Vintage

I had been wanting to take some old fashion looking pictures.  Then I saw this old hat in my mom's basement.  I thought for about 3 days of how I could create an old fashion scence with Jordyn and this hat.  I had nothing for her to wear that was not bright and summer colors.  Then I found my blessing dress in my mom's closet.  And sure enough, my baby blessing dress that fit me at 1 month old, fits my own 10 month old daughter. 

So, I had envisioned this old fashion brown, or black and white, photo.  When editing, that is not what looked good.  I think that to make an old looking photo, I needed more of a scenic photo, and everything I took was up close.  But, I sucked the color out on the saturation scale and did my usual spotlighting in the center. 

So, these next ones I took against the fence.  With all the pictures I have taken this summer, this fence is my go-to.  I like to use a hard light overlay. 

THis second one has a glow as well.  I took sooooo many pictures on this day and they were all a disater!  I found out how hard it is to take pictures without someone with me to get her attention.  Also, if you notice, the whole set started out being centered around the hat, and only one worked out.  She hated having it on.

Independant Baby

I wanted so badly for Jordyn to have a cute outfit for the 4th of July, but it was the day Chad was flying out and I knew we would not really be celebrating.  So I did not get her anything.  Then, on a dark and sad day when my husband left for 6 weeks, we got a package in the mail from Aunt Sherry.  She had sent this adorable outfit.  I had to take some pictures.
I did pretty much the same editing with all of these.  One thing out of the ordinary that I did was to put the spotlight coming from a corner.  Usually I do it in the center.  Also, I found something that changes the texture, I can't remember exactly where, but I put it really high on the metallic side.  I know, I have awesome photoshop lingo.

The best thing about these pictures is the lighting.  I took them around 7:30 one night as the sun was going down.  It made it easy to bring the spotlight in on the left side cause that is the natural direction of the light.  Taking these pictures really helped me to see just how important natural light is.   I have really been working on interesting angles lately, and anything out of the ordinary I took during this set did not really turn out.  These are pretty much just boring old, sit-her-down-and-shoot pictures, but I thought the lighting, the prop, and an actually smiling baby made up for it.

Cami's Family

With the addition of her new little one, I took some pictures of my sister's little family.  Her little boys cracked me up the whole time!  She was really nervous about what to have them wear.  I suggested to keep it easy and simple with white t shirts and jeans.  I think it was good advice for her.

All of these pictures were taken in my mom's backyard. I did the same kind of editing on all of them. Adjusted color, contrast, and added the omni spotlight I like so much. I especially like to do it with white clothing.

This one is the same editing as the others against the fence.  I tried to use the rune of 3  when framing this one.  One thing that bugs me is that the fence posts are not straight!  I am dumb about lines.  But it was either the bench be straight or the fence.

We did these whole family ones last and by this time Brooks was ornery, so no smiles.  I love how Cami's clothes contrast with the boys.  Her skirt and bare feet are flattering.  I like to do stuff against this fence and edit it with an overlay because it brings out so many different color densities in the fence.

Same thing, only the boys kissing the baby, and a light grey text in the corner.

So, I told him to smile, and I got this.  I know this kid, and I know what kind of a belly laugh he has and how funny he can be.  I felt like this pose was not genuin and did not reflect the personality I know he has.  Pretty picture, just know what I knew it could be.  So I told him to tell me a story about Disneyland and when he was done, I told him to smile one more time, and this is the pose I got....

I just cracked up!  He proudly put his hands on his hips and gave me the biggest cheese he has.  I really like the sense of dimention in this picture with the plants in front, Brooks slightly behind, and the flowers behind him again.  I also like the pop of color that the flowers add.  In both of these pictures of Brooks I straightened out the photos and cropped a bit.  It drives me nuts when a straight line, such as a fence post, is close to being straight, but not quite there.  I like it when it is obviously asku, as it is in these with Canyen.

Canyen was so patient during his pictures, so I was able to really try some different angles and stuff.  I love all the plants and greenery in the background here.  I also like how because of the fence lines you see the angles, but Canyen himself does not look so crooked.

I love the fence coming out of the corner of this one.  I with that I could have more of the green background in this one like I do in the others.  I was also telling him to put his shoulders down and his chin up, but he just was not getting it.  Still, I am glad he was so patient to let me try some new things.

New Nephew!

My sister recently had a baby, and he is beautiful.  I think he has the most beautiful skin, and the most adorable head of hair.  I took these for her when he was 3 weeks.  I loved taking pictures for her cause she is so grateful for anything.  I did not feel a lot of pressure to make them fantastic or jaw dropping.  I could just do my best and she was very complementary and grateful.

I love, love this one.  I had him on the boppy outside and just happened to stand up and get this one from above.  I love his cuddled up position.  I also had a color version of this, but love the strikingness of the black and white with the spotlight.  He is curled up just inside the boppy and I will definately remember this pose for another time and another baby.

This one is all about the setting.  You can hardly see the baby.  I like the setting for the most part.  The only things I don't like is the tan blanket.  I felt like the baby blended into the blanket so I had to make him look super red to create a contrast.  He looks sunburned!  The up close in this setting are really not good because his face and the blanket blend together so much.  But the back up with the setting looks ok.

I like the whole setting on this one.  I have taken a few against this fence with the red bench and everytime I use a hard light overlay.  I like how it brings out thelight and darks.

I laid him outside on the boppy, pulling his arm under his head to try and prop him up.  I had done this pose with Jordyn and it worked out well once more.  I adjusted color, brightness and all the normal stuff.  The most striking thing I did was add a spotlight with the center just under his chin.  This is the one we printed 8x10 and put on the announcement.

I took lots of different feet shots, but liked this one the most cause I fot the bottoms of both.  I did a glow with this one.  One of the things I like best with this one is the color.  I see some spots of deep blue, spots of deep green, and the contrasting bright white.  Plus the tiny toes!

What really works for this one is the angle.  I love the angle of the red bench across the bottom.  It is not great of his face, but works.  The thing I do not like about this one is the tan blanket again, blending with his skin.

There were a couple more that were ok, but it would take me all day to post and comment on them all.  I probably took 50 pictures and edited 20.  These are the best and the worst.  I got a couple that were just lucky shots with a cute little smile!  He is such a cute little baby boy!

Family Pictures

Every edit I did with this one was adorable.  I love how close up Jody got.  I have one cute baby!

This one is a little washed out.  I had to really tone down the glow so that Jordyn did not blend into my white shirt.  The weird thing is that it is one of the best when printed.  It looks totally different.  I have found that with a lot of the prints I have gotten, they look a lot different than on the computer.

My favorite with the glow.  I also love the angle Jody took this picture from.

This one is my least favorite with the glow.  I feel like there is too much of a contrast in the bright and dark areas of our faces.

Jody took these for us at our goodbye bbq.  They were taken in our backyard, well I guess it was mostly on our neighbors side of the fence.  I had planned on just sitting on the ground and at the last second saw this cute bench in my neighbors yard and asked if we could use it.  Jody took a ton of pictures with my camera and she was great!  I edited these.  I did pretty much the same thing with all of them.  I manually adjusted brightness, contrast, and color enhancement.  I found that I had take out some color tones or else they all had more of a yellow hue than the green/blue I was going for.  I found a new button on photoshop called "diffuse" or something like that.  It makes everything glow a little.  I have been looking for a way to get this glow forever!  I think I finally have it figured out!  I did the glow to all of these, but at a really low intensity so the pictures did not blind me.  I also straightened them cause it bugged me when the posts on the bench were a little askue (sp)!

Summertime Fun!

Kelsey ane I went to the park and took some pictures.  I took a lot and edited a lot, but here are some of my favorites!

Before.  I don't so much like the church in the background here.

I think this one is pretty bad.  But I posted it so I can remember not to go overboard with the color enhancement.  It looked fine at first, but when I came back to it later, it almost blinded me. 

before

after.  cropped.  auto lighten.  auto brightness and contrast then made it more bright to make it appear to be more of a sunny day.  it was actually a really cloudy day.

before

after.  cropped out the ugly cement box on the right side.  manual adjust contrast.  auto enhance colors.

before.  love jordyn's "seriously, more pictures" look.

after.  auto lighten.  manual contrast (up) and brighten again thinking it made it look like a sunny day. auto enhance colors.

before.  i took this picture thinking I could make it look old with this wall in the background. One thing I don't like is the pipe on the right side.  I feel like it is just in a spot that attracts the eye, but I could not crop it and still keep in enough of the old wall background to be satisfied.

first made black and white.  auto enhance colors and lighten (don't remember if this really made a difference cause it was already b/w). select jordyn, and inverse. lighten background (again. might not have made a difference cause i then did a spotlight.) lighting effects, omni flashlight and really tone down the intensity.

I think that by selecting Jordyn and lightening everything else, it kind of makes her look like a cut and paste kind of a deal.  So on the next one, I did pretty much the exact same thing as this one, only I lightened the whole thing, including her, and I think it turned out better.  Also, took the picture from a different angle to get rid of that pipe. 

before

after

before.  love her little smile in this one. 

cropped out the weird green box on the right.  tried to get her more into the center.  auto lighten.  auto enhance color.  manually brighten.

before.  this is her new "cheese" face.  I have been wanting to try some new angles and this from above angle is what I have had stuck in my head.  I think it really makes the picture about her, and not the scenery.

after.  auto lighten.  auto color.  manually brighten.

I have been playing a lot with photoshop the past little while.  I think I have really explored color and light and I am starting to get into routines.  I think I really need to work on getting brave.  Taking unconventional shots.  Not just setting Jordyn on the grass and snapping something.  I am glad I took this from above shot and that it worked out ok.  I need to get braver and more artistic with the editing in terms of color and brightness.  I need to take more pictures that focus on the face, and not the scenery.  Hopefully I can start to break out of my shell and do these things.  I am going to take some new pictures of my newborn nephew and some of my brother's family this summer and I hope that I can be brave and creative, thinking outside of just sitting and posing.

Jordyn and Hazel

My  mom got Jordyn and Hazel these cute matching denim dresses fot Christmas, and by Easter they fit and the girls were ready for their pictures.  I had only had my camera a couple weeks when I took these and it took me a while to figure out the settings and everything.  Indoor is a lot harder than outdoor for me.  Because it took me so long to adjust the settings and get it all figured out, the girls started to get ornery and there were no smiles for the camera.  Oh well, the outfits were the important thing ;)

This one is my favorite.  I did auto with all the brightness and color stuff.  I put a little omni spotlight to make the girls stand out a little.  I might have made it a little too bright on the white closet behind them. 

I did auto on all the color and lighting.  Added omni spotlight like I had in the first one.  The thing I corrected the most on this one was to straighten out the picture, which was my first time using this tool in photoshop.  I also corrected the distortion to try and make Hazel not look so far forward, but I think I could have done this even more drastically.

Again, auto with color and brightness.  Straightened the photo and played around with the distortion.  Added the mild omni spotlight.

before editing

before editing

before editing