DIY Family Portraits

Taking Photos from Non-Traditional Light Sources

Before I start on this post, I want to reiterate the fact that I am NOT a professional. I am simply sharing what I've learned and what I'm doing to get the look of the photos that I take. In this post, I'm talking about working with unique light sources. Most new photographers use natural outdoor light or their on-camera flash to take photos. There are many other creative ways of using light for photographs.

In the photo above, the sun is still the light source, but it is not being used in a traditional way. We used the evening sun (which was not pouring into the window, but coming from a direction where there was no window). This created enough light so that the window would be illuminated, but would not cast too much light on us, the subjects. I turned the shutter speed up higher than I normally would for an indoor photo, around 1/100th of a second. I kept the aperture low, about 1.8, because I did not want the background to be distracting (the room was pretty messy). I also kept the ISO low, about 100, because I did not want a large amount of light in the photo and, since the photo is very dark, I did not want it to look grainy.

This cute family photo (totally not perfect, but still fun) was created using several light sources. The two that were intentional were the speedlight that sat on top of the camera and the flashlight on our cell phones. Yep, that was all of that craziness is. We turned on the flashlights on our iPhone 5's and my dad, left, and my husband, right started drawing. I did want to do this with sparklers like I had done in the past, but we didn't have any and I didn't want to run to Walmart on the 4th of July. So...we improvised. This wasn't difficult to create. I could have drug my mono-lights and softboxes outside, but this was easy and fun. We wanted it to be fun, not work. I'll list the steps used to create this photo below.
1. Set camera on a tripod.
2. Use a timer or a remote (long shutter speeds will cause visible camera shake).
3. Set your camera to manual or shutter priority, S on a Nikon. I used manual and a shutter speed of anywhere from 3 to 8 seconds for all of the pictures we took.
4. Use a flash. If you're doing this outdoors your camera flash might not be enough, I learned that when I did this before with sparklers. You only need the flash if you want to see the people in the shot. If you just want to see the light drawing, forget the flash.
5. When the flash fires, make sure that you're posing the way you want to look in the shot. As soon as the flash goes off begin drawing, trying to finish in time for the shutter to close.

The photo above might not look like the lighting situation was unique, but it is not something that I normally do. I usually have a whole studio set-up for newborn photos, but that was not an option for this photo. I combined natural light and the flash from a speedlight to create this picture. My husband's grandmother made the throw and I still had it at my parents' house (luckily). I made the hat about a year ago for another newborn and it was also at my parents' house (really lucky, I live three hours away). We used a couch cushion and curved newborn pillow (don't know what they're called, but the mom happened to have one) to get the pose. Since the light was low, I turned the ISO up to about 200 and switched the aperture from 1.8 to 2.8 to get a blurry background, but didn't want to get it too wide to make the face out of focus. Since the baby didn't move much, I moved the shutter speed from 1/60th of a second to 1/90th of a second depending on the changing light. We opened a door, and I bounced the flash off of the walls, moving it when I moved and when the light changed.

It can be difficult to learn to work with lighting situations that are not ideal, but sometimes something creative an beautiful can come out of it. Thanks for reading! Please leave comments and let me know if you would like for me to do more in-depth, step-by-step tutorials on how to achieve these shots. More posts to come soon!

DIY Portraits

Taking Your Own Family Photos

I love pictures...pictures of me, my family, my friends, and others. I simply cannot afford to hire a professional photographer every time  I need to update the portraits in my living room and my profile pictures for social networking sites. When you're broke (like me) and on a very unpredictable schedule (also like me), you learn to take your own portraits. I have owned (and have been learning to use) a DSLR camera for the past 10 years. I know, I'm only 25, that means that I've been doing this since I was 15. I do have some equipment that most amateur photographers do not own, but hopefully I can help those of you who are just starting out, learn a little more about how to take some better looking photos of your loved ones.

 This is one of the most recent photos taken of me and my husband.

What you'll need:

1. A tripod. This will be necessary if you are doing this without the help of someone that you do not want in the photo. And it will be particularly helpful if you are very particular about how you want your photo composed and framed.

2. A DSLR camera is preferred, but you can get good quality photos from a point-and-shoot or even a smart phone.

What would make it even better (these things are optional):

1. A reflector. This will help balance and even the light, but can be difficult to use when taking photos of yourself.

2. A remote to control your camera. It is easier than using a timer and running and is particularly helpful in groups when you need more than one continuous shot. But it can be difficult to hide said remote if your hands will be showing in the photo.

3. Some sort of off-camera flash, and gels if you'll be shooting in lighting conditions that are not exactly white.

4. A polarized filter if you will be shooting in bright sunlight.

There are lots of things that can make a photo better, but most of these things are not used by amateur photographers, sometimes not even by professional photographers (because they're not needed in all situations, or because can be difficult to carry around). During the photoshoot in the picture above, I only used the first two necessary things. There are times when I use the extras, but you can get great photos without them.

Please remember that I am writing this tutorial from one amateur photographer to another. Though I have been playing around with DSLR cameras for a long time, I am not a professional, and I have never had any formal training. With that out of the way I'll explain some of the first things that I learned when transitioning out of Auto mode. And hopefully it will explain why the above photo is over-exposed.

1. There are three settings on your camera that are the most important settings when it comes to exposure. Those thing are ISO, shutter speed, and aperture.

 The ISO is like the film speed on film cameras. The higher these numbers, the lighter you photos will be, but they will also get grainier. I usually keep mine below 800 even at night unless it is absolutely necessary to set it higher.

The shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter stays open. The longer it stays open, the brighter the pictures. It is best not to make this number any lower than the focal length of your lens. When I'm shooting with a 50mm prime lens, like the one in the photo above, I try to keep the shutter speed to about 1/60 (one sixtieth of a second) or faster. If you have to make it slower and tripod will come in handy. Try not to make it too slow with moving subjects, like people and pets.

The aperture is the amount of light that a camera lets in when the shutter is open. It is the size of the opening that lets light in. The smaller that number, the lighter the photo will be, but less of the photo will be in focus. If you want blurry backgrounds keep the numbers fairly low. I believe that the aperture in the photos above is around 4.

2. Once you get all of those settings working together to create the perfect exposure, you can shift your concern to the color of your photo. I'm talking about white balance. I like to use custom white balance, but that is not always necessary. Your camera should have several preset white balances and

Here is a perfect example of a photo that had the incorrect white balance. I took this photo a few years ago and tried to fix the white balance in post processing, but it is still not perfect. Make sure to practice with white balance and see what works best for you. High numbers will make your photo look warmer (more orange and red) and low numbers will make it look cooler (more blue and purple). Make sure to use a setting like tungsten or a really low number when taking photos using indoor light. You don't want them to look orange.

3. Another thing that is really important to getting a good, sharp photo is focus (which is also a problem in the photo above). When you look in your camera's view-finder, you'll see a bunch of small rectangles, squares, or dots. These are focal points. When working in manual, you can move a cursor around to select one of these focal points. When taking photos of people it is important that the selected focal point be directly on the subject's eye. This is usually where we want to focus. That should make that point the sharpest part of the photo. If you're having difficulty focusing on the exact spot that you want, try turning the aperture up slightly, it'll give you a broader depth of field.

4. Lighting is probably the most important part of a great photo. All of my favorite photos have great lighting, but it can be difficult to understand. It comes from one direction, bounces off of nearly everything and goes another direction, picking up colors to cast on your skin along the way. When you first start working with natural light, it is probably best not to shoot in direct sunlight. If you really want the look of sunlight in your pictures, start by taking photographs during the sunset and the hours just before and after.    

For the picture above, it was a bright, HOT, and sunny day. To get softer light my husband and I stood under a tree. I set the camera on a tripod, set the timer, and ran. You can see that the background is overexposed, but we, the subjects, are not.

Another helpful tip when you're shooting in direct sunlight is to face your subjects away from the sun. This is where an off camera flash or reflector come in handy. Make sure that your subjects, who are shadowed by the sun, are properly exposed.

That is what you need to know to get started in your photography adventures. I'll post more tutorials from a beginner for beginners on how to get photos like the ones below. Thanks for reading!

A little sensual ;) It'll be a tutorial on experimenting with lighting and working indoors.

On lighting and getting that blurry background and flowing water.

Finding the light and post processing.

Using off-camera flash and lighting set-ups.





 



Affordable Eyeglasses

Fashion Options on a Grad School Budget

Affording Eyeglasses

I have been entirely obsessed with buying new glasses since I got my new prescription (it only changed by a quarter). Since that day, I have done a lot of research about buying glasses and settled on making an online purchase...then I made three more online purchases. Before I get started with a review of these websites, I should mention that I bought single vision distance lenses and my prescription was -5.25 with a slight astigmatism in my right eye and -5.50 with a slight astigmatism in my left eye.  This is a fairly strong prescription, but some people have much worse.  

The first site that I visited to make an eyeglasses purchase was goggles4u.com. I chose a very cheap frames and polycarbonate lenses. When I ordered these frames, I did not measure the size of my old glasses, so I didn't know how large or small the glasses should be. I chose a large frame and when they arrived they were too large. When I look down while wearing them, they literally fall off of my face. I can wear them. Luckily I only spent $24.90 including the polycarbonate lenses. Shipping was $9.95, but I also ordered a pair for my husband so it wasn't completely wasted. These glasses are shown in the pictures below (yes, I added nose pads to try to keep them in place...it didn't work). It took a little less than two weeks to receive my glasses after I placed my order.  

 

 

Since I could see out of the glasses from goggles4u.com, I felt more comfortable ordering glasses online. I decided to give eyebuydirect.com a try. I chose a $6.00 frame and spent an extra $10 on the 1.57 lenses . Before I ordered these glasses, I went to optical stores in my town to try on glasses. When I found pairs that fit well, I remembered the numbers. Most of these glasses will have three numbers (there are more than that on the websites). It'll look something like 53[] 16 -140. The first number, before the square, is the width of the lens. The middle number is the width of the bridge (the part that goes across the nose) and the last number is the length of the temple arms. When I ordered my glasses from eyebuydirect.com, the dimensions were listed as 52[] 18 -143. I expected that they would fit because the full length of the front of the glasses was listed as 129mm (all of these numbers are in millimeters). When I got them, they were slightly too large for my taste, but did not slide down my nose. But when I measured them, they were closer to 135mm than 129mm in length. I was still happy with my purchase and I wear these glasses sometimes. They took about two weeks to arrive.

 

 

These are Medford in tortoiseshell from eyebuydirect.com 

 

The lenses are thin for my prescription. I chose 1.57 mid-index lenses.

 

Finally, I ordered from zennioptical.com. I placed two orders. First, I ordered a pair of sunglasses. They were exactly the size that was listed on the website and they were a perfect fit! When they started their buy 2 get 1 sale, I had to buy more. I bought two pairs of glasses and one pair of prescription sunglasses. Two of them were the size listed on the website and one was a little larger. For all but one of the glasses, I got the free 1.57 plastic lenses. For the other pair, I got the 1.61 high index lenses and an anti-reflective (AR) coating. The AR coating is now necessary. I NEED it. My first order took almost two weeks to arrive and the second order took a little over a week.    

 

Here I'm wearing the sunglasses in my first order

 

A close-up view of those sunglasses. They're an 80% tint. The style number is 270416.

 

 

Yep, no makeup. These are 1.57 mid-index. I didn't get anti-reflective coating.

 

The style number is 282221.

 

Love the wood-grain look on the temple arms.

 

Bad picture, but I like these. They're frame #604625. These have spring hinges.

 

These did arrive with a small chip, but it is not very noticeable. I could return them, but I don't feel that it is worth the return shipping cost and extra wait time for such a small flaw. The frames still feel sturdy.

 

The lenses in these glasses (with high index 1.61 was very thin, thinner than the ones from the eye doctor with 1.74 high index lenses).

 

These may just be my favorites. They're frame #419011. I thought that they would be too big, but they fit perfect. They were only $6.95 on Zenni Optical. The tint it gray and 80% which was an extra $4.95. They also have spring hinges.

 

These are definitely thicker than the others, but they are larger (larger frames tend to have thicker lenses...plus these had mid-index 1.57 lenses).

 

 

 

Over all, I am very happy with my purchases. I like being able to change my look and that was not possible for me when I was paying ~$400 a pair. I had been wearing my glasses from my Walmart Vision Center for about three years and they were beginning to get scratched, and the glass was turning a sort-of yellow color. The only experience I had with customer service with these online companies was with goggles4u.com. After being shipped, it took several days to get a tracking number. I did eventually get the tracking number and got the glasses without a problem. The customer service representatives were friendly, but did not seem to be able to help much. They could only tell me that it could take a few more days. I took the last two pairs of glasses pictured above to an optician to make sure that the lenses matched the prescription. They were both perfect. I have another order on the way of my first cat-eye glasses. I added them to my mom's order. She needs bifocals and chose progressive lenses. My dad also ordered some glasses for his very weak prescription, and he got photochromic lenses. When our order arrives, I'll make sure to update.