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!***