{WELCOME GIRL SCOUTS}
Excited to share a bit about my passion today!
First a little about me, I was gifted my first camera around 10 years old, and found the magic of capturing images at a young age. I was so excited to see in high school, they offered elective classes I was able to select a photography course. This was before the internet and digital cameras. I quickly found a love for capturing images. I continued my journey into college where I studied advertising and minored in photography. Photography is very much a part of my life, I started freelancing when my friends were getting married, having kids and now family photos....and of course photographing my children.
First a little about me, I was gifted my first camera around 10 years old, and found the magic of capturing images at a young age. I was so excited to see in high school, they offered elective classes I was able to select a photography course. This was before the internet and digital cameras. I quickly found a love for capturing images. I continued my journey into college where I studied advertising and minored in photography. Photography is very much a part of my life, I started freelancing when my friends were getting married, having kids and now family photos....and of course photographing my children.
{THE IMPORTANCE OF LIGHT}
Light is everything in photography, mix it in with creativity and knowing the "rules" of this wonderful hoppy / business and we can create magic. Light is where I grab and facilitate my creativity.
There are so many incredible ways to use light, it should be something that pushes and inspires. Once you get light right that is key to a successful photo. I have had many folks ask to edit photos they have taken and when light is all wrong, there is no photography app out there to fix.
There are many types of light, backlight, soft light, flat light, harsh light, direct light, indirect light, pocket light, window light, reflective light...I could go on and on because the opportunities are endless.
Before taking a picture of a person, look at them, a quick exercise we can do is take your phone, put it on selfie mode and pivot around 360 degrees slowly. Watch how everything changes based on where you are facing. This trick is vital because it truly is about you as the photographer looking at and absorbing what is happening on your subject. You can simply look at your subject and take a moment to really observe what is happening and make adjustments if need be.
You can use many types of light, the two I personally focus on most is backlight and studio light. Backlight appears and many different ways depending on the time you take pictures. The best time to start photos is typically 1.5 hours to sunset. Sunset changes throughout the year, so I always google expected sunset. Tonight is 7:30 and the plan is to start shooting around 6:00. On a sunny day, you start with beautiful backlit and end with wonderful golden light as the sun gets closer to the horizon.
The first picture below is early in the shoot, and the next few are the last 15 minutes before sunset.
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More golden hour examples from this shoot.
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Light is tricky and it does take a lot of practice, trial and error. If you run into an issue where you are letting too much light in like the photo below, it is easy to adjust, just move your camera position to be certain you are not. In the first picture, while the sun was behind them, I was shooting down. For the next picture I got on the ground at their level and the sun was much cleaner and didn't produce the shadows.
Backlighting is my personal favorite and many of my shoots and favorite photos are set up to capture this look and feel.
On a very sunny day, sunsets can be beautiful and if you find the right location, most of the time a hill you can create the most beautiful silhouettes. The first picture is where we started, on a sunny day focused on backlight light
Spent a good amount of time taking pictures of the girls during the last 30 minutes prior to sunset and then ran up to the hill just when the sun hit the horizon line to obtain beautiful silhouettes.
Practice with light, every day gives you a new challenge. Are there clouds in the sky to provide some shade, directly sunlight, overcast. Each situation is unique and with practice you get the best photos based on your style. An overcast day is not bad, sometimes the sun is peaking through
Shooting indoors you want to find the room with the best sunlight to capture the brightest pictures. Everyones house faces a different way, and depending on what time the sun hits the room that is when you know you get the best light.
You can also use a white wall or a backdrop and lighting. Either studio lighting or make sure you have bright white lights or your pictures will look yellow.
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{FINDING YOUR STYLE}
May people shoot on auto, manual or use one of their camera settings based on what they are trying to achieve. I exclusively shoot on the aperture mode with a fixed lens. This give you the dreamy background similar to portrait mode on an iPhone. Aperture refers to the opening of a lens's diaphragm through which light passes. ... Lower f/stops give more exposure because they represent the larger apertures, while the higher f/stops give less exposure because they represent smaller apertures. I shoot on the lowest aperture possible to give me the most blur. I always shoot on 1.4, when there are more people in the picture, I make sure to get them lined up so that one person is not out of focus, although sometimes I dp that on purpose to gain some attention.
{PICTURES ARE FUN}
When taking pictures of my children, family, friends or people I just met.....I want everyone to have fun! We are creating memories, it is so important to make those in front of the camera feel comfortable to remember this special time in their life.
{PICTURES CAN ALWAYS USE A BIT OF TLC}
I always edit every picture I take with a few quick functions that you can also do on your iphone
Brighten up, contrast up, saturation up and sharpen up.
You can see the difference in a few of the before and after pictures below.
