My Photography Journey

Check out the Giveaway!!

2009-08-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Came across this giveaway today. These camera straps are SO cute and so many other things to choose from. Join me (or not :) to try and win!!

Sugar Pop designs

Pretend and Dream,,,,,,I have a Macro lens :)

2009-06-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

A long shot to get on topic, but using my creative side :) Playing with my little point and shoot in my flower patch. Not too bad for a point and shoot :) Thanks for looking!

Just a few from my town

2009-06-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pictures that I snapped at UNL East campus the other day. One thing I LOVE about Nebraska that I don't remember seeing much in Utah is the BIG BLUE SKY with WHITE PUFFY clouds. Seriously, the blue sky here is SO blue! I love it!! Also, love all the vegetation at the Campus. They are an Agricultural school so the grounds are beautiful!

Long time......But on theme :)

2009-06-11T12:19:00.001-07:00

WOW IT HAS BEEN FOREVER!! I have missed the challenge that the photo of the day gives me :) I have actually been working on sunburst shots, but am completely lost. I took some pictures of my liitle sis and her hubby and tried to get a sunburst shot.

My first question: Are the red circles towards the bottom normal? Am I trying to get too much sun in the picture? I took a million pictures of this and this was the best one because the circles are off their face and not as dark as the rest.

Does anyone have some advice for taking sunburst/sunglare pictures? I would LOVE to hear it! Thanks!

Here are the settings (thanks janett)
ISO 200
SS 1/160
f 4

All I did to edit was a LAB color pop and lighten them a little.

BTW, I have missed you all! Hopefully I can get back in habit of the POTD!

Oh Baby......

2009-04-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

......No more baby!!

So I am trying to be on theme. Since My little Baby, just got POTTY TRAINED I thought I would share that. She is 21 months old and officially a BIG GIRL. It took about 1 rough week, but it is done and it feels good!

SOOC:
JPEG Image
ISO 400
1/60
f4

And my edit. Didn't do much, so hopefully it looks better :) Couldn't figure out how to get the orange cast off her legs, oh well.

And then this picture helps me remember she is still my little baby. look at those squishy little toes! LOVE them!

Enjoy :) and thanks for looking!

Great Giveaway!

2009-04-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

Heather Ward Photography is doing a great giveaway with Cute Like Me. Check them out and maybe you could win :)

2009-03-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

My word it has been FOREVER! So much for a couple posts a week. Things have been crazy, we have all been sick, and well, photography was the last thing on my mind :) Anyway, I am back for the time being.
Emotions. That is the theme for the week. Well DD number 1 is FULL of emotion (more than I can handle most of the time). And she always has a big bright smile for the camera. DD number 2 is a little different. She is a lot more mild in temper, but this also means she doesn't always give me that 'big bright' smile. This is her. Just a little lift of the lips and that is good enough for her.

Excuse the poor quality of picture. It was stormy today and I didn't feel like getting out my flash, so I used 1600 ISO.

Thanks for looking!

Spring Tease

2009-03-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

So we have had some great weather. Here is what we have been up to:

JPEG Image
ISO 200
1/500
f 7.1

MY EDIT:

Here is when I am upset that I wasn't in RAW. I had it on shade WB and it turned out.....well you can see. I tried to fix the color, but am still not happy with it. Also underexposed. The filtered sunlight is a tricky place to photograph!

JPEG Image
ISO 200
1/320
f 2.8

MY EDIT:

A few of my favorite things.....

2009-03-03T18:25:00.000-08:00

Besides my 50 mm lens. Seriously, I love my 50mm 1.8. I could only imagine what the 1.4 would do. Anyway, these pictures were taken at about 6:30-7 with NO flash. You heard it right, NO flash. I did up my ISO, but still I would have NEVER got this with a bigger aperture (bigger number is what I am going by ;)

Here is my SOOC:

RAW Image
ISO 800
1/60
f 2
No flash, light from ceiling.

And my edits:

And of course my favorite things:

You gotta *LOVE* licking the beater! I don't care how old you are, it still tastes better off the beater!

And my other favorite, Graham Crackers with homemade chocolate frosting. And I *LOVE* how the frosting some how ends up all over the face :)

Another before and after

2009-02-26T21:14:00.000-08:00

Hmmmmm.....I am really not satisfied with the final product. I need a different texture, but it is late and I didn't want to search anymore. Took this picture by mistake. I think that it would have some great potential. May have to work on it another day..... :)

Before

After: I think the background is too dark for the picture. Oh, well.

before and after.

2009-02-25T20:35:00.000-08:00

So for this weeks challenge we get to post our before and after. I am so excited for this, but sad that the week is halfway over and I am just starting. It was such a warm day today, I took my girls downtown to find some fun urban areas (although we don't have the clothing to match the setting). They were very uncooperative. Here are some pictures that sums up our outing :)

Here are my camera settings for both pictures.
JPEG Image
ISO 200
1/320
f 5.6
natural light taken about 4:00 on overcast day.

I didn't do much to these pictures. It is getting late :) Enjoy and thanks for looking :)

Before:

After:
High pass sharpening, levels and curves adjustments, vignette.

Before:

After:
Same edits as above. Also dodged her face.

What a Mess!!

2009-02-23T20:45:00.000-08:00

So my hubby bought me a new video card, hoping to enhance my pictures. Well I have finally gotten to the point that I am appreciating it (after tinkering with it and fretting over it all weekend). I am having the hardest time calibrating it. Either, my last calibration with the old card was way off or something is funky with this new calibration.

ANYWAY, please help me. For those with and without calibrated monitors how do these pictures look? I edited them, and on my screen they look good. So please tell me what you see. This is starting to sound like a beg.....pretty, pretty please help me out!

I am debating getting a calibration software. I would rather not if I can do it myself, but after this weekend I am exhausted with trying to fix this darn thing. And almost bought Spyder 2 today.

Thanks for listening and if you got this far in reading, congratulations! Here are my pictures from the other day. Let me know how they look.

One I edited with old card.

Here is a side by side comparison. First was edited with old card and old calibration. Second was with new. Which one looks better? Is either correct?

Here is my SOOC on this one. Please let me know how the exposure looks on this. I am so not trusting my computer right now.

JPEG image
ISO 400
1/200
f 2.2
Natural light coming from south window.

Here is the edit I did a few days ago with my old set up.

And this one I did a few minutes ago with my new set up.

Thank you for your help and honesty! You guys are the best!!

My poor Livvy

2009-02-20T14:39:00.000-08:00

Here she is, so sick. Olivia does not sit still, so to see her out (and it not being bedtime) is unheard of. Unless she is really sick. Poor little girl! Thanks for all your get wells and warm wishes! You are all gems! Hope everyone is healthy :)

Aubrey wasn't near as sick, just a runny nose. So it didn't slow her down. This is the only picture I snapped of her yesterday. Not the greatest, but creative, right?! Don't know how I managed to get her eye in focus. Just a lucky shot!

Finally back

2009-02-19T12:23:00.000-08:00

So my last post I wasn't feeling well and it only worsened over the week. So I am finally feeling good, but my little ones are now sick. The good news, I have time to put up a post. These pictures are from a few days ago, and I finally got around to posting them. When I didn't feel well Olivia and I had a Pretty Pretty Princess Party while Aubrey napped. We started with painting our nails, I even let Olivia paint mine all by herself. Don't they look lovely? By the way, my Pictures of the day are at the bottom. I just thought you would all love to see my lovely toes! :)

After, we played Pretty, Pretty Princess (the game) which Olivia won and was SO excited. When Aubrey woke up she wanted to join in the fun :)

And these are my photos for today. My two little sweeties, when they were nice and healthy :)

Aubrey's picture was a little washed out, I tried to save it :)

Also, here is the SOOC for the above picture. I was proud of the way it turned out. I think it is one of my better SOOC. I think I nailed the exposure. What do you think? Maybe I am still sick :)

JPEG Image
ISO 400
1/250
f2.2
Natural light coming from South Window, which she is facing.

Rub a Dub Dub...

2009-02-16T13:20:00.000-08:00

Two little girls in the tub.

Today is a sick day, I am feeling a little under the weather. So I put the girls in the tub to entertain them. They always want me to make their hair 'really high' when I wash it. So I thought I would use this as my picture of the day. I do this everytime they are in the tub and have not taken a picture yet.

I have posted one SOOC, because all the picture were taken with the same settings. The rest have post processing.

JPEG Image
ISO 400
1/100
f 7.1
50 mm lens
used Nikon sb400 flash, bouncing it off the ceiling.

Picture seems to lack contrast. I find this a problem when I bounce my flash. Is this a normal problem?

Here are my edits:

I LOVE my husband

2009-02-13T14:34:00.000-08:00

I love my husband for many reasons, but here is one of them:
This is what I came home to today. An early Valentine's present (along with my new 50mm lens). He also took me to dinner tonight, no kids. What a sweetheart! Tomorrow we will have a family Valentine with our girls. I am thinking heart shaped pizza, red bread stick, pink punch and a good movie :)

A little Sugar cookie love

2009-02-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

So these aren't the greatest pictures, it was just one of those days. Plus Olivia wasn't in the greatest spot for lighting and I didn't feel like making her move.
This is what we got up to today, making cookies and getting belly aches from eating WAY too many! My friend and I made one batch of wheat sugar cookies that actually weren't too bad. Don't get me wrong, the full unhealthy bleached white flour version is still the best, but it felt good to eat a cookie that wasn't totally unhealthy.

Decorating cookies:

She was napping during the decorating part, but jumped in for eating them :)

And here is what was left. Of course they had to try a little of every cookie they decorated :)

We LOVE daddy

2009-02-11T15:41:00.000-08:00

So when I asked my girls about love this is what they said. So we went to the side walk chalk to spell it out, since daddy has school late tonight.

And here is the reason I love (or not so love) sidewalk chalk:

With the post processing I had NO idea what I was doing, plus I didn't have much time. I wanted to have a little fun and make them look funky. Maybe I hashed the photos, but you get the idea :)

Also thanks to all of you for your sweet comments on little Aubrey's hair. It is starting to grow on me, she looks older, not my little baby anymore :(

Lunch time at our house

2009-02-10T12:27:00.001-08:00

P B & J is the lunch of choice today. Gotta love that! The girls are very particular about their sandwiches. They have to have the crust cut off and one needs to have 4 square sandwiches while the other one will only eat it if they are cut into bite size pieces. So I think this fits into this weeks them of love. What else says love more than making lunch exactly how they want it :)

Also my little Aubrey. Here is her new cut. What I was afraid would happen, did happen. I was hoping the cut would enhance her curls, but instead it cut them all off. What a sad day! No more wetting her hair and heading out the door. This picture was taken right after I tried to revive the curls. Notice the above picture of her eating lunch, gone. So sad! My little girl is growing up!

First Haircut

2009-02-09T18:36:00.000-08:00

Today was my little ones first haircut. She is 20 months and I am just so excited she has hair! My first hardly had any hair and it grew VERY slowly! She did very well with the cut and actually smiled for me (which is unusual).

As you can see from the picture, we didn't cut very much off, but it sure makes her look different!

Tomorrows POTD will be with her new cut. Didn't get a good one today.

Self Portrait

2009-02-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

I always find that self portraits are the hardest. I do much better behind the camera :) I did do the self portrait challenge earlier this year, but I always tend to do a shoulder shot (less of my face . Anyway, I saw so many great, creative self portraits, I thought I would give it a try. This is what I worked on this weekend. I used the Pioneer Womens PW's B & W action on them.
So what do you think. I actually didn't mind that my face filled the whole frame. Here is my shot at a creative self portrait :)

Couldn't decide on color or b/w version. Although I did like how the b/w blew out my blemishes :)

Another little baby

2009-02-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

So all of my friends just had babies so I get to play with them.
I have a little game for all my POTD friends and any other followers that I might have.

Here is my problem:
All of my pictures seem to be on the orange side. Can anyone help me with this?

Here is the game plan and rules:
I am going to post the SOOC and who ever wants to play along can download it and e-mail me your fix. You need to send me all the details of what you did (being as specific as possible). The picture I like the best I will post and send them a special handmade gift from me :)
My e-mail: becky.an03@gmail.com
I need all edits 7:00 mountain standard time on Friday, February 6th.

I am hoping to learn a little from all of you on how to get rid of my orange skin tones. And if you think they look fine, let me know! Thanks for playing!!

SOOC:
RAW Image (posted as JPEG)
ISO 400
1/320
f 1.8
Natural light from north window. 2:00 PM

And here is my edit. lightened in ACR. Played with levels and curves.

Skintone correction

2009-02-04T12:18:00.000-08:00

All of my pictures seem to have an orange glow to them, so matter how I adjust my white balance in my camera. I was searching on the internet and came across this article and I thought I would give it a try. I am on my husbands laptop (again) and these are the only pictures I have to play with. Here is my fix using his method. How does the skin tone look?

This is from my home sweet home!

2009-02-03T17:58:00.000-08:00

So this picture doesn't really have anything to do with home, except that it was taken from my front porch. This is the first sunrise that I have seen like this. Don't get me wrong, they may happen more often, I just sleep through them or am too tired to notice :) I loved the colors! And just incase you missed it, this is a SUNRISE! It was breathtaking! It was gone as fast as it came.

SOOC:
RAW IMAGE
taken in sRGB color mode
ISO 200
1/100
f 4.5

And here is my edit. Just saturated colors more.

Taking the tip to my camera

2009-02-02T12:45:00.000-08:00

So on 2 peas I read this post today. Wonderful post and article! Anyone interested in photography needs to read it! Anyway, I took it to my camera and this is what I got:

Here is my SOOC:
RAW image and I metered to my 18% gray card
ISO 800
1/160
f 1.8
natural light from south windows at 2:00. I also pushed her to the back of the room so I could see how much light I could get from there.

Here is my edit. (On my husbands laptop, which isn't calibrated. How does the skintone look? Too orange? Thanks!)
I lightened, sharpened and boosted color

I checked out my post on my desktop and the above picture looked WAY too bright. So I fixed it again. But it was on the laptop, so not sure what this will look like. It looks really dark on my laptop screen.

Peanutbutter Lover!!

2009-01-30T21:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-29T20:37:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-28T18:58:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

"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

2009-01-26T14:21:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-25T12:21:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-01-24T14:50:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-23T16:53:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-01-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-21T19:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T18:24:00.000-08:00

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!***

January 20, 2009

2009-01-19T17:59:00.001-08:00

Sick of the cold, so thought I would shoot something that reminded me of warmer days :)

Getting to know my camera:) took a few shots with different exposures. Here they are. It does seem that my camera meters a little dark.

Also, had my camera on a tripod, but still got out of focus pictures. I used the timer, so is it the aperture do you think? Anyway thanks for looking!

Took all pictures with my 70-300mm lens. First picture was what my camera metered as correct exposure. I did meter the berry, so maybe that is why it is so dark.

RAW Image
ISO 200
1/6
f 5.6
Focal length 300mm

RAW Image
ISO 200
0.60 s
f5.6
Focal length: 300mm

Edit:
darkened by exposure in RAW conversion, levels change, and sharpen.

January 19, 2009

2009-01-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

Wasn't able to get a picture today, so decided to pick an old one and work on it. Anyway, we went home for Christmas and I had some fun taking pictures of my newest little niece. I love little babies! I can't believe that mine were ever that small!

Here is the original shot:

SOOC
JPEG image
ISO 200
1/125
f 4.8
Focal Length: 56mm
Used my Nikon sb400 and bounced light off ceiling.

Here is my edit:
lightened with curves, levels to darken, sharpen, remove red in skin, skin smoother, round corner and of course, add text :)

January 18, 2009

2009-01-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

My little nephew. I took the first pic on accident. I thought that was pretty close to the right exposure. For some reason my pictures don't have the saturation and contrast that I desire. I thought this picture was closest to that. I know that it needs to be lightened, but the colors are deep like I want. Is that due to the exposure?

JPEG image
ISO 200
1/500
f 6.3
focal length: 80mm

Anyway here the picture that I am working and focusing on for the day.

SOOC:
JPEG Image
ISO 200
1/125
F7.1
Focal Length: 40mm

And my edit:
Levels, PW boost (I love this thing. It adds the 'pop' that my pictures seem to lack), skin smoothing, eye sharpening, and rounded the edge.

January 17, 2009

2009-01-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

Late getting this up. I took this pic of my bro and SIL over Christmas break.

SOOC:
RAW image
ISO 400
1/160
F 7.1
Focal Length: 60mm
Taken 3:30, I am facing North. In shade.

My edited version:
sharpened, curves to lighten, PW boost twice, teeth whitening, and curves vignette.

Enlarged picture and it made it blurry. Anyone know how to post larger pictures on blogger? Thanks!

Remember, any praise or advice is more than welcome!!

January 16, 2009

2009-01-16T14:46:00.000-08:00

We finally got some snow, which sadly warmed things up! Yesterdays high was 3 degrees. So we went to shovel snow and I thought it would be fun to capture my dd's in the snow. Both pictures using my 28-80mm lens
SOOC:
RAW image
ISO 200
1/125
F5
Focal Length: 62mm

Edited:
Crop, PW Sharpen, PW Boost, Levels change to darken, curves vignette to lighten outer edge.

SOOC:
RAW image
ISO 200
1/125
F 6.3
Focal Length 80mm

Edit:
Cropped, PW sharpen, Levels, PW boost with mask to keep background dark.

January 15, 2009

2009-01-16T13:58:00.000-08:00

Here is my first post. I am working on my exposure with Natural light indoors. So my dd and I had a little photo shoot. I set up the camera on a tripod for my picture and she pushed the botton. She is pretty good! Here are the settings and my edit.

SOOC (straight out of the camera):
RAW image
ISO 200
1/125
F 5.6
Focal Length: 80mm
Edited:
Lightened in RAW conversion. PW sharpen, PW boost and curves mask for vignette.

SOOC
RAW image
ISO 400
1/160
F 3.3
Focal Length: 28mm
Here is my first edit:
I sharpened and lightened with the RAW conversion box. cropped, PW boost and a curves mask for the vignette. Also dodged and sharpened eyes.
Second Edit:
Used 2peas tutorial by 2hoosiers1gem to get rid of the red color cast. I then sharpened, used PW boost and curves mask for vignette. Also cloned out wrinkles in backdrop.

I have got to figure out my camera. On each picture it said that I had set a correct exposure. My camera must meter a little dark. I guess this is why I am doing this. Any pointers are great!
Also notice the difference that changing the ISO made!