I Clicked It Up A Notch: May Contest

I really love these monthly contests. It's a great opportunity to see how much I've grown in my own skills. There were so many pictures that I took this past month that I would love to share, however, this one was the winner (for me). We had to celebrate my son's second birthday two weeks early since my husband will not be here to celebrate it with us on the day of.

Check out all of the other entries!

I Clicked It Up a Notch - March Contest

It's that time again! Click it up a Notch's monthly photo contest! This is my favorite shot from the month. It's not a shot of my son (for once), but the first signs of Spring. Living in Washington state, where the rain never ends, shots like these are vitally important. It's probably one of the few signs of Spring we've had here!


 So here's my favorite shot from the month of March:

Make sure you check out the other entries in the contest! You won't be disappointed!

Photography Basics: Aperture

Have you ever wondered how photographers get those amazing blurred backgrounds, only having the subject in perfect focus? The secret to it is really no secret at all! It's simply knowing how to use your aperture! But before you can use it, you have to know what it is.

An aperture is an opening in your camera that limits the amount of light let into the camera. The aperture of the camera is similar to the pupil of your eye. When your pupil dilates (generally in low light conditions, like walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night) it gets bigger to let in more light, so things that you weren't able to see before in those dark conditions you can see now with clarity. However, when your pupil contracts (in very bright situations, like being outside at noon) it gets much smaller to limit the amount of light needed to see objects clearly. An aperture works the same way. The bigger the hole, the more light is let in. The smaller the hole, the less light.

With me so far?

Aperture is expressed in terms of f stops, for example, f/1.8 or f/16. The larger the number, the smaller the aperture is. The smaller the hole, the bigger the aperture is. It's confusing, but once you get in there and start practicing with it, it becomes a lot easier to understand. Just remember, small number, big hole. Big number, small hole.

So let's put aperture to use. Here are three examples of a photo with three very different apertures.

 f/1.8

 f/5.6

f/13

Yes, this is Chewbacca. My two year old volunteered him for a photo shoot today. ;)

You'll notice in the first picture Chewbacca stands out from the background. He's perfectly in focus while the rest of the blanket and chair behind him are blurred. However, in the last one, you can see everything in almost perfect focus. What you'll also notice is that the quality of the third picture is terrible compared to the first. I had to bump my shutter speed down to right around 1/30 and my ISO all the way up to 6400 in order to make sure the last wasn't underexposed because of the super high aperture (bigger number, smaller hole, less light). 

Another thing to remember about aperture is that it works on a geometric plane. Take a look back at the first picture.You'll notice that directly in front and behind of Chewbacca are blurred, but to the immediate left and right, it's just as equally in focus as the subject. While you're out shooting, make sure you keep on eye on the plane.

When to use a higher versus lower aperture

I know a lot of people who shoot with their aperture wide open (at the lowest f-stop), I can be one of them! There are some situations where having a higher f-stop results in a better photo than a lower one. City skylines, photos of mountains, streams, waterfalls, all are better with a higher aperture because you want every detail of it captured. A lower f-stop is preferred in portraits, pictures of your loved ones, your dog, etc, so that they are the focus of the moment. Another time to use a higher f-stop during a photo session is if you want to capture the surroundings of your subject, the flowers in the background, the beautiful landscape or mountains, etc. What aperture you decide to use is entirely up to what potential you see in that photo! 

Next week we'll finish up the last leg of the exposure triangle: shutter speed! I would love to see your examples of playing with aperture. What aperture range do you prefer the most?

Photography Basics: ISO

This week I'm going to delve into one of the terms of photography that you hear and kind of understand, but never really think of when shooting: ISO. ISO stands for the International Standardization Organization and is "the numerical exposure index of a photographic film under the system adopted by the International Standardization organization, used to indicate the light sensitivity of the film's emulsion" (thank you dictionary.com). That definition is a supreme mouthful, so let me help break it down.

ISO is signified by a number (100, 200, 400, 800, etc) that denotes how much light the sensor will take. ISO is a compensation tool, part of the three points of the exposure triangle (aperture and shutter speed are the other two points, but we'll get to those later). The higher the ISO setting, the brighter the picture. Higher ISO's are often used in low light situations. Say you were in your living room watching your two year old play on the couch and it's night time. You (or if you have your camera set on autoISO, then your camera) may bump your ISO up to 800 or higher to get the right amount of light in the sensor to expose the photo properly. Make sense?

 ISO is a way for the computer inside your camera to compensate for the lack of light in any given 
situation. It changes the sensitivity of the camera's sensor so that, even in darker situations, you get a bright and prettily exposed photo.

Here's an example: 

ISO 100

ISO 200

ISO 400

ISO 800

The first picture was shot using ISO 100. The second one was ISO 200, then 400 and then 800. The only setting I changed was the ISO (aperture was f/1.8 and shutterspeed was 1/40 for all four pictures). The first shot is a little underexposed and the last is way too overexposed. ISO 200 seems a tad dark, but the details show up a little better than they do in ISO 400.

Depending on the camera you use, lens, what have you, ISO values can vary. Using my 35 mm, I can achieve an ISO setting of 12800. Some ISO settings can go even higher than that, though I don't recommend going that high for a very good reason: noise level.

Noise in a photo refers to the specks and dots that appear in an image. The camera tries to compensate for the higher levels of light by filling in missing pixels with extraneous information, leading to specks of color and ugliness. The higher your ISO, the more noise or grain is in the picture. Let's look at two more examples:

 ISO 100

ISO 3200

  Look at the top of each picture, right where the brown edging disappears. The brown in the first photo is much clearer than in the second photo. In the second photo, the brown looks a little lighter, a little more degraded. That's the noise (if you click on the image, you can see better what I'm talking about).

It's ultimately up to you what you decide to shoot on in regards to ISO. Sometimes using a higher ISO can't be helped unless you're able to use a flash. I personally try not to shoot with an ISO higher than 800. Past that, the noise becomes noticeable and the picture quality isn't as good (in my opinion). Find the "sweet spot" with your camera and experiment. I'd love to hear about and see your own examples!

Photography Basics: Megapixels

Last week I talked about buying a camera and the different things you should look for when considering what type of camera to get. One of the things that I said not to be too concerned with when purchasing a camera where the megapixels of the camera. If you went through and looked at different cameras, you may have noticed that cameras all have different number megapixels. These numbers refer to the degree of resolution a photo take by the camera has. If your camera boasts a 14.6 mp rating, you may only get 13.9 of those. The rest of the pixels will be taken up by data.

Every image your camera takes is made up of pixels. A megapixel is equivalent to one million tiny pixels. 14.6 mp's mean that there are close to 14 million pixels that make up your image. This is a good thing. Think of pixels this way. On old Gameboy and Nintendo games, Mario looked like this:

Image

You can very clearly see in this picture each pixel that makes up Mario. This is called a pixelated image. The picture of Mario below is very different, as you can easily see.

Image

This picture of Mario is made up of many more pixels than the previous one. The result is a clearer image, one much better for printing than the other. Make sense?

So how does this relate to cameras? As stated before, each camera has a number related to pixels, whether it's 5 mp on your phone or the newest Nikon, which boasts an impressive 36 megapixels. Megapixels are one of the factors that control the size a picture can be printed. The table below represents how big a print can be made from some of the smaller mp's, as well as the resolution size.

Max Print Size	Minimum MP	Resolution
4 x 6″	2 megapixels	1600 x 1200
5 x 7″	3 megapixels	2048 x 1536
8 x1 0″	5 megapixels	2560 x 1920
11 x 14″	6 megapixels	2816 x 2112
16 x 20″	8 megapixels	3264 x 2468
16 x 24″	12 megapixels	4200×2800

Megapixels are important when considering what camera to buy. As a pro photographer, I have be able to print photos that can cover a wall (you never know what a customer will order!), so higher megapixel ratings are very important to me. You are the deciding factor in what will work for you.

I hope this brief intro into the world of megapixels was of some help! If you have an idea for what you would like to see in a Photography Basics post, comment below and let me know about it!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, it's definitley been an EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK kind of day.

Let me start by saying this past week has been a huge trial. I've taken in John's smallest sisters (14 and 12 years old). They're staying with me through the fourth while their family sorts out issues. I love both of them to death, but... Yeah... It's been a very frustrating week.

So this morning I woke up to my phone ringing, it's little notification ringtone saying I had a message or email. I checked it and saw that it was an email from Dan Pearce, founder and author of the Single Dad Laughing blog. He informed me that our photo (Long Distance Dad) had been picked as a winner in the photo contest he had been hosting! We won a portable grill!!!! That was excitement upon excitement!!

After getting everyone up, dressed, fed, and ready for a long hard day of cleaning at their house, I received another email, this one from a local photographer who has agreed to let me tag along on a few sessions and even do a one on one session!! (Check out Live Simply Photography!!) I'll be able to finally receive some constructive criticism on my own shots as well as learn from one of the top photographers in the area! So I'm super excited about that!

It's only 10:30, I still have errands to run and a house to clean, but today is looking like a brilliant day.

Beginning again...

In case you just haven't noticed at all, I've taken somewhere between 1000 and 2000 pictures with my DSLR, a Sony a33. I am in LOVE with this camera. I'm loving figuring out the different features and figuring out what settings are best for what I'm doing.

However.

I've noticed that the quality of composition in my pictures has gone downhill. Bad. I've lost focus on what I loved most about photography. I have become the same as about 90% of photographers today, hiding behind their equipment instead of unlocking their talent and potential. So I've decided to start over. Completely over. Kind of over.

I realized that what made my pictures on my point and shoot so good was that I focused more on the composition of the shot, rather than the camera itself because it was, to be honest, a crappy camera. I'm going to try to, for a time, forget about the bells and whistles of my camera and stick to what I know, auto mode and the scene modes, which kills me because I'm not going to be able to control ISO and white balance and all that... But I know this is where I need to start to get back to where I need to be.

I'm only an amateur, and will probably only ever be an amateur. But I've always been proud to hang my own photos on my walls. I want to get back to that.

Yes, this is a random blog. But there ya go. :)

Fix it Friday!

This weeks Fix it Friday for I Heart Faces was difficult. It was an awesome picture to begin with, so most things that you could do with it took away from the essence of the picture! However, here are the edits that I did on Photoshop CS5:


First Edit:
1.) Changed Brightness level to -62.
2.) Changed Contrast to 60.
3.) Underneath Color Balance:
      a. Changed Cyan/Red to +31
      b. Changed Magenta/Green to -1
      c. Changed Yellow/Blue to -15
4.) Changed Saturation to +9.
5.) Changed Lightness to -2.

The following changes are all edits to the first edit.

Second Edit:
1.) Cropped from 5616/3744 Pixels to 4734/3744 Pixels
2.) Changed Saturation to +13
3.) Using the free form tool, I selected the entire area around Weslea, then changed that area to black/white.
4.) Again, using the free form tool, I selected her, then changed the Vibrance to -65 and the Saturation to -40.

Third Edit:
1.) Crop from 5616/3744 Pixels to 3328/3318
2.) Changed Vibrance to +13 and Saturation to +18.
3.) Changed Cyan/Red to +8, Magenta/Green to +9, and Yellow/Blue to -15.
  I like the colors in this one, but I'm not a fan of the cropping. To me, it takes the focus away from Weslea and onto the tree.

Fourth Edit:
1.) Using the free form tool, I selected the entire background and changed it to black and white.

Fifth Edit:
1.) Starting from the fourth edit, I selected everything but Weslea's cape to put in black and white.


So out of all the edits, I like 1, 2, and 3 the best. John likes 1, 3, and 5. I believe that the full color works best for this picture, instead of some or full black and white. I've just learned how to change part of the color, so I've been doing that a lot (I know, I'm so behind). This was a fun picture to work with! I can't wait for the next!

****PLEASE NOTE!! DO NOT SHARE ANY OF THESE PICTURES FOR YOUR OWN!! THESE ARE NOT MINE, BUT THE ORIGINAL OWNER'S WHO GRANTED PERMISSION FOR EDITS FOR FIX IT FRIDAY'S!