Floral Flat Lays

I decided to practice some more flat lays with flowers around my yard. I love all the spring time blossoms I have right now!

Don't be afraid to rearrange your items to get pictures of them in different arrangements. You might be surprised what arrangement you like best.

I used the same white poster board on the floor with white poster board on 3 sides set up that I've used for other flat lays. I like the nice clean white look.

Also, change up your perspective for a unique look. For the picture below I had my aperture at 1.8 so it gave my photo a very shallow depth of field.

Focus on those eyes

The other day I was practicing with my camera and loved how these pictures of my baby turned out. I really loved how they look in black and white. He was wearing a black and white hoodie and black and white shoes so it really added some great contrast.

I was using an aperture of 1.8 and ISO 100 and shutter speed of 1/250. Having such a wide aperture gave me a very shallow depth of field. The high shutter speed helped me get a clear photo in spite of the fact that he was moving a lot.

Always make sure you focus on your subjects eyes as that is the spot that you look at first in a photo. When using a shallow depth of field focus on the eye closest to the camera. With such a shallow depth of field his one eye is slightly out of focus because his head was turned slightly to the side. You can see that I had my camera focused on his right eye.

Terrific Tulips

You might have noticed that I have a new picture in my blog header now. My husband bought me some gorgeous tulips that I had to photograph. Below is the setup that I used for taking the photos.

I took some photos of them from up above in a vase and then wrapped them in brown tissue paper and took pictures of them laying on the bottom. I was having a hard time getting the tulips to cooperate. It really bothers me that one tulip is facing the side in the picture below. I wish I had just taken that tulip out of the vase for the picture!

That day I also took some photos for my moms decorating blog, www.nannaspretties.blogspot.com so that she could have a new picture in her header also.

I played around with different lightroom presets to give the pictures different looks.

For these photos I used the same lighting and reflector set up as I used with the tulips. I made sure to select my focusing point that was on one of the tulips that way the camera would focus on the tulips and the background would be a little out of focus - I really love shallow depth of field. I'll be doing some tutorials soon on how to get that shallow depth of field and how to focus on a certain point as well as what you should be focusing on.

One of these last two pictures in the one she chose for her blog.

Introduction to flat lays

I took a 7 day photography challenge last week and learned a lot from it. One of the challenges was to photograph a flat lay. I've never done a flat lay before so it was a learning experience. I took the photo in front of our big sliding door with a piece of foam core board underneath and on 3 sides of the image so that the natural light would bounce off the boards and give the photo lots of light.

The next days photo challenge was to use shapes in your image. Since I had so much fun with the flat lay the day before I decided to photograph a flat lay with circular shapes. I used the same set up as the day before and sliced up a bunch of fruit. I love the colors in the images.

Natural lighting

I'm taking an advanced photography class at our local community college right now. Our homework for our first week is to take pictures of our subject in natural lighting from 3 different angles - back, side, and direct and using a reflector, a diffuser, and natural. Also, we are supposed to take the photos at the golden hour. So, I thought I would shared some of my pictures I've been working on with you all. We have to share the picture exactly as it comes off the camera - no editing allowed.

The above picture is of my subject back lit - no diffuser or reflector. Pictured below is with a reflector in front of her face. Below that is with a diffuser.

Yes, that is one of my chickens in the background, lol.

The picture below was taken on a cloudy day, so I didn't have to use a diffuser because the clouds acted as my diffuser. I love the soft even light. I am definitely not a fan of the harsh lighting that direct light creates.

 

The picture above and the picture down below are of my subject in direct light with a diffuser. I can't decide which one I like best for class. I just have such cute kids:)

The picture above is of my subject in direct light with a reflector slightly behind and to the side. I don't think the reflector did much for him at that angle.

In the below picture my subject is unhappily in direct sunlight.

The next few photos are of my subject in side lighting - first diffused, then direct, then reflected. My white balance is off in the first picture because I forgot to change it after I used the diffuser. I love the look on his face though and the white balance is an easy fix in any editing program.

I am definitely not a fan of the harsh side light below.

The reflector on the shadow side of his face helps soften some of those harsh shadows from the sun. Once he noticed the reflector though all he wanted to do was play with it and I couldn't get any more pictures.

So, that's what I've been working on this week.

Indoor Easter Photo Shoot

I had a photo shoot with my children the weekend before Easter. We had to take pictures indoors since it was too cold outside. I have tons of natural light in my living room and neutral colored walls so it's the perfect place to take pictures. With so much natural light I don't need to use a flash (In case you didn't know you want to avoid using your on camera flash as much as possible).

I have a large window in my living room so I had my children face the window - that way their eyes would get awesome catchlights and they would have soft even lighting on their whole face. Just check out those beautiful blue eyes on that handsome boy!

I did some photo editing in Lightroom to soften their skin and brighten their eyes a little more. Plus I added a slight vignette to the photos.

 I used a pretty wide aperture for most of these pictures to let in as much light as possible. I had to close the aperture down a little though for the group photos.

Here's the props that I used for the photos:

Wood flooring (I bought a box at the Restore for $10)

Pendant banner from the Target dollar spot

White fur rug from Homegoods

Wire basket

Flower tieback that I made for my daughter for these pictures - I used dollar store flowers and ribbon

Photo Shoot in a Truck

I used my dad's truck for a photo shoot for some of my family.  It was so much fun and the grandkids especially loved getting pictures done in their grandpa's truck.