Shutterbug Sunday: America The Beautiful

Recently I was in New York City and took some time out for a little sight seeing between meetings. I took my Blythe Doll "Watermelon Sherbet" and wanted to snap some pictures of her in the big city. Imagine my excitement when I saw the "Naked Cowboy".  Crafty Cat says he's an American institution. He certainly is an American attraction. He was so nice and when I pulled out my doll for a picture, he was more than willing to pose!  Sometimes you just gotta get the picture and I did!  I was so excited. To see more pictures from my recent trip to NYC click on our flickr page!

Shutterbug Sunday: Try It

Sometimes you just don't know if you will get the right picture.  Does that make you give up?  I tend to take a lot of pictures and use a few.  I love being able to preview my pictures with a digital camera, so I can delete what doesn't work. I remember being very careful when snapping pictures with my film camera.  Didn't you hate it when half of your roll was blurry or didn't come out?!  I did.  That money could have been spent on crafting tools!!  I took this picture when I was giving a doll a boil perm.  At the exact moment I clicked, a big poof of steam fogged my lens. The end result was amazing. I just loved how it captured the doll in a foggy state. My advice today- just try it! You never know what the end result will be and you may be pleasantly surprised!  Sometimes unintended obstacles produce the most interesting results.

Shutterbug Sunday: Posing Dolls

This is kind of a "pulling the curtain back" moment like in the Wizard of Oz. I honestly wondered, how did girls get their dolls to stand up and pose in these great positions when my doll's head seemed too heavy?  She'd always fall over. Well, I asked my friends on the social networking site, Blythe Kingdom.  Their answer was so so simple and should have been obvious!

To pose a doll you need to prop her up against something and do your best to hide the item.  So, it should look as if the doll is standing up on her own!  The best items to use are either chopsticks or skewers. I had a ton of BBQ skewers left over from a gathering and pulled mine out.  Instantly my girl came to life.

You dig the item into the ground and then strategically prop the doll's head against the other end. Some women use photoshop to get rid of any sign of sticks. I prefer to strategically pose and not have to worry about post editing.

When working on a surface in which you can't dig the stick into the ground, try to use a pencil!  This is such an easy solution to help your doll come alive!

Shutterbug Sunday: The Rule of Thirds

Have you ever heard of “The Rule of Thirds?” It is quite possibly one of the most essential parts of photographic composition, and I must admit I was clueless about it when a friend first mentioned it to me. Rule of Thirds? Composition? I remember thinking that photography was just about aiming and clicking that shutter button at something I thought to be a worthy subject. But, no! As I have come to learn, there is more to a great photograph than just getting lucky.

The easiest way to explain things is that an image is made up of nine equal parts (refer to the above example). The "thought" or "rule of thumb" is that when taking a photograph, the point of focus should be placed along these lines or match up to one of the intersections. When taking a picture, most people probably never think about this concept.  It's something I never used to think about.  I just took pictures and aimed my focal points where my “eye” was directing me.  I never thought that what I saw as a good shot, was actually falling in line with the rule of thirds. I always feel visual examples are the most helpful. Bellow are some pictures with the graph so you can see how the focal points in each image line up. If you've never heard of this concept, keep it in mind the next time you are out shooting and experiment a little.  I would love to hear feedback on the effect it has on your images when applying it to your photography!

Happy Sunday!

www.marynicholsphotography.com

Shutterbug Sunday: Blurred Edges

Whenever I take a photo that doesn't come out completely clear, I try to salvage it.  Changing the coloring to black and white will cover some imperfections.  I've also discovered that blurring the edges of a photo can make the imperfections seem lovely.

Not long ago, I showed you how to give your pictures a hazy feel by putting pantyhose over your lens.  If you prefer to have a solid focal point in the center of your picture, with a hint of haze around the edges, you can accomplish the effect with simple editing.  If you don't know your editing options, you're wasting time!!

I know you all have different photo programs.  If you use iPhoto on a Mac, follow these steps:  Click on the picture, press "edit", choose "effects", and click on "edge blur" several times...until you reach the desired haze.

For some pictures, the haze is obviously intentional.  For others, it can add a subtle mood to the picture.  I wanted this rose to be clear, but soft, to reflect a sad occasion.  Blurring the edges offered me that effect.  Don't pay a photographer to do this for you.  It is easy if you just spend a little time getting to know your editing software.

Shutterbug Sunday: Grad Series

Oh, the wonders of Mod Podge.  Really, you can create any theme you want on top of anything that is wooden, metal, paper, etc.  I just love that stuff.  Since we are in the midst of graduation season, I'm using this Shutterbug Sunday to focus on a fun way to display your lovely pictures.

Here's what you need:

1-Inexpensive wooden frame.
2-Mod Podge
3-Adhesive
4-foam brush
5-Paper Trimmer
6-Embellishments (optional)

Pick a theme paper for your frame.  Right now you can find a large selection single sheets in the scrapbooking sections of craft stores.  You could also rip a page out of an old text book, with a lesson on the student's main subject of interest.  If you have a notebook full of scribbles and notes written by the actual student, rip out one of those sheets.  I opted to create my own page of notes on acid-free scrapbooking paper.  I placed my paper over the frame and used a knife to cut the hole out.  Leave a little paper to spare and tuck into the frame when you mod-podge.

Dip your foam brush in the Mod Podge and cover the surface of the frame with a layer.  Add your paper and smooth it out.  Next, I doodled all over the paper.  If you scribble your own notes, be sure to let the ink dry completely or it will run.  I used a black, acid-free, non-bleeding, fine-tipped marker from the craft store.  When your paper is dry, add another layer of Mod Podge on top of the paper...smoothing out bubbles.  Make sure there are no finger prints or odd clumps on the surface because the way you spread the MP will be evident as it dries.

Once the Mod Podge dries, you can add embellishments, if you want to.  Anything that makes you think of school work would apply.  If math is the grad's major...maybe a ruler would work.  A good ole' pencil fits any subject.  Adhere the embellishments.

This would be a great gift for the graduate in your life or you can give the frame to a deserving teacher.  There wouldn't be any graduates without them.  Come back tomorrow for a bonus grad series post.  Class over!  Enjoy your homework.

Shutterbug Sunday: Bird Watching

We're excited to hear that our woodpecker is back for the summer! Honestly it's pretty cool. This bird is big! This is a Pileated Woodpecker, the largest woodpecker in America. They are between 16-19 inches long!  The red line from the beak to his neck indicates this is a male woodpecker.

When he's banging on a tree looking for carpenter ants, it sounds like the tree is getting hit with a hammer.  My son has also identified his call!  Now, he can tell me when he hears him. Obviously, when shooting photos of birds, you need to be stealthy and have your camera ready.  We've been lucky with Woody-- but I admit I'd love to get even closer!  I haven't been as lucky catching the pretty little humming bird who visits.

Woody was really distracted with chomping apart my tree stump, so we were able to capture quite a few snapshots of him.  We got varied results because my three kids were so excited just to see the bird.  The top photo came out the clearest. The bottom is a little less focused but we still love it. The rest were a bust.  It's very hard to get your subject in focus in a zoom lens when you are contending with something in the foreground- in this case- the grass.  Still, we got the shot we needed!  Persistence pays off when you're taking pictures of birds.

Shutterbug Sunday: A Different View

Many times at events people focus on where the action is taking place. They point their lens at the action. If I were only looking at the action I might have missed taking this entertaining picture. 

The teenager on the mat performing the kick was... uh... very loud and animated in his vocal elements of the form he was demonstrating.  He attracted the attention of a large crowd of spectators. He was really good- but I was more entertained with the reactions in the crowd. Most people were watching for his forms-- but from a 3-year-old's perspective-- he was just LOUD!

It tickled me to no end when this beautiful little girl covered her ears, but still could not remove herself from the action!  I quickly got down on the ground where the kids were and snapped a couple pictures from behind. I thought it was so cute.

Some of the best photographers know this trick. It's not so much the fire you cover- it's the people witnessing the fire. It's not so much the subject walking in the door (say Santa or the Bunny Rabbit) it's the kid's reaction to the subject. Try to capture a different view the next time you snap a picture!

Shutterbug Sunday: Preparing Your Images for the Web

Ok, so I know we have all experienced it, our gorgeous photos being scrunched and distorted once they are uploaded to the web!  Does this frustrate any of you, as much as me??  There is hope and a way to export your images so the distortions are not as bad.

Image before being processed for the web.

Image before being processed for the web.

Step One: After all of your edits are finished and you are ready to upload your image to the web, in photoshop go to file, and Save for Web Devices.

Step 2: When you see the Save for Web Devices screen pop up, you will want to make sure your settings in the top right hand corner are as follows:

• jpeg format selected
• maximum setting selected
• quality at 100
• optimized box checked

Now just click save and place the image in your desired folder. I save all mine to a folder labeled "website".  Once I am done uploading the images to the web, I delete everything. This is just one of the ways I help keep myself organized.

Now for the finished products. The end result is by no means perfect, but definitely an improvement! Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

Same image after.

Same image after.

www.marynicholsphotography.com

Shutterbug Sunday: Homemade Filter

This may just seem like it is not in focus...but the effect is intended to teach you a fun and free trick.  If you've watched Barbara Walters over the years, you may have noticed her lighting seems softer now.  There is a haze around her that smooths out blemishes and lines on the face.  If you want to add a fun and hazy effect to photos...you can grab a filter right out of your sock drawer.  Different shades of pantyhose offer different outcomes, some more subtle than others.  Just gently cover your lens with the fabric and take a photo.  I grabbed four shades of pantyhose to find out how they would each look on the same subject.  Here are the results.

NO FILTER:

NUDE:

OFF-WHITE:

NAVY:

BLACK:

Some of the results surprised me.  Of course...you want a spray of roses to be colorful.  But, the right set of circumstances may have you slipping your knee highs off your feet and onto your camera lens.  Try it out and let us know if you make any fun discoveries.

Shutterbug Sunday: Natural Light

I positioned them so the sun was to their backs.

Since spring is just around the corner (fingers crossed), and everyone is itching to slip on their flip flops, I thought it would be fun to think about natural light. Believe it or not when I first was starting out and clueless, shooting in manual mode using natural light seemed so intimidating to me! I was more than happy to keep using the basic P mode on my camera, but thankfully my husband encouraged me to branch out and LEARN! You have all seen those pictures. The ones where the everyone is sitting perfectly and its close to being a perfect photograph, except for one HUGE problem. All of the subjects faces are squinty and distorted from the direct sun. I made this mistake many times back in the beginning!

Shady spot with a tree as a natural reflector.

When scheduling summer sessions in NY you never know what you’re going to get for weather. I have had clients ask me on several occasions if we should reschedule due to the overcast gray skies. From a normal persons perspective a cloudy day does not seem like a good day for pictures. Due to our severe lack of sunny days around here we consider a perfect day to be warm with lots of sunshine. But for the rest of us behind the camera, a forecast of cloudy skies is music to our ears! On cloudy days the sky acts as one giant soft box which makes almost any outdoor location ideal. On sunny days however, let’s just say my job is a whole lot harder! So what do you do when the sun is blazing and you want to avoid those squinty eyed and scrunched face pictures? Concentrate on shaded areas, try using natural reflectors, and pay attention to how you position your subjects. The first thing I do is look for areas with shade. The shade will provide you with the break you need from the sun, but will still allow for you to shoot your subjects with natural light. The second thing I for look are natural reflectors. This could be almost anything that works to softly reflect the suns light onto your subjects. It could be a wall, a tree, or other object in the area. Lastly, if your chosen spot is short on shade, and placing people in direct sun is your only option, position them so the sun is either to their backs or their sides. This should also help to eliminate the harsh shadows and scrunched eyes. So the next time you’re out taking pictures in the hot sun, try to use natures natural soft boxes and reflectors. It might just make all the difference!

Shady Spot

For some great info on using natural reflectors check out this blog post from Jasmine Star, and amazing “GO TO Photographer”. http://www.jasminestarblog.com/index.cfm?q=reflections+%3A&x=0&y=0

Enjoy your day!

://www.marynicholsphotography.com/

Shutterbug Sunday: The Fog

Just sharing a photo this Shutterbug Sunday that I like to look at.  There wasn't a lot of thought put into this picture.  I literally just peeked my head out the back door, aimed, and snapped because I wanted to show my friends the fog that hit Michigan last week, while I was visiting there.  The unexpected result is that each time I look at this picture it evokes a different emotion in me.  My friends all felt the same way.  One felt inspired to write.  The other just enjoyed the visual.  The fog reflected my mood that day...heavy and lingering.  The entire region was literally barely visible all day.  It lasted from the early morning hours right through the evening.  It never lifted.  While I could easily have felt suffocated by the low clouds, I opted instead to think of it as a fluffy white blanket that I could wrap myself up in all day.

Shutterbug Sunday: Photo Editing

We are so happy to have Photographer Ashley Sisk provide us with an amazing guest blog about photo editing today. She's a master at it. Please visit her website- and don't forget to leave her a sweet comment!

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to share some simple editing tricks. I love to edit (in fact, I may love editing more than photography itself), so I was happy to accept. Although I operate primarily out of Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop (as well as Photoshop Elements), I wanted to offer some tips that could be applied in any program.  

First, let's start with a SOOC shot (straight out of the camera). If you follow my blog, I mentioned that I've been having an ongoing battle with the lighting in my inlaws' home. You might never know it if you only looked at my edited shots, but here is one of the originals: 

How ya like that white balance? Or lack there of. 

Anyways...as I mentioned before, I wanted to start simple....so, I started this edit in Adobe Camera Raw. Regardless of what editing program you're working in, you should have some of the basic functionality that Adobe Camera Raw offers. If you are using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, you already have ACR (and although I shoot in RAW, you can open  JPG files in ACR by opening PS or PSE - go to File > Open As> Select open as Camera Raw file and select your image). Below, I've copied my SOOC data and the revisions I made in Adobe Camera Raw. Here's what I did:

• Used AUTO to correct my white balance.
• Pulled the recovery slider up. 
• Dropped my blacks a bit.
• Decreased my brightness.
• Increased my contrast.
• Decreased my clarity.
• Decreased my saturation.

Just making those few adjustments creates a nice clean edit. I've included my edit below. If you're new to editing, I encourage you to try adjusting the exposure, brightness and contrast within your editing program.

 

I should warn you that most editing programs offer an "Auto" option. Sometimes selecting auto works perfectly but more often than not, you'll need to make some manual adjustments.

So that was my very basic edit only using Adobe Camera Raw. If you're interested in an advanced edit...keep reading. 

Beyond my edit in Adobe Camera Raw, I brought my photo over to Adobe CS5 (also known as Photoshop). Most of my steps can also be performed in Photoshop Elements. Here are my steps:

• Created a duplicate of my background. I applied a high pass filter (found under FILTER at the top of the screen). I then applied a soft light blending mode to the layer. This is my #1 favorite trick to make the details of your image pop. You can lower the opacity if needed and/or use a layer mask to erase part of the effect. 
• Created an adjustment layer - CURVES. In PSE, if you don't have an action curves adjustment, you can download one here (it also includes a mask layer that I use often).
• Created a new adjustment layer - LEVELS. I pulled the left side (shadows) of the graph to a 11 - this makes my blacks just a tad bit darker. I pulled the middle bar  (mid-tones) up to a 1.11 I often pull the midtones up to a 1.38 to brighten up an image, but that was not necessary here. 
• Created a new adjustment layer - BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST. I decreased brightness to -10 and added a contrast of 8. 
• Created a new adjustment layer - HUE/SATURATION. I find with my computer that I always have to pull back on my yellows and reds (if I want to avoid creating oompa loopmas). 

Beyond this point, I felt like my shot looked a little too much like a snapshot (nothing wrong with that, I mean, it is a snapshot), so I decided it needed to be cropped.  I used the same photo ratio to crop the photo. I then made a few more adjustments and created two photo options (I wanted to share both a color and black/white). With my color shot:

• Created an adjustment layer: BLACK AND WHITE (in Photoshop Elements, you'll want to use a background copy then go to Enhance>Convert to Black and White). I created a custom black and white by playing with the sliders and adding a tint. I also lowered the opacity to 15%.
• Adjusted my brightness/contrast and levels adjustment layers for a little more drama.
• Finally, I applied Totally Rad's Lux action at 50%. For a similar effect...you can create a new fill layer - fill it with a shade of cream or light pink, set the blending mode to screen and lower the opacity.

For my black and white edit, I simply increased my black and white adjustment layer back to 100%.

So, hopefully that all made sense and you've learned a trick or two. 

If you want to see more editing techniques, I have recently started a new photo challenge called Shoot and Edit with Jill at Forever'n Ever'n Always Photography. Every Monday morning Jill will post a SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot and then have a link up for all of you to share your SOOC too. You will have until Wednesday to link up. 

Then, on Thursday morning I will have my SOOC shot fully edited with a tutorial for everyone to follow to enhance their photos as well.

Well I gotta run back over to Scavenger Hunt Sunday! If you have a chance, come see me and have an awesome day!

Meet Ashley Sisk

Some people are just destined for greatness. Ashley Sisk is one of those people who has a very bright future in the photography world. Ashley decided to pick up her camera after her October 2009 wedding. She always enjoyed taking pictures before, so she thought it would be a good hobby to nurture. In a very short year and a half she's started a blog,  rediscovered her creative spirit, enhanced her photography and editing skills and made some incredible friends along the way!

I'm a big fan of hers and I just love the creative pictures she takes. They POP off the page! Ashley is going to be our guest blogger for tomorrow's Shutterbug Sunday! Please come back tomorrow and show her some love!!!

Shutterbug Sunday: The Perfect Prop

The balloons in this pic are from Wegmans. I always grab a bunch for my photo

 shoots where the babies are turning 1 to celebrate the big event!

Who’s ready to talk props? At the end of this post I would love to hear some feedback from some of you other prop enthused savvy individuals!

So for me, a good prop should have 2 key ingredients. The first? It needs to be cost effective. I go prop shopping with a limited budget so I like to find things that are inexpensive, yet photo worthy. The second? I need to be able to multi-task with it. In other words, I want the prop to work for more than just one photo shoot. If it doesn't, I feel it was a waste. When choosing a prop to use with babies for example, I like something that has enough room for them to sit comfortably in all their different stages, that will also play well in different settings. For instance, the bucket you see in these pictures was used for a tiny newborn, a one year old, and some other ages in between. It also worked well for multiple looks and locations. With babies, first and foremost, always remember to keep safety in mind when choosing your props. For this bucket, I used blankets to provide comfort and support which also added a little more visual interest.

 When finding a good prop, a couple of things to keep in mind are...know what you are looking for and give yourself time. As my fall season was approaching this past year I knew I wanted something I could use for babies that had some fall flare to it. I wanted to be able to somewhat contain them considering the ground is not always great that time of year. I also knew I would have a variety of ages that it would need to be good for. I started looking in August and came across this great little apple tub at the Christmas Tree Shop. I had seen other things similar to it at some craft stores, but they were all coming in at around $50.00. To my surprise when I checked the price on this one it was only $12.99! You can imagine I was ecstatic! It was exactly what I was looking for and the grand total was less than half of my budget!

Those funky oversized ornaments that you see were also

from the Christmas Tree Shop. They were an inexpensive way to

add some Christmas flare. 

Not all of my prop endeavors have been as successful as this one was. It takes a good amount of patience, and experimenting but eventually you will find your nook and the process of finding something great gets a lot easier. Some places that have had great finds for me are EBay, the Christmas Tree Shop, Hobby Lobby, and other craft stores. A lot of times the craft stores will have their 50% off sales which will usually lend a good opportunity. Also keep an eye out for their coupons for additional savings. I do also recommend doing some browsing through Esty. They have some incredibly unique things that can be very reasonable! Lastly, if there is some hard-to-find item that you just can’t seem to get your fingers on, make a Facebook post about it. I just inherited an old vintage chair that worked out amazingly for kids' Christmas pictures and it cost me absolutely nothing! A very nice person had it sitting in storage and they didn’t want it anymore!

So whether your just a hobbyist that enjoys photographing babies and kids or more of a pro, a little patience and perseverance can go a long way to help to find the perfect prop! Happy prop hunting everyone!

Thank You Crafty Life and Style for having me as your guest blogger today! :)

The floor/background you see in this was is a piece of fadeless paper that I ordered from Mardel. It cost $7.99 and has worked great so far!

Thank you Mary.  See more of Mary's lovely work on her website:  http://www.marynicholsphotography.com/