couple up

M & M poses for a spring photo. Do the color's look right? What do you think?

Innocence

This pic turned out pretty good. It looks pretty natural. Working with children who are very used to having their picture taken tend to give fake smiles. This little one really got into the modeling. I am open to any comments or feedback on improvements.

Zions National Park

I had great fun recently at Zions. I took the opportunity to take a class from the Zion Canyon Filed Institute. I learned from Michael Plyler, who is a very talented photographer (in black and white). he uses a box camera. That was fun to watch him work. He took us to places that I didn't even know existed in and around the park for some great photo opportunity. I plan to go back as soon as I can work it in. There are a couple other classes through the summer that he teaches. I am going to try to go but who knows what the summer will bring. Here are some examples of the areas we took. Michael gave us help on composition and working with the existing light. Sometimes we get boring skies, but we make the best of it. Michael kept reminding us that a bad day of photography is still better than the best day at work. By the end of the 3 day class I was feeling guilty because I was enjoying myself so much. Please leave me come comments and constructive criticism. :)

Sweet Baby without border

Here is the picture without the border. Which do you like best?

Sweet Baby

I have given the border one last try. On this particular picture it doesn't show up much and I don't think it offers much (if anything). I learned a very valuable lesson on this shoot. Make sure the baby's face is clean!. I used the "sexy soft" action to blur the dried milk on her face. I removed the blur on her eyes and teeth. I also used the Scott Kelby vignette but it isn't really noticeable. She is really a heart breaker!

New Actions

On this picture I went to the Adobe.com website and downloaded a free action by Gavin Seim-- "sexy soft"--the title of the action is not what I would like for a little girl, but it did the job. I ran the action and didn't like the soft blur all over, so I went back and used a brush to wipe away the blur on her face. It worked out pretty well because it give the illusion that the picture has a short depth of field. Then I used the Scott Kelby vignette, which is to duplicate the layer. On the duplicated layer change the layer blend mode to multiply. Then using the marquee tool, make the center selection. Refine the edges and then use backspace to delete the center. It very subtly makes the vignette. I like this better than the way I have done it in the past and the way I have seen it at several websites. I also added a copyright.

Edited Family pic

I haven't decided if I like the border. It is from the free onOne Software website. They have several that are free, and tutorials of how to use them. As you can see from the previous post, this is a much better natural look for the center child. I also used the onOne Software PhotoTools to soften the texture of the faces. I also whitened the eyes and teeth (where necessary), thanks to Scott Kelby CS3 step by step instructions. I am open to comments about any potential improvements for the picture.

sooc

I am setting up a studio and learning more and more about light (and about photoshop, plug-ins and actions). Here is one straight out of the camera.