Lonely Mountain Photography

Expecting (Albuquerque Maternity Portraits)

2012-02-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon I was given the opportunity to create some photos with a couple expecting their first baby in mid February. The mom was 38 weeks pregnant, so they are now waiting for their little one to arrive!

This couple truly has a heart for children and have already opened their hearts and home to foster care children. So while this will be their first baby, they aren't new to parenthood.

We took a walk in the open space in the afternoon, and braved the chilly wind..

Thank you!

A boy! : Infant Photography - East Mountains/Albuquerque

2012-02-07T17:00:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning I was given the opportunity to photograph a little baby boy. He was just over one month old. He is fair skinned with blue eyes, and I love how his skin looked too big for him, and he wrinkles his forehead. He was 9 lbs. 13 oz. when he was born, so he's a big boy! We created some lovely photos with his mom and dad. Thank you!

I love his little smile:

Color

2012-01-30T21:25:00.001-07:00

A colorful outfit is always inspiring. I especially love the colors, textures, and combinations that kids seem happiest putting together. My sweet mother made my daughters skirts this summer, and my girls have loved them! Since she was happy to have me create a few images of her, I'll post them.

Newborn with family photos

2012-01-24T15:37:00.001-07:00

To really have time to take a good quantity of pictures of a newborn with her family, you need several hours. This allows us to stop and break - for baby to eat, toilet, and settle when needed.

Yesterday I posted a few of the photos I took for a family on Saturday. Today I am posting a few of the photos I took of her with her family! She is welcomed into a loving family of Mom and Dad and big brother.

Newborn Photos - Meet Eliana

2012-01-23T21:39:00.001-07:00

Saturday I spent several hours with this beautiful family photographing them with their new little girl. Eliana was 6 days old. Mom had decorated the nursery herself, so we took photos of the little princess in her surroundings. Mom also knitted her little hat!

Enchanted Forest

2012-01-19T23:49:00.000-07:00

I took a little walk yesterday with my children. I always find the woods, the fresh air, and the exuberance of children at play inspiring and refreshing to my spirit.

sun and reflector

2012-01-18T09:51:00.002-07:00

I took five minutes to take a few photos of my littlest yesterday, who is now 9 months! On our back porch I used a large foam-board for a reflector to reflect light from the low sun behind her back on her face. I have two large pieces of foam-board (from an art supply store) taped together along the long side. This enabled me to fold it out so it could stand itself (on its side) and reflect light back on her.

In this one, I decided to include a little flare from the sun. I like the way the sunlight rims her jacket hood and shoulders.

After we returned inside, she was exploring our stairs. I stayed close and took a couple of photos making use of the light from the window that was lighting the side of her face as she looked down at me through the rails from the landing.

Newborn Photos - Meet Charlotte

2012-01-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

I was blessed to be able to go to the home of this little family yesterday and photograph the newest member - a little girl. They had a great big picture window facing north which provided a beautiful soft light source that was just perfect. I brought a bean bag with me and they had several baby blankets - of which the fluffy green was my favorite. Once little Charlotte went to sleep, we had a heater and positioned the bean bag so her face was toward the light. I've also included a couple I took of her with her Mom.

In Home Family Photo Session

2012-01-08T13:43:00.000-07:00

I did a photo session for an endearing family yesterday in their home. Their little girl had just turned one, so they also wanted some individual photos just of her. Here are some of my favorites:

This girl is a little doll.

We set the kids up in front of the fire-place and hoped little sister would stay still for a few shots.

And she escaped!

Some of the whole family:

Mom and baby

Toes:

Mom and Dad

And a true dad (and happy baby):

Thank you for letting me take photos for you!

Christmas Photo Session

2012-01-05T22:57:00.000-07:00

The week before Christmas I went to this sweet family's home to take photos of the family with the grandmothers. Here are some of my favorites. The first is of the mom with her mom. I love the tenderness they show each other, with the lights of the Christmas tree behind them.

The two older sisters were having fun for me in front of the tree:

I love this of all three girls together. I focused on the youngest and was delighted to capture the interaction between the three of them.

The youngest - around a year and a half - was very busy. This age is so fun. I followed her around a bit to capture what she was doing.

Older sister was doing some schoolwork on the kitchen counter, and the little one had her book out too!

I do love to capture the interaction between family members. Here big sister leaned in to whisper or give a kiss.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity! It blessed me to see the love and care everyone had for each other.

Beyond Photos

2012-01-05T09:15:00.001-07:00

I like to take photos beyond the pure photograph and create a piece of art. Here are several I have worked on lately. I believe childhood is something beautiful. And it is fleeting. I like to capture more than just a moment in time to remember, but also something of the spirit within the person. It takes time to understand a child enough to know what it is when I see it, and work with them to capture it. And the spirit is complex, revealing different aspects at different times.

When doing a photo session it is easy to work quickly, trying to get that group shot where everyone is at least looking toward the camera! Or we try to get that quick portrait of a child when they are still. I much prefer to take a little time to understand a child and work with them and their parents to create something lasting.

These three photos are of my own children. They are often my "models". I would love to take the time with you if you are interested in a different type of portrait of your child.

Fun times with off-camera flash

2011-12-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

I took these yesterday with my little canon camera flash, with a diffuser on it, mounted off camera on a stand to camera right, and a large white reflector to camera left.

I did not mount the flash to point directly at her. Instead, I pointed it at the reflector so to feather the light onto her. The sky was overcast, providing very soft light which was nice but it was still too much overhead, causing "raccoon eyes" (shadows in the eyes). It did provide some highlight on her hair and shoulders, however, so my off-camera flash provided the main light (and the catch lights visible in the upper left side of her eyes). I always tell people to turn off their camera flash and use light from off the camera. When you use the flash on the camera, it flattens your subject (producing almost no visible shadows), and causes the catch lights to be dead center in the pupil (the cause of red-eye - not to mention just not looking great).

When photographing a two or three year old, you have to engage them. She was willing to pose initially, but quickly got bored. I wanted genuine expressions and smiles. I talked with her about her upcoming trip to her grandparents' house and that initiated the excitement in the third picture.

Albums

2011-12-12T22:17:00.001-07:00

I had the opportunity to try out an album from Loktah. I love the materials they use to create their packaging, prints, and book covers. This was a mini album labeled "Earth" with a cover of homemade paper. The mini album has only six spreads which I designed, while a full album has options for more or less. This is not your typical press printed book. These are quality, archival prints on lay flat pages, preserved in a unique cover.

I think this is a great product for families to have or give as keepsakes.

Night View From My Window

2011-12-11T17:01:00.003-07:00

High-school Senior Photos

2011-12-09T22:25:00.002-07:00

We traveled over Thanksgiving, arriving back in town Monday night. The weekend before Thanksgiving I was given the opportunity to do a photo session for this sweet senior. She is a musician as well as an actress, and she is home-schooled. She wanted to take photos outdoors and she specified she loves green - the green of grass and trees. She picked a location and we met despite the chilly wind and had fun with it. Here are just a few of the images we created.

Reflectors

2011-11-14T11:39:00.001-07:00

I want to briefly discuss the use of reflectors: some sort of object used to reflect light on to what you are photographing. There are 5-in-1 reflectors on the market that are a diffuser covered by a reversible case. Each side of the case is a different color for a total of four once you've turned the case inside out and re-inserted the diffuser on the round frame. These are relatively inexpensive, and very handy to carry along. But you can also use many other types. There are expensive ones on large collapsible frames (scrim jims) that are useful for providing a larger area of light. You can use a piece of white foam board for a nice white (diffuse) reflection, or even the bottom of a large white box.

So here are some examples. First is an example of using a reflector to bounce extra light onto the already lit side of the subject. I had my husband standing to my right holding a white reflector to lighten the shadows under the eyes, add extra light to the side where the main light came from (the sky) and therefore a bit of contrast (difference between the lit side and dark side), and also add catch lights to the eyes. He had to stand so as to catch the light from the sun and bounce it back onto the subject who was sitting in the shade:

Here she is without the reflector. I had to brighten it more in post processing.

Here is another example. Again in the first, my husband is holding a reflector to my right (adding light to the lighter side, adding catch lights, and lightening the shadows under her eyes):

Here she is without the reflector. The "catch-lights" in the eyes are actually reflections of sunny patches on the sidewalk in front of her. It required a little more editing on my part to brighten up her face.

Here is an example of a photo I took a few years ago with window light. I was following around my two children with a reflector, looking for an opportunity. Here they wanted me to use the reflector as a "roof" and willingly snuggled together to wait. I grabbed the shot and then did as they were expecting. I actually took the photo upside down looking straight down on them, then flipped the photo around later. The window light is lighting them from below, and my gold reflector is reflecting light onto the tops of their heads:

This last shot I also took several years ago with one studio light. A large white foam core (you can pick up at art supply stores) is to my left reflecting light onto the shadow side of their faces. This is called the "fill". The catch light in the upper left of their eyes is from my large softbox.

Texture

2011-11-10T23:23:00.003-07:00

I've been working with adding textures to photos. Here are five I've worked with. The first three are recent photos. The last two I took several months ago.

Portrait of a Two Year Old Princess

2011-11-05T23:22:00.001-06:00

California Coast

2011-10-16T09:49:00.005-06:00

We just returned from a family vacation, driving out to the Redwoods of northern California. While we were there my kids got to experience the Pacific coast for the first time. While we took many many pictures, I chose a few from one beach adventure to share here.

The sun was low in the southwest so for many photos I went down the beach to shoot back at my children so the light would illuminate them and sky would not be washed out behind. Several photos I allowed to be silhouettes in order to catch the action as well as the rolling water.

Here again I exposed for the water and like how I capture the expectancy then the wild run as the wave came in, then the return.

A simple study of light

2011-09-23T21:01:00.000-06:00

I took several photos of some flowers we picked in our backyard yesterday with my iPhone. I just took them for a record so I could possibly work on identifying them with my children. I think they do a good job of demonstrating the effect of light direction.

This first was taken with the camera flash on (coming directly from the iPhone). Notice how it effectively flattens the appearance of the flowers in the water. This might be the look you are after or it might not.
I find it very interesting.

In the next two I simply turned the flash off so that the flowers were lit by the light coming in from the windows to my left. Notice how the flowers appear more dimensional.
But in the first, the large flower is turned away from the light. Notice where your eye is drawn.

In this last one, I turned the large flower to open toward the light.

Family Photos in Abuquerque

2011-09-20T23:33:00.004-06:00

I took a few photos for this neat family last Friday evening. They wanted photos of everyone while the grandmother was here visiting. We planned it to be shortly before sunset to use the shade behind their house for a more diffused light and take advantage of the pretty sky in the background for another setting on their back deck area. Everyone was patient and cooperative - quite a feat for any group of children!

In the first shot we used pure natural light, as they were in the shadow cast by the house, on the hill right behind their house. I used aperture priority mode, with an aperture of f/10 so as to keep everyone in focus. I had to overexpose as the sky was bright, with evaluative exposure bias of 2/3 of a stop. This brought my shutter speed to 1/160 of a second. Since I was using a focal length of 50mm, this shutter speed was just ok as long as no one was really moving. In order to get at least this I bumped the ISO to 1250.

In this second shot, I used my studio lights. I used two right next to each other for the main light in order to get enough light on everyone. I had go to complete manual on my camera for this. I wanted the background to be darker than in the previous photo, so first I set the camera to expose for the background and then adjusted the lights so the family would be properly exposed.

Headshots!

2011-09-06T21:10:00.001-06:00

I took photos of this family for the sole purpose of creating headshots for each of them. These they can then print in a large quantity for their agent to use in promoting them for acting. They are such sweet and beautiful kids. The little girl has already been acting, including a part in a recent Hallmark movie. I had my husband alongside to either hold a reflector or diffuser (depending on lighting conditions). All were taken outdoors. Here are a few of my favorites.

Ramblings

2011-09-04T00:08:00.002-06:00

If you had me take a photo of you or your family a year ago or even two years ago, you will find I've changed. I am never happy with stagnation. I want to create. I want to do everything better. I'm rarely satisfied with where I am at. And I think I have improved. I hope I continue to improve!

When I couldn't be taking business during the last year, I decided to plow ahead and do what it takes to get certification. This meant doing a thorough review of my work from the previous two years, and picking 20 photos from 20 different photography sessions that could be classified as being good photos. These had to be reviewed by a certification committee and approved. Then I studied the extensive field of photography, mostly via the book "Photography" by London, et al., and also via webinars, and studying of information on various sites. This is a great book, and I will continue to enjoy it and refer to it in the years to come. It is packed with information and photos to help in explaining everything. After studying, I took the certification exam in July - a 100 question test covering just about every important area in the field of photography. I wasn't sure I'd studied enough, but decided to still go for it at least as a learning experience to help me better prepare for a next time. However, I passed. I am glad, but also want to learn this stuff better! So I'm officially a CPP now - certified professional photographer. One of 6 in the Albuquerque area.

What will this mean? Well, I'm not sure. It proves I've studied the field, and understand the basics of professional photography. It doesn't mean I'm better than everyone out there who hasn't decided to get certified. But I guess it means I've attained a certain level of professionalism. :-)

Meanwhile, I have a desire to create something beautiful, something to cherish, something to enlarge and put on your wall, something to come back to and look at again and again and enjoy as a piece of art. If I can attain this for someone, I have succeeded.

Senior Photo Session - Old Town

2011-08-29T22:11:00.001-06:00

I met my first senior of the class of 2012 in Old Town for some senior photos, on Saturday. His mom and girlfriend were helpful assisting me with holding my reflector or off-camera flash as I directed. I had my 4 month old strapped to me in my baby carrier (and she slept most of the time), so it was fun! This great-hearted young man is homeschooled, and in addition works part time and helps care for his younger brothers and sisters. Here are a few of my favorites from our time together.

A couple of more from travel

2011-08-26T21:58:00.002-06:00

The stark New Mexico landscape. I am titling the first "waiting for rain". I did my own color changes to get the effect I wanted.

This was simply shot through the car window as we were driving home. The open spaces of New Mexico...

Travel

2011-08-24T14:44:00.003-06:00

We traveled to SE New Mexico to visit family over the weekend. Unfortunately my 2 year old came down with something Saturday evening and she's still fighting it. I did manage to get a few pictures with the beautiful, stark ranch land the area offers in the background. My children put up with my camera with surprising grace. My daughter explained to her great grandmother "my mommy's a photographer; that's why she takes pictures of us". Hopefully, that isn't the only reason! Actually, I want documentation, and when I see an opportunity, I try to take it. I don't often have the luxury of having equipment on hand, reflectors ready, etc, and so I get what is available. I do, however. ask my kids to stop sometimes and "pose" where the light is good. Sometimes they are willing to comply, and other times I have to get what I can get! Here are several. The first three I took in the evening (when it got cooler).

This is more of a silhouette with the bright sky behind him:

I had to take a few with the brick wall of the house. The light was lovely with light reflected off the white wall behind the house. These were taken in the morning in the shade of the house.

The light was a bit too bright in the morning with the light reflecting off the white wall! My son couldn't get his eyes open enough looking the direction of the white wall... I still liked the photo I got :-)

Back to the evening, I stopped my kids as they came around the corner playing some imaginative game together. I intentionally worked in the leading lines of the bricks, and placed my kids in the right third of the photo.

I didn't post the photos I took with family members.

My Girls

2011-08-15T17:19:00.003-06:00

I am a mom of four, so I do take many photos of my children. Here are several recent ones.

The first are of my littlest one in her daddy's arms. I was playing peekaboo from behind the camera.

And here is her typical contemplative look:

And that open mouth that is so common!

Girls at Play

2011-08-15T15:56:00.003-06:00

I shared this on my facebook page and am putting it here as well. I used Adobe Lightroom to lay out the web page. This is a collage of photos I took of two of my daughters playing on our cluttered back deck. I love the endless creativity of children.

http://lonelymountainphotography.com/Girls%20at%20Play/

Sun

2011-08-10T15:10:00.003-06:00

A couple evenings ago my daughter was wearing a brightly colored outfit and I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture of her. We grabbed a large piece of lace my children were given for play and she was happy to wrap herself up in it. The sun was low in the sky and I saw this as a good opportunity to get backlighting. As my 2 year old is not going to be still for long, and I had no assistance at the moment, I didn't even try to use a reflector to bounce light back onto her from the front, although this would have been nice. She wanted a photo with our dog (he's old and rather deaf). Once I got his attention and told him to sit, I had to move my daughter so she wasn't between the dog and the camera. I intentionally placed myself so I could see the sun coming through the lace, and I captured the moment before either subject moved on. I wanted a fast shutter speed so any movement from either subject wouldn't cause blurring, so my ISO was set at 800 so I could get a shutter speed of 1/800 second with an aperture of 6.3 (I wanted both of them relatively in focus). I also used evaluative metering, increasing the exposure by 2/3rds of a stop.

Below I decided to make use of flare, which is caused by rays of light hitting the lens. Some photographers use flare a lot. It is a stylistic choice. It used to be that it was something most photographers considered a mistake until some started using it intentionally. It is relatively popular now, although you will find photographers who still really do not like it.

In editing I raised the black point to increase the contrast, warmed the color temperature, and desaturated as well as reduced the vibrance until I liked it.

Here is one with even more flare! There is even a large sunspot where the light directly hit my lens.

Reflections

2011-08-03T16:15:00.005-06:00

A quick study of lenses and light

2011-07-25T13:54:00.005-06:00

I took these two photos recently of my littlest. While I didn't design or plan these photos ahead of time (I simply grabbed my camera and used what lens was on it to snap pictures), they demonstrate a couple of things.

Both are taken in pretty much the same location, though at different times of day and she is turned a different direction in each.

In the first, she is facing the large bank of windows on one side of our living area. Notice how her face is all lit up, the light is mostly touching her right side with shadows next to her nose and on her left side, and there is a nice catch-light in the upper part of each iris. We want these shadows, as they give the face shape. This is close to "Rembrandt" style lighting, with mostly only one side of the face lit and a triangle of light on the other cheek.

Notice, however, that her hair is dark. There is no light coming from behind.

The other thing I want to point out is the lens choice and aperture used here. I am using a 50mm lens ("normal" lens) with an aperture of f/2. The aperture of f/2 provides the shallow depth of field. While she is pretty much the same size (as the second photo) relative to the frame of the photo, notice that her arms and nose actually look a bit larger!

Here is the other photo:

It is actually the same baby! Here I used a 135mm focal length lens, with an aperture of f/4.0. Both photos have nice blurring in the back and fore-ground, due to a shallow depth of field for that lens. But I was physically closer to the baby when I used the 50mm lens, so those parts of the scene closer to me look a little distorted - they look bigger.

Back to light: In the second photo she is back-lit by the same windows providing light in the first photo, and some light falls on the left side of her face. I had to over-expose the scene in order for her face to be bright enough, and her eyes don't have the nice catch-lights (sparkle). However, since the light is coming from behind, her head does have a nice rim-light, giving a sense of separation from the background, and giving a lightness to her hair.

You might also notice the patch of very bright light on her seat from the little bit of direct sunlight hitting her. This ended up being way over exposed in order to light the baby up, so we see what is called "clipping" - the patch of light is so bright we've lost all detail in that spot. (she is also wearing a large cloth diaper)

I prefer the 135mm lens for this photo, so her features aren't distorted. I also like the back-lighting. If we wanted to combine the best of both we could move her out of the patch of sunlight and use a light or reflector in front and above her slightly to get better lighting.

Montage

2011-07-09T10:20:00.003-06:00

A montage I created of my daughter:

Yellow Ribbon Photographers

2011-07-06T11:13:00.002-06:00

I've joined Yellow Ribbon Photographers, photographers nationwide committed to providing professional and quality photography at no cost to our nation's service men and women.

www.yellowribbonphotographers.org

Be sure to pass the information about this service to soldiers you know!

Newborn Pictures

2011-07-05T12:04:00.007-06:00

Our littlest girl was born mid-April. Did you know that the best time for getting those adorable sleeping newborn photos is when they are under 10 days or two weeks? This when they sleep more and are more movable when sleeping, and also before the acne can set in.

Here are a few photos we took very early on. A beanbag is great for positioning. Here I covered it with a white curtain next to a large window (no direct sunlight) and my husband held a reflector to bounce light back into the shadows. I used an aperture of f/2.2 and speed of 1/640 second, and I set it to over-expose by about 1 1/2 stops. I had to adjust the ISO to 1000 to be able to get these settings.

Here she is on our bed asleep and positioned so the light from the window falls directly on her face (again I don't want direct sunlight). There was also some light from other windows lighting her back. I am using a 50mm lens with an aperture of 2.2. I generally use aperture priority mode so the camera adjusts the speed to get the total exposure needed. I had it set with evaluative metering set to +1 2/3 to over-expose from what the camera would do automatically. I wanted her face lit well and with such a white background the camera would have tried to under expose to average out the brightness of the whole scene. However, the speed it was forced to use to get the exposure how I wanted it was a 60th of a second. Since the baby was so still this was ok, but it is generally slower than I like since it can show blurriness with much movement (not good for small children). I also brightened more in my editing and increased the contrast. ISO was again 1000. I could have raised this to get a faster shutter speed.

I designed this photo in my mind and set it up where I have light coming in several windows of varying amounts. Then my husband quickly positioned her and stood behind her ready to reach for her if she moved. With a dark background you do not want to over-expose as the camera automatically will bring up the exposure on the darks to average out the light on the whole picture. This has a VERY shallow depth of field with an aperture of f/1.2. ISO was still set at 1000 and I could have brought it down here.

I wanted photos of her hand(s). So when I was holding her once I asked my husband to take photos while I positioned her hand so they was lit well from the nearby window. The light wasn't as bright here so we had to increase the ISO to 6400 in order to get a decent exposure. This is possible with my camera (Canon 5D) and the quality stays decent. With a higher ISO you really need to nail the exposure in camera to avoid as much of the inherent graininess as possible. The aperture here is f/4.5 (a little more in focus front and back of the focus point), and speed was 1/125 second. I converted it to black and white in post processing.

Lastly, here is the announcement I created using a template. (I didn't include everything written in it here) It folds into thirds:

A couple more very important things to look for:

Camera angle: the closest thing to the camera will look the largest in the final photo. If you take a photo from below the chin - the chin will look large!Of course it depends on the feeling you want to portray with your picture, but I think the most flattering angle for a portrait is to position the camera at eye level or a little above.

Focus: If you are taking a picture of a person's face, make sure the camera is focused on the eyes! Generally cameras are set to focus on the center of the photograph, but sometimes the camera is set to focus as generally as possible taking into account a number of focal points. You need to set your camera's focal point on one spot. I generally like to use center focus then recompose so everything is in the photo where I want it, but sometimes I set a different focal point so I don't need to move the camera so much. If you just pick up the camera and take a picture and don't take into account what it is focusing on, generally it will focus on what is in the middle. If you are taking a picture of a face it is easy for the nose to be in the center. So this means your eyes will look duller and the nose will be crystal clear, giving the impression that it is larger than it is!

Baby!

2011-05-23T17:09:00.002-06:00

Our littlest girl was born in April. We've had a busy month. Since the new baby came, we've had different family visiting. I will try to update soon with pictures.

Common troubles with photos.

2011-03-06T21:31:00.007-07:00

I thought I'd discuss some obvious problems we can look for in a photograph.

All of the photos in this post are some old photos that I took with a different camera than I currently use. I keep these photos because they are what I call nice "snapshots". We all take and keep snapshots as that may be all we have of a certain moment or time. And we don't usually or always have time to set up a photo ahead of time.

If you click on the photo, you can see a larger version, if you are having trouble seeing what I'm talking about.

In the first two I used the on camera flash. The lighting is flat, and produces bright catch lights in the center of the pupils (often causing red-eye). I avoid that now if at all possible, and if I do use a flash, it is one mounted above the camera to try to avoid the dead-center catch-lights.

In the first photo of my son, he has a great expression, but he's not sharp! His eyes are blurry. This is the type of photo I don't keep (or offer a customer):

In the second, although the lighting still isn't very flattering, he is sharp. I will say that this is a better use of fill flash, in that you don't see it as much. I believe I had my camera on Aperture priority mode. The aperture for both was f/5.6, the focal length 55mm, and the exposure 1/30th of a second. The last is exactly why the first photo turned out blurry. 1/30th of a second is just too slow for hand-holding a camera and taking a photo of a moving child. The second is sharp by chance. One other note is that the white balance looks blueish (kind of like he's sick)! The auto white balance on the camera may not get it right. Since I take my photos in raw format, I can change this easily in post processing. If you take in jpeg, you should set it to look right in the camera.

Here is the same photo with white balance corrected:

This photo is simply back-focused, so the subjects are blurry. The camera focused on what was behind the children, rather than on them. Always watch to make sure you are focused on what you actually want to have sharp. (I think that is a sticker, "tatoo", or bandaid on his shoulder)

In the next photos I want to show some examples of lighting or exposure problems.

The first photo is simply underexposed:

The lighting would be helped if I'd used a reflector on her left to lift the shadows in her eyes just a little. It also helps to raise the exposure of the picture in post-processing, although it is better to get it right in the camera first. Here is the photo with the exposure and brightness raised:

Here is an example where the light is coming from directly overhead, casting the whole face in shadow and illuminating his hair. I actually used the on-camera flash so his face wouldn't be so dark. However, I should have lowered the exposure compensation on the camera so that the highlights wouldn't be "blown". This means that they are so bright that all detail is completely lost in those areas. Mid-day is a tough time to take photos, due to the unflattering overhead lighting.

In the next two photos we will look at where the light falls on the subject and his surroundings.

In the first, the light on the bubble is nice, but all the rest of the light in the photo is lighting the back of the subject's head and shoulders, and actually falling on the dog on the background as well. So, unfortunately, with no light on his face, our eyes are drawn to the light on his back and behind him.

In this photo, the light is better, as it at least lights his face (although there is still shadowing in his eyes). However, the bubble isn't as sharp or as well lit:

The other thing I can do to the first photo is crop it tighter and brightening a touch. Although the lighting still isn't quite right, cutting the brightness out of the photo on the right helps draw our eye more to the face and bubble. I also like the highlight on the right side of his face, and the way the light hits his hand and the bubble.

Anyway, these are a couple of things to look for in photos!

Simple Portraits

2011-02-26T11:35:00.002-07:00

I'm going to share two photos I took a couple of days ago. I will explain my decisions in the creation of each photo.

Both photos were taken with the natural window light in my front room. In the first, since he's a boy and with an intense personality, I wanted the light to look more direct, and from the side so his features would be accentuated. This can give a more rugged look. The light is coming from the window on his right to light his face. You can also see a highlight on the left side of his hair and face coming from windows on the other side of the room. I used a white reflector to lighten the shadows on the left side of his face. I could have chosen to not use a reflector, which would have made these shadows darker and more dramatic. I asked him to pick a shirt/clothes he liked and he chose this orange shirt. I did ask that he choose something without a logo or picture on the front. With this color choice in mind, I decided to use the reddish brick background so as not to compete color-wise with his choice, and also to help the shirt not stick out by itself quite as much. However, orange always looks nice on him with his coloring, so I like it.

I love the way the light comes in from the side(s), casting shadows and showing a lot of dimensionality to his face and hair. I tried to pose him with some strength - and it is not easy to keep a six year old boy in one position for very long! I chatted with him and he talked with me about things he liked, we tried serious expressions, and his own choice of expressions. This is the photo I liked the best.

In the next photo I wanted the light to look softer, and less from the side so the whole front of her face could be lit. She chose one of her favorite dresses, and with the bold pattern I chose a backdrop to blend a little with the dress, to pick up some of the colors in it and keep the dress from taking center stage too much.

I put the background in a different position than I used with my son. Here the light is coming from the same window as it was in the above photo. Here, light is coming from upper windows directly behind her to highlight the back of her hair. The highlights on the hair really help separate her (and her brother in the photo above) from the backdrop. I also used a very large mirror behind her and to her left to help lift shadows on that side a touch and bring light in from behind. The backdrop is actually in front of some lower windows, so there is a little bit of luminosity to it.

A four year old is also tricky to pose! I had her sitting, and explained she needed to sit "like a princess", with her knees toward the window, hold her shoulders back and put her hands folded on her lap. We also tried a number of different ways to get a good expression - everything from having her tell me things she liked, to choosing her own expression, to having her brother behind me trying to make her laugh.

Notes on the light in the last post

2011-02-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

I want to mention a couple of things about two of the photos in particular.

If you look at the photo of my daughter with her hands up touching the black, note that the light is coming from her left side. However, there is a reflector to her front that is casting a little more light in on that side and you can see the catch lights in the tops of both eyes because of it. This photo works for me because of her pose. If she were just standing there, our eyes would be drawn to the bright side of her face and the window. As it is, her hands up draw us around her face to the light of her hands and so back to the dark side of her face as well. I like this dramatic look in this picture, and it has to do with both light and composition.

If you look at the photo of my littlest one against the brick wall, the light is coming in from behind her. There is enough window light in front of her to illuminate (but not as strongly) the front of her face, but not enough to put catch lights in her eyes. The reason this photo works for me is that we read a book from left to right, and the lines in the bricks and light not only bring us into the back of her head but continue to draw our eyes to the right so that we actually look at her face and her expression. The direction of her eyes also draw us to the right, so we aren't stopped by the strong light in the back.

The ideal portrait lights up the mask of the face predominantly and you see catch lights in the upper part of the eyes. But the light is also complementary to the subject. Strong, flat light from the front eliminates shadows and makes the face look wider (as with on-camera flash). We want dimensionality to the face. If you study portraits you like, look for where the catch-lights are. You can often tell by the position and shape of them, where they are and the shape of the light providing them. Also look at where the shadows lie - are they particularly dark, light, soft, hard?

Have fun!

A few photos from today - look at the light

2011-02-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

Do I keep reiterating that photography is all about light? Of course, it involves looking at lines, patterns, and with kids - expressions as well. However, if your lighting isn't thought out, your photo will have trouble.

I've started using my front room with large windows on either side as a mini-studio. Today my kids were happy to play around with me, so I grabbed a few shots. Often black and white really shows the light direction as our eyes go directly to the lights and darks and aren't distracted by color. Here are a few of both. Look at where the light is coming from and where the highlights on the faces and hair are:

Another creation and a little on lighting

2011-02-21T13:39:00.006-07:00

I set up a little front room of my house to take advantage of the natural light coming in through the windows. I can set up small backdrops and a reflector to shape the light the way I like. I wanted the light to illuminate the mask of the face, but leave shadows to show dimensionality. We call it "short lighting" when the shadow side of the face is closer to the camera. It is called "broad lighting" when the lit side is closer to the camera. Generally, short lighting is more flattering as it helps define and narrow the face. Broad lighting can make the face appear larger to the camera. I used a reflector to lift the shadow side, so it wasn't as dark. Contrast the two photos on the left below. The top one uses short lighting, the bottom one shows broad lighting.

I took a few photos here recently, of my littlest who just turned two. I then took some of these photos to create a little piece as shown here.

Anniversary Gift

2011-02-12T09:55:00.007-07:00

My parents are having their 40th wedding anniversary next week. I wanted to create something special for them. So I created a piece from 10 different pictures, and had it printed on a canvas float wrap for them. It is 16"x20". I layered and arranged each picture to create a single piece, and also included excerpts of poems or essays they had each written in the past.

I tried to use photos that signified important concepts, moments, or periods of time in their married life, and incorporated the the picture of the hand-hewn cross, as their Christianity has been very central to much of what they have done or learned. All but three of the pictures I took (or possibly my husband). Obviously their wedding picture, picture of their family when I was three, and picture of the teepee where we all lived after moving to Montana (when I was three), I did not take. My husband and I took the picture of the lake in Montana just as the clouds were rolling in, when we visited there in 2005. The other picture of our house where I grew up, I took at some point in the early 90s. And the most recent picture of them in the bottom right, I took last spring in their backyard.

I layered different textures (photos I've taken of different things/textures) with different opacities to achieve the background, all of which go with the picture on the bottom, of a lake where they spent time in their early married/family years and one my father (an artist) had even painted a picture of at one time.

It arrived early and they were thrilled. So here is the picture of the first test printing hanging on the wall:

After receiving it, I edited the photo before the final printing on canvas. Here is the final picture before printing it for them:

I truly believe each person is a piece of art. I enjoyed creating this for them.

Arranging to open up space in the house

2011-02-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

I'm re-arranging so I can convert a little space in the house to a studio. Our little library will soon be changed. Moving bookshelves upstairs to open up window space. I'd like to use the open window as much as possible for light (with reflectors), then I can use my studio lights when it is dark. We'll see. It isn't a huge room, but I think it holds potential for mini-sessions especially geared toward kids and babies!

Old Favorites

2011-02-02T22:47:00.001-07:00

Here is a photo I just found that I took almost 3 years ago. I used a lensbaby -which is a type of tilt shift lens that you manipulate manually. This is a photo of my son. The bright patch of sunlight is distracting on his hair, but I loved the way the light reflects back on his face from the book he's looking at. It is tricky using this lens, as you have to use your fingers to get the focus right and hold it there! It's not a lens I use every day, but it is fun to play around with sometimes.

This other, also of my son, is one of my all time favorites of him. This was taken just over two years ago. It really captures his intensity. I liked the way the striped lighting pattern fell on him, and the look in his eyes.

Temporarily Open for Business

2011-01-26T15:09:00.002-07:00

Hi,
Just to let you know I will accept a few shoots between now and the end of March. Since we are expecting a new member of the family in April, I will be taking a break that month and until we are all settled again!

Thanks!

New FB page, mobile site

2011-01-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

I've started a new facebook page to reflect my work as an artist, rather than a local business offering standard portrait photography. You can use the badge on the right side of the blog to go to it directly.

I've also updated my website so that when someone attempts to go to it with a mobile device (such as an iPhone or iPad) they will be redirected to a simple html site that I've created.

New Website

2011-01-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

My completely revamped website is now online! Take a look: http://www.lonelymountainphotography.com

Website under development

2011-01-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of overhauling my main website. I'll post as soon as it is live!

I'm also updating my prices. I will now be offering packages, with a minimum required for a session. Hopefully this will help both me focus our sessions on the type of photography I want to offer, and give clients the kind of experience that I'm interested in giving them. I will also be working on an album prototype that I plan to start offering.

Post Processing

2011-01-04T22:57:00.003-07:00

I promised to go over some of the post-processing I do to images. I am going to outline the steps I took with one of the images I posted last time. Remember, the exact order that I use varies, and every photographer has his/her own methods.

Let me start by saying that if you have an image that isn't sharp, or the eyes aren't in focus, there is almost nothing you can do to fix that. Also, if your lighting is incorrect, it is very hard to correct this in the post processing.

I will also say, I always shoot in RAW format. Little point and shoot cameras normally save your photos in jpeg. Also, if you use the auto settings on your DSLR camera, the photos will be saved in jpeg. The difference is that with jpeg, the camera does all the guess work about the color balance, contrast, etc, etc, and saves it as it thinks it should be in a rather permanent format. The editing you can do with the photo in jpeg format is fairly limited. With RAW format, the camera shows you a guess, but it saves ALL of the data so you can do all the editing you think needs to be done to make the photo as you pictured it in your mind or what you actually saw.

There are some professional photographers who shoot with jpeg (they are also smaller files to download to your computer), however these photographers do a lot of customized settings in the camera before and while they shoot, to make sure the camera takes it correctly. They do not rely on the camera to do the guessing.

Have you seen blueish images that are taken in the shade? Shade is naturally a little blue. You can fix this after the fact if you have a RAW format image and easily bring the warmth back in. Our eyes adjust to different lighting all of the time, and we don't notice difference in color of the light and reflections on people in real life. The camera doesn't do these adjustments very well.

I do most of my editing in Adobe Lightroom, and occasionally open a photo in Adobe Photoshop to do more precise adjustments in cloning or other changes. Adobe Lightroom has a magnificent subset of the controls that Photoshop has, that are aimed at the photographer.

#1 White Balance!
This is very important. Your camera will guess at the correct white balance and when you download, you need to make sure this is corrected. You can set the camera to several automatic white balances - daylight, shade, fluorescent, etc. It is helpful to set these so the camera is closer to guessing correctly when it takes the photo, but you normally still need to adjust this in your editing. Another example is if you have someone near something colored: the light reflecting off the colored surface (i.e. a red porch like I have) will alter the color of the photo and shadows on the subject. It can also interfere with true eye color, clothes color, etc. Here is the photo I took of my 22 month old daughter straight out of the camera with no white balance adjustment:

The sun had gone behind a cloud, so the light was softer, but the camera picked up the blueish tint. You might also notice the reddish shadows on her cheeks and chin. It isn't too noticeable, but our porch where she was sitting is painted red, and so the shadows show this. The red also interferes with the blue of her eyes which I had noticed that day looked rather striking with her blue jumper.The import settings were a temperature of 3800 and tint of 35 (towards the red)

Here is the photo with my first white balance adjustment:

I adjust it a little warmer even at the end, but here it is set to a temp. of 6000 and a tint of only 10 toward the red. When I shoot a set of photos, the first thing I do is adjust the white balance of each setting (on one photo) then synchronize it to the other photos taken at the same time.

#2 Here I crop. I was planning to make an 8x10 of this photo, so I did this first. Sometimes I wait to crop to the very end. However, since Lightroom saves every step you do in the editing process, not to the final photo, but as instructions to apply to the photo, I can always adjust the crop larger or smaller later on.

#3 Now I went straight to the adjustments I did to her eyes. Normally I immediately adjust the contrast and brightness here. But in this case I did some work on her eyes first, then adjusted the contrast and brightness shortly after.

I like to bring the eyes out with selectively brushing brightness with the adjustment brush in Lightroom. I actually use this adjustment brush a lot in my work, which you will see later on as well. I like to brush a little brightness in the lower part of the eyes. I do not want her looking like an owl, but this helps to bring attention to the color and depth of the eyes that we often see, but isn't always captured well on camera.

#4 Here I adjusted the blue (in the saturation palette) up to +62 to bring out the blue in her dress a little.

#5 Contrast. I adjust the contrast to right around 50 with pretty much all of my photos (imported it is automatically set to 25). It helps the details to stand out much more.

#6 More brush work on the eyes. I normally adjust the contrast before working on the eyes at all, then do all my eye work together. I didn't do that this time, so I'm showing you what I did when I did it. Here I selectively brushed clarity around the irises, the pupil, and the eyelids (this helps them stand out a touch more), then brushed sharpness to the eyes themselves. I feel the eyes are the most important part of the photo, and my attention is normally specifically focused on them.

I also used the adjustment brush to selectively add a touch (just a touch) of blue back into her eyes. I have found with experience that I might see someone's eye color well, but the red porch reflecting light can cause the color not to show up very well in the photo. I wanted her blue eyes to show up better. I selected the brush, then the color palette and chose a very light version of the color I knew here eyes were, then painted it in to the iris. With most photos, I don't add color to the eyes. If you have them lit well enough, you generally don't need to.

#7 The adjustment brush again! In Lightroom you can choose to vignette your photos (darken around the edges). I do not like the global vignetting options, so instead I brush my own vignetting in. I select to lower the exposure and brush in the around the edges/corners and where I think it will help. I then adjust this up and down to where I like it (here I set it to -1.73). I sometimes like it more or less noticeable, depending on the photo. I don't like it to look to obvious.

#8 Here I adjusted the clarity on the entire photo. It isn't too noticeable, but enough that I like it a little better. Here it is set to +19:

I like this image as it is now. I printed these as 8x10s for her grandparents, and call it good. However, I like black and white images too, so I did change it to black and white, and printed some of these for ourselves, the blog, and the other set of grandparents, as you see in the previous blog.

I have set up my own preset in Lightroom for black and white. Originally I started with the general "grayscale" preset that came with the program, then I adusted the darks and shadows down quite a bit in the curves palette to bring more pop into the image. Here is an example with Lightroom's plain "grayscale" setting:

Here are the adjustments I add, with increasing the brightness and lowering the darks and shadows in the curves palette.

The last thing I will note is that with this image, I didn't need to do any adjustments to my daughter's skin. She didn't have any acne, cuts or scrapes on her face! I do fix these with the healing tool in Lightroom when people have obvious blemishes.

I also don't do every one of these adjustments to every photo. Each photo I assess individually.

I hope this all helps. All the best in your own post processing!

A few from home

2010-12-22T09:09:00.005-07:00

I managed to elicit cooperation from my children Monday, to get a few photos for printing. My son was helpful not only trying to pose, but helping me get some good expressions from his littlest sister. My second daughter posed on her bed.

I used a white reflector to bring light into her eyes here, while her brother helped hold the reflector and peaked around it at her getting her to smile. If you look closely at her eyes you can see the round white reflection in the upper part - the reflection of the reflector. I'm using a 5-in-one collapsible reflector here and chose the white side as it produces a softer light for filling in shadows. You can see the sun is coming from behind and slightly from the side. I am not happy with the patch of light on her hair and cheek in the last three pictures- I normally try to avoid bright patches of sunlight on people. However, she'd just awakened from a nap and I was happy to get something where she was half-way happy and decided to not try to push her into posing elsewhere. She was not interested in my other ideas!

My aperture was f/2.8 here - pretty shallow for my 85mm telephoto lens. Speed was 1/500 second - which is about as slow as I like to be for a moving child.

Here is a photo in color of my son. I had him lean back on the wall in our back yard. The aperture is still f/2.8, but here the speed is 1/250 sec. This is a little slower than I like, and I made sure to take several photos to get the sharpest one. The light is coming from between our house and the wall behind me:

Here is my second daughter posing on her bed. I chose this position as there was direct sunlight coming in from behind her through her pink curtains and I didn't want the direct light on her. From her left is another window with the curtains opened. This is more perfect light as it is coming from the sky, rather than direct sun, is diffuse and softer. I also used the reflector here to lighten the shadow on her right side - but it is not far enough forward to reflect in her eyes. Aperture was f/1.8, with speed at 1/500 second. This is an even shallower depth of field. I shoot primarily in Av mode on my camera - so I set the aperture and the camera adjusts the speed to compensate. I also tend to shoot with evaluative light metering set to +.75 or +1. here it was at +1. One other thing is that in order to get my shutter speed up, I had to raise the ISO in the camera to 1000. Outside I'd had the ISO at 200. ISO originally referred to the sensitivity of the film to light used in cameras. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive the film (so it could be used with lower amounts of light), however the film was grainier. When cameras became digital, the camera was designed so that you could change the "ISO" in the camera - so the sensor was more or less sensitive to light. Typically, the higher the ISO, the grainier the picture. However, with the good digital cameras, this has gotten better, and you can pump up the ISO in the camera much higher with great results in the digital cameras than you could with film cameras. The only issue I have with these pictures is that the pink light from behind is quite obvious on her hair! I've left it in this picture as it kind of "surrounds" her in pink - which she loves - as my husband pointed out:

Here she is lying on her bed facing a different direction, with the light coming through the pink curtain to light her face, and the light from the opened window lighting the back and side of her face. I did not use a reflector here. If the curtain was white, it would have been a more pleasing light with the sunlight diffusing through. I also try generally try to look for the light to be brighter on the face than on the back or side of the head. There are exceptions to this though. I had to do some adjusting of white balance in the post processing (I always shoot in RAW format) to tone down the pink. In fact, I always check and work with the color balance in post processing. In this picture, I was at f/1.8, but my speed only at 1/80 second! This is generally too slow with my hand-held camera and a moving child. The eyes are not as sharp as I would like them, but this isn't noticeable unless you really zoom in on the picture. Therefore, I'm still happy with the photo at most sizes it would be printed.

These three I converted to black and white. I have my own process for getting black and white. I developed my own preset in Adobe Lightroom to get it the way I like and I always check it to make sure the photo is bright enough, and the lights and shadows where I like them. These are my favorites from the whole set.

I am planning to post a blog soon to talk about post processing. As a photographer, and an artist, my work with someone's photos only begins with the session. Much of my work is after the session sitting in front of my computer editing and processing every photo extensively to create something I like better. I plan to talk about some of the things I do.

Thanks for looking. Have a lovely Christmas!

Senior Photo Session

2010-11-08T15:23:00.013-07:00

Well, I have not posted in quite a while. I took photos for a senior home-school girl a few weeks ago. This was my last scheduled shoot of the season. She and her mom had scouted out some places on the UNM campus, so we started there, and then worked back to my little studio set-up in my living room, and took a few with the mountains as a backdrop. The weather was beautiful, as were the fall colors. We spent several hours trying different things out and had a lot of fun. Not only is this sweet girl preparing for graduation, she is an accomplished musician. We took a LOT of photos that I was happy with. Here are just a few. Thanks for looking!

New Photo Blog for Nature Enthusiasts in New Mexico

2010-10-13T22:41:00.001-06:00

For nature enthusiasts in New Mexico, my husband has started a blog that has a post every day featuring his wildlife and nature photos, with reviews of books and places to go coming up.

Check it out at:

http://www.nmnaturequest.com/

Temporary Hiatus

2010-10-08T22:25:00.000-06:00

I am currently not accepting new business. I will post when I open up again. Thank you! I will continue to write blog posts occasionally.

Another Family Photo Session in Albuquerque

2010-10-04T07:41:00.003-06:00

I have been slow to add blogs lately. Hopefully I can pick back up more again as things settle around here.

I took pictures of these beautiful girls back in March. Just over a week ago I was asked to come again and this time take some family photos. They are a lot of fun!

Saturday Family Location Photo Shoot

2010-09-05T16:55:00.007-06:00

Saturday I once again had the privilege of photographing a beautiful family at their home. Here are some of my favorites.

Light and Color

2010-08-20T22:02:00.000-06:00

A few photos I took yesterday. I loved the way the sun lit up his blond hair so I used a silver reflector to light up the darker side of his face. I love the shadows and directional quality of the light (it was low in the sky). I am not a proponent of using on camera flash if you can help it. Often you can manipulate or position people to get the light to fall on the face the way you want and get different effects. When the sun went behind the clouds, I had less to work with. This time I blew out the sky in order to get enough light on his face. Sometimes black and white can really show the way the light falls in the photo:

Here is a similar position, but I changed the colors in post processing a bit:

I love the sky behind him here, and the silver reflector again brought punch to the photo by lighting him up on the camera side, so I didn't have to raise the exposure in order to get his skin tones lit up correctly (and then blow out the sky).

In the following photos, the sun went behind the clouds and since he was moving around and I was moving to get different angles, we couldn't use the reflector. So I boosted the exposure in order to get him lit well enough:

Do you see his adoring little fan in the last one? ;-) He was pretending the drain pipe was a "bazooka", and we were playing with the idea that he was heading into battle. He loved getting into action.

The last thing I will mention is that you might notice that the black and white photos are a bit more "punchy" looking than if you just clicked "grayscale" in your photo editing software. I intentionally worked with contrast, brightness, and the tone curve to bring down the darks and shadows to give a more textured feel.

Color Treatment

2010-08-12T11:43:00.004-06:00

There is a hot trend among professional photographers to create photos with a rather sunny desaturated look. It gives me the feeling of an antique. I've been playing around with some of my own color treatment and thought I'd post them to see what you think. I've revisited some older photos I had taken, and changed the saturation of all the individual colors to get something I like:

Family Photography - Sunday

2010-08-09T19:31:00.002-06:00

Every time I meet someone new, I wonder how the photo shoot will go. I wonder what the people are like, and what their expectations are. Sunday afternoon I had the wonderful privilege of meeting this family and taking pictures of all of them. One son was recently engaged, so we shot some fun photos of him and his lovely fiancee. We also got some of the whole family - parents, sons, granson, and future daughter-in-law, and then some of different combinations of people.

I felt like everything fell in place. Everyone was friendly and warm; I saw a lot of love shared between them and with me and my husband (who I was happy to be able to bring along as an assistant). They had a lovely back yard, and take a look at the mural they had on one wall. Plus he had made some very neat southwest style furniture. We even had a sudden shower!

The mostly cloudy weather that showed up actually helped, as we were able to be fairly free in where we chose to take photos outside. I looked for where open patches of sky would light faces at good angles.

Here are several that I've completed some editing on.

I even got to watch a little "war" between grandma and grandson with the lego vehicles he had created for that purpose!

Texture

2010-08-07T21:29:00.000-06:00

Contrast and Drama

2010-07-29T22:01:00.000-06:00

Today we have a guest post by my husband, who does wildlife photography as a hobby:

Contrast and Drama

Contrast and light can contribute a lot to the emotional impact of an image. Harsh lighting creates a very dramatic, bold feel. Soft lighting can create an intimate or playful feeling. Some things to think about when looking at the light for a photograph are how direct the light is and where do the shadows fall in the image. An image captured in direct sunlight will have tremendous contrast, so that either the shadows will be almost completely black or the highlights blown-out white. Images created in shade or on cloudy days have a much lower contrast.

Here are a few examples from some of my recent work. Take this photograph of an American Black Bear:

Not too bad, and he looks appropriately menacing, but the lighting isn't helping. Compare to this image:

The high contrast here gives the image a much more dramatic feel. The glint of light on one eye with the other side of the face dark makes the bear seem much more intense. The contrast better suits the subject.

Here is an alternate example. Consider the cute cub:

This image has a similar contrast to the previous image, but the effect is not as pleasing. This guy still looks cute, but again the light isn't helping us. Compare to this example:

The contrast in this image is similar to the first image in the post, but here the lighting is much more appropriate for the subject. I think most people would agree that this is the more pleasing image.

In portrait photography, sometimes men look better with a higher contrast lighting which can make them look rugged or dangerous. Women, on the other hand generally prefer images of themselves with softer lighting. Although this is often violated for dramatic effect in advertising or sports photography, it is not necessarily the most flattering to the subject.

Hopefully this gives you something to think about when choosing the lighting for your images.

Just a few fun shots

2010-07-16T23:10:00.004-06:00

Going back to process a few photos I took just over a month ago...

A lover of the little things...

Birthday fun

2010-07-10T21:50:00.002-06:00

We were at a little friend's birthday party today. Happy Birthday Michael! I took a few photos for him and his family. Here are several (permission granted by his mom to share):
A beautiful cake made by his mom! Little sister really got into the festivities too...

This pinata was made by mom too! Harsh sunlight made for shadows, but we caught Michael in action:

Little sister was willing to play a little peekaboo with me at the end:

On a last note, I try to be very careful to only show photos on my blog of people who have given me permission to do so. While I capture more pictures during the party, I am not posting pictures that include other children.

Summer Fun

2010-07-09T14:05:00.005-06:00

I've been taking my children to the Tennis Club of Albuquerque for swim lessons the last two weeks. A friend was taking her children and recommended it. This has been a great experience. I'd tried group and then private lessons with my son 2 and 3 years ago, and it had been pretty unsuccessful. He was terrified of putting his face in the water, and once forced to do that, he gave up. So I gave up on having someone else teach him!
The instructors here are phenomenal. They are incredibly patient and my son has gotten older. Both of my two oldest children have made a huge leap. My son now can't get enough, and he goes right into the water! My daughter finally has worked herself up to putting her face in with the patient work of her instructor.

Here are several snapshots of them in action. I was juggling watching/hanging on to my littlest one and the camera at the same time, but got a few photos while watching them:

We've also enjoyed some outdoor play. Here we enjoy the sprinkler hose in the backyard. In the first, I loved the colors in the sky and in my little one's clothes. I also like the lines of the water and of the balcony pillars behind her. My other daughter had a grand time playing by herself and challenging herself to get in the water!

And last of all, I loved the way the sunlight fell up my littlest one's hair as she played on a riding toy outside. I also like the background colors.

Posing

2010-07-04T17:04:00.001-06:00

Posing isn't my biggest strength as a photographer. I also prefer to focus on capturing expressions over perfect poses. I'd rather people look like themselves than a perfectly posed model looking stagnant and with no story to tell. Also, when I am working with a family with small children or babies, I tend to focus on getting the little ones happy and it is easy to overlook the way their parents look! That said, however, some posing is required when you want photos that are flattering and that don't exaggerate in unflattering ways.

Another note is that our camera is translating what we see in 3D into a flat 2D picture. Think about that. While we see an entire person, and know how wide the person is, and can see how nice they look, the camera will only show the angle it sees.

Here I'm going to post a few tips that I try to keep in mind, but remember, there are plenty of times where "rules" are broken for effect, and it isn't wrong.

First and foremost, look at where the light falls. When we look at the human face, it looks most natural to us when the light falls at an angle from slightly above and either in front or to one side or the other. This is the way sunlight falls on our faces most of the time, and it emphasizes the shape of the face - the forehead, cheek bones, mouth, etc.

When I take a picture of the human face it is also more flattering for the camera to be slightly above. I want the eyes to be clear. I don't want to emphasize under the chin, and when someone is looking down, it is easy to produce what appears to be extra "chins"! This, of course, applies more to adults than to children. Sometimes we can produce fun pictures of kids from all angles.

If someone's body is posed slightly at an angle to the camera, the person's width isn't emphasized. Most of us appreciate that. My husband visited India for a month before we met. He showed me his photos. Every one with him in it shows him standing square to the camera in front of some neat place. He is a big guy (he's 6' 4"!) and these photos were not flattering at all. Try to look dynamic in a photo!

Groups: I used to make the mistake of lining everyone up like the old school photos. Tall people went in back, shorter in front. Everyone was in neat straight lines. This produces BORING photos! What you want is the faces arranged in such ways that they aren't in straight lines horizontally or vertically. If every face is at a slightly different level or even angle, the photo is a lot more interesting to look at. On another note, the faces should also all be at a similar distance from the camera, so you can keep them all in focus. It helps a lot to get up on a step stool (or other convenient object) so that you can put your camera at a level that makes the faces approximately the same distance from it.

Hands look better from the side than from the top - they don't look as large or as square.

Try not to cut off hands or feet that gives an "amputated" feel. If you crop, try to crop at a 3/4 ratio (across the upper arm or forearm, or middle of lower leg - but not at joints).

Last of all, You are the photographer. Try different angles, try different croppings. Don't get stuck on thinking you've got it with one shot. Take LOTS of photos, and then look through them to see what you like. It takes experimentation to learn. And have fun!

Family in Action

2010-07-04T16:16:00.001-06:00

I enjoy the opportunity to capture families in action. This happy family came up with the idea to play a game while I was there. It was fun watching them interact and have fun together! A few shots I like:

July Special

2010-06-29T08:16:00.000-06:00

I'm offering 100% of the session fee applied to print orders for just the month of July. Email to book now! emily@lonelymountainphotography.com

In Home Family Photo Session

2010-06-27T16:59:00.002-06:00

This beautiful family took advantage of my June special. A big thank you to them for allowing me in their home to take pictures!

More Beautiful Children

2010-06-21T21:15:00.001-06:00

I was blessed with the opportunity to photograph these children in their home on Saturday. We had a lot of fun. Here are just a few of my favorites:

Expression

2010-06-18T23:14:00.003-06:00

The eyes reveal the soul

2010-06-11T23:35:00.001-06:00

I and my family traveled to visit family for a couple of weeks. We had a good trip, but surprisingly, I took few photos. I have barely looked at them since we've returned home, but when I have a few ready, I will post them. Meanwhile, I thought I'd post several favorites that demonstrate a concept.

When you look at someone/ talk with someone, what do you look at? The eyes. A person's eyes are really the most important part of a portrait. If they are looking at you, this is where the critical focus of a portrait lies. If you are not focusing on them, the thing focused on is going to draw the viewer's attention. Of course, this is a choice you should make as the photographer. If you are not focusing on the eyes, it should be for an artistic reason. How many of you have seen a photo of yourself where your nose or some other feature seems more prominent than you'd like? Often the cause of this is that the focus is really on that, and not your eyes!

Just a few past photos:

Travel

2010-05-30T09:35:00.000-06:00

I'm traveling with my family for two weeks. I'll post photos soon, when I return home! Take care and have a lovely Memorial Day.

Composition

2010-05-18T16:04:00.002-06:00

I'd like to share a few tips about photo composition. The simplest technique or "rule" used in photography is called the "Rule of Thirds" and this is VERY closely related to "The Golden Mean" from which the rule of Thirds is really derived. Basically, mathematicians have studied what is naturally aesthetically pleasing in the world around us. Through this they have discovered that we often find that things are arranged in such a way as to be approximately placed in distances from each other to reach a ratio of 1:1.618.... Many people simplify this to the "rule of thirds" by saying in a given picture, if the interesting things are placed 1/3rd of the way from side to side or top to bottom (and vice versa), the photo hold much more interest than when the object of interest is placed dead center. An article that simplifies and gives examples is:
http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/Eugene_Ilchenko/GoldenSection.html

Another good discussion on the Golden Mean is:
http://photoinf.com/Golden_Mean/Stuart_Low/The_Golden_Mean.htm

Here is an example where I placed my daughter (not literally) in the left third of the picture. With her there the sense of action is enhanced with you following her direction to the right where we see the water, her arms outstretched, the line of the creek following back then into her. Our eyes are kept moving around the picture.

Here is an example of a photo I took of my daughter's feet in the water. The first shows her feet placed in the center. The second shows them placed to the left. Notice how when we view the first photo, our eyes see the feet and then don't know where to go next in the photo. In the second, with the placement of them on the left, our eyes are drawn right into the water, to the rock, up the right side of the frame to the out-of-focus ground on the top left, then across left to her hands holding the stick and then back to her feet. The photo holds more interest then the first one.

One more example of a combination of this and how we show action in a photo. If a person is moving, they need space to move into. Here my son is splashing in the water. He is moving to the left and we see the space, and it is filled with splashed water droplets. It is dynamic; he has somewhere to go and is going that way. I wish I hadn't gotten my daughter's arm in the photo on the right, but sometimes when you're catching action, you catch others in action too! I can photoshop it out of the photo, but haven't yet done that.

One more thing: It is hard to look at a photo where someone is looking out of the frame, but the edge of the frame is right next to their face. It is much more pleasing for them to have space to be looking or moving into.

Or one I took several years ago:

And here we see the eyes in the left third again, with our eyes being drawn around her arms and back.

As always, feel free to ask any questions. I'll try to answer :-) Take care.

June Special - model family search

2010-05-17T09:39:00.000-06:00

I'm offering a special starting June 7 through the end of the month. I'm looking for families who are willing to let me come to their homes to photograph them. I will waive the session fee and offer a free 8x10 to each family. There is no requirement to purchase anything if you don't like the photos. The only requirement/request on my part is that you sign a release so I can use the photos for advertising, etc. I am trying to build up my portfolio of the type of photography I am interested in.

Let me know and take care :-)

Emily

Faces

2010-05-11T21:12:00.001-06:00

I love capturing kids' expressions. I find that if you let kids be themselves in front of the camera and take lots of shots, you can get genuine expressions in their faces - expressions that are real and loved by their families. This sweet little boy was a lot of fun. He was trying out all sorts of expressions for me to photograph...

Aperture

2010-05-04T22:10:00.001-06:00

I'd like to discuss aperture and speed this week. These two things are what the photographer is primarily controlling with the manual modes of a typical SLR camera. I talked about how light is everything. Aperture and Speed control how much light is allowed into the camera. This is where "stops" come in. A "full stop up" allows exactly twice as much light into the camera as the stop below. With modern digital slr cameras, our settings aren't set to full stops anymore. Often there are multiple fractions of stops, so the old understanding of twice as much light doesn't apply with all the numbers the camera shows.

Aperture controls the size of the opening when the shutter opens to allow light in. If you squint your eyes, you generally think you can see farther. It is this way with the camera. If the opening is large, the plane of focus is narrower. If the opening is small, the plane of focus becomes a much larger area. Here is an example of wide aperture:

Notice how thin the area is that is actually sharp. You can see the buttons on her dress, her face, her hand, and the plant are all fairly sharp. Her feet and everything in front and behind her start to get fuzzy. Here is another example:

Notice how blurry the railing behind her is. If you look closely, the front of her face is sharper than the top of her head or her ears.
In both of these I used an aperture of f/1.2. Notice that I placed the 1.2 as the denominator of the fraction. This is helpful. In your camera, aperture is just shown as the number. But you need to know that the SMALLER the number - the WIDER the aperture (because it is in actuality the denominator, and not a whole number). A lot of standard lenses only "stop down" to about f/4 or f/5.6. Notice we write it as f/number while the camera only shows us the number. Therefore an aperture (as seen in the camera) of 8 is actually a smaller opening than 4.

Now lets talk about Speed. This is referring to how fast the shutter opens and shuts to allow light in when you push the button. If the aperture remained the same, every time you changed the speed a full stop (note that on the old SLR cameras, the only options were full stops - this is no longer the case and when you dial the speed settings up or down, we actually see a lot more numbers, or fractions of stops) you let in twice as much light as the stop before it. Once again we will notice that the camera shows us only the denominator. For example: if it shows us "60" it means 1/60 of a second.

So, we use a combination of speed and aperture to define how much light we let in, and in the process we set the camera to take a faster or slower picture and also set it to have more or less of the picture in focus.

In the manual section on your dial, Av is where you set just the aperture and let the camera guess at the appropriate speed to let the right amount light in. Tv is where you set just the time (speed) and allow the camera to guess at the right aperture. M is where you set both yourself. I often work in Av mode, because I like to adjust the aperture as I like and then let the camera set the speed. I do have to watch the speed to make sure it isn't so slow that it shows my unsteadiness in holding the camera (blurriness) or movement of what I'm taking a picture of (unless that is what I want). There are times I set the speed to make really sure that the shutter can move fast enough to freeze the action. In the following example I still used Av mode, but I was watching to see what shutter speed it was using.

Here the aperture was f/2.8 (shown as 2.8 in the camera) and the speed was 1/2500th of a second. This speed froze the action of my son jumping through the air. We do not see any blurring of him. The camera opened and shut so fast that it caught a fraction of a moment and froze it in picture form.

If you look back to my blog post in mid March at the picture of my little girl in pink running, you'll see a lot of motion blur. The sharpest thing in the photo is her face. Her feet are a blur, her arms, and everything around her. In that photo I used an aperture of f/16 (Av mode) in order to get the speed very slow (1/25th of a second). I panned with her, keeping my focus on her face and slowly pushed the shutter. I was intentionally trying to capture a sense of the motion by keeping the shutter speed so slow that she was moving the whole time the shutter was open.

I hope that clarifies and explains a few things. Feel free to post questions and I'll do my best to help!

First ever Maternity Session

2010-04-26T11:37:00.001-06:00

I was given the opportunity on Saturday to photograph a sweet couple expecting their first baby! A thank you to them for letting me share in their lives. Hopefully they, too, will be happy with a few of the photos. We photographed outside. Here are a few of my favorites:

Busy couple of weeks

2010-04-18T21:31:00.001-06:00

The last couple of weeks have been busy. Last weekend I was out of town, and did the photography for the wedding of very dear friends. My children happened to be in the wedding as well.

And baby sister afterward:

During the ceremony, white balance was tough. There were the normal interior (orange-yellow) lights inside and the bluish light coming through the windows from the sky. With no white walls to bounce my flash off of, I relied on the lights combined with some fill flash from my camera. With all those different colors of light, black and white generally worked best.

Today, I took some shots of my children running on the porch, or dancing.

Let me talk a little about focusing on moving subjects. It's tricky! With the autofocus ability of DSLRs, comes an ability that manual cameras of the past could never had. And the auto-focus is continually being improved with the continued advancement of digital camera technology. Basically, we can now set our cameras on AI Servo, which means that your camera will continually adjust its focus on whatever you keep your focus point on (keep the camera with the subject). With my camera, it is easier to keep a subject in focus that is moving from side to side than coming straight at me!

That brings up the subject of focus. You want your subject to be sharp, clear - in focus. You don't want the thing behind to be sharper than what you are actually trying to photograph. Play around with your menus and figure out how to change the focus point from "everything" to one dot in the center. Some cameras have a button labeled with a picture of a rectangle with dots inside it. If you push this, the default is generally to show lots of dots in the rectangle that shows up on the screen (or in the viewfinder). You don't want this. You want to manipulate the controls so it changes to one spot. Center focus is generally the easiest to use. This means that your camera will try to focus on whatever falls under that center point. On most cameras you press half-way down to make the camera focus. Once you do press down half-way, you can change your composition (keeping the shutter half-pressed) and keep the plane of focus relatively the same before pushing all the way down to take the picture. This is for a still photo, with still subjects.

In these pictures I set the camera to AI Servo, kept the center on the moving child and kept clicking the shutter button. There is no focusing and recomposing with this mode because the camera is continually adjusting the focus. So you have to keep your focus point on the moving subject.

Light

2010-04-04T14:30:00.002-06:00

I am going to be posting some tips about photography here as well as sharing photos. I love to help explain things to people and I'm always excited to share what I know with anyone who is interested.

Photography is all about capturing light. It is light that bounces off things and give them color. It is light that falls on parts of the face to give it shape, and conversely it is the shadows in contrast to the light that define the shape of anything. A larger and closer light source will produce softer shadows. The sun is a small light source since it is very far away, producing hard (sharply defined and dark) shadows. Conversely, when you are looking into the shade (watch for sun patches if the shade is produced by a tree) the light is very soft because the actual light source is the sky, rather than the sun. Other good places for soft light are north facing windows, or anywhere on a cloudy day.
Look at the direction of the light. If you are in a walled yard, the light is going to come from above, producing shadows in the eyes (if you are photographing a person). If you have an opening in front of a person, the light is lower and thus the direction of the light is more pleasing. One mistake I see a lot, is the use of the flash on the camera. It produces very flat light, produces red-eye (caused by the light bouncing off the retinas and returning directly to the camera), and dark shadows directly behind people. My tip, disable the flash, and instead look for good light. Soft, directional light coming from an angle will not produce the red eyes and will make much softer shadows.

Here is a photo I took this week of my daughter. I'm impressed with the high ISO capability of my camera. Most cameras couldn't do this with such little light. The higher the ISO setting, the more light sensitive is the sensor in the camera. However, the picture gets grainier and grainier looking the higher the ISO. Here my camera is set at 6400 ISO, aperture of f/2, shutter speed of 1/100 second. I was using a 135mm lens. The relatively slow shutter speed required me to hold the camera as still as possible (so you wouldn't get blurring) so I was braced in a nearby doorway. The sun had just set, and her face was lit by a northwest facing window. The stairwell was behind her (you can see the bars of the railing faintly) and there is an orange light coming up from below. Note the light of normal light bulbs is pretty yellow as compared to regular daylight. I love the shallow depth of field and colors in this picture.

most recent photo shoot

2010-03-28T17:43:00.001-06:00

I had the privilege of going to the home of a beautiful family on Friday and taking photos of the mom and three girls. Here are several of my favorites.

Around home

2010-03-27T19:26:00.001-06:00

A few photos I took Thursday.

My littlest one crawled off down the hall so I decided to follow and see what she was going to do. This is what I found:

One last one:

Seniors

2010-03-17T19:30:00.002-06:00

I've had the privilege over the last few months, to do some photo shoots with several graduating seniors. It was a lot of fun to meet and talk with these neat young people! Here are a few that I liked.

A few shots from this weekend.

2010-03-15T15:51:00.001-06:00

I will be attempting to update this site regularly with photos I've taken recently. Sometimes they will be photos of my own family. Sometimes they will include photos of friends, and sometimes I will include photos from recent professional shoots. Thanks for dropping by.

My passion in photography

2010-03-13T11:17:00.001-07:00

I love to capture art in real life. I'm not a pure journalist, although I do fit in some photo-journalism. I also love to work with photos to create a piece of art. Here are a few recent photos: