newborn bow headband tutorial | lincoln nebraska photographer

I thought I’d share a fun little project I recently did with you all! :)  I am the first to admit I am a huge prop…hat…headband addict!  This is easily proven by the 2 huge drawers I have full of newborn hats.  I recently had the urge to create something and thought these little headbands seemed easy enough to make…and they were!  So easy, in fact, that I put together a quick little “how to” guide for you.

If you’re a photographer, choose a few fabrics that are true to your style and you’ll have a few unique props in no time.  If you’re not a photographer, these are easy enough to make and would make a great little gift for any baby girl.  Or moms out there, make a fun little bow to take to your own newborn session.

Now don’t worry all you hat and headband makers, I am not about to start knitting hats or making this a daily occurrence, I will happily be back to give you my money…and probably soon. ;)

First, the final result, shown on the beautiful Miss Hailey (her session coming up soon)…

…and all you need to know.

happy new year! | lincoln nebraska photographer

Yikes!! Long time, no post!

My poor blog has been so neglected over the past few months.  With the busy season…shooting and editing sessions…designing holiday cards…the holidays…I just couldn’t keep up with the posts…BUT…I’m back now and hope to be posting on a more regular schedule again.  I hope everyone had an AMAZING holiday and is looking forward to 2012.  I know I am, lots of great things in store including several newborns already on the schedule for 2012 and so many current clients expecting baby #2 or #3.  So exciting!  I also have not one, but TWO newborn sessions already on the books for September…even I had to take a minute and do the math on those! ;)  I’ve been sworn to secrecy by both mamas, so my lips are sealed!

Since I photograph kids and families outdoors, the first few months of the year are generally considered “down time” for me.  I will shoot several newborns from January – March, but at a welcomed slower pace than the 6+ sessions a week during the busy season.  The first of the year is always a great time to reflect on and review business plans and policies and to attend conferences for continuing education…I’ll be doing both of those as well, although I enjoy the second much more than the first. ;) I’ve already updated the website with new images (Go me!), so if you haven’t checked it out lately, be sure to take a peek at all the beautiful faces I’m lucky to work with. :)  You will also see a new link on the splash page for iPhone/iPad and mobile phone users.  The main website utilizes Flash which is not viewable via mobile devices, so to keep up with changing technology, there is now a full site to accommodate those viewing from their mobile devices (non-mobile users can still view it as well).  I’ll admit, I was getting a little teary going through all the images from the past year.  I just adore my little clients SO much, I’m so very blessed!!

A huge THANK YOU to all my clients for another amazing year!  I truly love all your families.

Needless to say, I have several sessions from the fall to blog, so look for more posts to come soon!

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This following info is for all the photogs out there.  At the start of each year I always reflect on what has been successful in my business and what needs to be modified.  One of the most important things, I believe, is to be efficient.  Who likes to spend hours upon hours at their computer?  Not me, that’s for sure.  One of my goals in 2011 was to speed up my workflow, and I’ve really gotten into a groove that works for me.  I have set up several actions for the common editing I do in Photoshop that allow me to batch edit my images.  Since my images are normally pretty consistent straight out of camera, this allows me to select all the images and batch edit them.  This means that while my action is running on each image, I can be doing something else away from my computer.  Then I go back and do any final retouching needed.  This has greatly reduced the time in front of my computer.  The other thing I think is very beneficial is using Photoshop shortcuts.  Instead of fumbling around in the menus, learn the function shortcuts.  You’ll be surprised at how much quicker editing goes.

I shared this list of my most commonly used Photoshop shortcuts on Facebook earlier, but it was suggested to me to post here so people could “pin” it.  If you don’t know what that means, you must check out Pinterest.  Do proceed with caution, I will not be held accountable for the many hours you will spend there. ;)

Happy Pinning!

 

for photographers: what you need to know about color

I thought I would take a break from client posts to make a post for my fellow photographers.  Hands down, the question I get asked most is “How do you get perfect color outside every time?”  Usually I will respond when I have some extra time, but since time is fleeting these days (and I see too many green, blue, or yellow people!!!), I thought I’d make a blog post with a few tips for reference.

The most important thing…look for quality light!  I cannot stress how important lighting is…well…yes I can, lighting is EVERYTHING!

Some quick tips…

— Find quality light.  Let’s just get this on the table, I am a lighting snob and I fully admit it. :)  I only prefer to work with the best light of the day, and that’s the “sweet light” about 2-3 hours before the sun goes down (and no, I rarely ever have a client who takes issue with it).  The sun is low in the sky, the light is golden and directional, and it’s just plain yummy!  If your schedule doesn’t allow you to shoot at that hour, try to shoot in the early morning hours.  You generally want to try and avoid shooting from 10am-2pm when the sun is directly overhead.  Now, before I get a flurry of emails, yes, it’s possible to find good light at all times during the day, and yes, you should learn to work in all kinds of light…I have, and this the light I prefer and it works for me.  Do whatever works for you. :)  Find locations that will work at different times of the day, for example, I have locations that have good morning light and others with good evening light.  I personally will not sacrifice good light just because I want to shoot in a certain location.  If the light isn’t good there, it’s not an option.  I don’t like winging it.

— Pay attention to the color temperature of the light.  If you are shooting full sun in an open field, the light will be warm, if you are shooting in open shade, the light is cooler. Learn to look for this and recognize it.  If you’re shooting in green grass when the light is bright, your clients probably look green from the color cast of the grass – I’m fairly certain your clients don’t want to look green – and this is one of the hardest “fixes” to do later.

— Get it right in camera so you don’t have to mess with it later.  Underexposed images will have a lot of red undertones and are generally not very fun to work with. ;)  Overexposed images will be washed out. I realize most everyone shoots RAW, but it’s much easier to just get it right the first time and use ACR/Lightroom for minor tweaks.

— Try to edit your images in the same lighting conditions each time.  We’ve all had those late night editing sessions only to open the images in the morning and wonder “What the heck was I doing last night?”  The way you perceive color changes depending on the light you are surrounded in as well.  I normally edit in my office in the daytime, with daylight only, no overhead lights on.

— Throwing a bunch of actions and haze on a bad image just makes it look like a bad image with some haze thrown on it.  Just say no!  Actions should be used to enhance your images, not fix them.

More specifics:

1. White Balance.  I suggest to never shoot on Auto White Balance (AWB), choose a white balance preset.  Why?  Because your AWB can change from image to image…you can get 3 images that have perfect color and the next 3 could be totally off.  In my opinion, it’s just not reliable, and if you do have to make any tweaks you have to go through image by image in ACR where as if they are all one setting you can select them all and apply changes to them all at once.  It has been suggested that some camera models do well with AWB, but I still choose to control my own.  What can I say, I’m a control freak. ;)  Since I shoot mostly in open shade with back lighting, I choose the shade preset (the one that looks like a house — refer to your manual if you’re unsure which it is).  The light in open shade is generally cooler, using the shade preset will add some warmth to your images.  There are times when I still think my images are too cool when using the shade preset…if that’s the case, I will change to the Kelvin (K) setting and choose my own temperature, usually somewhere from 7100-7300K depending on how cool the light is.  The next question is normally…“But when I use the shade preset, my images are too red.”

2. Camera Style. The next thing to check is the camera style you are using.  There are several to choose from…standard, neutral, faithful, portrait, and landscape.  Most people will choose standard, but standard itself will make your images have a lot of red tones.  I suggest using neutral.  The neutral camera style does not have any sharpness, saturation, or contrast added.  I know you’re thinking, “But I shoot RAW, what does this matter?”  Trust me, it does.  Even if you shoot RAW only, every time you take an image, a small .jpg file is created and that is what’s displayed on your LCD screen.  If you are set to standard (which gives the image a boost in saturation and contrast), you will see the “color popped” version of the image on your camera, and this could look very different than what you see on your computer.  When you choose neutral all the values (saturation, contrast, etc.) are set to 0, I personally feel like it’s more of a WYSIWYG…which is good for a visual gal like myself. ;)  Now if you’re used to shooting with the standard camera style you will probably think neutral makes your images drab looking and may have to adjust your editing a bit, but this is one of the things that made a HUGE difference for me.

3. The next thing you’ll need to do is make sure that Adobe Camera Raw (ACR)/Lightroom is using that same camera style.  So neutral in camera and neutral in ACR.  Or whatever style you choose to use, make sure they both match.  I use ACR, so that’s what I will reference.  In your options panel on the right, click the camera icon, if you hover it should say Camera Calibration.  Find the drop down menu under Camera Profile and change it to Camera Neutral. (See below)  Once you change it, click on the little fly out menu (that little icon to the right of Camera Calibration) and choose “Save New Camera Raw Defaults”.  This will the save the setting and apply it to every image as it’s uploaded/viewed in Bridge.  Actually, just for fun, go back thru and click through the list of profiles and watch how it changes your image.  Crazy, right?

P.S. Disregard those other changes I have made in that panel.  The reason they are changed is because I noticed that my camera had consistent red/magenta tones.  By adjusting the sliders in this panel you can compensate for those issues.  So, if you notice your images always seem to pull a certain color, you can play around with these sliders and see if it helps.  Just remember to “Save New Camera Raw Defaults” each time if you want it automatically applied to all your images from then on.

EDITED TO ADD: I hope these screen shots are showing up bright and vibrant!  I just saw this was pinned on Pinterest and the screen shot looked really icky green and I’m not sure why?!?  Very ironic for a post about color. ;)  They are showing up normal for me, but that totally stresses me out now. HAHA!

So…here is my SOOC image (this was 6300K WB set in camera):

A quick tidbit about temperature and ACR…For some reason ACR (I’m not sure about Lightroom) does not read the exact temperature from your camera.  It basically takes the information from your camera and guesstimates.  This used to drive me bonkers…and after much Googling and reading many threads on many forums, I came to the answer.  So you may notice, like I did, even though I chose 6300K in camera, when it was opened in ACR the temperature shows up as 5750K.  So don’t panic and think something is not right, it just is what it is.  Dear Adobe, please fix this. Thankyouverymuch. :) UPDATE: I’ve been informed that Lightroom guesstimates as well.

And the ACR edit with just a couple tweaks.  I thought it looked a bit cool so I warmed it up a bit (5800K) with the first temperature slider.  And bumped up the exposure (+.15) just a bit.  The other settings you see are my default settings in ACR.  Once I have one image how I prefer, I open all images in ACR and sync them.  This applies the same settings to every image.  From here I open the files in Photoshop and complete the final edits.

Once in Photoshop I do a slight sharpen, color pop, and vignette.  I have this set up as an action in Photoshop, so one click does it all (I actually batch run it).  I get a lot of questions if I use a certain color action…the answer is yes and no. :) I have purchased actions over the years and no matter how great they look on other people’s images, they never look the same on mine.  Years ago I purchased Leah’s Color Workflow actions…the base action I use is the color action from that set, however, run as is, it is much too color popped for my preference, so I have added and deleted and tweaked and then tweaked some more to make it work for my images.  And this is my final image edit.

Now if you are unsure about skin tones, or don’t see color casts well, you might try the following. (See below) 1. Select your eyedropper tool. 2. Up on your options bar, choose “5 by 5 Average” from the Sample Size drop down menu.  3. Take your eyedropper and hover over your subjects cheek highlight. 4.  With your eye dropper hovered, look at the CMYK values in your Info window. (If you don’t see an info window, go to Window in your menu>scroll down and choose Info and the box should pop up).  The general rule of thumb for skin tones…the Y (yellow) percentage should be the highest (since the base color of most skin tones is yellow).  Your M (magenta) value should be just slightly less than the yellow percentage, and the C (cyan) value should be roughly half of the M percentage.  I don’t do this on every image, but I will do a quick check if I am not sure what I see.

Okay, let’s do a little test! :) These are what NOT to do!! What color do you see?

(if you guessed blue, and a little magenta, you’re right!)

(too yellow!)

(Glowing green color cast from the grass! And too yellow!)

(too blue!  this is typically what people will see shooting in open shade)

I hope this post has provided some helpful tips on how to improve the color in your images.  I would love to hear if your results change with the tips above…leave me a comment and let me know!!  Happy Shooting!

laughter :: blog carousel | lincoln nebraska photographer

Welcome to my first blog carousel post! What’s a blog carousel you ask? Let me explain. How it works is this…you are given a “theme”, everyone in the blog carousel posts an image of their interpretation of that theme, and then links to the next person so readers are able to click through the carousel and read all the posts.  A group of pro photographers that I’m friends with have already been doing this for the past few months, and I decided to hop on board as well.  :) Themes from the previous month were reflection, monochrome, and framed, and this month’s theme is LAUGHTER.  Enjoy!

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When I heard the theme was going to be laughter, one image immediately came to mind.  It’s actually an image I took 2 years ago of my two oldest girls.  I had just gotten a new lens and bribed them into going out for a quick session with me so I could play with my new lens.  I had absolutely no other expectations except to get comfortable using the lens, but the moment I snapped this image, I knew it would be an instant favorite!   To me it speaks so much about the very essence of sisterhood.  While they may have their disagreements…they cry, they laugh, most importantly, they love…my girls are the best of friends, and I hope they will never forget that.  I love everything about this image…the flyaway hairs, wrinkled noses, missing teeth, and belly laughs.  I don’t even care that my younger daughter is slightly out of focus.  When I see this image, I can hear my girls laughing.  And maybe most importantly, it reminds me that some of the best photos are not ones where everyone is smiling perfectly at the camera, but rather where the subjects are showing emotion, and upon seeing them immediately take you back to the place and time the image was created.

My girls have a 24×36 canvas of this image in their room, and it makes me smile every time I look at it.

“A smile starts on the lips, a grin spreads to the eyes, a chuckle comes from the belly…but a good laugh bursts forth from the soul, overflows, and bubbles all around.”
–Carolyn Birmingham

To continue on the carousel head on over to the blog of Michigan child and baby photographer Dena Robles.

If you would like to view the carousels from the past months you can start HERE and HERE and HERE — just keep clicking through the links at the bottom of each post.

inspiring wall displays

You’ve had your session…you have your beautiful, stunning, breathless prints in hand….and then they sit….in the box…for months!  Sound like you?  I will be entirely honest and say when I hear clients say this, it makes me cringe….and a little bit sad.   :)  I’ve been intending to make this post for a long time, and have been collecting images for this post for even longer!

I’m hoping to provide you with a little inspiration to get some ideas flowing of how you can display images in your home.  The style now is pretty much anything goes!  Easy as pie….right?  Not so much?  Photos can liven up almost any space in your home, I mean who can resist those smiling faces looking back at you every day?  It doesn’t matter if you have a little space or a lot of space, the ideas in the gallery below can be adapted to any space.  Some of the ideas don’t show actual photographs in the frames, but hopefully just the arrangements might spark some ideas.

Here are a few tips to get you going:

1. Mix and match frames for a more interesting display.  For a classic, yet contemporary gallery look, choose all black frames, but vary the frame size and thickness and/or photo and mat size.

2. Always use a mat!  Why?  Besides giving your display more of a modern “gallery” look, a mat separates the photograph from the glass and allows the print to breathe.  No mat means that over time, your photographs are likely to stick to the glass which will in turn ruin the print.

3. Don’t forget the unexpected!  Have a long skinny wall?  Or a little nook in your bathroom?  Don’t be afraid to add photos in unexpected places.  Don’t forget about kids’ bedrooms and playrooms, offices, entry ways, dining rooms…

4. Request a custom size.  Want a long skinny image for above your queen size bed?  Or a particular size for above your fireplace?  Ask for it.  Most photographers are happy to offer custom sizes to accommodate their clients.

5. As I mentioned above, anything goes.  Whether you prefer more linear or “organic” displays…there is a gallery out there that will work for everyone!  Five 16×20 frames in a horizontal row can make just as much of an impact as a display of several different size and style of frames.

6. While dreaming up your design, cut out rectangles the size of your frames (using old newspapers) and tape them to your wall to give you a visual aid to work from.  Rearrange as many times as needed.  This is especially helpful for hanging the gallery too.

7. Ask your photographer for suggestions!  We love that!   :)

Now on to the gallery of ideas!  The following images come from a little site I LOVE called DecorPad.  DecorPad is a *fabulous* website for anyone interested in interior design or people who are nosy (like me) and just like to peep at other people’s spaces.  DecorPad is full of design inspiration from popular magazines and also members who can upload images of their own spaces. You can search by room or color and with a click….POOF!…inspiration at your fingertips!  (For example, at the top choose “Photos” from the drop down menu then type “Kitchens” in the search box…BAM…beautiful kitchens!) OH!…annnnnnnnd…you might also feel the sudden urge to redecorate your entire home!

*Disclaimer: I’m NOT responsible for the ridiculous amount of time that can be sucked from your life by this website!  So proceed with caution!!  :)

Inspired??  Got some ideas?  I hope so.  Your life IS art, so get off your duff and hang those photos! ;)

A few other display inspiration sites:
Cool Photo Ideas
Pottery Barn
How to Arrange Art in an Artful Way
Martha Stewart