julialainephotography

The difference between 1st and 2nd grade

OK, so check out the sweet innocence of the 1st grader, can you tell which one she is?

Then find the two 2nd graders who are going to be the B.M.O.C. next year as big 3rd graders (Elementary school ends at 3rd grade around these parts) - can you say attitude with a capital
A T T I T U D E ?!  LOL

This was not taken by me, it was by one of the dads on our team, and you may recognize these three amigo's as the musketeers who made up part of the little people team this spring.  Getting to play together on the same team brought these three really close, plus they see each other a few times a week at practices and games of their big sisters.  Anyway, I just got this photo in my email box today and the expressions completely cracked me up because you can so completely see each girls personality come shining through.

On another note entirely, this photo started out like this, but yesterday I finally bought the Totally Rad Actions with a $20 off coupon I got and man are they worth every penny (and they're not expensive to begin with).  I used the "prettyiser", "oh snap", and "ez burn".  I can't wait to play with the rest - their are 46 actions in all!  If you go to the site, they've got sample shots up and you can see what each action will do.

As always, these are clickable for a larger view.

Lightroom

I took my own advice and downloaded one of the free "try before you buy" Adobe products - in this case it was Lightroom.  I remember a couple of years ago when Adobe first introduced Lightroom;  it is marketed specifically to photographers.  Where Photoshop is really a graphics program, Lightroom was built around the photographer workflow and processing needs.  The beta was free so I loaded it on to my computer and since there were no tutorials and at that time it wasn't quite user friendly (for someone with no photoshop background); eventually I deleted it and never thought twice about it.  But lately I've been hearing glowing reviews and everyone is talking about it, specially now that Lightroom 2.0 has recently been launched.  So, I took their free 30-day trial and have been playing with it a bit.  One of the reviews I read talks about the Lightroom Presets, and I've got to admit - they're pretty fun... and EASY!  You just load your photos, click a preset (or several), then play with the sliders (exposure, recovery, lights, darks, etc)  that can customize it to your preference and whala! (is that how you spell that?) Lightroom does all the work for you. 

As much as I have been enjoying it, I'm not going to rush out and pay $220 for the privilege of making life easier right now, but I would recommend to all to download and have some fun with it, I can definitely see the appeal. 

Here are a couple that I used the "Aged Photo" preset on:

My very own Photoshop Tutorial!

Update:  I use Adobe Photoshop CS3.  If you don't have it, but would like to try it, Adobe offers a free download on all there products for 30 days.  It's the full extended version of CS3 so you can check it out and see if you want to spend the $$ on it.  Also, if you don't already have it, I'd highly recommend joining NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals), it's $99 to join for a year, but you'll save $100 on your CS3 purchase if your a NAPP member, so it pays for itself right there, plus you get member information to all kinds of great photoshop tips and actions!

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Why am I doing a tutorial when there are SO many out there?  Well, it's because when I was first learning I went through quite a few of those tutorials myself, but when I felt comfortable enough to experiment on my own, I discovered my own work-flow that suits my needs best right now.   The one thing you have to realize (and not become overwhelmed or frustrated with) is that there are at least 10 different ways to accomplish the same task in photoshop so we all may be accomplishing the same thing, but this is the road I used to get there...

Oh - and before we get started, if you're working on a photo and need to leave the computer, don't save your image as a .jpeg, instead save it as a .psd file.  This will save all your layers, so it will still allow you to go back and manipulate them.  If you save as a .jpeg, it will flatten your image (compress all the changes together) and all your changes are there to stay.

Here's the SOOC (straight out of camera) shot.  It's ok, but nothing to write home about.  It looks very flat and one-dimensional, and there's a harsh light coming in from the left that we'll try and work to our advantage. 

Here is the link I reference in the slide above.

In the slide above, I say "sharpen mask".  Typo.  That's supposed to be "UNsharp Mask", but you knew that, right.

And the before and after:

Printing and random Friday stuff...

I've gotten a few questions on where I print my images, and I have to sheepishly admit... I don't print many.  Very very few as a matter of fact.  Most of them remain on my hard drive, with a backup drive and then I burn them to a CD just for good measure.  I also do the occasional digital scrapbooking page, but I have yet to print any of those out too, although when I do, I'll probably create a photo book from Shutterfly.

But...  I do have a FABULOUS company to recommend - when I DO want an image printed, I call on them.  Visit www.whcc.com.  WHCC stands for White House Custom Color.  They are amazing!  We're going to the beach next weekend and I hope to get a couple of shots of my girls that I want to use for a canvas print for my office.  Keep in mind, this is not a printer I would recommend for snapshots or to print off the 2000 Disney photos you just took on your most recent vacation, but for those special photos you want to blow up, frame, or create artsy prints from, they're the one I would recommend.  By the way... if you become a client, you get five 8x10's free.  When I got those back in the mail (literally within 48 hours of my order), I got a bit giddy - they were THAT good!

Randoms:

• Check out Traci's blog - she's been doing a great series on Canon lenses and there's some really good info there.
• Check out Ree, she's put up 11 new FREE actions for you Photoshop users.  I just got finished testing out each one and they're pretty spankin' awesome for a freebie!
• Check out Jessica (don't you love how I put all these people I've never met on a first name basis) - just cuz she has some seriously drool-worthy wedding photos from a recent shoot in Maui

What's next?
I'm working on my own little Photoshop tutorial.  Being a new photoshop CS3 user (less than a year), I think I'm well qualified to give a real beginners guide to photo editing in it's most simplest form.  Plus I'll give a demo on how to create an action, which can save you a ton of time!  I take 300+ photos at a soccer game, and can get my fav-40 edited and on the web in less than 30 minutes using an action I created last weekend.  Hopefully I'll have that up in the next coupla days.

Hope y'all are having a good one - TGIF!

Taken with my 70-200 f4 L, aperture priority mode
ISO 200, f4.0, 1/8000

My Camera Equipment

Occasionally I get asked what camera gear I use, and I've been meaning to write a post on that but keep forgetting, so thanks to a recent question, I'm finally getting around to it...

I'll break this in to two parts - what I have now, and what I would have if money were no object, which is always fun isn't it, a girl can dream, right?  :-)

First, let me say I've gotten 100% of my equipment from B&H Photo Video.  They are THE best place to buy camera equipment on the web.  They're completely honest, reputable, they have a huge following, and let's get right to it - they consistently have the best prices out there. 

Last fall I upgraded from my 20D to the 40D, which had just hit the market.  I LOVE my camera - seriously, LOVE IT!  You can shoot at an ISO of 1600 and still have a very usable picture, something I could not do with my 20D.  With the 3" LCD screen, I can actually see what I shot, vs the 20D 1.5" screen.  Add in the upgraded image processor, which allows me to take shots at a greater speed if I'm taking them consecutively, and the 10+ megapixels, and I was sold.

I haven't bought any new lenses in the last year, and in fact sold two so I could afford the last one I purchased, but it was a good move because it's the lens I use at least 70% of the time during photo sessions.  I started out with Canon's consumer lenses, which are cost effective, but don't give you the same quality of photo that you want to be after if you're charging people money for it.  So about 18 months ago I upgraded to Canon's "L" series, which is their glass, pro-sumer lenses.  They're more expensive, but trust me, once you've had glass, you'll never go back.  The crystal clear clarity from a well made glass lens will make you say WOW, where have you been all my life!  You'll want to marry it.  Really.

So, without further ado, my two all time favorite lenses are the 70 - 200 F/4 L, which is what I use for all my sports shots - I need the wide angle zoom.  And the 24 - 70 F/2.8 L.  Sweeeeet!  (this was the one I had to sell two other lenses to afford).  I sold my 100mm macro, and my 28-135mm.  And although I miss my macro terribly, specially during the spring when I want to get up close and personal with the flowers, the 24-70 DOES have some limited macro capability, so I can get a little closer than with a non-macro lens.

My third and final lens is not from the L series, it's an 85mm 1.8, but everyone needs a prime lens (means it's not a zoom), plus the fact it has a really low aperture of 1.8, which means I can take photos inside without much of a light source, and I still don't have to use a flash.  You can read lots of arguments from photographers about prime lenses vs zoom; but my experience, just with this lens, is that it is so incredibly sharp because it specializes in just one distance, not multiple.  The focus on it can not be believed.  When I take the photo's straight out of the camera (SOOC), I rarely have to do anything to them.  Now, you may ask why I don't use this lens all the time, and the simple reason is that I like the flexibility of a zoom lens most of the time.  Plus the 28-70 is a wide angle lens, whereas the 85mm is not, so if I'm taking a group shot, the 85mm will just not work for me.

{sorry this is so long, I'm fairly passionate about this subject}

Now, what would I have if money is no object?  Click on the links, and you'll see why:
Camera:
Canon EOS 1D Mark III
Lenses:
Canon 70-200 F/2.8 IS (this is the same one I have, but it has a 2.8 aperture, which makes it much more usable in low light conditions, and it has Image Stabilization)
Canon 135mm F/2.0
Canon 50mm F/1.2
And yes - I want my 100mm macro back too!

Also, if you buy a lens and decide it's not for you, there are a number of locations you can sell it, probably one of the most popular being good old Ebay.  The one good thing about lenses is that they don't go out of style like the camera body does.  In fact, Traci just did a great post on this.  Lenses retain their value wonderfully.  For the lenses I sold I got almost exactly what I paid for it .  In fact, the macro, I got just a tad more than what I bought it for.  Which come to think of it, doesn't make Ebay a great place to buy used lenses (shhh, don't tell them I said that), but it sure makes  a good place to sell them!

If you're considering a lens, I would lead anyone to the www.dpreview.com site.  But if you want to ask me for my opinion, go ahead - I love spending other people's money!  :-)

A Photo Share

...but not from me.

Occasionally I will link other sites here, because their photos are awesome, inspiring, and lots of other acronyms that I can't come up with right now.  They shoot outside the box and are constantly coming up with new, innovative stuff.  They are the ones that other photographers watch to see what is new and different in the field.  For example "urban" photography has become really HOT right now.  It's taking the photo shoot out of the beautiful park, away from the flowers and bushes, and into downtown - constantly moving around and finding locations that make good photos unique, incredible and blow-your-mind type of stuff.

Jessica Claire is one of those people.  She's a "wedding photographer" but does everything else too.  Living in LA, she has some pretty ritzy clientèle.  It's fun to see how the other half lives.  But anyway, here's her latest shoot that she's posted and many more fab shoots if you just keep scrolling. 

So the moral of the story is - next time you're headed to town, take the camera and leave your inhibitions and come away with some cool shots of your own!

Photography Course - Week Eight

It's Up!

Check it out here

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read this first.  :-)

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And in other news - 10 days and counting till...

SLR Owners!

If you have a new SLR, you've been thinking about getting one, or even if you've had one for awhile - THIS post is for you!

I have long been a fan of Joanna Bolick.  Joanna was active on Two Peas in a Bucket, a favorite scrapbooking haunt of mine, and was always getting tons of pages published in magazines like BHG Scrapbooking and Creating Keepsakes.  But it wasn't just her pages that blew me away, it was her photos.  They were incredible and I wanted to be just like her when I grew up.  ;-)  Don't believe me?  Take a look for yourself - the gushing on my part is not without merit.

Last year Joanna and her husband Mark began photographing weddings and doing a superb job growing their business.  Lucky for me, I was not the only one who had questions on how they achieved a certain look, because Two Peas, where Joanna is a Garden Girl (designer), asked them to conduct a photography course for their readers.  Seven weeks ago they began their "12 Weeks to Better Photo's" course, and I just can't say enough good things about it, they've done a fabulous job so far!

I've only had this blog up for a few months, but I've been asked many questions on camera settings, etc; and remember my "top 10" post?  Well, I wrote a top 5, then started writing the other 5 as it relates to SLR's and it sounded all wrong.  I sounded like a know-it-all, or I was being to technical, or to simplistic, and it just wasn't coming out right so I've kind of ignored it.  About that time, Joanna's photo course started and it just keeps getting better and better.

Also - Since Christmas I have read so many blogs and have quite a few friends who are getting new SLR's or are upgrading their old ones.  And if you're anything like me when I first started, you might be a bit overwhelmed.  Among the new or improved SLR owners:

Donna
Mary Mia
Lisa
Lorrie
 
So now I just have to share this course with y'all.  It takes what can be a complicated subject, and really breaks it down in to very manageable chunks.  And best of all - it's FREE!  How cool is that!

Lessons 1 - 6 can all be downloaded from this link

Lesson 7, which was just posted can be downloaded here.

Lessons 8 - 12 are yet to come, but if you read Joanna's blog, she'll let you know when they're up.

This is one of my very first images I took with my SLR over 3 years ago.  I had no idea what I was doing at the time, but I still really like this one, other than some framing - this is straight out of the camera...

My top 10

I've received some questions lately, both through the comments section and through personal emails  about what camera I use, how I post process the photos, and general photographic tips.  I've really been thinking about this quite a bit, to the point of laying in bed at night and listing out in my head the main things that I think are important in taking good photos.

I didn't want to make this all about the camera though, not everyone can afford, or is even interested in spending lots of money on an SLR or upper-end camera.  Good photos are enhanced by a good camera, but even if you have a basic point and shoot, you can still have family photos that you are proud to show off to friends and have framed around your home.

I have over 20 scrapbooks filled with photos of when my oldest daughter was a baby.  I can see some things I'd do differently, but really I'm as happy with them now, given the camera I was using, as I am with the photos that I'm taking today.

So I've broken this down in two groups.  A top 5 photography tips, and a top 5 digital SLR tips, hence - the top 10:

Top 5 photography tips:

1. Number one came easily to me, because it's wrapped around a personal pet peeve of mine.  When your taking photos of children playing, specially toddlers/babies on the floor - get on the same level as the child!  I mean how many pictures do you really need of the top of Jimmy and Amy's head?  When I'm at a photo shoot and the child is on the ground - I'm usually about 8 to 10 feet away, laying on my stomach.
2. Please don't tell your kids to say "cheese".  If you do this, you will most likely train your children, or any child, to give a canned smile that looks nothing like their normal, happy, cheerful expression that you are trying to capture.  To get the most natural expression follow them around while they're playing, you can't get more natural than a front yard hula-hoop contest or spur of the moment baseball game.  If you're trying to take a lined-up photo of family or kids, put your arm around Jimmy's waist, then right before the shutter snaps, give him a little tickle - I can promise you "cheese" is not what he'll be thinking of , and the expression in the photo will be priceless.  Leave "cheese" for the  crackers.
3. Be ready!  Digital cameras have a notorious and completely annoying shutter delay.  SLR's will reduce the delay significantly, but you'll have to spend mega-bucks to reduce it all together.  So if you're using a digital camera it's more important than ever to be ready if you want to get the shot - and anticipate not only the look you want, but the shutter delay.  In this photo we were playing peek-a-boo around the tree, I snapped the shutter on this right before his head peek'd out from behind the tree.
4. Catchlights - I luuuuuv me some good catchlights!  And yes, you CAN get them indoors!  In this one, my daughter was playing with some dolls in the sunlight by the front door.  The term catchlights is almost self explanatory - it's catching the light that is reflected in the person's eyes.  If you can see it without your camera in hand, then you can capture it with your camera.  But your hand needs to be steady, and your focus needs to be on the eyes to make sure they're not in the slightest bit blurred out.  To me at least, catchlights can take a good photo to great.
5. Tilt and Turn- No one said your subject needed to be in the middle of the photo, or even that they had to be straight up and down.  One of the newest "trends" in photography is tilting your camera or offsetting the focus point to create a more interesting and artistic photo.  If your camera has some different focal point settings, play with that a little.  And when you've got them looking up with a gorgeous smile, tilt your camera bit.  I think you'll like the look you achieve.
6. Sorry - had to throw in a #6, I'm on a roll.  One of the "benefits" people see in having a digital camera is that they don't have to look through the view finder anymore, but can instead look at the photo they're taking on the LCD screen.  If you'll notice, on most SLR cameras, you can no longer look through the lcd but instead must look through the view finder.  There is a reason for this - when looking at the photo through the lcd you get a poor representation of how to actually frame out a photo, but that's only part of the reason... 
   
   • Tonight, go outside and do this experiment.  Take a flashlight, hold it out about 5 to 10 inches from your body, and point it at a tree about 10 to 15 feet away.  See how the light shakes?  Try as you might, you will not be able to steady that light.
   • Next hold the flashlight against the side of your head, resting the butt of the flashlight on your shoulder.  Now look at the light on the tree (or whatever your focusing at).  See how the light becomes much more steady and sure?
   • This is a good experiment to show the how the camera will shake uncontrollably if you are holding it out in front of you.  However, looking through the view finder, your arms are close to your body, and this in turn reduces the camera shake and therefore blur, that may be a staple in your photos.

Unfortunately in many point and shoot cameras you will not be able to control things like aperture (background blur), ISO, and shutter speed.  The post has already gotten pretty long, so I'll talk about my top 5 (or 6?) for SLR's and post-processing in another post.  :-)

Thanks to everyone for your questions!!