The Pictures I'm Not Thrilled With

First, it's driving me crazy that I ended that title in a preposition. Oh well, I'll get over it.

The second thing that's driving me crazy? These photos.

You see, I'm a perfectionist. Not to mention, in a classroom I become Uber Steph. Seriously. I'm seriously annoying because I want to be the best. It doesn't matter if it's just a friggin' 8 session hobbyist photography class. I want the teacher to look at me and think, "Wow, she's the best student I've ever had!" Well, not entirely. But, um, yeah, kind of.

In class last week, our instructor had one of us sit in a chair in front of the glass classroom windows. The lights in the corridor were off. The lights in the classroom were off. Only the emergency lights were on. We had to take pictures and turn them into portraits.

I didn't use my flash for any of them. I tried a couple of different high ISO settings and fast shutter speed and I just wanted to see what I'd get. They looked pretty good on my screen and I figured I could fix the lighting a bit in Photoshop if they were a little underexposed.

Groooooaaaaan.

Yeah, they suck. They're really grainy and the few that aren't are out of focus. And I should know better. Cue inner perfectionist, "Use the friggin' flash, Steph." (And you can tell that my inner perfectionist will not let me forget this.)

My only saving grace was that we could do whatever we wanted in Photoshop.

Blurry. Sigh.

Same thing in black and white.

A super saturated, funky color look. I wanted the emphasis on just her face and the chairs.

And finally, a grungy, retro look with a texture overlay and a vignette.

Now excuse me while I continue mentally flogging myself.

Everyday Life: Grocery Shopping With A Camera

Have you ever carted a camera openly around a grocery store before? Trust me, you get some odd looks. I felt like I needed to reassure all of the Harris Teeter employees that I was just taking photos for fun and wasn't part of some undercover FDA sting. Because, you know, I looked so bureaucratic and official with my jeans, hoodie, and 2 and 3 year old snot oozing accessories. *Snort*

Hollis encounters the lobsters.



Underwater Hollis.

I like how it almost looks like there's another little boy inside the case, peering out.



Frozen Foods.

I can't really explain why I like this shot so much. It was taken with a Flickr photography group challenge in mind, but I really like how the glass cases and the overhead sign frame the ordinary scene.



Meat market. (Or, "I'm not just a cute face, Mommy.")

Meat makes a surprisingly pleasing photo backdrop. Who knew?
I used a Michelle Black V! Revolution Sepia RAW preset, lightened the eyes and changed saturation on a few sections of the photo. I think the vintage photo look goes well with his little stylin' denim jacket.

Tomorrow I'll share a few photos I doctored in Photoshop from my last photography class. I wasn't happy with what I shot in class, but it's not like I can go back and try again. I did the best I could with what I had. Stay tuned....

Tree Limbs

For my photography class, our first assignment was to take pictures of tree limbs. Tree limbs just had to be involved. I stretched that a bit to include tree trunks. Here's what I have:

The two shots above are the same trees, but with focus in different areas.



Tree bark



Initials on a tree trunk



Tree fungus.

Tomorrow I have a few shots from a different location for me. I wanted to try taking photos of more daily activities, not just the fun stuff. Stay tuned....

Vintage Holden

Well, I started my photography class this week. I'll post about that a bit later, with a few of my "homework" photos.

For now, I have some images I altered in Photoshop to share. I've been using Photoshop Elements for at least 3 years. I'd finally reached the limitations of the software and kept finding all these neat thing I wanted to do that you can only do in Photoshop CS (the $700 professional version). Argh. So, I downloaded the 30 day free trial from Adobe and I bought some discounted CS3 software that should be here soon.

I'm already thrilled that I did it. Here are a few pictures:

I used the V! Revolution Vintage Bleach RAW preset by Michelle Black and overlaid a texture at 35% opacity. Then I used the burn tool in a few areas around the face and around the edges of the photo to give it a vignette look. Oh yes, I also erased or seriously lightened the texture overlay for most of Holden's face.




Here, I used Michelle Black's Moderna Barely X RAW preset and a Michelle Black texture with some burning to again create a vignette look.





This is the Moderna Luscious X RAW preset. Guess who made it? Yep, Michelle Black again.





This is the Michelle Black Black and White Rich Mocha RAW preset with a violet satin texture overlay by Leenda K set at 25% opacity.

I love these RAW presets by Michelle Black. She also has some wonderful actions for Photoshop CS that I love as well. Her Essential Black and White conversions are gorgeous, with rich depth and colors. I love the Rich Mocha preset so much, I may eat it.

More Sickness, and Light

Y'all do realize that you're only seeing the best of the photos I take, right? For every 10 photos I get 1 or 2 that are crisp and clear and a couple more that are acceptable. Every now and then I get a photo that knocks my socks off. Those pictures are the ones that keep me going.

Here are some more photos from Holden's sick day(s). All of them were shot indoors with natural light. And just to humble myself, I'll start you off with one of the not so great photos of the day. A bonus? My double chin. This photo is completely unedited or I would have cut myself out!



On to the cuteness:

Notice the stockings behind him? (Yes, I need to pack away all of my decorations.)
I call this one "You'd better not pout!"



Looking out the window.
Am I the only one who's a sucker for a cleft chin?



This is Holden's, "I'm about to do something naughty," expression.
Can you see it?



I think he's pouting in pretty much every photo.




If Hollis's eyes are the windows to his soul, I guess so are Holden's. And here you can clearly see the Three Musketeers movie he was watching on Playhouse Disney.

Another Sick Day - Different Kid

Yep, it hit both of them. And then it hit me, but I wisely chose not to take pictures of myself. It wasn't pretty.

So now I give you the many faces of Holden:









I got many more excellent photos, so this will be continued tomorrow. If I can crawl to my laptop....

Sick Day and a "Speedy" Recovery

I took the photos below last week when Hollis was home sick. I used only natural light. No flash. I played around with my ISO settings to see what the different "film" speeds would do to my picture clarity and noise.

Have I mentioned that I love my new camera?

Before playing with the ISO settings, my first question was, "How does ISO work? How does it affect shutter speed and all that jazz?" The answer, for those of us who know nothing about photography, is this:

ISO is a measure of a film's sensitivity to light. The less sensitive a film is to light, the more exposure time (and the slower the shutter speed) it requires. Digital works the same way. While a higher ISO may allow you to shoot in lower light conditions, the drawback is a photo with more noise. (That grainy texture you sometimes see in shots.) So a higher ISO number indicates a "faster" film. The faster the film, the faster the shutter speed will be if all other conditions (lighting, etc...) are kept the same.

The goal, for the highest quality photo, is usually to shoot at the slowest possible speed for the light conditions you have. Not always, but I think I need to learn the rules before I start deliberately breaking them.


ISO 200
Exposure: .017 of a second (slower shutter speed)
Aperture: f/5.6




ISO 400
Exposure: .077 of a second
Aperture: f/5.6

This photo was taken by a window in our living room on a cloudy day in the afternoon. Most of the other indoor photos I took at ISO400 didn't come out so hot because I wasn't using a tripod or flat surface to shoot all of them. The slower shutter speed needed at this ISO gives much more of an opportunity for motion blur in lower light.




ISO: 1000
Exposure (shutter speed): .033 of a second of exposure
Aperture: f/5.6

If I hadn't been playing around, I would probably never have tried using that speed unless I was taking photos at night or something. But with the right exposure, the photo really looks nice and crisp where I wanted it to be so (the eye). It works because the light was fairly low (although daylight), and the much faster shutter speed kept me from ending up with the motion blur that a slower shutter speed (like ISO 200) would cause without a tripod.




ISO 1100
Exposure:.033
Aperture: f/5.6




ISO 1250
Exposure: .033
Aperture: f/5.6




ISO 1250
Exposure: .033
Aperture: f/5.6




ISO 1400
Exposure: .033
Aperture: f/5.6




ISO 1600
Exposure: .04
Aperture: f/5.6

This one is a bit blurry, but I only shot a few at 1600 that weren't impossibly blurry or very noisy.

So now I can see how ISO affects the necessary exposure time for a shot. I must admit that my favorite photo was the one taken at ISO 1000 of Hollis's eye. That was certainly unexpected, but I'm sure I have many future surprises in store for me as I learn.

Natural Light

I'm still figuring out the new camera and how it works with light. I took several shots of my dining room window treatments and some roses T sent me on Monday. (Guys, that's the way to apologize!) All of these were taken with natural light and no flash.

Flash Washout

Lurking around Flickr boards, I keep reading that you should take photos with natural light wherever possible. Automatic flashes on cameras tend to wash out colors and create harsh shadows and glare. After trying out some shots on the new camera with and without the flash, I'm a believer.

Taken with a flash.

Natural light and no flash.

Natural light again.

Natural light really does look much better.

The only problem with using no flash in low light is that the shutter speed slows down a lot. Consequently, I had to use a steady surface for the camera, since I don't have a tripod. Because I took some shots from the ground, it was a bit difficult to keep the camera steady, keep my glasses on my face, and look through the viewfinder!

Taken from the ground in front of the fireplace, looking up. Shot with natural light. It's a bit blurry because I had to hold the camera at an angle to get the shot. Still, I like it.

Notice the awesome Fadiddle stockings I have for H&H?

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, sent me the niftiest tripod substitute and I can't wait to try it out!
I'll post some pictures after I get a chance to use it.

Macro Madness

My new toy is here! It was waiting for me when I got back from D.C. yesterday. I'm still figuring it out, but I took a bunch of test shots. I started out with my boys' toys and then moved on to the cats and then, finally, the boys. Most of these were taken in late afternoon, but I had to use the flash for some of them. I'll post the pics of the boys tomorrow.

Thomas the Tank Engine with flash.

Clock with natural light.

Yellow clip with natural light.

Tiny crane in natural light.

Tiny tractor in natural light.