Playing with a Reflector

After my crazy Christmas rush of photos, I decided to take a step back and list a few things that I enjoyed about each photo and a few things I disliked.  Most of the likes included smiles, love, all that sappy happy mushy gushy stuff, but the dislikes were more technical.  Exposure, shadows, blowouts, lighting issues in general. 
Photography is basically light, capturing the light and turning it into a photo.
I post on a very technical message board, that is really run by people who know their stuff.  Most are older so they have been around since the film days and can really give great advice.  You have to have some real tough skin though because they can be harsh.  I don't mind, because I know I can improve and the day I stop believing I need to learn is the day I stop loving photography.
This exercise was on a whim.  I took the kids on a walk, determined to use one of the most inexpensive lighting accessories avaliable; a 5-in-1 reflector.  I believe I purchased from Amazon.com for 15 dollars or so.
So here is the first photo.  A lovely girl, playing outside.  For this, I moved her so that she was backlite, meaning the sun was behind her.  If you notice the background is bright, but her face is poorly light.  Usually what I would do in this situation was expose for her skin, meaning to make her skin bright, this would in turn blow the background out completely, the background would be so bright, you would lose all the detail of the trees, the fence, and most likely you would not be able to see the play structure.

Here in this photo, I used the gold side of the reflector and just feathered it to the right of her a bit.  Now I'm still learning this, so she did get a bit of a flash of bright light a few times (sorry) but you can see it fills in the dark shadows on her face without me having to blow the background.  It also gives a bit of detail and depth exposing for her skin only would not allow.

Now the above example is not a true test because in the first photo my shutter speed was 1/800 and in the 2nd I had adjusted it down to 1/500.  So I noticed this while going through the photos and had her pose again, this time with the exact same settings.  Both photos were taken with 1/500, F3.5, and ISO 200.  This first one has no reflector.   Not a bad picture, but still the shadow on her face, giving her the "raccoon eyes" look, really bugs me.  I feel that my photos, if taken professional for a client, should not have these shadows.  I should be able to manipulate the light in order to avoid these types of shadows. 

The 2nd photo is also take with the silver side of the reflector.  Notice the lights in her eyes, gorgeous catch lights that the above no reflector is lacking!  You can also see in the no reflector photo, the top of her gorgeous curly hair is blown, no detail can be made out of the top of her head, in the below photo, while it is bright, you can still see the detail of the hair, the curls.

I also wanted to try some full body shots.  I have two reflectors, one is actually for exposure, with a black, white and grey side, and the other side is silver, this one is smaller.  It is the one I used in the 2nd set of photos above.

For these full body shots I used again the gold reflector.  So as you can see from this photo, we are in partial shade of a tree.  This makes for very dappled light.  The girl is underexposed, normally I'd up my exposure, blowing out the background and you can already see her hair and parts of her shoulder are blown just from F4these settings.  I used the same settings in both of these shots, 1/400, F4, ISO 200.

This 2nd photo was take at the same settings, 1/400, F4, ISO200, but you can see how much more light the reflector pushed on her, even adding depth and dimension to her hair and skin!

 

Now, I am not saying this is a perfect example but it has really pushed me into wanting more and more practice with different lighting, adding fill with reflectors and even getting into some off camera flash.

I hope you enjoyed my little lesson and I'd love to see your examples using reflectors and without!

My New Year Blog Post....

I had major plans for things to come on this day, but I've done nothing to accomplish those plans.

Before I restructure the business side of my photography, I've decided to work on my exposure and composition side.
I'm going to do a lot of experimentation, going to get a lot of error, but with that error comes knowledge.  I've learned more about light in the past 8 months then I've probably learned about education or ultrasound over the past 11 years, believe that!

As I speak to other photographers, some who are very informative and love to teach (like myself) and then others that have more delicate ways of giving you advice (both of which I appreciate dearly) I realize I don't know anything.

I might get a few good/decent/ok images per session, but I have no idea why, all I know is I take a picture, look at some graph thingy, read it, and adjust my settings accordingly, but why?  I can not tell you, because it is just something I have learned over the past few months of teaching myself... ok the graph is way too far over that way, I need to open up/speed up/slow down/stop down, but actually taking a light reading and setting my camera BECAUSE the light is telling me to do so, I can't.

I don't want to have to keep telling my clients, hold on, or more importantly miss that shot of their toddler because my settings were off.  I want to nail that exposure and know why I did so.

I have a ton of photographers on my facebook page, there is a span from friggen awesome (I hate you/love you deal) to wow, there are no words.  I am sure I fit in both of those categories at times and I don't want to. 
I want to knock it out all the time.  I know that is a huge goal, heck even the amazing ones have their off days, which is fine, but I want to have my off days and know WHY they are off, not get home and look at a bunch of crap from my card and try to push it off as a good job.  Or vice versa, I don't want to get home and look at the pictures and think wow, these are pretty good and have no idea how I achieved that look.

I'm going to pay more attention to settings for this year.

I am so very thankful to everyone who has helped me get this far, the beautiful families, models, my own family, my cats.....

Get ready for growth from me.  I will need test subjects.  Stay tunned in 2011!

Christmas Family Photos!

Yes, this is my first Christmas season shooting.
I believed I was prepared, but alas the cold temps and bright Florida sun kind of beat me down!
I am trying to step out of my comfort zone of shooting in the "golden hours" but I need more practice.
Shadows and highlights really bug me, I need more work with a reflector.
Here are a few shots from this Christmas season.  I can't wait until I can compare these photos to the ones I shoot next year and the years after that!  Enjoy!

All the world is happy when Santa Claus comes......

All the world is happy when Santa Claus comes......
or NOT!

 

But think about it for a second.  This is some scary stuff for a child.  Mom hands me off to some weird guy covered with white puffy fuzz??  What is this about??  Heck, mom, I cry when you hand me to another pretty mom, yet you want me to sit on this strangers lap and smile?  haha

But some did better then others.  Seems the magic age is between 3 and 6, when they really understand you need to be nice to this weird guy in red, he is the ticket to your toys!

Moms seems to love Santa too?  Us moms realize that sometimes telling "Santa" what we want under that tree is really the only way to avoid getting a steam mop or blender.... We have to tell Santa we like sparkly glittery gems!

Taylor

A few weeks ago, I offered to help shoot some lifestyle photos for a local modeling and talent agency.  Obviously the model is gorgeous, but this was so much fun for me!
First, I love shooting in natural light.
Second, anytime you have a person who understands positions and posing, and doesn't ping all over from one end of a park to another with no regard or care of getting a good shot, is wonderful!

Trip to nowhere....

My husband and I own a home in Jacksonville, NC (Lejeune) and I was able to take a working vacation up to North Carolina to do the walk out inspection and also turn over the home to a new tenant.

I left on a Tuesday morning.  It was a wonderful week!  I had no real plans, no real time frame, only to get to NC by Wednesday at 2pm.  I was lucky to rent the house to the first couple we showed it to and so I had several more free days.

My mother joined me in NC on Wednesday and we relaxed in high style!  The first night we went out to eat and to a movie and returned home to a vacant, empty house with nothing more then a blow up mattress and a few blankets.

The next day we woke up, went to get coffee and then decided to take in some shopping.  We again went out for dinner, but this night decided to stay in a hotel.

I was also able to meet up with an old girlfriend from the area!

My time in Jacksonville was wonderful, but my journey was just beginning.

I left Jacksonville and went to Charleston, SC to visit my step father.  I arrived in Charleston pretty late in the evening.  I was able to enjoy my night at a local tavern type restaurant.

The next morning we went to visit one of my step father liquor stores.  Along the way we stopped at this 1500 year old oak tree.  It was really an amazing tree!  And just think of all this tree has seen and been through, 1500 years of southern history!  wow.

Then off to downtown Charleston for some lunch and a carriage ride through the city.  It was a tiny bit chilly, but overall the weather was nice for the carriage ride, very seasonal.  I learned more about history and culture of the south on this hour long carriage ride then I learned my entire high school years and into my HISTORY MINOR college degree!  yes, it was that interesting...  If you ever get the chance to take a carriage tour in downtown Charleston, DO IT!

Some of the prettiest, most amazing houses and gardens were on the path of the carriage ride.  These photos do nothing for the amazing detail and glamor that was to be found downtown.

After leaving Charleston I was driving through Savannah and heard that was the home of the bench from the movie Forrest Gump.  I pulled over at a McDonalds and took advantage of their free Wi-Fi and learned the bench no longer sits in its location for the movie, they moved the bench into the Savannah History Museum.  The museum was 5 dollars so I decided to go and take a look for myself.

I also took a trolley tour of downtown Savannah, learned many interesting things as well, but it was not as fun or as exciting as the carriage tour of South Carolina.

All in all I had an excellent time, being alone, with my thoughts and myself.  I was so very happy to get home and see my babies and my husband.  It is a trip I will always remember, funny how the best moments are those which nothing really happens.

Bonding back home.

As you know by now my husband returned from his deployment to Afghanistan a few weeks ago.  It has been wonderful to have him back home here, the kids are really loving it!
Isabelle and Rodrigo really bonded this past week and now are pretty much inseparable.
Just wanted to share these special moments that make deployments worth it!