Can you believe it’s time to start thinking about this ALREADY?  I (Casharina) can’t…this year has seriously flown by, and I know I’ve heard all my life that “the older you get, the faster it flies,” and I can truly understand that now!  My little ones are growing up before my eyes; it’s amazing how fast the years have passed with them.

 Okay, let’s get back to the Holidays right!  I LOVE Christmas; it’s my most favorite time of the year.  I love what Christmas truly means and what it represents to me and my family, I love the magic of Santa and the fun it brings, as well as the lessons we learn about giving to others, the bright colored lights found inside and outside our homes…oh how I love this time of the year!

 This year I’ve been focusing on taking better everyday pictures, and with that I have been focusing on the fact that this year I want to get better Christmas morning pictures.  So after practice I’m going to share with you some of the pointers I’ve learned along the way and hope that they will enable be me to get my best photos yet! ;)

 First of all, to be fully prepared for the hustle and bustle of Christmas morning (or any special event) we need to ensure we’ve got things ready the evening before. This includes:

•  checking that the camera battery is fully charged
• having new/clear memory cards (have another available in case you need it…I always keep an extra one or two in my bag!)
• get your camera settings ready by adjusting all of your dials to the appropriate settings for Christmas morning fun!
• if you have an external flash, make sure you have new batteries in it or extras handy.  I have had batteries die so many times during a photo shoot it’s not even funny!

 Without a Flash:

 For us we usually get up EXTRA early in the morning…honestly I can’t sleep due to excitement for my kiddos so I’m up all night waiting for the morning, and have had to wake my oldest up for a few years! Hah.  I know sad right!  (My mom was the SAME way when I was little!)  We’re those people who have eaten and opened gifts by 6:45 am at the latest, although this year I’m going to let em’ sleep til’ at least 7!

 OK, I kinda got sidetracked!  I told you about our early mornings because many times I don’t want to wake the girls up with flashes in their face, I can’t say that’d put them in a very good mood!  I also don’t love the look of straight on flash so there are many options you can choose to help your photos look fantastic without the use of flash.

• First you’ll want to dial up the ISO (make it a higher number…usually I leave mine on 250ish but for darker situations I’ll bring it up to 800 or so!)
• You’ll also want to make sure you have your aperture opened as wide as it’ll go.  This means you’ll have the smallest f/# possible for your camera.
• You’ll also want to open your shutter speed up, ensuring that it’s not so slow that pictures are blurry.

 With a Flash:

•  If you find that you need to use a flash, there are ways you can help avoid the harsh lights in the face, just like we’ve learned before in Rosy’s last Focus on Photos post dealing with the challenges of indoor photography.  In addition to using a piece of cardstock you can also place a business card under the popup flash.  This allows the light to bounce off the paper before hitting your subject head on.  When using an external flash, you’ll want to bounce the flash off a wall or the ceiling to prevent the harsh light hitting the subjects face.

 One thing I’m going to really try to avoid this year is worrying about “the perfect shot!”  If you’re like me, you try to get the kids to look at you, wait on that perfect position of the lighting, gift, perfect little smile, all while trying to not include the trash and clutter of the morning???  Not this year.  This year I want to focus on what we’re doing, in the moment.  Honestly, when I look back at Christmas pictures from when my husband and I were young, it’s the clutter that really takes me back.  It allows me to remember the “other” gifts and things going on at the time.  I might be holding a new Barbie accessory, but in the background I can see a glimpse of a baby doll and clothes that I also received.  Just because they’re in the background, I’m able to recall those special toys, those special things that didn’t make the “picture” or scrapbook, but because they’re in the background I can go back and see what I was like as a child.  I want my kiddos to have the same opportunities.  I plan to just keep memories this year and by that I mean taking the picture in the moment, not waiting, worrying only about getting pictures of what’s happening, and I challenge you to do the same!

 Now, if it comes down to Christmas morning and your pictures just won’t look the way you want them to, forget it all and turn on Auto.  You will never forget pictures you took, but you may regret the pictures you missed because you were focusing on technical details and not the photo.

To get some more great tips on photographing the holidays, check out Beckie’s posts – HERE and also HERE!!  I used her tips to create the first picture in this post!  I’m hoping to come some shapes to try the bokeh look too!

Don’t forget to stop back by tomorrow when Kylie updates us our November ProjectSCRAP check-in and shares the NEW December templates!!

For me, this is a time of the year where my enthusiasm for photography tends to wane a bit.  The brilliant colors of fall are mostly over, it’s wet, rainy, and cold outside which forces all of our activities indoors and indoor photography is hard to get right!

I’m going to tell you right at the beginning here that I’m a bit nervous about sharing this post with you, because the reason that I’ve been searching for ways to improve my indoor photos is because they really need it!  I don’t have tons of good examples to show you, although I would have lots of examples of icky indoor photos, but I’m sure you all don’t want to see that!

So let’s start by looking at one of the biggest challenges…

::: Lighting :::

The number one challenge of indoor photography is getting enough light.  I should know, because my house does not have good lighting!

1. use windows and doors

You want to use natural lighting for photographs whenever possible, so be aware of where the light is coming from.  Use your windows or even open the door (if it’s not too cold)!  Having your subject facing the light can make for some beautiful catchlights in the eyes!

2. plan ahead

Planning what part of your everyday life that you want to capture in photos can be helpful.  If you’re planning a fun activity for your family that you know you want to photograph, gently guide them to a well lit area to do it in!  (for example: If I want a photo of Isaac painting, the next time he wants to paint, I’ll set up his supplies on the side of the table where he will be facing the light.)

If you want a photo of your cooking or other project, don’t wait until evening to make it!

3. bump up the ISO

Indoor photography will almost always require using higher ISO settings.  A higher ISO will make your camera’s image sensor more sensitive to light which is helpful in low lighting.  The danger in setting ISO too high is getting grain in your photo, so finding a balance is important.

4. diffuse your flash

If you aren’t able to get a properly exposed, clear photo by simply changing the settings on your camera, the situation may call for flash.  I usually avoid using flash if at all possible, because of the harsh lighting it gives, but if you are able to bounce or soften that light, it can work very well.  If you only have a pop up flash like I do, don’t despair!  You can make that work too.

Here’s an experiment that I did, using a piece of white cardstock propped in front of the flash to diffuse it.

Even with my ISO set to 3200, f stop at 2.8 and 1/50 second shutter speed, the photo was underexposed and beginning to look a bit grainy without flash.  Using my pop up flash created washed out colors and harsh shadows, but when I diffused the flash by holding my paper in front of it I got much softer and even lighting!   I was amazed at what a difference it made!

::: Cluttered backgrounds :::

Another challenge facing indoor photography is that there is often a lot going on in the background. I think that context to a photo is a good thing, but seeing all the dirty dishes and strewn toys can distract from the subject of the photo!

1. clean up :)

Here’s where you can use your photography hobby to motivate your housework!  When you look through your viewfinder, remember to notice what is in the backdrop and whether there are distracting object that can easily be remove.

2. zoom in

Cropping your photo closer to the subject can cut out distracting elements.

3. find a different angle

Often simply moving to another position will totally change what you see behind your subject.

In this photo, the background has a lot going on, when I stood on a chair and zoomed in just a bit, I got a much more neutral background, placing the focus squarely on Isaac and Sammy, the way I wanted it.

4. Photoshop it

Sometimes there will be a simple little something in the background that is easily removed in post processing with the clone tool in Photoshop.   I’ve also been known to change the color of a bright object in the background to help it blend in better!  While this is not my first choice of fixes, I don’t think you have to feel guilty about doing it, if it makes you happier with your photo.

::: Color :::

With the variety of lighting that we find indoors, weird coloring is often an issue.  If you see that your color is funky, play with your camera’s white balance.  Often, one of the white balance presets will improve your color.  Some DSLR cameras allow you to manually change the Kelvin color value.  See Beckie’s post for more details on that.

I hope that these tips can be helpful and that you’ve been inspired with me to improve your indoor photography!  Thanks for reading along and feel free to leave me your own tips in the comments.

SP will be here tomorrow with a Project Scrap check-in!

Where am I going with all this?  I ran across an idea several months back that I knew I’d love to do with my older kids, and I’m going to share our fun with you today.  The idea was to have a photo scavenger hunt where you intentionally spent time letting the kids be behind the camera.  Love it!  Not only would they love that this time was all about them taking photos, but it would give them a fun way to find what the subject of the photos should be.

We had the perfect opportunity this month, as we were doing a big family birthday weekend and were looking for some simple fun things to do with everyone who was coming to visit.  (Thus I played our scavenger hunt up bigger than necessary.)  I started by creating a list of scavenger hunt items that I thought could be found in most outdoor places (thinking ahead that we could do this again later with the same list).  I was mindful to use things appropriate for my kids’ ages (turning 6 and 4).  Then I made a 4×6 inch card for each of the photographers that I laminated and put on a string so they could be worn around their neck (keeping little hands free for taking pictures!)  Here’s what my card and list looked like:

Credits: Recipe Card template (rotated) from the Muffin Man set, paper from Heartfelt, alpha from Boo, star extracted from Sandbox swirl stamp, and camera by Heather Roselli

We headed to one of our favorite parks, divided up into teams (boys against girls at the kids’ request), and started taking pictures!  Here are some of the photos that they took.

So what did I learn on our little adventure?  To start with, I could have made the list longer!  Although we weren’t making it a race to see who could find all the items first, competitiveness seems to run in our family and they got through these pretty quickly (about 15 minutes).  I encouraged them to find more things to photograph when they were done with the list.  It was also good that it wasn’t just me with the two of them because having a bit of adult help for each of them was good.  But beyond that, it worked really well!  They were both excited to see the pictures later on the computer and my daughter especially was excited to have my phone all to herself to take pictures (yes, we let her use the phone camera because it was simpler and what she really wanted to do).

Of course, you would expect that this adventure turned into a scrapbook layout!  I thought I’d share that with you too before I go ;)

Hope you’ve enjoyed a peek into our fun with a kids photo scavenger hunt!  And I hope you are all encouraged to find ways to share your interests with the kids in your life.  Be sure to stop by the blog tomorrow, as Kylie will be here with the September project scrap templates.  Bye bye!

•  To begin have your photo edited to the desired brightness.
• Then you will select the quick mask tool.  It’s the little icon that looks like a square with a circle in the middle, or a “camera.”

• Change your cursor to a brush by either clicking on the brush tool or hitting the B key on the keyboard.
• Ensure that your brush is a soft rounded brush and make the size appropriate to what you are working on.
• If I’m working on shadows under the eye I like my brush fairly small, however if I’m going to adjust shadows on the side of someone’s face I like it to be a little bigger for faster coverage.
• Paint over the area you are fixing.

Tip: it’s fine if you get outside the area that needs fixed, you can always adjust it if needed.

• When you are finished hit the quick mask icon again.
• It will select the OUTSIDE portions of the brushed area, so you will need to invert it, by selecting CTRL+I.
• Now you are ready to adjust that portion of the photo.
• I like to use the Curves adjustments.
• You can adjust the diagonal line to meet your needs.  Moving the line towards the middle makes the photo brighter, while moving it down will make it darker.

• Once your finished you can add merge the layers together and you are finished!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Focus on the Photos post today!

Check back tomorrow for for SP’s project SCRAP July check-in!

Beckie, photographer-extraordinaire, has touched on in-camera cropping in some of her previous photography posts.  She said: “Professional photographers get gorgeous results by controlling every aspect of what is in the frame for each shot.  Most of the time, the best photos are those with a clear and obvious subject!  You can do this through in-camera crop, which means that you “zoom in” on only that subject matter that is important to you.  (Click here for more information, from Beckie, on lenses and crop sensors) Often, however, we’re so busy (and hopefully caught up having fun!) that sometimes you’ll need to crop the image later, before you use it.”  I agree!  And, if you’re like me, generally, there is little time to think about the all-important composition of a photo because, rightly or wrongly, I’m too concerned with capturing the moment…kids move QUICKLY!!!  However, thanks to our photo-editing software we can easily crop images in ways that can instantly transform them…making the composition all the more interesting and, at the same time, more appealing to the eye.

Cropping is a simple task.  All we are really doing is removing part of an image…too easy, huh?!!  Most of us should be familiar with the crop tool and how to use it.  In most programs it looks like this…

If you’ve never cropped digital photos before here are a couple tutorials provided by Adobe that go through the process step-by-step.

• Photoshop
• Photoshop Elements 

Before we all get a little bit too crop-happy, let’s consider a few things:

• ALWAYS CREATE A COPY/DUPLICATE of the original photo first, before you even touch the crop tool.  Make all the necessary edits (by tinkering with adjustment layers, the various tools in photoshop or via pre-made photo actions etc) until you are happy with the result…then it is time to crop your image.  Saving a separate copy to the original is sooo very IMPORTANT…I think we all understand the need to be careful with this, because once the original or master file is saved-over you can’t go back, can you?!!
• Consider the design of your layout and the story you want to tell.  Then think about how you can creatively re-work your photo/s to match your design concept and assist your story-telling.  A little fore-thought and pre-planning can help you create amazing pages…pages that catch everyone’s eye!!
• Choose your focal point and trim away all the distractions and/or empty space…so that your focus really does become your FOCUS!

• Choose a photo shape that complements your layout.  Rectangles are our default, but you don’t have to stop there…make the most of that standard rectangle to really focus on the subject of your photo.  Or think about squares, circles, ovals, other fun shapes, or even a combination of shapes using your shape tools and clipping masks, or an extraction…just don’t over do it or your page may end up a complete & utter jumble and the eye won’t know what to focus on!! ;o)  And if you work with Photoshop Elements have you tried the Cookie Cutter tool?  Oh…and don’t forget about SP’s Scallops, Shapes & More set…an array of awesome pre-made shapes to clip to!

• Take advantage of contrast!  If you are choosing your background papers first, then have a look at the design you’ve picked – circles, polka-dots?? …well, contrast the paper with square photos…and vice-versa!
• Use the Rule of Thirds to guide you…creating focus that is a little off-center!  According to the rule of thirds a photo or image is best composed when broken into nine equal parts (three sections and four quartiles).  The focal point (for example the subject’s eye, face, or smile) is placed in one of the four quartiles.  When used properly, it automatically creates an image that is more visually appealing than one that has the subject placed directly in the center.  It gives a photograph motion and energy by drawing the viewer into the picture, instead of the subject of the picture coming straight at them.  If you are lucky enough to have Photoshop CS5, or above, it provides a rule of thirds ‘crop overlay guide’ within the crop options tool bar.  If you don’t have CS5 our good friend Damien Symonds has a rule of thirds action for Photoshop that you can download and use to help you crop to perfection!  Also, check if your camera has a rule of thirds guide function?…have a play – it may save you time in post-editing!

• Don’t forget to consider balance and proportion when cropping!  With digi-scrapping it doesn’t matter so much, but sometimes it’s nice to stick to standard photo sizes…4×6, 5×7 and so on…to add a little more structure, formality and realism to a page!  And don’t just concentrate on image size dimensions when it comes to balance and proportion…think also about the space & shapes that have formed within the actual image…negative space vs positive space…triangles…points of interest.  Check that you have achieved balance before you apply that crop!! ;o)  Oh, and balance does not always mean symmetry.
• If you are cropping a number of photos you may want to keep your crop area to the same ratio.  You can do this by setting your width and height boxes instead of using the free transform option of dragging the marquee selection handles over the photo randomly.  Click on “clear” if you want to change the size or go back to free transform.

• What about dividing a photo into parts to help you tell a story?

• Tilting your crop area is a fun way to create interest and movement!  Great for those less formal pages!!

• Try not to crop limbs (feet, legs, arms, hands etc) in awkward places!  There’s no real rule to this…but if the composition looks wrong to you somehow…then it probably is.  And if the original shot you captured made the chop - oops!! – attempt to improve the composition by adding a frame or some elements to disguise the awkward ‘amputee’.

Here are some other cool ideas for cropping…just experiment and have FUN!!

Now that I’ve outlined a few cropping tips, to be honest, I don’t technically use the crop tool as much as you’d think…I fake it!!  First, I create a photo shape layer, using the rectangle tool for example, and then clip my photo to the shape (you can go with your preferred method of creating a shape layer and if you need help with clipping then you’ll find help right here in the Shoppe Tutorials for both PS and PSE!).  In a way it’s the same as using a layered template!  I then re-size and position the photo exactly where I want it.  I consider this a faux-crop as I haven’t actually removed/trimmed away any of the photo.  I prefer this way because I already have my “photo area” locked-in as far as my page design is concerned, but I still have the freedom to move the photo layer around until I’m 100% happy with its position within the shape (my “photo area”).  Just be careful, going back to your photo and moving it round & round and re-sizing up & down within the shape, will cause the photo’s resolution to deteriorate.  My advice is to play with your positioning until you are happy and then grab the original photo file again, place it over the other photo, in it’s final position…then delete the first photo layer -> in other words: the one that has lost some of it’s resolution and is now a bit on the fuzzy side (you can tell this easily by zooming in at 100%)!!  Of course if you get the photo in the right spot on the first move you don’t have to worry about that last step.

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post…and it has given you a few fun ideas to play with next time you edit your photos for a layout!  If you have any questions, please leave a comment on this post and I will do my best to answer it!! :o)

 Thanks for stopping by…I’ll be back tomorrow with your JUNE projectSCRAP templates!! :o)

So… here’s what happened when the team swapped photos.  I would say it was a random swap… except that it wasn’t exactly!  I tried when I gave out the photos to give us each something we wouldn’t normally get to scrap.  And the first thing I had to be sure and do was give Jenelle a chance to do a girly layout!  Here is what Jenelle created to scrap a photo of Casharina’s girls.

It looks like Jenelle enjoyed creating this girly layout!  All those bright colors perfectly compliment the photo too.  When I asked her about the experience of scrapping Casharina’s photo, she said “I was so excited to be scrapping pages about girls, but then thought to myself – ‘hang on a minute – I have pretty much no experience scrapping girl layouts – where do I start???  Too much pink?  Too many hearts and bows and flowers??’”  It may be that Jenelle was uncertain at first, but I think the result is perfectly lovely!

Jenelle wasn’t the only one getting to step out of her comfort zone in the photo swap.  I also wanted to be sure Casharina got a chance to do a boy layout!  Here is her layout of fun facts about Rosy’s cute little guy.

Love it!  It’s perfectly boy, but still has Casharina’s style all over it!  Here’s what Casharina said about her experience: “My biggest fear was that she wouldn’t like it, or that I wouldn’t make it boyish enough.  I’ve NEVER done an ALL boy page and I must say it was quite challenging!  Creating a layout for Rosy has inspired me though, as I’ve wanted to do a 10 reasons why/about forever and I couldn’t bring myself to put one together.  But now that I have I’m VERY excited to try one for my girls!!”  Sounds like trying something new for someone else has inspired Casharina to try it for herself too!

Next up we have Rosy, who was given three of my photos from our backyard adventures.  I really enjoy Rosy’s style and don’t think I can pull it off myself, so I was thrilled to see this layout with my photos.

I love how Rosy has taken three photos that don’t look alike (except that they were all taken in my backyard) and pulled them all together in this layout.  She picked perfect colors and elements to do this.  Thank you so much, Rosy, for helping me capture one of our everyday moments in this layout.  I think part of the fun of this photo swap was seeing my pictures all wrapped up in a design with someone else’s style!

Moving on, it was my turn to take on the photo swap challenge.  I scrapped this layout with a photo from Kylie of her cute nieces.  They make such great subjects for a layout, and here’s what I did with the photo.

I have to admit my first thought was that I was intimidated to scrap for someone as talented as Kylie!  AND… the place and event was something I had no idea about since I have never been to Australia!  BUT… part of the fun is in the challenge.  So as a starting point, I used my good friend google to look up Lorne Pier and Australia Day.  And one search led to another (because I’m kind-of a nerd and get interested in learning things).  Somehow I ended up looking more closely at the Australian flag than I ever have before, which led to me having to know why it has the seven-pointed star on it, which led to me having to put one in the layout… you see where this is going!  Point of this story: One of the fun parts of the swap for me was scrapping a photo from something that my family hasn’t done or experienced!

Kylie is up next with another stunning layout, created for Beckie with her beautiful bluebonnet photo.  I laughed when Beckie sent me the photo because I had been thinking of putting in a bluebonnet photo for the swap too.  Seems like both of us were looking for some inspiration for our endless bluebonnet photos.  What a great reason for a photo swap… looking for a new perspective on a layout theme you’ve done a lot of.  Here’s Kylie’s take on a bluebonnet layout.

Kylie said: “I felt the pressure scrapping someone else’s precious pics!! But I loved it…there’s a certain joy that comes with working on a page for someone else!!  I get the same buzz when I’m gift-giving!!”  I love that comment.  Sharing in the photo swap was a bit like gift giving!  And on the other side, you were receiving a gift too!

To complete the circle of our photo swap, we have a layout by Beckie.  She was given the task of scrapping one of Jenelle’s sons as a baby.  Did it take you back in time to when yours were that little, Beckie?

This is a truly sweet baby layout.  Who wouldn’t have been inspired to go sweet with the layout when looking at those big baby blue eyes?!  I love all the different elements Beckie found to cluster around the photos in this layout – a work of art!  Since that is one of the things I love so much about this layout, I found it interesting that Beckie said this: “I had no idea how nerve wracking it would be to scrap for someone else!  When I scrap for myself I just kind of throw it all on there and stop when I think it looks ok.  But I was so worried Jenelle wouldn’t like the page! LOL.  So I kept messing with it, adding stuff, etc.”  Beckie, I think you found the perfect balance with this layout!!

I hope this post gave you all a glimpse into our fun – and left you with some inspiration too!  I think after going through the swap, we all agree with these thoughts shared by Kylie:  “I probably took a bit longer to get started and must have gone through a million different paper combinations before I was 100% happy!  It was also hard to know whether to leave the photos full size or not, and if cropping them would make a difference to the story or the memories.  I also umm’d and ahh’d about the title – big or small??  When you have no real connection to the pics the story-telling through your choice of papers, elements, title options etc is definitely harder – you have to purely rely on what you see in the photo…but that’s half the FUN!!  On the flip-side, receiving a page crafted by someone else is even more exciting!!  When you see it you love it – it’s perfect!  I’m soooo critical of my own pages so it’s lovely to have a gorgeous page with your photos that you don’t find fault with!!”  Thank you for sharing those thoughts, Kylie!  I couldn’t have wrapped up the experience better myself!

That’s all for today, but Kylie will be back on the blog tomorrow to share the Project Scrap 2012 MAY templates!  I know SP’s sneak peek has us all anticipating them… only one more day to go!

I’ve had the pleasure of talking photography on here many times, but have never taken the time to explore ways to help every scrapper get the most from her everyday point and shoot camera.  With these simple tips, you can learn to get the very best results from your basic camera, and maybe even get some creative shots you never expected along the way :)  Ready??  let’s go!

(oh, and for reference, I have the Canon Powershot SD770 “Digital Elph”…about 2-3 yrs old)

1.  READ YOUR MANUAL

Boring, I know.  But there’s just no way around it.  You’ll never know what your camera is capable of unless you read the manual.  Nearly all point and shoots have many different shooting modes and creative settings and you want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth!  If you’re like me and you’ve uh…mis-placed your actual manual… :) …never fear!  All the major camera makers have .pdf manuals available for free download in the “Support” area of their websites.

As you’re reading along, if you find an interesting feature – stop right then and try to access it on your camera.  Most point and shoot cameras use only a few basic buttons and you might be surprised at how easy it is to access these features!  You’ll also remember them better if you’ve practiced :)

For my camera, I realized – after finally reading the manual – that most of the options displayed on the screen have “sub menus” with additional settings available to scroll through with one simple click.  For example, I’d seen a little icon labeled “Kids and Pets” – but after I read the manual I realized it had A TON of special shooting settings:  Beach, Snow, Aquarium, Under Water, and even Fireworks!

2. Know how and when to access the special shooting modes

Learning to rock your point and shoot means that you don’t have to understand the “science” behind ISO, shutter speed, and aperture.  But if you want the best possible images, you really need to know how to access the special shooting modes.  This is your only way to tell the camera how to set the correct settings for you.  Foliage mode in my camera enhances colors!  Snow mode ensures your images don’t have the dreaded blue/gray color cast common in snow photos.  Kids and Pets is particularly good for moving subjects…like kids and pets :)  Knowing how to select the right “shooting mode” for your conditions will ensure that you get the best possible photos!

3.  Sometimes the instructions in the manual really stink

I was very intrigued to finally take the time to figure out what my camera’s “manual” mode is capable of.  What does my manual say?  “Allows you to select settings yourself, such as the exposure compensation, white balance, or my colors.”  Then it tells me how to set it to manual, and that’s it.  nothing else.

huh?

Well, turns out that in manual mode, I can specify a metering mode!  I can set the shutter speed, and even white balance!  The instructions are written to explain the mechanics of how it works, but they don’t begin to explain what the camera is capable of.  So be sure to get out and play, play, play!  (oh, and for what it’s worth…I’ve kind of decided that manual mode isn’t worth the effort on my camera.  Especially with so many special shooting modes available!  I did learn how to use many more features though after I got out and tried it.)

4.  Read about your camera’s focusing modes

You don’t want to leave this to chance.  Understanding how your camera grabs focus is critical to ensuring you get quality shots.  Most point and shoot cameras have a “face detect” focus option, that is a good choice for most all-purpose photo situations.  Be sure to understand how your face detect works if this is the mode you prefer.  My camera even allows me to toggle between numerous faces detected in the image to specify the one I’d like to have in focus.  You want the birthday boy in focus, not the random neighbor standing next to him :)

5.  Check out your macro mode

Hands down, the feature that I was most pleasantly surprised with was my macro mode (for getting very close-up shots).  I love doing macro with my dSLR and find that I’m very naturally drawn to beautiful flowers, interesting bugs, etc.  I rarely scrap them – but I have tons of them on my hard drive, LOL!  I first attempted macro shots with my camera in full “auto”, normal shooting mode and got this:

Then…by simply pressing a button twice to go into Macro mode, I got these!

I hope you all enjoyed learning a little bit about  how to “rock what you got” :)  Thanks for stopping by…SP will be ‘checking-in’ with you tomorrow!!

I’m going to talk about a few things that I’ve learned, from others and my own experience, about getting those “natural and unposed” shots.

1. Keep your camera within easy reach.
I usually keep my camera in a central area of the house, close to where most of the “action” happens, but out of little hands’ reach.  If something photoworthy happens, I don’t have far to go for the camera (ok, so we have a small house and I wouldn’t have far to go, anywhere I kept it… but you get the idea).  This also applies to taking your camera along when you go places.  Better to have the camera and not take any photos than to not have a photo because you didn’t have your camera!  I know a lot of you may use your phone for these type of “on the go” photos, but my family has gotten used to me taking my camera almost everywhere I go.

2. Keep your camera ready.
I’ve found this helpful when shooting in manual mode.  If you change a lot of settings because of a extreme lighting situation, before you turn the camera off, changing it back to more normal settings will save you some time the next time you grab the camera for that quick candid shot.  Of course, switching to Auto when there’s no time to mess with settings, works as well.

3. Don’t be obvious.
If you want to capture spontaneous action, don’t call attention to the fact that you’re about to take a photo!  Sometimes I’ll even peek out from behind something so as not to disturd the activity that I want to photograph.  Avoid using a flash if at all possible, and remember that your subjects don’t always have to be facing you.  Photos from behind can tell a story too!

4. Anticipate the action.
Take some time to think about what is happening and where you can position yourself to get the best shot.  Waiting on the right moment is important to getting a good photo whether you’re shooting kids at play, someone eating, a group laughing at a joke, etc…

5. Take more than one.
Even if the first photo looks great in the camera, take several!  You’re much more likely to get one you love if you try a few different angles, and often once I download my photos and see them full size, the photo I thought was great isn’t the best one after all.

I will give a note of caution with this one… remember that sometimes participating in the moment/activity is more important than getting that perfect photo.  If your camera is keeping you from fully enjoying and joining in the fun, you might be going overboard.  Take some photos and then put your camera aside and participate!

6. Be satisfied with less than perfect.
Candid photography is all about capturing the “real”.  In real life we don’t always have the perfect lighting, backdrop, or color coordination.  If you’re like me, often the photo capturing the action or moment best, ends up with some less than perfect feature about it.  I’m here to tell you that it’s ok!  You’ve captured the moment, preserved a memory and that’s why you took the photo in the first place!

Thanks for checking in with the blog today.  Kylie will be with you tomorrow to share the MARCH Project SCRAP templates…be sure to stop by and pick them up!

A long, long time ago on the blog I did a very basic primer on photography and understanding how ISO, Shutter Speed, and aperture (that f number) work together to capture light to expose an image.  The basic idea is that you want to set those three variables in such a way that your camera meter reads “0″, or it’s perfectly centered between positive (too much light), and negative (not enough light).

ISO is something that many beginning photographers don’t like to utilize in high ranges because either a) they’ve tried a high ISO photo and it didn’t turn out well (lots of noise), or b) they’ve heard from people not to use higher ISOs because their photo will be noisy!  Well, let’s demystify and debunk some of that today!

What I’ve learned about ISO:

1.  It is true that as you increase ISO, you begin to add “noise” to a photo.  How much noise is added and when the noise is introduced (at what ISO range) is somewhat camera dependent.  However, there are things you can do to mitigate noise!

2.  Not all noise is bad.  Seriously.  It’s far better to CAPTURE the moment at a high ISO than to not capture the moment for fear of an imperfect image.  Heck, all the photos from my childhood are either orange, polariods, or glued down into an album that has a plastic cover stuck to it.  So really, put it into perspective – is a tiny bit of noise in an image going to ruin it for future generations?  um…nope.

3.  There are steps you can take to make the noise as minimal as possible.  Let’s look at some of them next!

But first…what is noise?

That, my friends, is noise.  This is a section of a really crappy photo, one shot at a pretty high ISO (ISO3200) that I under-exposed on purpose to exaggerate the noise. I also picked the worst part of the entire image to show you because you can see both types of noise…regular old noise (grainy chunky pixels that shouldn’t be there) and color noise  (colors that don’t belong there – the flecks of pinks, greens, reds, etc that you see around this sample).

Typically you’ll get regular old noise in whiter, lighter portions of an image with the addition of color noise in the darker, shadowed areas.  In this particular example, because it’s that bad, there’s also color noise over the white portion as well.

So…what can you do to prevent un-necessary noise??

NO MATTER WHAT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, SHOULD YOU UNDER-EXPOSE THE PHOTO.

That’s pretty much it :)

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that you actually should learn that you often have to over expose an image to capture it correctly. Slight over exposure is very easy to fix in editing software with simple sliders in  ACR, Lightroom, even Photoshop (here’s a post that covers basic adjustments in ACR).  And over exposing minimizes noise.

Another key reason why you need to over expose in many cases is that, well, the camera meter can be wrong. Well, it’s basically a computer so it’s never really wrong, but it can definitely tell you that something is “right” when it really isn’t.  There are two main reasons this happens:

1. Your metering mode.  I always shoot in spot meter mode because it takes a small, very specific portion of the image into consideration when it determines whether or not there is sufficient light.  Canon cameras use the area just around the center focal point and evaluate the light to give you a meter reading.   An alternative mode, called evaluative, considers a much larger area of the photo around that center focal point and gives you an “average” value for the entire area considered.  I typically photograph people – my kids – and I want their sweet little faces to be properly exposed.  Because of this, I want the camera to disregard everything around them and make sure the photo is exposed properly for their faces.  So I put the center focal point on their faces, adjust the ISO, aperture, and shutter speed until my meter says “0″, and then I shoot.

In evaluative mode, the area around that sweet little face is considered as well.  So if you have strong backlighting your meter will actually consider some of that brightness and determine that your average light value is higher than what it would get as spot metering on the face alone.  As a result the face will come out darker.  You can find many resources on-line to further (better?!) explain these modes, including your camera manual, but for now stick to spot or partial metering (partial metering is kind of in-between spot and evaluative).

2.  The color of your subject.  This one is really, really important so I’m illustrating it below.  Your camera is designed to give you a meter reading as if you are taking a photograph of middle gray (18% gray).  White reflects nearly 100% of light, black reflects nearly 0% of light, and middle gray is – you guessed it – in the middle.  But the world, fortunately, is not shades of gray.  Here’s a very common example/problem…WHITE.

In the series of photos below, I used spot metering and metered off the large white flower hanging down to your left.

In the far left image, my camera meter said I had the perfect amount of light to capture my image – assuming I was taking a photo of something 18% gray!  But I wasn’t…i was taking a photo of red and white flowers.

So – to prove my point – I changed my shutter speed, kept everything else the same, and took another photo when my meter was to the first dot past “0″.  This is called over exposing by 1/3 stop.  That image is brighter overall, and looks better than the one on the left.  I continued this, reducing my shutter speed to add 1/3 of a stop each time, until by the fourth photo I was one full stop over-exposed (according to my meter!).

The FOURTH shot is the best!  Want to know why?

This screen shot says it all.  My histogram shows that very little data in the image is blown (hitting up against the right wall of the histogram), and the portion that is blown is highlighted in bright red in the image itself.  It’s all stuff I don’t care about!  the back lighting in the window, the bright parts of the reflection on the floor…I’m far more satisfied having the flowers nice and bright even though some of the other portions of the image are blown.

Even if this post wasn’t about shooting at high ISO, it’s really important to know that a good SOOC (straight out of camera) image looks more like the photo on the right than the one on the left.  I could scrap this photo as-is without having to do a single thing to it!  Heck, if I really loved it (which I don’t, LOL), I could print it for my wall and hang it up.  Learning to master white balance and exposure in camera, without relying on editing, is the single most important thing for a photographer to accomplish :)

ok – so now we’re ready to tie this back in to ISO…

Here’s a close-up of the noise from the first and fourth images from the exposure sample above:

The general brightness is just much better in the image on the right, but if you look more closely you can see a few other differences.  The image on the left has color  noise on the bottom portion of the white flower while the image on the right doesn’t.  Also, the noise is much heavier, almost “bigger” looking in the neutral space behind the flowers in the image on the left.  The +1 stop photo has much finer, smaller noise.  And keep in mind – ALL of these images were shot with ISO3200, a relatively high ISO setting!

So – wrapping this up (you’re quite a trooper if you’re still with me, LOL!)…

1. PROPERLY expose your photos.  That sometimes means “overexposing”.

2.  Do not sharpen images with noise – it makes it SIGNIFICANTLY worse. I usually fix noise and then do some sharpening if it’s necessary, but they two kind of counter-act each other to watch closely as you make adjustments.

3.  Learn to use noise reduction in your editing software.  ACR has it, as does LR.  I regularly use the noise sliders in LR to reduce noise.  It’s so powerful, in fact, that it can virtually eliminate the noise altogether.   Here’s a before and after with noise reduction applied:

{After settings in the LightRoom noise reduction panel:  Color +18, Luminance +28).

4.  and final…do your own ISO test so that you know how high  you can go with your ISO with confidence.  Do a test just like I did here!

That’s all I have for you today!  Please don’t hesitate to ask questions or to share your own experiences in the comments section!

Join SP tomorrow for the launch of Project SCRAP 2012! Yay!

I just LOVE this time of year.  I love the cool (almost COLD!) weather, the scent of burning candles, and the glow of festive holiday lights :)

Last year, almost a year ago to the date in fact, I shared tips for taking photographs around the holidays.  It’s a great “getting started” overview with ideas on how to make your photos from this time of year even more special.  This year I decided to do something a bit different, and to try out a technique I’d seen a few times before but never actually tried…creating shaped bokeh!

We’ve probably mentioned it in the past, but bokeh is “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light“.  It’s the blurry part of an image :)   Turns out, by putting a template over the front of the lens and shaping the light that hits your sensor, you can create some really cool effects with your bokeh.  Ready?  It’s super simple, I promise!

What you need:

• portrait lens (you need something f2.0 or wider (a lower number) for this.  When looking at a lens, you’ll see “50mm 1:1.8, or 30mm 1:1.4″ – we’re talking about the “1.8″ and the “1.4″ part.  If you have those numbers, you’re good.  If your lens has bigger numbers, this technique most likely won’t work very well :(
• black cardstock
• craft knife

Place your lens face-down on the black cardstock and trace around the inner most ring of your lens.  It might take a small bit of “fiddling”, but you simply cut the circle down a bit until it fits within the ring of the lens.  As you can see, I kind of pressed it in there snugly to make sure it stayed in place.  Once you get one ring sized properly, just trace it out a few other times in case you get the fever and want to create a few different shapes.

Once you have your black circles, you need to use the craft knife to cut shapes from the center.  I had a holiday stencil on-hand from years of holiday craft projects, and I used it to trace and cut out a starburst, a star, and a tree.  You could also use a punch if you have one!

Unfortunately I got home every night this week after it was already dark, so please excuse these photos – they aren’t my best!  But what I do love about them is that you can very clearly see how COOL and how amazing it is to actually change the shape of the light (the bokeh) in your photos:

shot at 1/50, f1.4 with my Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens (which rocks, btw!)

Here are a few tips:

• You want your lens to be as “wide open” as possible (the lowest f-stop number your lens supports).
• blurry is better!  In other photos not shown here, I focused on the tree – and the photos had no shaped bokeh because well, there was no bokeh!  The idea is to create blurry light to allow the little lens cover thingy do its work :)  So just manually adjust the focus  and watch the beautiful bokeh emerge :)
• The more blur, the bigger the bokeh.  So play around to find out what looks best!
• Use a tripod.  Or, if you do what I did – which is to temporarily misplace that little thing that screws into the bottom of the camera to allow your camera to snap into the tripod, you can pile up books on the coffee table and very carefully press the shutter button.  LOL!  (I need to find that thing!  hubby will not be happy if I tell him I need another tripod, LOL.  But the pile of books worked OK)

I was SUPER curious to see how the left image  would come out, which was created with the starburst cut-out.  I love the effect it created – but it also created a bit “messier” image.  I think it’s pretty cool!  I know my daughter would love it if I created one with her initials in the bokeh – something I might try over vacation :)

I have better examples of holiday bokeh (and tips on how to create it) in the post from last year, so be sure to check that out also!  And remember that you can just use the bokeh as a background element.  Believe it or not, you can still focus on a person (or a gift, an ornament, etc) in the foreground of your image and it will look perfectly normal – and still have that cool bokeh in the background.

Well, that wraps it up for me today!  I hope you enjoyed this simple little experiment.  And for even more inspiration – check out the shaped bokeh images on flickr!  And stop by the Blog tomorrow for some more festive food fun with Casharina. SP and Kylie will also be stopping by with all the latest on projectSCRAP!

Happy holidays to you all, and best wishes for a healthy and happy new year :)