In addition to taking photos and writing detailed notes about our days, I will be saving mementos from our life.  Grocery lists, receipts, school work, newspaper articles, emails, Facebook posts, and whatever I come across that typifies a week in my family.

Ali will post every day with pictures and documentation from her own Week in the Life.

By the way, if you are reading this post late, you can start your own project whenever you want.  There is no reason to start when Ali does.  Would you like to join me?

Choosing a metering mode in digital photography is rumored to be difficult.  And I agree. You know what the hardest part for me is?  Figuring out which icon on the stupid camera goes with which metering mode!  So let’s get this part out of the way first:

Ok, so what do all these metering modes mean?   And how to they affect the pictures you take?  Here are the “official” definitions, and then some examples.

• Evaluative/Matrix – General purpose metering mode suited for portraits and even backlit subjects.  The camera sets the exposure automatically to suit the scene.  According to Nikon, “recommended in most situations.  Camera meters a wide area of the frame and sets exposure according to distribution of brightness, color, distance and composition for natural results.
• Partial Metering – Effective when the background is much brighter than the subject due to backlighting.  Partial metering covers about 9.4% of the viewfinder area at the center.
• Spot Metering - This is for metering a specific spot of the subject or scene.  The metering is weighted at the center covering about 2.3% of the viewfinder area.  For Canon, anyway.  I’m not sure what the Nikon % is.
• Center-weighted average - Weighted at the center and then averaged for the entire scene.  Nikon’s center-weighted metering assigns greatest weight to 8-mm circle in center of viewfinder and is the “classic meter for portraits.”

How to Meter on Digital Cameras

This part is pretty easy.  Aim the center of your camera at the spot where you want your exposure to be best.  Change your camera settings until your exposure meter tells you that you’re properly exposed, as I talked about a week or two ago.

How Metering Modes Affect Images

The following four images were taken in quick succession, on a tripod, with each of my camera’s 4 metering modes.  The recommended exposure is different for each shot. I measured my exposure at the center of the floral piece.  I then recomposed, to put the flowers slightly off center.

The first picture was taken with Canon’s evaluative metering mode, which is its attempt at reading the picture and determining the best exposure for the entire picture.  The large amount of highlights and backlighting cause this shot to be nearly the shortest exposure.  Some of the highlights are blown, but the subject is a bit underexposed.

In the next shot, the camera measured exposure essentially from 10% of the image right in the middle.  Because the center contains some of the bright sidewalk and maybe a bit of the backlighting, the subject is less exposed than is ideal.

This spot metering is the best exposure, to my taste.  The camera metered from 2.3% in the middle of the image, which was nothing but flower.  The flowers are exposed nicely, with good detail visible.  This exposure was the longest, because the subject is in the shadows and needed extra light.  Of course, for that reason, this is the image that has the most blown highlights as well.  But those blown highlights aren’t in important ares of the image.  I’m not so worried about them, especially since all my choices have some amount of blown highlights.

This center weighted average exposure is the worst.  It has the shortest exposure, and consequently the fewest blown highlights.  But the subject is too dark and drab.  The camera calculated this exposure because it measures a large part of the center.  It picked up lots of the highlights on the sidewalk and the top of the picture and determined that the exposure should be short.

Which Metering Mode to Use?

My camera is usually set to Evaluative.  However, if I’m shooting a brightly backlit subject like the flowers above, I sometimes change the metering mode to Spot.  If I know the light won’t change much, I keep the mode on Evaluative and get close enough to my subject that it entirely fills my lens.  I read my meter and then back up to my shooting location. Scooting up close to the sujbect on Evaluative ensures that no distracting highlights or shadows affect your meter reading and is about the same as Spot Metering.

Spot is almost essential, however, outside on a day when exposure changes frequently, like days that are partly cloudy and windy when the clouds blow across the sun frequently and quickly.

Ok, that’s my take on metering.  It took me forever to write this post because I had trouble finding a day with the proper backlighting to show the differences between the modes.  I enjoyed it and learned a lot!  Hope it’s been helpful your you as well.