Because we are new to the area, I have been trying to scout out new places to take pictures. Parks here are kind of ugly cause the are surrounded by open space which is just kind of dry and dead right now. We went on a bike ride last week and saw this cute little pond, quite picturesque, so that is where I went back to to take Jordyn's 18 month pictures.
My big thing I was wanting here was a good close up of her face and I got a couple great shots of that.
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| I took this one with the aperture as small as possible. I love outdoor pictures because the shutter is still speedy with such an aperture. In editing I did auto with contrast, color enhancement, lightness/darkness, and manually brightened it up quite a bit. I then added a 2 o'clock soft spotlight coming in from the top right corner. I discovered I really like the look of a low percentage on the spotlight and a high ambiance. I really brightened the photo without washing out her face. |
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| Pretty much the same edit as the one above. Chad was standing behind me doing patty cake with her here. She has the fattest cheeks on the planet! |
I was also loving the lighting situation. It was about 9 am. If we took the pictures in the shade of some trees, I got the best results. Any I took out in direct light was too bright. Her face was all squinty and there were really harsh shadows.
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| See... harsh shadows. Not in the shade here. I do like the look of the background here due to the aperture adjustments. |
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| Again, harsh shadows. She is kind of squinty. I tried to edit this one, as I did the one above but they were just not worth the effort. |
Here is the good lighting situation:
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| I love this one. Not only is she a cutie, but I like the photo stuff. We were in she shade of the tree, but some great light still came through. I am so ticked at myself for not noticing her pants were uneven. Dang! |
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| This one is ok. I like the light behind her but she is quite dark. We were not in the shade of the tree. When editing I brightened it as much as I could without the background being blindingly bright. I also added a slight glow. Very slight. |
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| This one is a big experiment. I have never done that glow light in the corner. I love it when I see it in other photos, so I decided to try. I think the placement is good. I like that it is coming from the same direction as the actual light. But I think I made it too big, or too bright or something. I also brightened this one up a bit and put in the low 2 o'clock shadow. |
All in all, I like these photos. There is still so much I want to learn in editing. And I need to be more observant while I take pictures to notice those little things like bunched up pants.
