Peanutbutter Lover!!

She takes after her mom :) This is what we were up to today, finishing off our skippy!

SOOC:
ISO 400
f1.8

I am getting much better at my exposure!!



My edit.
Adobe RGB and sRGB

This is a Test

So last night Shanna gave me a little hint about sRGB (which until today I had NO idea what it was). So I have been looking and reading all day today and here is my test (LOTS of pictures).

***Please notice my exposure. Does it look good? Much better than the rest of my SOOC shots. Thats what happens when you are just playing around :) ***

SOOC (changed WB)
ISO 800
f1.8
1/80
50mm lens. Natural light from South windows at 4:30 PM
I took this in Adobe RGB mode on my Camera
Color is DRAINED!!
Here is my edit. I just saved it as a JPEG, still in Adobe RGB mode
And here is my edit (exact same as above), but saved in sRGB color mode.

This next picture I took right after the above picture, but changed my camera setting to sRGB color mode.

SOOC (changed WB)
ISO 800
f1.8
1/100
50mm lens. Natural light from South windows at 4:30 PM
I took this in sRGB mode on my Camera

Here is the EXACT same picture, but when I saved it I saved it for the web (sRGB mode)
And here is my edit saved for the web (sRGB mode)
All I did was sharpen, add contrast, boost the levels and saturation. Cropped.

Isn't it amazing! Hopefully my blog pictures will now have more color and life. THANK YOU shanna and all you other peas for helping me out!

Also feel free to share what you know about sRGB. Do you print on-line with sRGB or Adobe RGB? Thanks again!

Just a test

Wanting to test my sRGB conversion to see if it makes a difference.

This is my Adobe RGB file.
And this is the EXACT same picture only converted to a sRGB color space.

Can you see the difference? Amazing!

He had cake.......and ate it too!

My good friends little boy is turning one this week. It is her first, so she wanted to make a big deal of it. When she was trying to decide what to do, I offered to take some cake eating pictures for her. I have seen these done and thought they were so cute. So here is Mason with his cake.....and eating it too!

SOOC:
RAW images
ISO 200
f2.5
1/160
50 mm lens
natural light from south window around 3:00.
Still underexposed!! I AM going to figure this out! Be patient (mainly said to myself!!)

My edit:
Lightened, sharpened, reduced noise and increased contrast in ACR. Played with levels and curves.

I am not understanding skintone! My picture looks completely different in Photoshop. Is this normal for blogger to drain color? How does the skin tone look? Thanks!!

***believe it or not, I am DETERMINED to perfect my skintones. Well maybe not to perfect, but dang close. I wonder how long this will take me........***

Running......My hobby

"Life is short, running makes it seem longer." -Anonymous

With this weeks theme being hobbies, I decided to start with my first and longest lived hobby and that is running. I have been running since Jr. High, off and on. I stop when I get sick of it, but it is always a hobby I pick up again. Last year I really got back into it and ran my first 1/2 marathon and an 86 mile relay race. I am not dedicated enough to run in the freezing winter, so I occasionally hit the treadmill. I didn't want to take my camera to the gym, so I took this picture of me wishing I could go outside and run. Not the greatest pictures, but my goal is to at least one post a week on theme, so here my favorite hobby:

Little Austin

I got to have fun today with my friend and her new little baby (well 1 month old, that is little to me!) THANK YOU for all your comments! Angela2932 I used your advice and used Luminosity as the blending mode and I like the color a lot better! Thanks for the tip!

PLEASE let me know what you think of these. How is the skin tone this time around? I had a hard time because he had a lot of little scratches from his nails, I tried to edit them out. You are all so sweet! Thanks for your compliments! And if you wouldn't mind giving cc please leave some! Thanks! **just looked at my post and he is looking a little gray what do you think?**
Also, I metered to the white background would a gray card help with the skin tones? Thanks!

My SOOC seem to be a little dark still. Unbelievalbe! I am manual setting 2-3 more f-stops brighter than what my camera meters. Is that normal? Or is it because of the white backdrop? I fill the frame with his face when I meter. Anyway, any help is great!

OH, and I used NO actions in my edits, YEAH! Just levels, curves and High pass sharpening.

Same on all shots
RAW Image
ISO 200
50mm lens
Used only natural light coming from south window

SOOC:
f 2
1/200






SOOC:
f 1.8
1/160




I tried to fix his dead looking skin. Does this look any better:

Day of Rest

I love Sundays, for the fact that we observe it as the day of rest. No chores, no shopping and I always plan on easy cooking. Thinking about a picture for the day, I thought this was the most fitting. We attend church on Sundays and are suppose to continue our learning through out the week. Sadly, Sunday is usually the only day that I get to do my personal study of the scriptures.
Anyway, I taught a lesson today on the importance of families and it really hit me! So my share with you today is this: God gave us families, to help us become what he wants us to be!



I would love to hear what you use your Sundays for! Leave me a comment! And thanks for looking!

Saturday fun.

My friends husband is in the Army, so we got together today to take some pictures to send him for Valentine's Day. These 2 little girls are so much fun and they have the most GORGEOUS eyes! I just have to say again, I L O V E my new lens (when my subject is sitting still). It is so dang sharp!

Alrighty, I need you to all be HONEST!! How are these pictures, sooc and fixed. Give it to me, I can take it! I did a custom white balance (I measured my white backdrop), to try and get better skin tones. How are they? Thanks again for all your help!

Settings for both SOOC images.
RAW image
ISO 200
f2.8
50 mm lens
1:30 pm using natural light coming from south window.

shutter speed: 1/320




shutter speed: 1/250




And here are a few that we took just for fun. I bought 2 bags of conversation hearts and didn't find one that said I love you, so we had to write one ourselves.





Thanks again for looking! Happy Saturday!

One of THOSE days!

That is what we had today. We had a million things to do, we were late to everyone of them, it snowed like a blizzard (even though it was mid-50's yesterday!) and of course we had to have a few breakdowns!! I am SO glad it is the weekend! Everyone have a great weekend!

Edited: I sharpened and changed levels.

All SOOC images:
RAW Image
ISO 400
f1.8
lens: 50mm
Time: 4:30 natural light with South window

SOOC: 1/100 shutter speed
























SOOC: 1/80 shutter speed























My edit:
sharpened, curves, and darkened reflection.



Let me know how I am doing with focus on my 50mm (if you can tell). Thanks!

Best day so far this year!!

Today we actually hit mid-50's! I was so excited. I also received my new 50mm 1.8 lens!! I AM so excited!! I tried it out today and loved it, until I downloaded the pictures and found one eye in focus and the other eye not (or even the hairline in focus and eyes out of focus :(
It is going to take some practice, but I am so ready for it! Any pointers on how to get multiple things in focus when using such a small aperture would be great! Thanks! Oh, and I do realize I could open up my aperature, but I was just basking in my freedom of 1.8!

I started snapping pictures indoors (without a flash!!!). This is my little Olivia. She LOVES the camera and is such a crack up! I asked her to show me her eyes and this is what I got.

SOOC:
RAW Image
ISO 400
f1.8 1/200
Indoor natural light























Edit:
sharpen, change levels.























And since it was 50's we headed outside. Aubrey is my challenge! Unlike her camera loving sister, she runs from pictures and turns her head away from the camera. Oh well, candid pictures are the best, right? She is also the last person I will practicing my focusing skills on. I would focus, but she would move before I snapped the picture (notice the nice sharp hairline in the second picture)

SOOC:
RAW Image
ISO 400
f 1.8
1/2500 (a little too quick:)















Edit:
lightened, sharpened and boost.















SOOC:
RAW Image
ISO 400
f 1.8
1/1600
















Edit:
Lightened, sharpened, boost, and vignette.















Then I gave up on trying to get my girls to sit still to work on my focus :)























I love the lens! It opens up a lot more creative doors, but with that is going to come a lot of work! Again, if anyone has tips or advice on how to conquer, please tell! Is there a certain distance I should be from my subject? Should I focus on something a little farther back? In the middle?

Not the best edits, sorry! I am ready for bed, but wanted to post. Should have waited until tomorrow, but too late to think of that now :)

THANK YOU for all of your advice, compliments and support!

Technology.......the babysitter

So, sad to say that I occasionally use technology (laptop) as the family babysitter. My little girl could play PBS games all day! So when I need to get something done, I call on the trusty babysitter. At least she is learning how to use a mouse and keyboard. Isn't that like ABC's these days? :) Anyway, I am on topic, which I thought was HARD! And I wasn't too thrilled with any of my pictures, so I didn't spend much time with them. Enjoy :)

But we had a GORGEOUS day today, so the girls and I went for a walk. I found this sad little lone leaf on our front tree and wanted too get some sunburst shots. Here they are:

*** How does my exposure look? ***

SOOC:
RAW Image
ISO 200
1/250
f11
Focal length: 70mm























My edit:
Lightened with curves, sharpened, and darkened edge with curves.




SOOC:Settings same as above
















Edit: Also the same

January 21, 2009

Planning on getting creative with technology, but nothing was working out. I didn't want to skip a day (my goal is 365 pictures we will see how long it lasts :), so I took these pictures of my little girl before she went to bed. Sorry about the purple hands! I didn't think they would show up so much!
Last picture I thought I would have a little fun with. Not my style, but kind of fun to expand! Enjoy!

****IF anyone knows why my pictures seem hazy, please explain! Is it because I haven't mastered my exposure yet? Thanks for all your help and your wonderful comments!! Keep it coming!

SOOC
RAW image
ISO 400
1/100
f4.5
focal length: 52mm
slight sharpen






















Edit
I used Coffee shops triple shot color pop. (Just started using this site and LOVE it!)























Just for fun:
PW boost and PW colorize























****Also if anyone can tell me how to make the color behind my sidebar a bit wider that the text that would be so helpful! I have been working on it for 2 days and am just lost. I should have just kept it white, but color is so much better! Also, let me know if the text is too hard to read. I wanted something a little more personal. Thanks!***