I had a wonderful time yesterday shooting SheetMusicPlus, the World’s largest retailer for sheet music.
Since they are an online retailer (there is no brick and mortar store), it was a fun challenge to shoot their warehouse.
Some of the challenges were limited space to move around, low light, and the images needed to be landscape-orientation.
For an executive headshot, we moved this old piano into the warehouse to use as a prop.
[Specs: This shot was taken with a 30mm at f/1.4, ISO 640, 1/500 sec. The window light was on the right of my subject and I used a reflector to his left to fill in the light on his face.]
My favorite part of shooting this company was learning about their business and the people who work there. For example, I learned that most of the employees are musicians! Being at SheetMusicPlus.com allows them to be in the music industry while they play their instruments or work on their music in the evenings and weekends. So cool!
[Photography Tip: Learn about your subjects, whether you are shooting a family, a wedding, a model, or a business. It may help in sparking your creative vision for the shoot and build a relationship between you and your subjects.]
There are some things we know about light. We know that light changes throughout the day. The best portrait lighting is when the sun is low in the sky — such as early morning and an hour before sunset – and we know to avoid shooting midday when the sun is strongest and directly above. No one likes having harsh shadows under noses and in eye sockets or subjects squinting from the bright sun!
So let’s say you’re at a location when the sun is fairly low in the sky. Now what? Where do you shoot? Is the quality of light the same everywhere?
Whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional photographer, the question is the same: How do you “find the light” at a location?
It’s the same sun, the same location and the same time of day, yet the light varies depending on where you are, what direction you shoot and what surrounds you. Simple and small adjustments can change the outcome of your image.
To give examples of the various kinds of light, I chose a park with hills, trees and buildings; and walked around with my model in the afternoon for about half an hour. I’ve marked where I took my shots in the image below. I did not use a reflector or flash. It was just me, my camera and my model.
Should the Sun be Behind You or Your Subject?
We started at Location A where there was ample light.
If the sun is behind your subject, you get warm “back light”, which brings color and attention to your subject’s hair. It will also create a bright outline of your subject, which is especially nice for maternity, children and Senior portraits.
With my model in the exact same position, I moved to the other side of her, so the sun is now behind me. The image looks and feels completely different.
Her hair now appears jet black and the image looks cooler. I notice more texture and details because the light is shining directly on my model. Overall, it is a good image, except for the glaringly harsh shadows on her face!
Depending on whom you are photographing, you may not have control over where your subject will be, like in the case of young children. It would then be up to you to make slight adjustments to improve the lighting situation or make the most of the type of light.
Here, I corrected the harsh shadow problem by having my subject turn her head. Voila!
Open Shade
In Location B, I saw a large flowering bush that blocked the direct sunlight, but allowed enough light to illuminate the area. This is called “open shade”, and it produces even lighting and softer shadows, which is great for portraits.
Mixed Light: Shadow and Sun
Both images below were taken at Location C, just steps apart, but the quality of light was vastly different.
Sometimes I like dramatic light – where shadows are very dark and the light is very bright – when I want my image to focus on a pattern or the architecture or to create a particular mood.
For a portrait of my young model, I preferred the contrast to be less dramatic. So we walked along the same side of the building to a doorway that was close to surrounding trees. With a narrower range of dark and light, the portrait still had interesting shapes from the mixed light, but they were more subtle.
Engulfed in Light
There are times you have no choice and there are times you may just want to: shoot directly into the sun. In fact, fully immerse your subject in it! (Location D)
To keep your subject from being underexposed because your camera sensor will read that this is a very bright image, you can use a flash or reflector, or adjust your camera’s “exposure compensation”.
This image below was shot at ISO320, f/2.8, 1/2000 sec, and +1 exposure compensation.
Once you realize that sunlight is different even in the same location and same time of day, you can learn how to “find the light” that you want for a particular image.
I love images that have layers of emotion.
They are in the subtle details, like how the mom’s hair bulges from the tightness of her son’s hug.
My favorite detail of this image is the father. It’s the way he is smiling while he looks downward, as if to give his wife and son a moment of privacy. Or maybe it’s a smile of pride in his family. Whatever the story is, this image makes me think…
And feel.
[Photography Tip: Be aware of the people and things around your main subjects. Sometimes people's reactions to whom you are shooting is what makes the image extra special by giving it layers of emotion or stories.]
This week’s I Heart Faces theme is Hugs and Kisses.
This morning’s lifestyle baby photography session was of the beeeeeaaaauuuuutiful Lilah whom I had last seen when she was just a few days old! [Click here to see some of her newborn photos.]
Like all 7 month old urban babies, Lilah packed her morning full of activities. Lilah began her morning with milk and giggles, and then it was off to do some baby modeling…
A Diva Outfit
After a little creative redecorating at the K’s home, Lilah had some solo shots in her diva outfit: her birthday suit and a hairclip! 
I wanted a shot of her little baby bum and thought this perspective would be more interesting!
It highlights the contrasting textures of her soft skin with the rough carpet.
Lilah’s furry brother, Ramsey, liked to check on her once in awhile. He is such a good big brother!
Musical Talents
Then she played a little riff on the piano with her dad.
Then there was some play time before heading out…
Flying, Blowing and Kissing
I love the light and the natural expressions of the K family playing together in this shot.
[Photography Tip: This photo is also a great example of how coordinating outfits can tie the image together. They have just the right amount of coordination of pinks, browns and beige...even down to the wall and furniture. Because of this, the photo acts similar to a monochromatic image where you focus on the expressions because the colors aren't distracting.]
Discoveries
The beauty of simple discoveries — like how a flower looks when the wind blows and the feel of your father’s face — are precious.
Around the Neighborhood
The sun disappeared just before we headed out and I am so thankful for that, otherwise this sweet family shot would’ve been drenched in harsh shadows.
I love this family photo because everyone looks happy and, heck, the colors are just so darn pretty.
After this action-packed morning, Lilah was ready for her nap, which, by the way, did NOT involve rocking, soothing, feeding, reading, white noise machines, singing or anything. We arrived back at the house and they just put her in her crib. Done.
My jaw was on the floor. Can Lilah be any more amazing?!!
Lilah is on my Baby’s First Year plan, so I get the pleasure of seeing her and her charming parents again in a few months. I can’t wait!
After taking photos of my 3 monkeys in their jammies on New Year’s Day (that’s my new family tradition), I decided to shoot a couple minutes for fun. I say “for fun” because trying to get a shot of all 3 of my kids in the same frame where I can see everyone’s faces — and no one is crying, grimacing or leaking something icky from their face — is HARD WORK! Really. I need an entire crew to wipe drool, re-center Baby Ava, make sure no one gets injured, keep Ian focused and get Mia’s attention.
The benefit of this is it gives me big photography muscles for when I shoot other people’s kids!
So after the tiring mini-shoot of my monkeys in jammies, I turned off the lights, launched a kids game on an iPad, placed the iPad in the middle of my bed, and let the big kids have at it! They didn’t even notice I was taking photos of them.
By shooting my kids in a dark room with one small light source, the focus was entirely on their faces. And the images are “moody” because the color of the light depends on what is presented on their screen at the time of the shot.
The First
I don’t know if this happens to you, but sometimes, my favorite is the first. My first bite, my first shot, my first time hearing a song.
This first shot is my favorite. It’s the softness of the light, the color of light, the kids’ hand positioning and their expressions.
[Specs: Nikon 24-70mm/2.8 lens, ISO 400, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec, shot in manual, handheld.]
Room Size
Here’s the shot right afterwards. By panning out, you get a sense of the room size and the relative grandness to the kids.
[Photography Tip: When shooting lifestyle portraits or events, it's nice to get close-up shots of the people and the details, but it's also important to get a shot of the area to give perspective to the event or the lifestyle shoot. Do this no matter what the lighting situation is. Even in a very dark room with fast-moving subjects, like a dance floor, keep your camera steady, drag your shutter a bit and you can get a shot of people dancing with some cool motion blur.]
[Specs: Nikon 24-70/2.8 lens, ISO 400, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/25 sec, shot in Manual, handheld.]
Attention
I love their seriousness and attentiveness. Now, if only they’d pay attention like this when I talk to them! 
[Specs: Nikon 24-70/2.8 lens, ISO 400, 24mm, f/2.8, 1/20 sec, shot in Manual, handheld.]
Photography Notes & Challenge
My thought process: I knew I wanted to shoot at ISO 400, which allows for some motion and isn’t very grainy. I also knew I wanted to shoot it wide open, at f/2.8, so I’d get the full amount of light from the monitor and any details in the background would get blurred out. I only played with the focal length (though the 3 images I chose here happened to all be at 24mm) and the shutter speed.
Since I always shoot in natural light, I thought it would be a fun challenge to shoot with only artificial light that I could not control.
If you haven’t already, try this out! You can use anything: a flashlight, a cell phone, a candle, a desk lamp. It doesn’t have to be an iPad. Just find a willing participant and turn off the lights!
Whatever you shoot, always have fun!
xo,
annie
Hmmm….how do I even begin?!!
So today’s Commercial Photography at SuperFranks started off as a single room shot of their new Holiday Tea Party in the Princess Room.
Holiday Tea Party Room
Specs: Nikon 14mm ultra wide lens, f/11, 1/5 sec, ISO 800. Shot in Manual. I used a tripod, so I could drag the shutter, and used the timer, so there wouldn’t be movement from my pressing the shutter button. (You can also use a remote shutter release.)
I timed the shoot, so the room would be dark enough to see the holiday lights, but there would be enough ambient light from the window to give context to the room. (If you’ve been one of my clients, you know that I am very particular about when your shoot begins because good light is key!)
The Creative Process
To get that shot (above), we had to rearrange a couple pieces of furniture and I had a few creative decisions to make, such as which angle to shoot the room and what settings will best highlight the holiday lights. It was pretty straight-forward. 20 minutes, done.
What you don’t know is what happened after I got the room shot.
Frank, the owner of SuperFranks, was there as well. With two creative minds, there was an explosion of ideas.
Here is an example of our discussion:
*****
“Hey, should we get Santa in the shot?”
“Yeah! Is Santa here???”
“Sure, I can get him. Hold on.”
“How about he sits there… no, how about he drinks some milk?”
“It’s a tea party, he should sip tea!”
“Great idea! And have a cookie on the plate!”
[I take a couple shots.]
“This Santa looks like he’s been on a diet. Can we make him fatter?”
“What about his bag? Maybe we should put more in there.”
“It looks like he doesn’t have many gifts to give the children! Oh my gosh, it looks like he’s a thief!”
[I take a couple shots once Santa returned fatter and with a fuller bag.]
“Hmmm….something looks awkward. How about he holds the cookie…. and takes a bite out of it.”
“A BIIIIG bite!”
*****
And it kept going from there! It was so much fun. We had 6 people in there at one point and we started getting a lot of attention, so I had to close the door! (I didn’t want any kids to see Santa adjusting his belly or anything like that.)
At one point — no kidding — I was on my knees and slapping the floor from laughing so hard! (Tim, you know what I’m talking about!)
A Few Shots from the Creative Explosion
This is Super Frankie, the mascot!
Isn’t that nice of Santa to take a break from his busy schedule to play catch with Frankie?
What do you think: Is Frankie on Santa’s Naughty or Nice List?
Nice, of course!
Whatever your holiday celebrations are and whomever they’ll be with, I hope you will all have periods of slap-the-floor-laughter as I had today!
xo,
annie
I had the pleasure of seeing The W’s this morning for their family photography session in San Francisco.
All my clients are special, but The W’s are special in a different way. When I had their first shoot in 2009, Lisa (the mommy) and I were both pregnant. AND GET THIS…
We went into labor about the same time and were at the same hospital, even though our due dates were weeks apart and we lived in different counties! (It was with the beauty of social media that we learned we were at the same hospital.)
I, of course, had my camera with me, so I waddled to their hospital room to take a few photos of their new baby boy! How cool is that?!!
Shooting Details
Wedding photographers know to capture detail images of the events they’re covering, but what about for family photography?
[Photography Tip: It's on a smaller scale than weddings and other life events, but for on-location family photography, there is still a lot of planning that goes into it! The location, the outfits, the shoes, etc. So next time you're on a family shoot, notice the details that your clients put thought into and capture those. A good time to do that is in the beginning of the shoot when clients are warming up.]
For this morning’s shoot, I had a lot of time to capture the location. It was a peaceful and quiet morning with beautiful dusty fog.
In my last couple sneak peeks I’ve had shots of shadows, so I found this one to be a HOOT and had to share!
Mr Pigeon trotted around this cold, early morning in search of a blueberry scone….or so he said!
(And if you’re wondering, the answer is: Yes, I do find myself funny. I’m cracking myself up right now!)
“A Sneaky Peek”
That’s what I’m calling a true sneak peek where I don’t reveal much.
Alright, I can’t do it. Here are a couple of my faves of the kids!
Ian
His hair is one of the coolest I’ve seen. It had natural highlights and lowlights, and some strands had various colors…like reddish tips to this blonde hair!
I’d show you a photo of Ian in color, so you can see what I mean…but then it wouldn’t be a “Sneaky Peek”!
Sophie
It was great to see her after 2 years….and she still looked the same, just a lot bigger!
I discovered something yesterday that I’ve never noticed before, and it completely knocked my socks off — but in a bad way — so I thought I’d post about it, so everyone can either learn from my experience OR laugh at me for never noticing it before!
The aberration is called: Purple Fringing. (It’s sometimes other colors, like magenta, but it’s most commonly purple.) I’ll go over how to prevent Purple Fringing and how to get rid of it, so read on…
What is it? Purple Fringing is when you get purple color in high-contrast boundary areas in an image that was most likely taken in low light situations. The actual color and tint varies based on the camera, the lens, the lighting situation, etc.
How can you prevent this? Get a UV filter for all of your lenses. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always resolve this aberration, but it can prevent it from happening some of the times.
My Image with Purple Fringing
I didn’t notice the Purple Fringing until I got my client’s print order from my lab. (Can you even see it here in this shot?)
[Note: I used a Nikon 14mm ultra wide lens for this shot. The lens is built like a tank and looks like a fisheye lens with it's bulging curvature. It is not possible to put any lens filters on this kind of lens.]
Below is a close-up view of a section that has Purple Fringing. Arrrrrgh!
You can see it in various branches (like on the left side) and the edge of the roof (like on the right side of the image), but it was in so many places on the house and tree branches that I didn’t think this was fixable.
The Image AFTER Correcting the Aberration
Below is a close-up view of the same section.
I wouldn’t say it is “perfect”, but this is as good as it gets without changing the color of the rest of the image.
[Note: I have Adobe Photoshop CS4, so I can only tell you the exact steps for CS4. If you have another PS version, PS Elements or other editing software, but this may at least give you an idea of where to look.]
Steps To Correcting Purple Fringing (in Photoshop CS4):
1. In Photoshop, Click on “Adjustments” under the “Image” tab.
2. Select “Hue & Saturation”.
3. Where you see “Master”, click on it and select “Blues” to get to the Blue Channel.
4. Once you’ve selected the specific color channel, you will have the eyedropper tool.
5. Select the left-most eye dropper.
6. Then click on one of the areas with purple fringing. (I chose the tree branches on the right as they were one of the most prominent problem areas.)
7. Then go to the Saturation slide bar and move the slider to the left. Usually a place between -70 and -80 works best, but this depends on the image and the amount of fringing.
8. After correcting the purple fringing, check your image to see if you need to adjust anything else in your image as reducing the blue color may change the rest of your image or make it a little dull-looking.
So there, Purple Fringing!!!
Since I haven’t posted a Before and After in almost a year (Part 5 was posted in February 2011), I think it is time!
My aesthetics is to have my images look natural, but polished. They shouldn’t look over-processed, but they also shouldn’t look flat, which some straight-out-of-the-camera images can look. Yep, even a “fancy camera” can produce images that look hum-drum.
A great image is a combination of so many factors. It’s about how you frame and compose, it’s about the lighting, it’s about the camera settings, it’s about the emotion or the story you’re capturing, and it’s about the post-processing!
I know many pros who transplant faces from one image to another. MANY pros do this. The reason for this is because you may have a perfectly great shot of a group, but one person blinked or maybe doesn’t have a pleasant facial expression whereas everyone else looks utterly delightful. So what do you do? Discard that shot or transplant the eyes or the face?
Many remedy this by transplanting in Photoshop.
For me, I remedy this by shooting a lot. I rarely get an image where I think: “Shucks! I wish I had gotten the second before or the second afterward.” I predict situations where a lot of movement occurs — either by me or by my group of subjects — and I’ll shoot a lot at that time. Shooting a lot means I take more time going through the images after the shoot, but I think it’s worth it in the end. That’s just me though. Many pros pride themselves on how few images they take per shoot. So there are various methods of shooting out there.
My advice is: do what works FOR YOU.
Don’t worry about what camera you own, what lenses you have (or don’t have), what settings you used, how many frames you take, and what you do with post-processing. If you love the end result (and your clients do too, if you’re a professional), then I give you a high-five! So don’t compare yourself to other photographers and always take criticism with a grain of salt.
The Road Less Traveled (by me)
So this past weekend, I had a shoot where this one grandparent (who had poise and was ultra glam!!!) temporarily stood apart from the rest of the group. She started talking to me, and I kept shooting her. For this one moment, she looked down.
Instantly, I could envision the shot I wanted, but unfortunately, it didn’t include the other people in the background. I quickly squatted down to get most of them out of the frame before my subject moved, but I couldn’t get them all out of the frame because I wanted to include her arms as well as not look completely up her nose!
If I asked the group to stand aside and my subject to look down again, the image wouldn’t have been the same. What I loved about that particular moment was the way she looked down… like she was embarrassed that I was photographing her.
So I took the shot.
In post-processing, I could’ve chosen to crop the image into a vertical one, thereby getting rid of the background people. However, I intentionally composed the shot to have her on the side, so I could see the pattern of the columns beside her. So I chose not to crop.
[FYI: I rarely crop my images, unless it's just a tiny bit. It reduces the image quality and restricts how large my clients or I can enlarge their prints, so I try to get the image "right" in the camera.]
So I took the road less traveled — by me, that is — and Photoshopped the image to my heart’s content!
BEFORE
AFTER
Here were my post-processing steps:
First, in Photoshop, I cloned out the people in the background. Then I retouched my subject’s skin — just a tad, so it is smoother, but still looks like skin! (I usually do this with close-up portraits.) Then I did some oomphing to make the image pop!
The end result is EXACTLY how I envisioned it when I took the shot, so I am happy as a clam! It’s a little more editing work than I usually do, but sometimes you have to venture into unknown territory.
Who knows….maybe one day I’ll even transplant a face in Photoshop! Nah, who am I kidding?!!
Most of my clients book Lifestyle Photography, but sometimes it’s nice to sprinkle some styled shoots into the mix.
Here was an unplanned styled shoot of Miss Kaitlyn, my sweet sweet stepdaughter who visited us over Thanksgiving. (I have SO MUCH to be thankful for!!!) Kaitlyn saw some of my photos and asked to have a shoot of her own. Yessirreebob! I was overjoyed to do it!
Kaitlyn, Au Naturale
Here is what I had to work with:
Kaitlyn brought one pair of jeans, hot pink sweatpants, Crocs, comfy sneakers, a studded tank, several graphic t-shirts, a retro-patterned dress and a colorful fleece hoodie… typical things for a 10 year old. The weather was cold and cloudy, and looked like it was about to rain.
Here is what I did:
I had her wear her most basic pieces (the tank and jeans). I then grabbed accessories out of my own closet, a pair of lace up military boots, my favorite Nikon body, a couple portrait lenses, and a reflector.
I had one night to conceptualize the shoot based on my beautiful model. Kaitlyn has long flowing hair, perfect porcelain skin and the gentlest eyes and smile. I knew I wanted to highlight those features while also glamorizing her a bit since I wasn’t shooting school portraits!
I chose an area with lots of trees and colorful leaves to take advantage of the environment and time of year.
The Transformation
[Photography Tip: A styled photoshoot requires having creative vision and being a Director on a set. Props and accessories are also more important here than for other types of shoots. Common styled shoots are model shoots as well as seniors, boudoir, newborn and couture bridal sessions.]
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