Sunny Days!

Yes, yes, hiatus. I've been off my game for a while but that happens when life gets you down. Its been more than a while actually and I'm dying to get back on my game. I'm going to be doing a little bit of some revamping to this little blog since it wasn't really working out in some ways. But the sun brings the best of things and it brought about this fantastic little inspiring flower.

The flower above is a Teddy Bear Sunflower that I grew in my window sill. Its beautiful capturing the colors of your own plants but yes this edited as well. I took my Photoshop CS3 to it and changed some coloring but I don't think it much matters because it makes the statement I wanted it to. I understand that it doesn't have anything to do with the previous photo project, but that's one of those things we are going to be working on changing. I don't want to get bored with this because its honestly very good for someone to enjoy their work so much so we are going to be doing the photo projects that's for certain but we are also going to be doing a clause. This time around we are going to be photographing whatever the heck we want, IF for whatever reason life wants to get in the way. we aren't going to let it because being a kid on Sesame Street is way better than being a mopey and annoying adult from boredville. Its kind of nice getting back into the groove, I've certainly been wanting to and that means that we need to get the projects back as well. Since I started up again without my list of types of photos we are going to go by ear this week.

I hope I can redeem myself with you all. Ready, set, CLICK!
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Baggy Bunny!

*EDIT*

BAH! No I'm not about to say that this edit is to retract that I'll be doing this blog religiously. Nope this is a good edit. It is.... EDITORIAL!!! We've moved on to the land of editorial photography. BWAHAHA!

Now the Photographs that follow this field is actually defined as photographs that describe written word. More over like issues you see in the news paper. Photographs we see in the newspaper and on FOX NEWS, those things are all editorial. Nothing advertising is considered edit style. It has to be the issues! Like in Urban, only present more... obvious issues. Like this poorly taken picture right here!



That is the massive land mine of a night time pothole that has overtaken my driveway and parking lot. There are several of these bad boys and sadly because I have no tripod I can't just get perfectly clear night shots like I would love to have. Anyway this picture demonstrates the editorialness...nesss of potholes. This is a common issue in the news and thus means that this is yeah as I said above. Editorial. I would like to take a bow now... as editorial will require a ton of research on my part tomorrow to more properly define. I shall be using all my resources!!!

From your friendly neighborhood landmine detector,
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baggybunny

A Warm Fuzzy...

Yes it is all too nice to have that fuzzy feeling inside. That is in fact, exactly what today's subject matter told me. I had been playing around with doing normal still life instead of getting in its face and to prove I can do it! The bear family. These two bears climbed Mt. Age-Old-Rocking-Chair just for this picture of normal and everyday still life. To commemorate the this week's theme that managed to get my entire family involved, including, my mom who is still coming up with ideas and jotting them down in her notebook of things for me to photograph, I am posting two different subject matters entirely. ENJOY! Mr. and Mrs. Bear by the way had a ton of fun today. So thank you still life!!!


They were not however on the clock today like myself and are now giving me the eye in the corner of the room because instead of doing as I said and taking the time to study who was the most renown Still Lifers, I was busy doing household errands, helping me soon to be cousin with her dress shopping, and walking off some of what St. Patrick's day will be adding to me. I apologized to them already for my overly busy schedule but now I must apologize to you guys. SORRRRYY!!!! If you feel like enlightening me further PLEASE I would appreciate any more words of wisdom or info on people who are important to Still Life.

Sadly though, it is late and I will be going to my wonder bed in just a few moments, sooooooo... GOODNIGHT!
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baggybunny

Have a Palette for Life?

That's right. My little sister was painting today and boy is she cute. Sadly people are not part of still life shots, sooooo all those will be put in the family album. But her messy paint stuffs was a perfect little thing to photograph. I quite pleased with the outcome.

Now as the whole outcome was a painting project, I made an effort to Photoshop the first one to have a watercolor paint brush effect. Thought it would be appropriate. Sure I know this one wasn't exactly POW still life, it was still... well still. It gets sort of tough finding proper table space around here to get decent backed out shots, so those I do take aren't always that perfect.

Its definitely tough considering I thought this was going to be a walk in the park. But at least things are going well. I haven't done any looking about at well considered professional still lifers, but that will be tomorrow's endeavor since it will also be our last day of still life. Today was just another day among days. Also had a nice cooking party today with family and friends. English Toffee Bars. They were grand! But they did give me the idea that cooking utensils would be great for my next shot as well. Incidental, it shocks me to realize that most my favorite shots are close ups of utensils. Makeup, paint, and pens. Certainly this says a lot as to subject matter...

I think I'll have to talk to my sources about this notice...
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baggybunny

Slowly but Surely

Yes its true. I have difficulty with white. I think its a horrible and miserable color. So what do I do? I finally take a real, honest to goodness still life shot and I PhotoShop it so that the white is overtaken! Just because my apartment happens to have white walls. Oh well... at least I am slowly working my way towards a real still life photo. Not to say that those last two days weren't, they were just not as good as this one.

Now as I was photoing today, I find it is important to off center your main point just a bit because well... its just not truly artsy until you get that thing out of frame. Heh. Also you need to frame it with a pastel color. I myself am a big fan of my enigmatic boyfriend's mom's still life shots. She has a way with color that I envy. At least in a particular shot of her's that I find... maybe one of the only still life pictures that I honestly like. I mean lets be honest here. Still life is boring!!! But at least she makes it look fanciful. If you are interested in the piece I'm talking about, TADA!

http://camaem.deviantart.com/art/Balance-125863583

Yeah, I mean she's good with all that stuff. Sadly, I simply can't find the space to take a picture like that. On top of that the wall color. I could certainly use a good wall to have colored something like... GREEN! Do you have any idea how boring a picture with a huge white wall behind it looks? Do yourself a favor and go find out. Its like a winter wonderland of annoying frames before you find one that is even possible to photoshop.

Anyway. over the weekend I might try and find some time to create a nice Still life of my plants. That might be good. The trowel, pot, and some dirt... sounds like a good idea. Now if only I could find a Green gorgeous wall somewhere...

Stacking Blocks

You know it seems to me that upon looking further at these still life shots all over deviant art and on the net, that I should most certainly be taking a step back. I mean still life captures stillness, and I creep in so close because when I started doing photography I lived in its face. Macro is my safe place. Soooo today is another failure to quite capture what it is that still life is, but I do say that I still like these anyway.

Stacks seem to me a very common thing in still life. A stack of books, a stack of dishes, and even stacks of of pens and pencils. So today I tried picking out a few of my old school novels. Moby Dick is the big one. And then randomly stacking them on my side table. Upon this I discovered that books do NOT like flash. Ever try taking a picture of a book while its open? Not pretty I can assure you. You blind yourself and anyone else in the room, on top of that you can't read anything that was on the page. It reminds me of a white out in Antarctica.

By the way, while taking these photos I had to move the things off my side table and realized... I have perfect still life stuff. A random fake flower bouquet, an old looking bowl with some change in it, and little trinkets that look like leaves. So that will be my attempt throughout tomorrow. To manage to take a far away shot of these things on the table... or a table. You know I haven't quite decided where, but I'll figure it out.

Also I realized old things make for a very fine subject matter. Grainy things like wood for instance. Make a very fine texture shot. We'll see if I can't manage to stack some of the long books too for another shot in my spare time. Not for this of course unless it turns out great because we all know what a mood I get into when I photograph the same subject matter days in a row. Soooo here we go. Which reminds me, the photo below... its not some special diary of secrets, it might not look it there, but its just my plant journal, heh. I'm starting this one out to record how my sunflowers grow this year. So its not as secretive as it looks, haha.

So try it yourselves, its rather fun. Making the simple ordinary things look suspicious.

I lead a Still Life...

My goodness could I have dropped the ball any closer to the ground?

Don't answer that! I know I've been a terrible person in not sticking to the plan, but I plan and have great intentions to get the train back on the tracks. The first of those stations being Still Life! Yeah I know I lead a rather boring life myself, and how I could have fallen behind is inexcusable, so I'm not even going to waste my own time in explaining on how bothersome it is because it doesn't matter. What matters is we are back on track and no one can stop me! Even it it means in order to take my next shots I must remain perfectly still....

Now here's what to do! We are going to start of with something exciting! Gather up a whole bunch of random objects from around the house. Right now! Run, run!

Got um? Good. Put them on your coffee table, or kitchen table, or the floor. Whatever is best for you. Now before you get too comfortable with this arrangement, close your eyes and mix them up!! Make a great mess of the whole bunch and just start shooting. Still life is the capturing of usually a ton of little things. A lot of archeologists use this technique to make their exhibits look pretty, but I'm tellin' ya it works for anyone. Now that you've taken the photos of the mess... arrange those puppies however you want. And not that does not mean use puppies, because honestly those don't sit still at all!!!

We want composition now that we've gotten out our creative side and make it... make it mean something without any kind of movement at all. Use some creative lighting and make sure there isn't anything behind your photos when you are taking them because it makes it cluttered and sometimes they reflect light awkwardly, unless of course that's what you are going for. Now upload those lovely photos without a second thought and lets see our masterpieces.


Mine... still and capturing my rolling perfume bottles at the same time. Though I think I need to back out more next time. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, tomorrow!!!

Yum-O

I'm just going to stop apologizing for all these missed days because its not like anyone REALLY notices that I'm gone, its just a major disappointment for myself. But on that note I will post yesterday's picture at the bottom of this post to prove that I wasn't just not doing it, I actually just didn't have the time to type between work and grocery shopping, and everything else. But yes, on to today's topic.

FooooOOOOoooOOOoooddddddddd!!

Delicious, wonder tasty food. But why wait? grab a snickers! No seriously talking about food makes me hungry and I've been thinking non-stop today about what I want to make. Now, whatever we end of photographing, it should in all respects look delicious. I don't have to think it tastes delicious, but it should make my eyes want a piece. That is the art of food. I mean first the smell, that wonderful aroma. (And if Alton Brown cares to let me barrow this), but if we had smell-o-vision that would be a big part. Then comes the sight of it, it should look like it was made from the soul!

Now I'm aware my food was bought in a box and sold at Walmart, but it looks darn tasty and that's my version of love. Tis called, Monkey Bread. Now as someone already pointed out to me my pictures make things sometimes look bigger, since in the way I started this whole photo love was in macro photography. The art of making the itty bitty, not so bitty. So when photographing, this time around we want to make the food look like... its size and glistening color. Now some of us may be prompted upon seeing the chocolaty goodness of a brownie or some such, feel the need to zoom in on the rivers of luscious fudge, but the point is to show its lovely foodieness as a whole.

So, as you can see, since this thing was somewhat huge... I've done what I can to put it in such a way that we can adore its while. This is because unless your food comes in portions, it should be displayed the way it truly is. I on the other hand its... New York Cheesecake slices, then by all means photograph the slices ^.^ But this monkey bread only looks this delicious because it hasn't been yanked apart yet. But believe me... it was sticky, and it was good.
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baggybunny

O.o

I'm not sure about you, but I am getting so tired of missing my updates. I mean I sit here preaching about how I'm going to keep this every day and then I let work get in the way. Well I don't know about you, but that's just bothersome. I'd get rather frustrated with me. Its like those people that I watch on livejournal and they don't update for a week. Bleh.

Anyway, I was going to tell you all about my adventures at work with possibly the most adorable children known to man! but that was interrupted by the fact that I was doing a lot of driving around once again and everything was interrupted this week. So I'm going to use the weekend like Thursday and Friday. Hopefully that will make up for my stupidity.

Now, today I will be doing placement of subject. In my photos, I find it is best to set things off center when doing black and white. Allowing for the light to enter the frame and bring out both the shadows and the contrast. Sooooo I am going to use this opportunity to get some prime people pictures into the game. The first is of the little girl I watch, because I promised you all a soft now contrasted picture. And then later tonight I will post pictures from the endeavor with my almost new cousin at the dress store. She's getting married and well... we need to document.

Exciting!
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baggybunny

Edit: Well my cousin looks amazing in her pictures that I took, but unfortunately I can not post them until her wedding because she doesn't want her soon to be hub to see her pictures. Understandable, so then I will be adding another picture from the baby shoot. Tada!

Shiney

There is something about metal that is fantastic for taking photos. The reflective surface allows for that nice contrast we were talking about yesterday. This particular piece of metal is a lovely necklace that my amazingly understanding boyfriend gave to me. It is suppose to be a guardian angel. Particularly nice for this photo session because the light and dark play against the metal enough to give that sense of protection already.

Wood, metal, and glass are all very good reflective surfaces, so when it comes to pictures in black and white, when you find something you want in black and white, but you need some way to get light into part of the picture, put something reflective beside your subject matter. They are very interesting shots. Now for the most part contrast is what black and white is all about, but for tomorrow and the day after I think we should try taking some soft pictures, using the black and white to cut out depth. Skin, fabrics, and random objects are what its all about.

Black and white is simple ^.^

Sorry for keeping these so short, but as far as black and white is concerned it isn't tooo difficult. Tomorrow though I'll talk about something interesting, and if there is anything in particular my wonder fans have to say, or ask for... Ears are open!
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baggybunny

In the Beginning...

there was black and white photography. The mother and father of contrast between light and dark, good and evil, happy and sad. Yes friends here we are, together entering a world that has been explored billions of times before us and probably most assuredly will be explored long after my useless blog. There is something just so enchanting about the battle in these photos that brings a rather bright smile to my face, because of this I thought today we go over the simple stuff I learned today while at work.

Its the first of all the photo types that man was ever plagued to practice. And for of any of you who are younger than me by a good deal, we use to have these really hideous old school cameras that resembled a box with the siding of an accordion. You also had to hold these things over your head... well lets say watch Lady and the Tramp, the end scene shows one of those hideous things. I would hate to ever use one let alone see one again, so lets just say I am very grateful for the invention of the digital camera.

Most the time black and white photos, from what I have seen, are now used for abstract photos and portraits. Its a very beautiful thing that people can do with these images, heightening the contrast between bright white and black, attracting you to the space between the subject, delivering the message and in the case of portraits, bringing to light the details of the soft or sharp features of that individual.

This week is going to be one of my favorites of all time because there is no dictation on any subject. Hey you could photograph a gallon of water, or pictures of a pair of shoes. That's right, complete artistic freedom has been granted to us in its entirety, lets explore!
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baggybunny

Got Milk?

Well I certainly do! 15 terribly out of focus pictures of pouring milk, 4 completely blank frames where there should have been a water balloon, and 10 frames of black where I attempted to catch pictures of someone throwing stuff. I tried a variety of objects, once again, epic failures.

Oh well, you can't necessarily blame me, I mean they do claim that my camera can't handle this high speed stuff. I mean I did what I could. Stupid weekend... Though you can't really blame the camera either. I had very little time this weekend to work on our high speed project because of this on going issue with my mother's truck. Little to say other than lots of driving and a sore throat. Sometimes I wonder if life is too full of work, then I remember that that's the reason I'm doing this project. Heh. Of course also so that you are all aware, I began working again today and will be working for the next 6 weeks, so most my posts and pictures will be posted well after 5pm. I apologize for this, but since I'm in child care, my time is spent with the wee people, not with the computer.

So I'm putting all those failures and such aside and continuing on with the exploration of photography! Today we say farewell to high speed, and tomorrow begin anew with: Black and White. Lovely and artistic, prefect for allll sorts of stuff. Can't wait to begin ^.^ I'm very excited and hope that you will all join in with the fun.
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baggybunny

First Weekend Project!

http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_high_speed_photography_at_home

I have been researching this all week long and have procured over the years, a rather large amount of bb guns. Airsoft really, but not so soft. Anyway, I plan to be attempting this all night and weekend as my first weekend photo attempts. You know this after all, I'm suppose to have weekends off. I am very excited, especially after today's disaster.

The picture you see before you is an empty spot, where there should have been a bottle busting, but I was too amateur with my clicking skills to capture the moment just right. If you look close enough, there is a bit of glass shards all about. At the edges of the frame. This is my first outdoors attempt, but not my last. Once I get the hang of this, there will be no stopping me!! This is what the the super speedy multiple frames setting is for... now if only I could find that...

*Wanders off to locate the manual for the camera*
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baggybunny

Speed Junkies

Indeed, that's what I'd call those crazy cats that spend all their time taking amazing, sometimes hazardous pictures of high speed greatness. I am no where neeearrr as exciting as these people. I mean honestly, if you spend time to look up the high speed junkies of this new era you'll find some wild stuff.

Speaking of, I would like to bring attention how incredibly lame I am, that I did water pictures when there are sooo many different mediums that I could have attempted. But on that note I plan to be quite the rebel and try some interesting shots of my own. Of course I have been quite busy lately and those interesting shots require other people's help because I don't have the equipment necessary for all those complicated shots. So that is my lame explanation for repeating the water experiment. Hopefully this one is at least different enough that no one hates me. ^.^

I dedicate this picture to Martin Waugh, a high speed genius with water. He sculpts water! Its amazing, his work inspires the curiosity in my head. Of course, despite the stunning greatness of this guy, that's not the most popular type of high speed. Of the plethora of types of high speed, the most common is that done with a pistol. They set up an object and then they shoot it. Some of the stuff I've seen getting shot is rather humorous actually. Apples, water balloons, eggs, light bulbs, and more. I mean honestly, to get the one shot, image how many things they have to shoot!

I found most of the popular photographers on WebUrbanist.com and upon studying the pictures from a speed demon contest. There are many interesting pictures out there in high speed. Most the most memorable for me, well the most memorable of HS to me is the Tropicana commercials where they show the drop of orange juice popping up.

But as for the picture I took today, I finally got an entire picture shoot without noise! But I ran into another problem that I have had with great frequency. Reflective surface totally sucks. Everything you take a picture of, if its in a glass bowl, don't expect it to come out. That's just plain trouble. So if you plan on using a bowl for pictures I suggest clear ones or if aim slightly up so that the flash doesn't hit the rim of the bowl. Oh and I would also recommend you do not do your shoot in a big bright sink. Very... shiny. Best of luck!
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baggybunny

Stage Left

Yes, the oh so fascinating story of how to set up the stage for the high speed ballet. Now I found this wonderful site made by this nice person named Mike. Its all about how to set up, so yay. At least I'm not in this endeavor all alone.

Now according to our good friend Mike, the best thing is to keep the set up simple. Make sure you are very, VERY close to the object you are about to photograph because flash is greatly reduced when doing the high speed stuff. Because yesterday's reasoning about how we need to be fast with our flash and also mentioned was the unattached flash mechanism. This time around we won't be using that big hulking thing (because honestly I don't own one). Now, remember close to the object. Try also using that tripod or stool that you may be using to substitute that. This way there is no nasty noise. Ugly nasty noise!

KEEP ISO LOWER than 800!!!!!

This is a tip from Mike because its also one of those things that reduces the nastiness of noise. I honestly hate that noise. I should just put a pair of ear muffs on the camera. Stupid visual static.

After that, play around with your fstop so that you get a chance to see which setting gets you the most appropriate clarity. Now lets hope this works out! Add colored objects for the background. Whootness!


And for the record, these pictures were taken this afternoon with the camera that I bad mouthed yesterday, so remember all... with a lot of studying and attempts, we learn we can do things you could never image.
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baggybunny

The F-Word!!!

That's right guys no picture for yesterday and since the camera doesn't do anything near high speed, I bring here for your enjoyment, the mighty F WORD! I swear at thee evil camera of earth. (For the record I really love that camera so no one tell it I said that). And the f-word that I mean is actually, f-stop, the settings used for high speed photos meaning frame stops. That's right, tonight is settings night.

Now, since I am sick, I studied how to take the picture instead of the ranges of the camera itself. First of all, I definitely need that tripod I've been talking about because the stool just doesn't do for height, and for high speed, same as lowlight, you want a very steady surface because otherwise its going to add a lot of noise. *snickers* That's right, noooiiiisseeee can be heard on a picture. How ridiculous is that, its not a speaker, so why do I have to worry about noise?

Stupid noise. Noise in camera pictures is that stuff that you see that looks like hideous static that makes pictures that are nice and well taken look disgusting. Its awful!

So we need a medium f-word... I mean f-stop. Around f5.0... Next thing you need would be aperture. Remember that the aperture is just about the same as your iris. The more light in your face, the small your iris contracts, and that's what you want with the aperture. Apparently though, most of the people who do high speed pictures stay in a dark dark room with a detached light. They aren't too expensive and on top of that very nice and bright. Good for taking profiles and stuff.

Now since this theme is a 6 day week, I'm going to be continuing this conversation tomorrow based on the set up of the scene. Best of luck to me ^.^ And to all a good night.
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baggybunny

Triumphant Return

I have returned!

Indeed! Unfortunately the returning topic of this week is kind of tough considering my camera's limited capabilities. High Speed awesomeness. Yeah, unless you had a super high speed camera like an SLR, its almost impossible to capture high speed stuff. Now this may confuse some of you, since I haven't quite defined the subject matter, which leads up into today's post!

High Speed Photography!

Alrighty, here we go. Defining high speed photography. The act of catching actions that the eye can't see on camera. Things like a bullet speeding through a glass, a water balloon breaking and the water still left in the shape of the balloon. It requires a major high speed camera which can capture frame after frame, in fact it seems to be the that from site to site that I visit, you require at least over 120 frames per second up to hundreds which they use for sports commercials and such. As you can see, this is why my camera will be very hard pressed.

What we will do this week is PRETEND that my camera is capable of all these amazing things by choosing subject matter in my photos that aren't particularly amazingly difficult to capture, but with artistic help, I will try to make it seem high speed.

This subject matter actually is he first of several types of photography that will be getting extra attention. Six days of study instead of the normal five. These posts might be shorter because there is extra time, but then again I might be getting more technological around this time because my camera won't really be able to capture these things we talk about.

High Speed is a beast, and we begin today, capturing something people usually don't capture with their... naked eye. That or things they don't especially pay attention to.
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baggybunny

Grieving!

I must take this time here to apologize to myself and any readers who might be paying attention. The reason that portrait week suddenly seemed to come to halt bothered me greatly. Unfortunately there were a great many family and personal problems which kept me from keeping up with the weeks assignment.

I beg forgiveness for not having continued the week as I originally promised myself, this weekend. But unfortunately I haven't much time this weekend aside from all the house hold work that must be done to hunt down another willing person to have their photograph taken by me. This makes me very sad, but the coming week is a light at the end of the tunnel and we will get on track once again starting Monday with the new theme: High Speed Photography!

Once again, I am sorry about the delay in explanation and I hope your Sunday is wonderful.
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baggybunny

Knock, knock!

Who's there? My neighbors!

Hahaha. Yes that's right, today's photo shoot was one of whoever I could take pictures of. I spent forever trying to get pictures of my buddy and all around nice guy, Josh. We did a few good ones, but then when we got home from the day I was simply inspired! My neighbor was just sitting there, waiting for a ride in the hallway and POW! He just had the look. So I manned up like a photographer does and asked if he wouldn't mind being today's subject matter. To my great surprise he thought I was funny as hell instead of all around funky and weird and did a good ol' pose for me. He looked great!

Now as you may have noticed I also have used Photoshop on this piece. I created put a background (not of my own photography), and paint daubed it. I was very pleased over all. Now I was suggested to use the white wall that he was against, but as my mother, the over lord of all, walked by, she suggested this.

Now as far as all the mistakes made today, I can tell you now, it is NO FUN trying to take a low light portrait. All I kept getting was the shaking of my hands and otherwise. Here we go for today's learning! Do NOT! I repeat, do not try and take photos in a bathroom without washing the mirrors first. EW! Secondly, moving car pictures... kind of difficult if you are trying to take a backseat photo of the front seat driver. What you'll need, is a super high speed shutter setting, so that motion isn't an issue, but you need to absorb light, soooo high lighting as well. Josh was a great subject, but unfortunately these factors are things I did not discover until seated here at home and after meeting my wonderful neighbor.

Now as far as how I added such a background to my portrait of my neighbor? First I picked a picture and made sure it matched mine size wise. Secondly, I dragged that photo on top of mine, clicking layers and multiply. After multiplying, click the background photo (the one you have added), and erase around your photo so that it comes out clear. Tada! Then lock the layers and you have glory!!!! I learned this after 800 times of finding that everything I tried became something like... mutated from erasing everything and using one click at a time.

This is an art, and not to be rushed!
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baggybunny

Attennnn HUT!

At least that's what they sound like they are saying. Portraits are ridiculous when trying to get attention. Man, oh, man. You know getting children to pose in a picture is possibly one of the most difficult things I have EVER done. Especially with this little one. You can say look here, look there. Doesn't matter it just stresses out, Sooooooo what I read is a great stress reliever is to give them snacks and talk nice and point cool things out to them. Makes them snap attention off into the distance. My mom did me a great justice today by dressing her so pretty. This picture was taken after 80 other attempts. I had all but given up when she posed so perfect without thinking about it. I was just able to pull up my camera and snap the shot right before he moved.

Awesome!

This picture was completely randomly with prop. To grey the background I used a photoshop sponge brush. Portraits are just the face shots, so this one with the chair and window were slight props. With babies you see it more and more, but with older kids basketballs and sports stuff or all that other stuff is good. Plus it makes them super happy. Less stress in the face creates pretty pictures. ^.^ I think it might be easier to take pictures of random people though, because you don't expect anything except what's there. Since little one here is my sister, I expect a certain quality because well.. I have seen her other pictures.

Now the best thing you can do, for taking inside pictures without props and stuff, is to position the person in the middle of the room, because that way the things behind her won't stand out and instead will get blurred automatically by the camera. Me... I just used the portrait setting on my dial. Heh. As far as it goes, this little girl is a super star.

Now as far as portraits go, I want to try a shoulder shot next. There are varying levels of where you take the picture. There are face portraits, shoulder portraits, waist, and finally complete portraits. So far I have done a face and a full body picture. Now from what I hear and read a lot of pictures are waist highs, capturing hand motion and emotion through body language, which is what essentially makes a portrait, showing how beautiful a person is through the expression of emotion through movement. Something about hands and a person's back are so... Its the details in muscle definition.



Tomorrow we will try a waist high with hands!!! And talk about the settings we can try!
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baggybunny