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Free 5x7 Birth Announcement Template

2012-02-18T23:35:00.000-08:00

Hello all! This is one of my favorite girly birth announcements, the Emma Announcement :) I've been working hard on some awesome new designs so you can expect many more great freebies like this one.

I love sharing awesome digital freebies with my loyal readers! If you download my templates and love them, please share the love and comment here and/or share this post on Pinterest or Facebook!

You can download the Emma Birth Announcement Template here.

Download the fonts I used here and here.

Rock the Shot February Photo Challenge

2012-02-11T22:46:00.000-08:00

Rock the Shot is one of my favorite photography blogs! This month's photo challenge theme is 'love.'

Ever since seeing this fabulous photo shoot by Crave Photography I have felt inspired to take more lifestyle/candid portraits of my own family. Instead of looking through all my portraits of other people I decided to take my son and my niece out for a day at the marina and see if I could capture any tender moments between the two of them. This one melts my heart. If that's not love I don't know what is :)

http://www.rocktheshotforum.com/

Free Photoshop Action Set: Basic (but powerful) Photo Fixes

2012-02-10T00:37:00.000-08:00

So I have been diving headfirst into learning all the advanced features of Photoshop the last few days and I have made my very first action set that I would like to share with all of you!

It contains six actions that will help make your photos look more professional and visually pleasing. Remember to play with the opacities. Most of the time you won't want the action at it's full strength so by lowering the opacity you have more control over it. If an action isn't strong enough for you, you can always run it again!

Most of the actions probably won't work to their full potential in Elements, but I will work on making a set like this compatible with Elements in the next month or so. Meanwhile feel free to test them out in Elements and let me know how they work there.
Since this is my first time doing this, please let me know if you run into any glitches!

Actions included:
- Sweet Pea Vintage
- Color Boost and Sharpen
- Warm Me Up
- Take Out Red
- Soft Vignette
- Portrait Black and White

More action sets to come! Like Frame Worthy Shot on Facebook to stay informed when new freebies are posted.

Click here to download your set. Installing actions is really simple, but if you need help installing the actions, this video is helpful.

Marketing and Sales: Lesson 1 {Creating Print Packages}

2012-02-05T22:09:00.000-08:00

For the first year of my business I included the DVD of images with the session (terrible I know, but I was trying to build my portfolio and get some practice and experience). When I finally decided that I was way too talented for the prices I was charging I knew it was time to start requiring a print purchase on top of the session fee.

I looked at what a lot of other photographers offered and just kind of threw some packages together. They didn't really have any meaning to me. I didn't know which one I wanted my clients to purchase or why I was offering certain things at certain price levels. My sales were pretty sporadic with these packages, I never knew which one people would choose and I wasn't making quite what I wanted to for all the time I put into each session.

Feeling overworked and underpaid isn't good for your business so I knew I needed to re-create my packages. My first step was to decide how much I wanted to make from each session. My next step was to create a package that would leave me with that profit while providing enough great stuff to my clients that they felt they were getting a good deal as well.

To choose what goes into this package think about what you want to sell. If you hate designing albums you won't want to include an album in this package. Whatever you do include in this package should be the things you display a lot of in your studio and talk a lot about to your clients during their session (pre-selling). This will end up being very different for each photographer.

For me, I included the DVD of images (printable up to 8x10) in that package because I knew it would pretty much guarantee me to sell that package almost every time because people are so fixated on getting the DVD now days. I realize many photographers wouldn't want to do this because you are pretty much capping yourself off at that price for most sessions. For me, as of right now, I'm okay with that.

Once you've got your ideal package created you'll want to create a couple packages below it and one package above it. I've heard other photographers tell me that if you sell your smallest package very often there's too much in it and if you sell your largest package very often it's not expensive enough. I think that's true. I designed my other packages simply to guide people to the package I want them to choose (package 3). Of course your packages will be unique to you, but here is my pricing list for some inspiration:

Since I implemented these new packages I have sold package number 3 (with the exception of only one client) every single time! Amazing. And that was over three months ago. It's so nice having more stability in my income and being more confident in what I am providing and why it is valued at what I am charging for it.

I hope this is helpful for some of you. If any of you have any tips to add to this please comment!

DIY Prop Tutorial: Pennant Banner

2012-02-01T23:25:00.000-08:00

Pennant banners are all the rage right now for newborn and baby photography. I really wanted a boy banner and a girl banner and there are so many cute ones out there, but they are a little on the spendy side. After looking around and debating about purchasing one I realized I could probably just whip one up myself.

Now here's the thing, this is a simple, no-sew banner. I wanted it to be quick and easy. It is not heirloom quality like the ones you can purchase on Etsy. Those banners are spendy for a reason, they are double sided and stitched with love and care to make a very high quality product. I may very well purchase one of those beauties in the future but for now, since I have to pick and choose which props to spend money on, I save where I can. The banner I am going to show you how to make may fray over time or in the wash because that's what happens to fabric when you don't finish your seams (which includes lots of sewing time).

However, if you take care of the banner it should last you quite awhile and make a great, affordable, and fun prop to add to your collection.

A couple notes before we get started:

1) After seeing the finished product used in my photography there are a couple things I would change If I were to do it over again. I would choose only fabrics with small prints on them because the larger prints seem to be a little distracting. I would probably also switch the brown fabric out with another shade of blue, or maybe a soft green. The brown just seems to bold to me. I would also choose a ribbon that had no gloss/shine to it.

2) The adorable birthday outfit set was purchased from Fuzzy Cheeks Boutique.

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Okay let's get started.

Supplies:

- An assortment of fabrics. I chose to do three flags of three different fabrics (total of 9 flags) but you could choose nine different fabrics if you wanted, or do something in between. If you do three fabrics like I did, a half yard of each will be plenty. If you do nine different fabrics the little pre-cut portions (I think they're called fabric quarters) would easily be enough for one or two flags.

- Fabric scissors

- A ruler

- Fabric chalk or normal chalk

- A piece of paper

- A roll of 1 inch wide ribbon (that coordinates with your fabric)

- A hot glue gun

Steps:

Well there you have it. I hope some of you will have fun trying this out and making yourself an adorable pennant banner! I would love to see any photos if you do try it out! Let me know if there are any questions.

Winner! Baby & Me Boutique Headband Giveaway

2012-02-01T19:10:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Baby & Me Boutique Headband giveaway! The lucky winner is. . .

Jasmine. Congrats Jasmine! Email me which headband and size you would like (frameworthyshot@gmail.com) and don't forget to include your mailing adress :)

Free 11x14 Storyboard Template (and some exciting things to come. . .)

2012-01-29T01:37:00.000-08:00

I love this storyboard! Clients get so excited when I show them something unique like this that they can display and show off in their home. This is a personal favorite so I hope some of you will enjoy it as much as I do :) You can download it here.

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Okay now on to that exciting news. . . I have started organizing a giveaway extravaganza! One event, three HUMONGOUS prizes, tons of fabulous vendors, and lots of fun! I've already had so many really exciting vendors jump on board, including the fabulous Wild Sorbet (see post below this one). I am only inviting companies that I love, most of which I am already a loyal customer to so these are going to be some fabulous prizes. The giveaway will begin March 1st so mark your calendars!

Free Blog Board/Web Board Templates

2012-01-26T15:07:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how long it can take to blog your sessions. Using blog boards helps to streamline the process for me and it also makes things look nice and tidy. My business photo blog is 900 pixels wide so I typically build my blog boards to be 900 pixels wide that way I can choose the "original size" option once the photo is inserted into my blog post. You can see my blog here.

If you are planning to use these blog boards on your website I would resize it to fit your blog before you insert any photos. These blog boards are very easy to use, just insert your photo above the shape layer and click ctr+alt+g. Enjoy!

Blog Board 1

click here to download blog board 1

Blog Board 2

click here to download blog board 2

Blog Board 3

click here to download blog board 3

Taking Your Own Family Pictures

2012-01-25T11:21:00.000-08:00

I am being featured over at Inspired by Family Magazine today! I hope you'll stop by and check out my article on taking your own family portaits. Hope you're all having a fabulous Wednesday :)

Family Portraits: What to Wear

2012-01-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

When planning family portraits, wardrobes play a huge role in the final outcome! And any of you who have had the joy of trying to coordinate outfits for your whole family know just how challenging that can be. Here's what I tell my clients to help them prepare for their session:

Please plan outfits carefully. Solid colors are great (and slimming). Layering and texture are essential for adding visual interest. Be careful with busy prints (they can look good but must be planned carefully) and avoid tees with large logos or words on them. Choose colors that coordinate and compliment each other, but do not match exactly.

The layering on the dad and little guy here are perfect, they have tons of visual interest. I usually recommend a solid color, especially for mom, but this particular mom is thin and pulls off the print very nicely. It adds visual interest since the other family members are wearing solids.

Accessorize!!! Add a scarf, a cardigan, a blazer, an awesome necklace, and more. Adding lots of accessories and pops of color is great. Choosing one color to be your accent color and adding it here and there can be fun. An outfit that looks great in person can look boring in photos if there is no accessorizing.
Think about your outfits well in advance so you can buy additional things if needed.

I loved this family's choice of color palette, bright and beautiful, bold summer colors. The print looks great on dad and there is some layering there. The solid color looks fabulous on mom and I love the texture on her top as well as the texture of the ruffles on the little one's dress.

Some great color palates are yellow and gray or earthy neutral tones like brown and beige with pops of color like purple or pink for example. Sometimes really bright, fun colors can make an awesome color palate. You may want to consider the season your photos will be taking place in (but you don’t have to!) and definitely consider which colors look good on you.

This is from my family's most recent photo session. It was Fall so I loved the earthy tones for our color palette. Getting both the boys outfits from Gymboree made it easy because they have coordinating lines. I went for a solid color for both me and the hubby to slim and balance the kiddo's outfits that were a little on the busier side. I made sure to add a great necklace to my outfit, accessorizing is important for photos.

I've put together a pinterest board with some great outfit inspiration that I also share with my clients, so you can stop by for more ideas. http://pinterest.com/jilltirrell/outfit-inspiration-for-portraits/

Hope this helps!

Giveaway Winner- My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software

2012-01-18T12:35:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everyone who participated in the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software giveaway! The lucky winner is. . .

Number 16, Inspire Me Heather

Congrats Heather, you've got an awesome prize coming your way! Please shoot me an email at frameworthyshot@gmail.com so I can get your prize to you.

Complete Newborn Edit Tutorial

2012-01-09T00:32:00.000-08:00

This tutorial is for all of you new photographers who are still trying to get your newborn editing skills where you want them. I use some purchased actions in my editing, but I can say without a doubt that those actions have been one of the best investments I've made for my business. I know how to do all these things myself BUT not as well and not as efficiently. The companies that sell their actions are (usually) photoshop geniuses and having that kind of skill available to use on my work has helped set me apart from all other photographers in my city!

Okay here goes, a complete newborn edit:

I always shoot in RAW. It's amazing. When you shoot in RAW Photoshop will automatically open your image in Photoshop Camera Raw, where you can make improvements in a snap. You can often even save underexposed or overexposed photos if you've shot in RAW. So the first thing I do is make adjustments in Photoshop Camera Raw.

Here are the things I always check for and often tweak in this step:

- color balance (My photos often have a little too much red, so I move the slider towards the cyan side a little and voila, much better!)

- exposure (Very important! This depends on your style. I like bright photos so I typically brighten until I start to see hot spots then I take it back down to that level just before they showed up.)

- temperature (Would it look better if it were a bit warmer?)

- I usually raise the black a little

- I often up the clarity a little

- Sometimes fill light if my shadows are too heavy

Most photos don't need all of those edits. In this photo, for example, all I did was adjust the color balance a bit, raise the blacks to +6 and raise the clarity to +3. And then we have this to work with:

Okay now that we are in photoshop I run two of my favorite actions. The first is classic color from the Florabella Classic Workflow Collection. The second is creamy and smooth skin from Paint the Moon's Picture Perfect Portrait Mega Set. Skin smoothing is essential for newborn portraits to look professional! And now we're here:

My next step was to sharpen her eyes with the sharpen tool. I also used the patch tool to get rid of a little cut on her cheek. I then decided there was still a little too much red in her skin. There are two ways you can fix that. You can either lower the saturation of the reds by going to hue/saturation in the image menu under adjustments. You would then select reds in the drop down menu and lower the saturation to your liking, sometimes raising the brightness too. The other option is in the same menu, but instead you would select color balance and just move the red slider towards the cyan side until you like your result. In this case I went the saturation route. You can also create a layer mask if you want the changes to be made only to baby's skin and not the rest of the photo. In this case that wasn't necessary.

My last step with any photo is usually using my Boost action from Pioneer Woman (this one is free)! I rarely leave it at 100% opacity, this time I lowered it to 20%. I know you can do the same thing using curves, but I am yet to become an expert at curves.

I hope that was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions for me! Happy editing :)

Boutique Headband Giveaway with Baby & Me Boutique

2012-01-04T23:21:00.000-08:00

So you all already know that I stay busy with my two little guys and being a professional photographer, but you may not know that I also design and sell photo props and headbands.

Almost all of the headbands in my shop are interchangeable. This is great for photographers as well as moms. A couple different headbands can combine in many different combinations.

In addition to Baby & Me Boutique, I have another shop, Baby & Me Crochet Patterns. You can find all of my crochet patterns there.

Want to win the headband of your choice?

Mandatory entry:

- Like Frame Worthy Shot on Facebook

Optional extra entries:

- Like Sweet Confections Photography on Facebook

- Follow Frame Worthy Shot on Twitter

- Join the Frame Worthy Shot Flikr group

- Subscribe to Frame Worthy Shot by email

- Blog about this giveaway (5 entries)

- Display the Frame Worthy Shot button on your blog (3 entries)

This giveaway will end on Wednesday January 31st at 11:59 PST. Thanks for entering!

Free 11x14 Storyboard Template

2012-01-01T23:21:00.000-08:00

I love this storyboard template. It's always a huge hit with my clients and it looks great framed. Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions about how to use it. You can download it here.

Giveaway! My Memories Digital Scrapbooking Software

2011-12-30T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have had the joy of getting to review My Memories Suite, an awesome new digital scrapbooking program. I was never very good at traditional scrapbooking so the idea of digital scrapbooking really appealed to me.

When I was pregnant with my first son I started trying out digital scrapbooking. I started using photoshop. Now I spend HOURS every week editing photos in photoshop so I know my way around, but if you don't let me just say that Photoshop is not very user-friendly. It's also very expensive as most of you probably know. What I didn't like about using Photoshop for digital scrapbooking is of course they don't have any backgrounds or embellishments for you to use so I had to download each and every element I wanted to use from the internet, whether it was a free one I found or one I had to pay for, I got sick of having to go out and find things to use for all of my pages.

Next I went out and bought a digital scrapbooking program from the store. It was alright but after awhile I got sick of the papers and embellishments they had to offer. Eventually I gave up and I now have almost two years of catching up to do!

Enter My Memories Suite. It comes with a HUGE selection of papers and embellishments. It would take you a long time to get tired of their selection! PLUS you can use things you have downloaded from other places AND they are always adding more papers, embellishments, and packs that you can purchase as add-ons at really great prices. Also awesome is that every text you have on your computer is available to use in My Memories Suite! And let me just say that if you haven't ever visited Fonts for Peas, Dafont, or Font Squirel they are all great places to download free fonts.

And it really couldn't be easier to use! Here's a page I designed using one of the My Memories templates. It's really easy to use and customize. I changed the shapes of the photo boxes to meet the needs of my photos and also added an extra photo. It's so intuitive and easy to use I never read any instructions, just started creating! This was my first time using the software and I made that page in close to 5 minutes. Since then I've figured out how to do even more.

The next page I made from scratch (no template). I LOVE it! Each background comes in a ton of different colors so I chose one that coordinated with the colors in my photos. Then I used the eye dropper tool to match my photo mats to the accent color in the paper. Added some text and embellishments and voila! Probably around 5 minutes again. Suddenly playing two years of catch up doesn't seem so impossible.

The project possibilities are truly endless, it doesn't stop with digital scrapbooking. You could design tons of crafty things in My Memories: banners and things for parties, printables, and so much more! I designed a storyboard for one of my clients using one of the My Memories templates so it took my 2 minutes instead of the 15 it would have taken me to create one of my own in photoshop. And look how cute it is! The client ended up ordering one of each kiddo to display in their room AND wants a really large one using the family photos for the living room..

discount code

My Memories Suite is very reasonably priced and I mean shockingly reasonable! To make things better they have given me a discount code to share with all of you! This code will get you $10 off your purchase of the My Memories Suite software. It also gives you a $10 credit to use on all the awesome extra downloads I mentioned. (Total value of $20!)

STMMMS10274

giveaway

mandatory:
- Stop by My Memories and look around. Then come back here and tell me what your favorite digital scrapbooking kit was or what has you most excited about My Memories.

optional extra entries:
1) Blog about this giveaway (3 entries)
2) Share this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter (1 entry each)
3) Follow the My Memories blog (1 entry)
4) Like My Memories on Facebook (1 entry)
5) Follow My Memories on Twitter (1 entry)
6) Display the Frame Worthy Shot button on your blog (3 entries)
7) Follow Frame Worthy Shot on RSS or GFC, Facebook, Twitter, join our Flikr group, or subscribe via email (1 entry each)

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This giveaway will run until Thursday January 12th. Be sure to leave a seperate comment for each entry. Thanks for participating!

Free 8x8 Storybook Album Template

2011-12-23T19:02:00.000-08:00

This simple and elegant album is easy to customize by switching out colors. It is formated to an 8x8 lay flat press book from Millers but could easily be changed for other labs and other sizes of square albums. Download the album templates here.

My Favorite Actions

2011-12-19T00:49:00.000-08:00

Okay I want to start this post by saying that I paid for all of these actions so I have no reason to give a biased review. I have purchased A LOT of action packs. Some were better investements than others. So here you have it my favorite and most used actions. . .

Number 1:
Sparkle Eyes from Paint the Moon's Miracle Makeover. I LOVE this action. I use it on pretty much every picture I edit. It is seriously awesome. It made this action set more than worth the investment. I also occasionally use the make my skin perfect, healthy smile, and kissy lips actions.

Number 2:
Classic Color from the Florabella Classic Workflow Collection. I'll be honest, this set was pretty spendy and I rarely use any actions in the set other than this one. . . BUT I have used it in almost every picture I've edited since purchasing the set so I deem the set worth purchasing! It really is a one click edit kind of action, pretty awesome!

Number 3:
Boost from Pioneer Woman. I use this action pretty often and what's really great about it, is it's free!

Number 4:
There are two actions that I use pretty frequently from Paint the Moon's Picture Perfect Portrait Mega Set. The first is baby powder for toning down hot spots, such a necessity! The second is the creamy and smooth skin, great for babies! Of all the sets I have purchased this is probably the one with the most actions that I actually use. In addition to many "essentials" it's got several fun actions that add great effects.

Number 5:
My favorite black and white action is B/W Mink from Florabella Luxe Collection. My second favorite black and white would probably be Machiatto from Paint the Moon's Coffee Shop Set. It doesn't look good on all images, but when it does it's gorgeous!

Learning to Shoot in Manual Mode- Lesson 4 (Putting it all together)

2011-12-17T23:39:00.000-08:00

Okay we've gotten through the technical stuff, so now we've arrived at the fun part. . . actually doing it! And just in time for Christmas so you can get some great family shots. You'll want to make sure you're good and ready for this post by reading the last three posts in the series carefully and commenting with any questions.

When you are shooting in manual mode and you look through your viewfinder, you will see something like this at the bottom:

This is your meter. Your camera tells you how it thinks your image will be exposed based on your current settings, the zero being correctly exposed.

For me, I usually keep my ISO around 200 unless I find myself needing to raise it (which you may need to do more often if you don't have a lens with the ability of a wide aperture setting like 2.8 or lower). When I'm going to compose an image I choose what I want my aperture setting to be based on what depth of field I'm looking for. I usually shoot between 1.4 and 2.8 unless I'm doing groups of people who aren't on the same plane.

Once I've got my aperture setting where I want it I look through my viewfinder and see what my camera tells me. I adjust my shutter speed however I need to get my meter (as seen in the picture above) at the zero. If my shutter speed falls too low I will raise my ISO or open my aperture more so I don't risk blur. If the shutter speed is acceptable I go ahead and take a shot.

The next, very important step, is to look at the image and see what you think. Your camera can very often be fooled by lighting and backgrounds so you may need to adjust your shutter speed (or one of the other settings if you would like) and try the shot again.

And that's pretty much it. Sounds so easy now, huh? Well give it a try and start playing around. It's all about practice. And of course comment here with any questions.

Things to remember:

- Always set your white balance. So important!

- Use spot metering when shooting people. I talked more about that in one of the previous posts so look back if you don't remember.

Thanks for reading, I hope to see some pictures and hear some success stories!!!

Learning to Shoot in Manual Mode- Lesson 3 (shutter speed)

2011-12-12T01:18:00.000-08:00

The final element you must consider when adjusting your settings for correct exposure in manual mode is shutter speed. Shutter speed is pretty easy to understand, but it's very important! As we learned last week, the aperture determines how much light can get into the camera. Well the shutter speed determines how long your camera will have to collect all that light. The longer the shutter is open, the more time it has to collect light. This is why your shutter speed usually has to be lower (slower) when you are shooting in low light situations.

So the lower your number, the slower your shutter speed. This means you'll be able to get more light into your camera BUT slow shutter speeds can cause blur. When your shutter is open it is recording the image. If your shutter speed is open for too long it will register movement which will cause a blurry photo. Let's face it, you can't hold the camera perfectly still and when shooting people, they often can't hold perfectly still either.

If your subject is holding still and you hold your camera as steady as you can, many photographers are able to shoot at a shutter speed of 30. I'll be honest, I don't have the steadiest of hands so I prefer to be at at least 50. A good way around this problem is to use a tripod. You can get away with much lower shutter speeds when using a tripod.

Here's what happens when you shoot with a slow shutter speed:

I was outside and starting to lose sunlight. My shutter speed was around 20, maybe even a little slower. I had my ISO very low so all I needed to do in this case was crank up the ISO from 200 to 600 or so and I would have been able to raise my shutter speed.

Now if you are shooting a moving subject (ie. children) your shutter speed needs to be in a whole different range. With a moving subject it's best to be around 160 or higher. Granted, most children aren't always moving so you could probably shoot around 100 or 120 and get a majority of crisp images (depending on the child of course). But if your subject is really moving you're going to want to be around 200 or higher.

SIDE NOTE: Keep in mind that if your subject is moving towards or away from you (rather than across your screen) you can run into focus issues that can also cause blur. That's where continuous focus can be helpful. Here's a good explanation of the different focus modes on Nikons. It is different for Canon users so if you shoot with a Canon you may want to run a google search on focus modes for Canon. The article I linked gives a great explanation of the modes, but you may want to search on youtube or google for how to change the setting on your particular camera.

A sharp image:

See how crisp and sharp this little guy's eyes are? His eyes were my focus point (as should always be the case when shooting people). You'll notice his little body and the blanket become blurry but that is because I am shooting with an aperture setting of 1.4 and am very close to my subject. I'm hoping you remember from our last lesson that that will give me a very shallow depth of field. (ie. his face is in sharp focus but things on a different plane become quite blurry).

Shutter speed is usually my most variable setting. It's the one that I usually change through a session as I need. However, I keep an eye on it. If it starts to creep down past 50 (higher if my subjects are really on the move) I increase my ISO enough that I can raise my shutter speed. I don't like cranking my ISO up too high when I'm doing a professional shoot BUT it is much better to have a grainy image than a blurry one, so sometimes you've got to do it. However, if you ever find yourself having to go above ISO 800 for a print that the family may want enlarged (or much above 1600 in any case) you should probably invest in a better lens that will allow you to open your aperture wider, getting more light and allowing you to lower your ISO and/or raise your shutter speed.

I hope all of that made sense. Our next lesson will be how to actually put it all together and actually shoot in manual mode! Comment here with any questions!

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Homework: I bet you've guessed it already! Head on over to youtube and find out how to change your shutter speed. You don't have to take any photos yet (although you're more than welcome to if you're feeling brave) but I do want you to practice changing all of the three settings we've gone over.

Learning to Shoot in Manual Mode- Lesson 2 (Aperture)

2011-12-06T23:50:00.000-08:00

Alright it's time to dive into the second aspect of shooting in manual: aperture. What you set your aperture to makes a huge difference in how your photo will look. I almost always determine what my aperture setting is going to be first before deciding any other settings.

Once again I am going to keep this as simple as I can so I can give you everything you need to know to shoot in manual mode without overloading you with every technical detail. Basically the aperture is a device in your camera that can be opened wider to let in more light or closed tighter to let in less light. Here's the thing that is a little confusing about aperture: the lower the number, the larger your aperture, which seems counter intuitive, but once you accept that fact it's not so bad. So an aperture setting of f1.4 means your aperture is open very wide (that's almost as wide as you can ever go) where as an aperture setting of f16 means your aperture is closed down pretty narrow. You may have noticed there's always an f in front of the aperture setting.

Keep in mind there are tons of choices between the two on my chart above. Here are some rules of thumb I use:

If I'm shooting one subject (or two subjects on the same plane) I often shoot wide open around f1.4. (Exceptions to that coming later in this post).

If I'm doing a family or group where subjects are going to be in two rows (on different planes) I usually shoot between f4 and f8 and I always focus on the front subject.

If I am shooting a large group with three rows or more I'll shoot at at least f12 or f13. It's always a good idea to take a picture and then zoom in and look at everyone's faces at 100% to make sure they are all in focus. If not, increase your aperture setting.

This photo is a good demonstration for keeping your subjects on the same plane. I was shooting wide open here at f1.4. My boys were actually sitting right next to each other so they were on the same plane when I was standing directly in front of them, but then two things happened.

First I moved to the side and you notice my oldest son became much closer to the camera than my younger. He also leaned forward at the moment which made it even worse. You can notice I was focused on my youngest son and that worked fine until I moved, putting them on different planes and also my son lunged forward, putting himself even closer to the camera.

Now you could close down your aperture a little more to compensate for this, but in this case, I was shooting in low light (a hotel room) so I needed the extra light of the wide open aperture. In that case I just needed to stay directly in front of them to keep them on the same plane and thus in focus.

How do you choose an aperture setting?

Your first question should be, am I shooting in low light? If the answer is yes, then some of your creative freedom is going to be taken from you as you may be forced to open your aperture up to get enough light, as I did with the photo above. When I'm shooting in low light I usually open my aperture all the way up.

If you have enough light (you are outside, right by a large window, have really really good lighting in your house, or have studio lighting) you have the freedom to choose your aperture based on what you would like your depth of field to be. (again, shallow depth of field that comes from wide open aperture = blurry background)

Wide open aperture of f1.4 = shallow depth of field/blurry background

Small aperture opening of f16 = deep depth of field/everything in the photo is in focus (the subject is still more in focus than the background but for the most part it looks in focus).

As I mentioned earlier I often like shooting with my aperture wide open. But there are exceptions to that and that's because there is one other thing besides aperture setting, that effects depth of field. Don't worry, it's nothing too complicated. Basically, the closer you are to your subject, the shallower your depth of field will be.

Both of these images were taken with an aperture setting of f1.4, I just moved farther away from the cake pops in the second photo. Notice how much more in focus the back cake pops are when I moved back a bit? In the first photo the depth of field is so shallow only one cake pop is in focus and the rest are pretty blurry.

Lenses

The lens that came with your camera body probably only lets you open your aperture as wide as around 3.5. Lenses that open really wide (letting you get creamy blurred out background as well as shoot in low light situations) cost a pretty penny, but can be worth it if you're serious about wanting to be able to shoot indoors without using that dreaded flash.

One of my favorite lenses is a Nikon 85 mm f1.4 (the aperture opens all the way up to 1.4). Another, much less expensive, favorite is a Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 (the aperture opens up to 2.8). Note that if a lens gives a range for it's aperture (for example a 18-105 mm f3.5-5.6) that means as you zoom in your aperture will not be able to open as wide. It can open to 3.5 at 18mm, but only to 5.6 at 105mm.

Homework

You guessed it, go to youtube and search for "how to change the aperture setting on (insert your camera model here)" Watch the video and practice changing the aperture up down and all around. While you're at it, go back and refresh your memory on changing your ISO too.

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Okay so you may have noticed that aperture is a bit more complicated than ISO. If you have any questions leave them here in the comments and I'll do a follow up Q&A post before I jump into shutter speed. If it's making sense to you then go celebrate because aperture is the most complicated of the three elements to grasp (in my opinion anyways).

Free Senior Announcement Template

2011-12-05T13:08:00.000-08:00

I put this senior announcement together this year and it has been an absolute favorite for my senior guys. Since the time for senior announcements is approaching I thought I would share. It is a 5x7 flat double sided card. I made it using Millers design specs but I think for a 5x7 flat card it should be the same for other labs.

Fonts used:
Pea Hillary Marie (free download)
Pecita (free download)
Charlemagne Std (this is an Adobe font so you should already have it available in Photoshop. If you don't I would just change it to a similar font because it is not free to download.)

Click here to download the front

and here to download the back

Reflective Christmas Lights How To

2011-12-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

I had a question about creating this photo. . .

Ask and ye shall receive :)

The bad news is you really do need to know how to shoot in manual mode to get this photo. The good news is I'll try and finish up the manual mode series before Christmas so those of you following it can come back and try this out after we're done.

But for those of you who already know how to shoot in manual, here we go.

The reflective surface is just hardwood floor in my living room. If you don't have any hardwood floor there are a couple things you can do. The first is you can buy a pack of laminate floor from home depot for less than $20. Snap it together in just a few minutes and you've got a little platform for your little one to sit on. The other option is to buy a piece of plexiglass (also at Home Depot). The plexiglass will look different, because it will only be as dark as your carpet, but it should still reflect the lights. The lights I used have a green strand and were 100 light icicle lights, but I'm sure any lights would look good!

This photo needs to be taken in the evening or in a room where you can shut the blinds because you don't want much extra light. You don't want it to be pitch dark, but you don't want any noticeable light coming from any one place and you want it to dark enough that the Christmas lights appear to be the only light source.

You don't want your little one sitting too close to the wall because the farther away from the wall they are the darker and less noticeable the wall will be.

Set your white balance to incandescent.

Aperture

Now before you get your little one in place you'll want to set your aperture setting and make a guess on ISO setting. For aperture it's simple, you want it to be as wide open as your lens will let you go. I was using pretty pricey lens that lets me open up to 1.4. Although I took this picture at ISO 1400 I actually could have gone down to somewhere around 800 with such a wide open aperture. If your lens opens to 2.8 you may want your ISO at 1600. You may be able to go lower depending just how light your room is, how good you are at holding your camera steady, and how still your little one is.

Most lenses that come with your camera only open up to around 3.5, and even that is only possible when you are zoomed out. My advice is to zoom in only as far as you can without your lens closing in any more than that. Then move yourself closer instead of zooming in.

ISO

To make things simpler I am going to advise you to set your ISO to 1600. Now what you're going to do it is put your little one down and place the lights around him or her. You'll now mess with shutter speed until you get the look you want. The nice thing is your little one will likely be perfectly content to sit there and play with the lights for at least a few minutes while you work on getting the perfect shot.

SAFETY NOTE: I've seen a lot of photos where little ones have the lights in their mouth. If you feel comfortable doing that, go for it, but I'm personally not going to recommend letting your little one put the lights in their mouth just to air on the side of caution.

Okay getting on with things.

You will need to have your camera set to spot metering. As always, if you don't know how to change that setting on your camera, I recommend looking it up on youtube.

You'll want the photo to be taken when baby is looking down at the lights so their face is lit up, but you can feel free to practice even while they are looking up.

Shutter Speed

For shutter speed I always start by adjusting it to where my camera's meter tells me to. For this photo I wanted the lights to be exposed correctly and the rest of the photo to be kind of dark (which is why we need to be using spot metering). I aimed my focus point at the lights and adjusted my shutter speed to where my camera directed me. Once I got that set I aimed at my little one's eye (as always) and took a shot.

After you take that first shot it's just a matter of looking at the photo and deciding if you want it darker or lighter. If you want the photo darker, make your shutter speed faster (larger number). If you want to make your photo lighter, make your shutter speed slower (smaller number). Remember that their face will only be lit up if they are looking down at the lights. Keep adjusting and checking out the photo until it is just how you want it. I took several photos until I got the exposure how I wanted it.

If your shutter speed is below 30 you will need to keep cranking up the ISO until you can get a faster shutter speed. If your shutter speed is 30 or above and you've still got a blurry photo you can do a couple things. Try to hold your camera very steady (check out this tutorial for holding your camera properly) or use a tripod, chair, box, or anything you can sit your camera on. You'll also want to push the trigger button very gingerly as that can shake the camera too.

Of course when your shutter speed is slow and your little one is moving the photo will still be blurry no matter how still you are. You can either take a whole bunch and assume that he or she will be still in at least one of them, or you can keep cranking up the ISO until you can get a descent shutter speed. The last option is to take the photo a little darker than you like and brighten it up a little in post-processing.

If you are lucky enough to have a lens that opens to a wide aperture setting you shouldn't have much problem here, but many people only have the lens that comes with their camera (and understandable so, those things are expensive). If you are going to invest in a new lens don't be afraid of the generics or used lenses. I have some Nikon lenses and some Tamron lenses, some used, some not used, and I haven't had any problems with any of them.

Post Processing

In post processing you will probably want to reduce the grain a little. I think this photo looks good with some grain, but I always reduce grain a little. You can also tweak your exposure, temperature, and anything else until you've got it just how you want it.

I always recommend shooting in RAW because editing is a beautiful thing when you shoot in RAW! I love Adobe RAW (which automatically launches when you open a RAW image with Photoshop). If you don't have a program that can open RAW images then of course you wouldn't want to shoot in RAW. Although I'm pretty sure there are some free ones out there, if anyone knows of any please share with everyone else in a comment here!

Once you've got your images edited to your liking it's time to convert it to a black and white. You can do this really simply in any photo editing program. If you have Lightroom, I like this tutorial for getting great black and white images. If you don't have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, I love picnik.com because it's very user friendly and has tons of options for editing.

And there you have it! Comment if you have any questions.

Learning to Shoot in Manual Mode- Lesson 1 (ISO)

2011-12-03T23:37:00.000-08:00

Alright folks, there's a lot of technical information that goes into achieving correct exposure (getting an image that is neither too bright {overexposed} nor too dark {underexposed} but is just right). It is actually much simpler to shoot in manual than many people think and we'll get to that in our final lesson of the series, but first it's important to have a basic understanding of the settings you will be changing.

There are three settings that go into achieving correct exposure and here they all in all their glory:

ISO
shutter speed
aperture

I am going to post one lesson for each and then we'll have a lesson that puts it all together and explains how to actually shoot in manual mode. And I'm going to try and make these lessons as basic and easy to understand as I can.

ISO

Simply put, your ISO setting will determine how much grain is in your photo. You have to zoom in to see the grain, so here we go.

The first photo was taken at ISO 1200. The second was taken at ISO 200. In other words, the higher your ISO setting the more grain you will have in your image. When images have a lot of grain photographers often convert them into a black and white image because black and white images pull off high amounts of grain better than color images do.

So why would you ever shoot with high ISO? With the exception of adding grain for artistic effect, the only reason you will ever crank up your ISO is because you are shooting in a low light setting and you need to increase your ISO so you can get a properly exposed image that isn't blurry. That cause and effect will make more sense once we've gone over all of the lessons in the series, but it's important to know why and when ISO needs to be increased.

KEY CONCEPT: Low light (inside your home) = crank up your ISO
Plenty of light (outside in the daytime) = keep your ISO low

When I'm shooting inside my house my ISO is usually anywhere between 600-1600. Of course if you can find a big window to shoot by you won't need to raise the ISO nearly as much. When I am shooting in daylight I usually keep my ISO between 100-200.

Now if you would like the option of printing a nice enlargement of your image you should try to keep your ISO down around 200, but how often do we really need that? (Well unless you are a professional photographer). My point? Don't be afraid to raise your ISO, even up as high as 1600 if you need to. It's better to have a grainy image than a blurry one! And like I mentioned before, if it's too grainy, make it a black and white. I love black and white candids of my kids, they're my favorite.

Don't get me wrong there's no reason to raise your ISO higher than you need to, but sometimes it's necessary, especially inside most homes. This is part of the reason it's so much easier to shoot outdoors.

Start Thinking about How It Goes Together

The fourth and final lesson of this series will go into putting the three components together but I want you to start thinking about the relationship now. Put simply, it's a balancing game. Your camera needs a certain amount of light. ISO, shutter speed, and aperture setting all help determine how your camera will get the light it needs.

Lets go over a scenario real quick. You take a perfectly exposed picture. That means you have balanced your settings correctly. Then you decide that you want to change your aperture setting. No problem, you can do that. You will just need to then change either shutter speed or ISO to compensate for that change, because again, they have to stay balanced.

This will all make sense and you will see in the final lesson that your camera helps you make these choices (yes, even in manual mode) so you don't have to just start shooting in the dark. I just want you to start thinking about how they are all interrelated.

That triangle won't all make sense to you just yet, but it will once I'm done with you :)

Homework

Switch your camera into manual mode (scary, I know). Go to youtube and search "how to change the ISO on a [insert the name of your camera here]." Watch the video and experiment with changing your ISO. You don't actually need to take any pictures since we're still missing two pieces to the puzzle, I just want you to know how to change your ISO setting.

If you would rather you can also look up that information in your camera manual.

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And that's it, ISO in a nutshell. I hope this made some sense. Please comment with any questions.

What's Coming

2011-12-03T01:04:00.000-08:00

Although this blog is eventually going to be more geared towards professional photographers, I want to include useful information for everyone, especially during this transition time where most of my readers are not professional photographers.

What does that mean for you?

My first task it going to be to teach you all to shoot in manual mode! I hope you're excited because this is fun stuff. This is going to take 4-5 lessons/posts but stay with me because it will be worth it!

I had planned on writing the first lesson tonight but I ended up working on some pages and other technical blog stuff to get this thing all up and going. It's gotta be done.

But in the next couple days lesson one will be arriving so keep your eyes peeled :)

Frame Worthy Shot. . . Open for Business!

2011-12-01T20:12:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, I'm so excited to start blogging about what I'm passionate about. I hope many of you will find the photography information useful and interesting. I'm going to start by introducing myself and telling you about my plans for this blog.

As you probably already know, I'm Jill. This is me and my cute family.

You can probably tell by the photos of my family, I stay busy! My boys are a full time job all by themselves but I make time for my photography because I love it. It's my hobby, and lucky for me, it's also my job.

I own a portrait studio, Sweet Confections Photography. I specialize in newborns but I really do a little of everything. You can see my work at my website, my blog, or my facebook.

I am a self taught photographer and I am in no way going to claim I know everything, but I've managed to build a successful business and I want to share some of that knowledge with fellow photographers and aspiring photographers. My goal is to save other aspiring photographers some of the blood, sweat, and tears that I put in over the years.

As you can probably see from my work, I love props. I have a somewhat whimsical style. I also love photojournalistic shots, particularly with families. I love capturing that emotion, and even better, I love seeing my clients' reactions when they see those photos!

Okay here are my plans for this blog:

- digital design freebies

- posing tips

- technical stuff

- studio lighting set-ups

- finding the light when shooting outdoors

- session tips

- marketing and sales tips

- post-processing tutorials

- prop and action reviews and giveaways

- weekly photo contests

- guest photographer interviews

-question and answer

and so much more. . .

So here's your chance. . . Got photography questions? Email them to me at frameworthyshot@gmail.com. I will not have time to reply to each email individually but once I week I will choose one email to answer in detail in a blog post. So gather your questions and send them my way.

Thanks for supporting me in my new endeavor. I hope some of you will be active participators! Let's have fun!