Emily’s Musings

The Camera LOVES Her March 5, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Friends, Photography, Projects , 5comments

This is my friend Annette.

It goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway, she’s VERY photogenic.

Photogenic people make great images. :) Not only that, but my time with her flew by and before we knew it we were starving! (Which led to going out to lunch and chatting way too much!)

She showed up totally prepared. We had one short conversation on the phone about what I envisioned and what I wanted her to wear, and she brought an entire wardrobe complete with tons of accessories to coordinate.

She was a dream to photograph I tell you.

She looked great in every image. I could have edited EVERY STINKIN’ image from her shoot. Honestly.

These are my favorites:

This reminds me of a movie still . . . I wonder who she’s looking for over there . . .

This is image is just so soft and beautiful.

It’s equally beautiful in B&W. I got this angle by sitting on top of the truck (see below) while she sat on the bumper.

I love this. It’s like, “I’m cool, and I’m casual, and you wanna go for ride in my junker truck?” Also, take note of her yellow shirt against the blue truck. Do you like it? (How happy was I that she brought so many clothing options!) To make a color image really stand out, the colors should work together. Yellow and blue are complimentary colors and anytime you use complimentary colors you will have visually dynamic color images. To reproduce this on your own images, check out a color wheel to see which colors are complimentary. (They are directly across from each other on the color wheel.)

I love this head shot too.

And I like it in color. :)

I love her facial expression here and her body language.

Take note of this image, I used my speed light (aka external flash unit) to properly expose this image.

The B&W is a beauty too.

Now, this is the point where I talk about using flash during the day. Remember how I tried to explain that in a post earlier this week? Well, I have better examples now. :)

I shot this image WITHOUT a flash. It’s OK, but do you see how dark her face is and how harsh the shadow is across her neck?

I used my flash for this image (it was the next frame) and look at the difference! Her face isn’t dark! The light is very smooth on her face and the shadow on her neck is soft and diffused.

I like this image so much, I wanted to share it with you in B&W as well.

I hope this post inspires some of you to go out and shoot someone!

OK, So I’m Jealous March 4, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Photography , 2comments

As many of you know, I offered head shots last month for a killer deal.

It was one crazy idea I had to offer head shots for $25, but it was fun to meet so many readers!

Which is why I must post this image to talk about my jealousy issues.

She has PERFECT skin. You are going to want to re-read that last sentence before you read this next one . . .

Did you take a good look at her skin? I DIDN’T TOUCH UP HER SKIN AT ALL.

That’s right my friends, she possibly has the most amazing skin on the planet. Not one blemish, sun spot, wrinkle, or scar on this skin.

NOT ONE. This is EXACTLY how her skin looks in real life. (As opposed to the touched-up-by-Photoshop-life that we all believe is real.)

Basically, I’m jealous. I don’t think a team of Dermatologists working around the clock could get my skin to look like hers.

And . . .

She has piercing hazel eyes and super white teeth. (Also, untouched in Photoshop. This image was possibly the easiest edit I’ve ever done.)

I had skin, teeth, and beautiful eyes envy.

But I like her, so I must change my jealous ways.

I was fixated as I photographed her.

Now you can all be jealous with me. (Hey! I like company!)

How to Get a BEAUTIFUL Portrait by Window Light March 3, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Photography , 5comments

I photographed my friend Annette last week.

She’s beautiful. I know.

She used to model for my bridal store in Dallas, Texas. I could always count on her to model in every runway show.

She is a great live model.

When she responded to the casting call I posted a couple weeks ago, I was excited to see that she moved to Utah. Because I like it when my Texas friends move to Utah.

I don’t think I’ve ever had an easier photo shoot. EVER. The camera LOVES her and she is a natural in front of the camera.

We had the BEST time laughing, talking, and running around to different locations.

Honestly, she is so photogenic, I could have edited EVERY ONE of her images.

This head shot is one of my favorite images from her shoot.

It looks equally stunning in black and white.

I ONLY used window light. No overhead lights, lamps, or flash. JUST WINDOW LIGHT for this image.

Here’s the proof:

This is a snapshot straight out of the camera (zero editing on this image) to show how I shot this image so you could try to duplicate this window light portrait.

First off, what you don’t see is a HUGE window that spans the length of the room. I had Annette sit across from the window on the couch. Lucky for us, it was an overcast day, which made the light very diffused. I had her hold a silver reflector to bounce even more light onto her face. Because the lighting was so soft, she had to hold it quite close.

After metering the shot, I shot this at ISO 200, F5.6, and 1/30th of a second on a tripod. Without a tripod, this image would have been blurry. A general rule about when you should use a tripod and when you can hand hold your camera is this: You should never hand hold your camera when your shutter speed is shorter than the length of your lens. For example, I shot this image with an 18-200 mm lens. I NEVER hand hold this camera at less than 200th of a second because my lens is 200 mm long. Even if my focal length is not 200 mm, (say it’s 80 mm or something) I still use a tripod if I’m shooting at less than 200th of a second. Remember how I feel about blurry images? This is why my tripod goes everywhere with me.

I’ll post more images from her shoot in a couple of days! I’m still editing some of them. THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

In the mean time, I’d love to see some of your window light portraits! Start shooting and send me a message!

“Nunsense” March 2, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Photography , 2comments

Last week (right about the time my computer got sick) I photographed this fun group:

This is the cast of the musical “Nunsense” which opens this Friday night in Pleasant Grove.

These fun ladies are going to put on a great show.

Here they are in character:

Here are the details:

Shows: March 5-22 Friday, Saturday, and Monday evenings at 7:30 PM
Matinee March 20th at 3:00 PM
Keith Christeson Theater 30 East Center Street, Pleasant Grove, UT - lower level of the PG City Library (around back).

Go check them out!

I know I’ll be there!

To Flash or Not To Flash? March 1, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Photography , add a comment

Flash.

Whenever I heard that word associated with cameras I automatically thought, “UGH! GAG!”

I hated the harsh light flash would produce, and the strong shadows behind your subject.

I vowed NEVER to use one.

Natural light for me all the way baby.

That was how I felt before I learned how to use a flash properly.

Now, natural light will always look good because it’s natural, but there are times when you absolutely need some fill light to expose your shot properly.

This shot was taken with no flash:

It was an overcast day, so even at high noon the lighting was quite soft as the clouds functioned as a lighting softbox.

This next shot was taken in the shade without a flash.

It is nicely exposed, but I wanted to lighten up the shadow on the side of her face a bit so I took another shot with a flash.

This was taken with a flash:

Now, there’s not a huge difference, but the light is a bit more even overall. (I would post a better example, but my computer is still recovering from a nasty case of Swine Flu.)

Flash also comes in super handy when you’re photographing in bright sunlight and your subject is back-lit by the sun. Fire that flash up and you will have a great image of your subject lit up with the sun behind them.

Please keep in mind, if you want great results with flash, you must buy an external flash. AKA, speedlight. Your in-camera flash has so many limitations, and everything you fear (more like, everything I fear) about flash will come true with your in-camera flash:

1. It’s not strong enough for a lot of lighting situations.
2. You can’t bounce it off anything since it is permanetly in the same spot
3. I have no idea how you diffuse an in-camera flash, and a flash diffuser is the magical ingredient that makes flash so beautiful.

I use an SB-400 speedlight, but I’m sure one day I’ll find a need for the SB-600, SB-800 or SB-900. There are many flash diffusers out there, and Gary Fong is a very popular one (especially his bowl shaped one), but I’ve been happy with my $10 Omni-Bounce flash diffuser made specifically for the model of my speedlight.

The Swine Flu Infected My Computer February 26, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Photography, Thoughts , 6comments

I downloaded a virus.

I was just minding my own business, doing a little search on google, and BAM!

I was infected.

I know! I want to die!

I’m not sure how this mean little Trojan horse got past my anti-virus software, but David and I had a few loud words to share with Avast!

The only program this virus seems to have infected is PHOTOSHOP.

Now, I REALLY WANT TO DIE.

Photoshop to me is like texting is to a teenager girl.

It’s almost as important as my RIGHT hand.

I use it everyday. My classes require it. My work requires it.

So, I’ve obviously felt a bit handicapped since this nasty virus decided to destroy my life.

Today David is stripping our hard drives, and re-installing EVERY PROGRAM.

This is going to take a hundred years. I just know it.

But, now we will officially be using Windows 7 (we’ve been using the trial version for six months now and it expires in a week) and I love it so much more than Vista and XP, so Windows 7 it is!

We are also the proud owners of two more terabytes. That makes FOUR terabytes for us.

I can’t believe I just wrote that. I remember (not too long ago!) when I first head about terabytes. I was like, “WHEN IN A MILLION YEARS WOULD YOU EVER NEED THAT MUCH SPACE?”

Well, we do. I guess it’s been a million years. :) We (meaning David) plans to stripe the terabytes and mirror them, so we will never suffer from a catastrophic hard drive crash. Basically, we will have two terabytes of storage space and two terabytes to backup our stuff. If you think I have any idea what I’m talking about, you’d be mistaken. I’m creative, David is techie, so together we’re a good team. :)

I wanted to post a couple images from yesterday’s shoot.

This little guy is getting baptized next week:

(More pics from this session soon)

And this fun group . . .

Well, lets just say it was “Nunsense!” More images of this fun group starring in the musical “Nunsense” will be coming soon . . .

Opening night is in a week! More details later. (Meaning, more details, as soon as I know any, or where to find them, or whatever.)

Perspective February 25, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Family, Thoughts , 4comments

Please.

Excuse me while I take a minute to think about what really matters in life.

I tend to stress out a lot.

David on the other hand, doesn’t get his feathers ruffled too easily.

This makes us a good team.

But still.

I need a moment to think about what really matters in the long run and not what matters RIGHT. THIS. SECOND.

My New Studio February 24, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Family, Little Man Dallin, My Handsome Husband, Photography, Princess Hannah , 7comments

I know.

You can smell Dallin’s adorable face through your monitor. :)

I shot this image of him in my new studio, in the garage.

Well, first let me back up. I’m a student at AAU and I’m taking a class this semester called “Quality of Light.”

Sounds easy, right?

Turns out, it’s been a very complex studio class for me so far.

Basically, I knew nothing about light a few weeks ago. Well, nothing about how to shoot in artificial light.

I had to order a bunch of studio equipment for my class, and now, I have a studio.

I still don’t know how to use everything, and when to use everything, but I’m learning.

And THANK GOODNESS David doubles as a computer/technical equipment geek because who would I direct all my geeky questions to if it weren’t for him? Plus, he can set up my studio and take it down in record time. Maybe I should hire him to work for me for free as my go-to guy? Oh, wait . . . he already does that.

This is my temporary studio for now . . .

It’s in the garage. :)

I ordered everything from B&H and let me tell you, that is a very dangerous place for me to shop. I could easily drop a lot of money there.

This is my assistant Hannah. She is turning out to be quite the photographer herself. She has her own director’s chair, and when my twin, Brian, lent her an ear, she told him all about the white umbrellas and the diffused light I was trying to produce to shoot his product. (OK, so she may not have said that.)

I have black and white back drops. My back drop is huge. Let’s just say I was more than “shocked” when UPS dropped off my back drop paper.

I did several product shots for my brother Brian, (who’s launching something very exciting) and I hope to share a few images with you soon!

Since it was so much work for me to watch my husband set this up, I thought I would take a few pics of the kids before letting him take it down.

Hannah is wearing all of her most prized possessions: ballet shots, crazy tights, leotard, a skirt that twirls, and her favorite umbrella from my friend Cheryl who brought it all the way from Singapore for her when she visited last month.

Tigger is Dallin’s most prized possession.

And together, they can’t hold still for less than 1/60 of a second. :) On a side note: kids should never be photographed at less than 1/60 of second. They are just too busy and inevetebly, you will get motion blur (the unintentional kind that looks sloppy and not artistic). To photograph this, I set my shutter speed to 1/60 of a second and took a light reading from my Sekonic light meter to find out which aperture I should be shooting with. (Never, I repeat, NEVER trust your in-camera light meter to give you an accurate reading. It doesn’t see the whole picture and it can give you some pretty sad results. More on that in a later tutorial.) It said I should shoot at 2.8 (which is a very shallow depth of field – DOF) so that ’s what I did. If you’ll notice, the images of the kids by themselves turned out fine, but when you examine the images with both kids together, you will notice that Dallin is more in focus than Hannah (because of the shallow DOF) and in the future, I’m going to have to use strobe lights to get the lighting to the point where I can set my aperture where I need it to be (when shooting more than one person you should have your aperture set to at least F8 or higher so there’s not a chance of someone dropping out of focus when it’s not intended.) and keep my shutter at 1/60 as the slowest speed.

With that said, Dallin has had it. No more photos, and no more talk about f-stops and apertures!

Milestone for the Whole Family February 23, 2010

Posted by Emily in : Friends, Little Man Dallin, Parenthood, Photography, Thoughts , 3comments

C-sections are not easy.

Planned. Not planned. I’ve done both.

It’s not the worst thing in the world, it’s not the best.

The most painful time of the c-section does not happen when you are getting your spinal. It does not happen when you are being gutted like a deer either.

No.

That part is actually great because you don’t feel a dang thing, and if you’ve never experienced labor pains that accompany a vaginal birth, you might wonder what all the “pain” hype is about.

The most painful part of a c-section comes 24 hours after surgery.

You are well enough to get up and walk around the hospital like a little old lady with your new boyfriend, the IV, but IT DOES NOT FEEL GOOD. And you keep having to get up out of your bed using abdominal muscles that don’t work because they have been pried apart. Laughing, taking deep breaths, and sneezing are THE WORST.

You ban anyone funny from visiting you. I had to ban Brian.

I met Emily on day two of my c-section.

Why do I remember this patient care tech so well?

She was helping clean me up after some serious blood loss (not good, Dr’s and nurses came in and I was all, “Am I going to die? How much blood is too much to loose?) and in making small talk (I’m sure to distract me from the severity of the situation) Emily told me she understood how much pain I was in. She had two c-sections, and it was her opinion that day two was the worst.

I asked her how old her kids were, and she told me they would be two and one, but both of them had passed away.

GULP.

What?

I was no longer concerned about my minor medical issues of losing lots of blood (nurses and Dr’s still scurrying around the room) and I was sick to my stomach that a young mother had lost TWO babies.

She had TWO c-sections to boot.

Both of her babies had heart defects and did not live longer than five weeks.

Six moths after my chance meeting with her, she and her husband adopted this little guy: