Downtown With One On The Way

I had the opportunity to take some photos for some friends who are wanting to make a special little announcement for family members. They were a lot of fun and I learned more about what I need to work on, but I’m gonna have to wait a little while longer to share much. :)

Here’s a little preview that keeps their secret safe.

Flash & Lighting Practice

After Christmas, I got a super cheap radio flash trigger and an umbrella and light stand kit to start playing with off-camera flash lighting. It’s blast to play with, but I’ve got a long way to go.

Lessons Learned From Family Photos

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to take some photos of one a friend’s family. They are expecting their second child in August and wanted to get some photos of the prego belly and the family together. And they asked me to do it for them. I was flattered and scared.

My wife and I scouted the location before the family arrived and we were able to get some pretty decent pictures. By the end of the relatively short shoot, I was extremely exhausted and learned a few lessons.

LESSONS LEARNED

  1. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS. I need to take extra care to hit the focus right on. That may mean stopping down a bit to help. Especially when shooting a 2.5 year old.
  2. Don’t forget to pay attention to exposure AND composition. At a certain point in the shoot, I forgot to double check my exposure settings when I was worried about getting my composition right. Both are equally important.
  3. Posing people is hard. And I need to learn how to pose subjects and clearly communicate to subjects what to do.
  4. Eat before a shoot. I should have had dinner before, but got too busy. Having a better blood sugar level would have helped calm me down and have a clearer head about me.

All in all, it was a fun to experience my first family photo session. Here is a little peak at a few of the photos.

Magic Lantern for T2i Will Save You $60

When I got my Canon T2i/550D, I was really happy with it. Being my first DSLR, I really didn’t know there was anything I was missing. After several projects and a lot of time on the internet, I realized there were a few things that I wasn’t getting with the T2i. First, I wasn’t able to manually dial in the white balance (kinda a big deal). Second, I wasn’t able to select the camera sensor’s native ISO (which has it’s pros & cons).

About a year ago, I read about the Magic Lantern firmware for Canon’s DSLRs. Originally, it was to add functionality to the 5D that Canon left out, like controlling audio levels. Recently, they’ve ported Magic Lantern to the T2i/550D.

I decided to install it and now I can’t imagine not having Magic Lantern. It let’s me dial in my white balance & select whatever ISO I want; it gives me a histogram, false color, peaking, and gain controls in video mode. I LOVE IT! You need to download it and give it a try.

Another feature that I didn’t expect to see was an intervalometer (they let you setup the camera to take photos every X seconds). It’s perfect for doing creating timelapse videos. Anyway, I thought I would have to pay $60 for a remote control for the Canon T2i/550D to do this.

I tested the intervalometer yesterday and this is the product that I came up with.

52 Weeks of Sophia

Since we had Sophia we’ve been doing a little project. Every week from the day she was born, we take a picture to show how much she is growing. We put Sophia in a plain white onesie and place her on a different fabric each week. After we get our shot, we photoshop the week onto her onesie.

It’s been a blast to do and fun to really watch her growth. I gotta give a shout out to Young House Love for inspiring this awesome project.

Week 22
Week 21

Read More»

21 Settings, Techniques, and Rules New Camera Owners Should Know


Over at Digital Photography School, Darren Rowse posted an article that is a great roundup of posts for the new DSLR camera owner. Even if you are not new to your camera or photography, they are a good reminder.

Topics include things like explaining the modes on your camera, white balance, basic operation, and composition tips. If you have 5-10 minutes, it’s a great read.

Article Link : Digital Photography School

Link Roundup: Which Lenses to Buy?

I love gear. And I admit I have a problem: I spend way too much time coveting the latest and greatest instead of shooting photos or filming. One of the things I love to do is find people’s recommended gear list, especially for lenses. So to save you the trouble of hunting down other people’s lists, I’ll post a few of the lists that I think are pretty good.

Page 1 of 3123

Advertisments

© Copyright James Polits