editing tips for making your family photos frameable (part 4 of 4)

{mandy and her family}

Guest post by Mandy Chiappini, author of A Sorta Fairytale




We all have different cameras, editing programs, and skill levels. But there are some simple editing techniques we can do to make a photo just that much better.


Before you start editing photos, make sure you are familiar with your editing program. Whether it be a basic or a little more complex. Once you understand a little bit about the program you are using, the easier it will be edit your photos. Spend time reading about the different functions/tools/features your program has to offer and make sure to play around a lot in your program!


The easiest edits in the world are sometimes the best.

Cropping.
The very first thing you should do, is crop your photo. You are going to want to eliminate all of that extra area of clutter & color that will not be there in the end.


If your looking to create the most visually appealing photograph, most photographers will tell you about the rule of thirds. (it is explained very well in this website)


In addition to this, there are a ton of other cropping "rules" out there. You can throw those out the window, if you'd like. Crop the photo to what is pleasing to your eye. If you are going to be focusing on the scenery, crop it a little less. If someones smile is the focal point for you, crop it in a little tighter. But you can still use the rule of thirds, if you choose.

{here is my example of cropping, i just wanted to eliminate the extra clutter in the background, still sort of using the "rule of thirds"}


Brightness/Contrast.
A lot of times a photo can either be over-exposed or under-exposed. In the example below, that image is over-exposed. In other words, too bright. So I tweaked the brightness just a little bit to my liking.


Also, if you notice the image on the left is a bit "flat". There is no depth to it. So, by changing the contrast - it will add that depth to the photo and will really make him pop out.



Red-Eye.
This is the worst. Red-eye is often caused by using flash on your camera. And sometimes that is unavoidable. But the good thing is, most simple editing programs have a tool that can remove the red from your eye. Usually it is as simple as choosing the tool and clicking on the red and Viola! The red is gone.

{here is an example of removing red-eye. much better, right?}



Simple Black & White.
As well as the other tools mentioned above, you will usually find a tool that will convert your color photo to black & white. This give your photo a classic feel to it. If your program does not have a b&w tool, you can also accomplish this look by using your hue/saturation tools. If you completely de-saturate a photo, it will take all of the color out.



Another thing you can do if you change your photo to black and white is adjust the brightness/contrast some more. A lot of time when you take the color out of a photo, you also take the depth out of it. So by brightening a little and turning the contrast up, we can put the depth back in!

{very minimal change, but it definitely helps the subject to pop out, doesn't it?}


If you do not have any editing software and are on a tight budget, there is a free program for download called Picasa. This will give you all the tools you will need for your basic editing.


I hope that you found this helpful and can put it to use next time you are editing your photos!


Happy snapping! :-)

Bio: Mandy Chiappini is wife to a wonderful man, mother to a beautiful 8 month old boy, and a Lifestyle Photographer. She strays from studio photography and focuses on capturing the real person behind the photo in a natural setting. You can find her at A Sorta Fairytale, Mandy Chiappini Photography and as a contributor on Paper Heart Camera.


Dear friends, I still have a lot to learn about editing my own photos to take them from good to great. What about you? Did you find Mandy's editing tips and tricks helpful? Feel free to share a link of your favorite shot below and tell us how you edited your photo to improve it. What are you most excited to try next time?

practicing my editing,

Other posts in this mini-series:

• Part 1: Lighting - How to use light to take the best photos possible. 
• Part 2: Composition - How background, framing, and placement of your subject effects your photos.
• Part 3: Settings - How adjusting your camera settings can create different effects and feelings in your photos.
• Part 4: Editing - How using simple editing tools can help your photos go from good to great. (A guest post by Mandy from A Sorta Fairytale.)

Have you registered your blog here yet?

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010 
do not reproduce without written permission

how to take national geographic quality photos (part 3 of 4)

Ok, not really. Actually, this is a far cry from National Geographic... but I got your attention, right? 


This four-part series is for regular moms, just trying to get some decent photos for the family album.


I love taking photos of all sorts of things... but as of eight months ago, my little guy has been dominating my memory cards. I'm sure you can relate. And although I'm no expert, I have learned a few things about photography that I think can help the budding photographer in any mom... 


The way I see it, in this digital age there's no reason we can't be taking hundreds of photos of our kids (or whatever else you like to capture) in hopes for that perfect shot. (And the rest? Delete!) 


Today we're going to look at four tips related to camera settings and techniques that will help you improve your photos. If you haven't already, be sure to check out the previous posts in this mimi-series on lighting and composition. (Tomorrow we will finish up with some simple editing tips.)

Today's focus: Settings

1. Try putting your camera in sequence mode. Even with fast digital cameras, it’s so easy to miss that hilarious expression or gummy grin. By using sequence mode, you can click several photos at once and later choose the one with the best expression. This is especially helpful with babies and young kids because they don't often sit still for longer than a few seconds.

{using sequence mode will help you capture
those priceless fast-changing expressions.}

2. Experiment with different settings. Don’t leave your camera in “auto” all the time. Even simple point-and-shoot cameras have lots of settings to play with these days. Spend a little time just getting familiar with your camera and seeing what the various settings do. Try taking a similar photo in a few different settings so that you can compare and learn. This is something I'm still working on... digital cameras have soooo many options!

{taken with a simple point and shoot camera.}

3. Use a shallow point of focus. Sometimes it's nice to have what's called a deep range of focus - like in a landscape shot where you want the flowers, grass, trees, and far off mountains to all be in focus. But at other times, try using a "shallow" range of focus to draw the eye to a specific point on the shot, letting either the foreground, background, or both fade into a slight blur. Take some time with your camera and just experiment with your focus settings. (Or if it's a DSLR, put it on a low f-stop and experiment with it in manual focus.) Experimentation is the absolute best way to learn what works, what doesn't... and what you like and don't like.

{try using a shallow depth of focus. for example, focus on 
something close to you and let the background blur out of focus.}

{using a shallow depth of focus.}

4. Use motion to create interest. Try moving your camera along with your moving subject (as seen below in the first photo). This will keep your subject in focus while letting the background slightly blur. If you have a D-SLR, try this a few times while you adjust your shutter speed to get different results. Or, alternately, hold your camera still while your subject moves (as seen below in the second photo). Both of these simple techniques work great for action shots to display movement and/or to help invoke emotion, and can be done (to an extent) on a simple point-and-shoot. (For those that have a D-SLR, "shutter speed" is how long the lense is open allowing light to come through and the photo to be recorded. A fast shutter speed takes a "quick" photo and a low shutter speed takes a "slow" photo... once you experiment with shutter speed a little bit, you'll see what I'm talking about. The lower the shutter speed you use, the more movement you will capture.)

{using motion in this shot actually helps create a sense of 
action as well as the feeling of delight as he swings and laughs.}

{although most of the photo is in focus, his right hand and the turning book
pages are blurred - showing his action and giving a sense of motion.}

bonus tips | And if you want to get better?

Two things I recommend:

{ONE} Look at photos – in a magazine, on-line, or wherever – and identify ones that you like. Do this without “thinking” about it too much… just trust your gut. (Magazines work best because you can rip the photos out that you like!) Once you’ve identified some that you like, go back through them and ask yourself a few questions: What are you drawn to first in the photo? Why do you think the photographer used a certain prop or background? What do you notice about the light? What makes the photo pretty or interesting or unusual? How might you be able to “imitate” what you see?

{TWO} Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. Honestly, the best way to learn to take better photos is just to keep shooting. Especially now that we have digital photos and can take as many as we want at no expense, there’s no reason to be a conservative clicker! The more photos you take intentionally, the more you will learn what works and what doesn’t, as well as the nuances of your own camera. {You just have to remember to delete frequently or you’ll be left with a mess!}

I hope these simple photography tips help. Maybe you, too, can have a kid who is “famous on facebook” like mine. {grin}


Dear friends, did you learn anything new today about settings that you'd like to try? Or do you have any other tips to add? If you've taken a photo you're especially proud of, tell us about it in the comments and leave a link so we can be sure to check it out. What makes a photo stand out to you?


filling up memory cards,

P.S. Sorry about the wonky formating in parts of this post. Sometimes I get really irritated with blogger and trying to figure out how to correct the mystery formatting that appears... so I just give up. (Otherwise I might end up throwing my computer out the window... not a good idea.)

Other posts in this mini-series:

• Part 1: Lighting - How to use light to take the best photos possible. 
• Part 2: Composition - How background, framing, and placement of your subject effects your photos.
• Part 3: Settings - How adjusting your camera settings can create different effects and feelings in your photos.
• Part 4: Editing - How using simple editing tools can help your photos go from good to great. (A guest post by Mandy from A Sorta Fairytale.)

Have you registered your blog here yet?

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010 
do not reproduce without written permission

4 simple tips for taking awesome photos of your kids (part 1 of 4)

My child is famous on facebook.

There’s probably many reasons for this: 1) he’s an incredibly good-looking baby; 2) his mother is a photo-fanatic; 3) his father is almost equally enthusiastic about snapping away; 4) we have a lot of friends in various locations around the world due to our work; and 5) neither my husband or I live near our families so they have to stalk facebook to get their baby fix.

But I also like to think I can take a decent photo.

Truthfully, I was much more confident in my photography back in the days of film {gasp} and I have never really learned—yet—how to edit digital photos beyond a few simple things like adjusting the exposure or contrast or cropping. (But this is one of my goals as soon as I’m able to afford a decent computer to edit on.) 


So that's my disclaimer to say that I’m not pretending to be an expert on this subject! In light of that I’ll leave the technical stuff for someone else to tutor you on and we’ll stick to the basics here.

But I am convinced that anyone—with any camera—is able to take decent photos with just a few little pointers… so let me pass on some of the most useful (and easy) ones I know to you.

Oh, and I should say here that you can take great photos with a small “point-and-shoot” camera. Of course your photos will look better with an SLR camera… and they’ll look waaaay better if you have an SLR camera and a good lens. But even a simple camera can take great shots if you pay attention to lighting, composition, and settings. I will cover these over the next three days, and on the fourth day we'll finish with some editing tips.

Today's focus: Light

1. If you can, turn the flash off. Try to use as much available light as possible without using the flash. Flash photography can make a photo look very “snapshot-ish”, unless the flash is diffused or the photographer really knows how to work it. (In saying that, some cameras have awesome built-in flashes.) Use sunlight, use lamps, use ceiling lights. If you can avoid using that built-in flash… do. BUT, as with anything, experiment. Try taking the same photo with the flash turned on and off and see which one looks better. (Hint: one time not to take this hint is when you’re outside and you’re getting harsh shadows on a face. Turn the “force flash” setting on and let the fill flash make those shadows disappear.)

{although this is a cute photo, the flash makes it look very snap-shot-ish... not so great.}

{compare the flash photo on the left with the natural light photo on the right.}

2. Avoid harsh direct sunlight. If you’re a regular follower of my blog, you may have noticed that a lot of my photos of Levi are in the same places: on the orange and white bedspread, on the white couch in the office, or on the gray carpet in his room. That’s not because these are the most “beautiful” places in my house… it’s because they have the best light. They all have big windows with lots of natural light coming through without harsh overhead light casting bad shadows.

{plenty of natural--but indirect--light causes a nice, soft glow
and creates some light and shade without harsh shadows.}

3. Find a place that will give you good “catch light”. Have you ever seen a photo where the subject’s eyes look a little bit glossy and there’s a speck of light visible right in the eyeball? This is called “catch light”. When you are able to put your child in a place where the light will reflect off their eyes like this, it will instantly add “life” to the photo. (For amateurs like us, this works best when using natural light, not flash photography.)

{catch light will bring life and emotion to a photo - see the "sparkle" in his eye here?}

{catch light brings the eyes alive.}

4. Experiment with different types of lighting. Try turning the lights off and then using one source of light (a window or a lamp) to cast light from only one direction. Or try doing a silhouette with minimal detail. Use your imagination and play with light to give you some different, creative shots.

Look at how natural light is used differently in each of these shots:

{from the side.}

{from behind.}

{from behind and reflected on the wood floor in the front.}

{from the front.}

Other posts in this mini-series:

• Part 1: Lighting - How to use light to take the best photos possible. 
• Part 2: Composition - How background, framing, and placement of your subject effects your photos.
• Part 3: Settings - How adjusting your camera settings can create different effects and feelings in your photos.
• Part 4: Editing - How using simple editing tools can help your photos go from good to great. (A guest post by Mandy from A Sorta Fairytale.)

Dear friends, do you have any photography tips related to lighting to add? Have you learned something today and taken a great photo because of it? If so, leave us a link in the comments so we can come and check it out!

constantly clicking,

Have you registered your blog here yet?

adriel booker | the mommyhood memos | 2010 
do not reproduce without written permission