It’s been 9 months since my first 365 Project ended, and I’ve really missed going out and doing new ideas, even when I don’t feel like it… plus I loved how the last one documented so much of a year, which I usually won’t remember as vividly.

So I’m taking it on again…! 

For day four, I decided to do some new self-portraits, similar to “A Girl’s Time-Out” self-portrait series, but different, this time with a book and other ideas too. 

And here they are… I hope you like them – photo info & processing is below the photos.

Equipment for this Photo Series

 There you have it! The entire series – plus the one I picked for day four…

Now for the info!

Camera: Canon EOS 1D Mark III

Lens: 135mm f/2.0 L

Lighting: day light from the window 

Shutter Speed: it varied from 1/80 to 1/40

ISO: Anything from 500-1000 (it was seriously dull, so I needed some ISO help!)

Aperture: f/2.2 

Processing for this Photo Series

I’m using Lightroom 4 now – which is great, although not SO different to Lightroom 3 if I’m really honest.

I processed the photographs (except the black and white one) with Soft Afternoon Glow Lightroom Preset (Deluxe Pack) & Whipped Cream Lightroom Preset (King Pack)

That’s it!

Yup that’s it – not a lot of tools really, but I haven’t invested in lighting equipment, so I make do with what I’ve got!

Let me know what you think of this series – I hope you enjoyed it!

- Olivia Bell

I’d really love to spend an entire day walking through the streets and finding good locations to capture the essence of Bath ‘from above’ – i.e. when you’re driving down the “hill” you get this incredible view which is so famous.

Here are 3 shots I managed to get on the on off time I had my camera with me. I must have looked very strange as I would randomly park my car, really quickly, then jump out and stand on the door-ledge to make myself taller!

Maybe next time I should invest in a pair of ladders?! 

Bath

Bath

Bath

Processing for these Photographs

All processed in Lightroom 3 with Soft Afternoon Glow Lightroom Preset!

Photographed with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II 

Meet Krugerrand – he’s a 3yr old Palomino, Anglo Arab X Thoroughbred.

I took these when he was pretty wild – he’s had minimal handling, when he arrived he hadn’t even been halter trained! We briefly got a shot of him with Sasha too – right before he tried to nibble her. He thought she has more carrots!

Equipment Used 

For these shots I used the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

They were all processed in Lightroom 4, with Whipped Cream (Honey) Lightroom Preset 

All the lighting is just natural light!

I hope you like this series. Let me know what you think – just leave a comment below!

- Olivia Bell

Although I still had a lot of work to do, I just couldn’t sit at my desk any longer… when it’s been this long, I get really frustrated that I’m not doing stuff, and taking lots of photographs, even though I’m flat-out busy, it’s a different kind of thing and when I don’t give that side of me some time, I get easily frustrated and fed up.

But the minute I give my ‘arty self’ some time, I’m bouncing around and feeling great, PLUS I’m even MORE productive, if that’s imaginable…

About this Photo Series

So unlike my usual self-portraits these were all taken inside. It’s been really cold and yesterday it was overcast and gloomy most of the day, so I wanted to see if I could find a nice location inside to use and stay warm at the same time!

Here is the whole set I picked to be published. Further down (below the photos) I’ve listed what lighting equipment I used, what equipment (camera etc) and what processing I did!

I hope you enjoy this set – each of the photographs I picked are quite different for me, but I think they turned out really well. What do you think?

It’s always nerve-racking doing new stuff, but I definitely wanted to push myself with new poses and also indoor light etc!

Let me know what you think – just leave a comment below or email me!

A Girl’s Time-Out

Equipment for this Photo Series

OK – there you have it, that’s all the portraits from this series!

Now for the good stuff… (I know, you love knowing what I use )

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L (seriously amazing quality. I’m always surprised when I use it after sometime)

Lighting: day light from the windows (2)

ISO: 500

Shutter Speed: 1/30 or 1/40 

Aperture: f/2.0 

Processing for this Photo Series

I’m using Lightroom 4 now – which is great, although not SO different to Lightroom 3 if I’m really honest.

I processed all the photographs (except the black and white one) with SoftAfternoon Glow Lightroom Preset (the “Sunshine” version which is in the Deluxe pack)

Every time I use  Soft Afternoon Glow for indoor photography I’m always surprised at how well it processes them – particularly as I didn’t develop it for indoor photography!

That’s it!

Yup that’s it – not a lot of tools really, but I haven’t invested in lighting equipment, so I make do with what I’ve got, which just adds to the challenge. Yippie!

Let me know what you think of this series – I hope you enjoyed it!

- Olivia Bell

Although today feels like today is the day – it’s 16 degrees and blissfully warm.

I can’t wait to see all the many beautiful flowers which are surely going to be on their way soon – the blossom is here though, so lets look at the photographs!

The Processing

All of these photographs were processed in Lightroom 3 with Soft Afternoon Glow Lightroom Preset

I hope you like the photographs! Let me know what you think in the comments below.

- Olivia

So, as I haven’t done any self-portraits in ages I thought the weather was trying to tell me something… so off I went to try and get the last bit of light before the sun went down.

It was one of those days when you keep meaning to go outside, but every time you do, things get in the way – I almost left it too late, but I know this spot and knew there would be a tiny little bit of sunshine left.

Anyway… here they are!

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I get a lot of questions about my processing - understandably! But  they usually require quite in-depth replies, which isn’t always easy to do without some examples.

So I thought I would take this recent photograph of mine and show you how I processed it, in full detail!

The Photograph (final result)

The Photograph (final result)

The Breakdown  - Photographing / Kit etc

A quick breakdown of my photography kit used for this shot.

• Canon EOS 5D mark II
• Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM lens

Homemade Reflector

In this particular case I didn’t use a reflector, but I have done numerous times.

I do actually own a ‘store bought’ one, but it isn’t one which can stand up on its own, so I made a homemade one which does just that!

If you haven’t got one, or want to make one, all you need is:

• cardboard
• tin-foil

The Before & After Image – Start to Finish

Before (left) and After (right)

The Breakdown – Processing – Part 1

Here is a quick breakdown of my process:-

• Import into Lightroom 3

• Apply Soft Afternoon Glow Lightroom Preset – Sunshine version which is available in the Deluxe package. Soft Afternoon Glow is fantastic for indoor photography (as well as spring & summer photography).

Before and After the Lightroom Preset

Now here is what the photographed looked like before Soft Afternoon Glow and After it – minus any other editing.

Before and After the Lightroom Preset (minus extra editing)

The left image is before any processing.

The right image is after Soft Afternoon Glow Lightroom Preset “Sunshine” version.

The Breakdown – Processing Part 2

Now as I’ve mentioned above, I sometimes do additional processing on top of my Lightroom Preset(s).

Particularly with indoor photography, I want to make the subject really POP. Because it’s still life, I often find the shots can be boring. So I try to really bring them to life with my processing, and this sometimes means doing selective adjustments.

The Steps

So here are the steps I took after applying my Lightroom Preset.

• Reduced Exposure slightly

• Altered the Temp from -27 to -32

When I took this I was using custom white balance – I didn’t quite get it cool enough, so I used the Temp setting in Lightroom to alter this.

• Added colour to the gradient at the top. Tone: 323 at 40%

If you look at the final version you’ll notice a lot more colour at the top part of the photograph. Normally with Soft Afternoon Glow I don’t add colour to the gradient which is applied, but in this case I did to bring more life into the photograph.

• Increased Vibrance +30

As the macarons are so vibrant, I wanted to play on that, so I really increased the vibrance to bring that out.

• Increased Clarity +30

This is one of the settings I use particularly for indoor photography. I like how the clarity setting brings more life to the subject.

• Reduced Vignette to -59
• Selective brush adjustment on macarons – Clarity 50+ and Saturation 20+

The general tones of the photograph were perfect in my eyes, but I wanted to still make the macarons more vibrant, which was why I used the brush tool to bring out the saturation, and a bit more punch with the clarity setting.

Finished Processing

That’s it! I’m all done…

I don’t always use the adjustment brush, and I rarely process on top of my Lightroom Presets – but I’ve come to find that indoor photography varies so much, so I apply a particular preset which gets me as close to my idea, and then adjust where I see fit.

The reason I use a set “standard” preset is it gets me from A to B very quickly, and I can see exactly what else needs to be added on top.

Before I saved my settings as presets, I would start right from the beginning and I would spend SO much time agonising over the tiniest of setting because I couldn’t see the full picture, i.e. before, after the preset, and after slight adjustments.

Using Presets really saves my time, and it makes processing so very much easier.

Before Processing

Before Processing

After Processing

After Processing

All Done

So I hoped seeing the before, middle and after images helped you to see what I do – if you have any questions or would like to see particular photographs and their processing steps, let me know!

Leave a comment and let me know what you think – or send me an email.

- Olivia Bell

For some reason finding them was also a bit tricky, but in the end I found these delicious, colourful multicoloured macaroons which also happen to be ideal for photography.

The only funny thing about these is how easy they are to break – I gently picked one up and out of nowhere it cracked… probably the most fragile things I’ve ever handled for photography.

So as you can imagine, positioning these was not the most relaxing things – but I got there in the end!

I hope you like them – and if you know of any other delicious foods, then let me know so I can make sure to photograph them.

Multicoloured Macaroons

Multicoloured Macaroons (100mm Macro Lens)

Multicoloured Macaroons (100mm macro lens)

Multicoloured Macaroons

Multicoloured Macaroons

What Equipment Did You Use?

I took these shots rather late in the day, so the indoor light was pretty miserable. I used my tripod and a slow shutter speed – the average shot was 1/8 sec with f/1.8 or f/2.8 when I used my other lens (see below!)

I used my trusty Canon EOS 5D Mark II and then I played between these three lenses:-

• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 USM
• Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
• Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM

I tried using the 50mm, but I didn’t like how it turned out – so I stuck to my trusty 85mm which worked really well.

To play around a little I tried using the 100mm lens, and it worked really nicely for two of the shots (see captions above).

What processing did you do?

As usual I processed these photographs in Lightroom 3. It’s a great tool for quick and fast post processing.

I used my favourite indoor Lightroom Preset: Soft Afternoon Glow Lightroom Preset – Vibrant version. I usually find indoor photography always turns out warmer than expected, despite using custom white balance, so this preset works wonders!

Valentine’s Day is nearing and we thought it would be fun to do a “Valentine’s Day” sale so you can treat yourself to something special.

We have selected the 6 Top Lightroom Presets and they are currently available with a 15% discount.

Each Lightroom Preset is discounted, so you won’t need any special codes – but make sure you place an order before February 15th, 5PM GMT time.

Watch the Introduction

I did a little Introduction video to explain what these six Lightroom Presets are best used for – click ‘play’ to watch the video below! Or you can watch it on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/oliviabell/valentinesday

15% OFF on The Bell Sisters

Take advantage of our Valentine’s Day Sale – get 15% off on each Lightroom Preset if you order before February 15th.

Have fun and enjoy processing!

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