Pioneer Woman Photography - Ree Drummond

What To Do at Night?

Ree Drummond — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:13:57 +0000

This is a question I get often.

What do I do when I have to shoot in the gym and what do I do at the football field at night?

Last week I had the opportunity to shoot outside in the dark at a flag football game in the Windy City.

Under the lights.

With the L clickity clacking by every five minutes.

And the wind that was blowing was a warm one.

And Emma was there.

It was a great night.

I had the perfect opportunity to experiment and see what I felt would work best.

Here’s what I discovered:

Give your flash a try.

(But read your manual first. I did not and I was pushing buttons in my menu willy-nilly. It shows.)

Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Flash: On, Return not detected

If I got a nice shot with the flash on, it was just luck!

But for heavens sake, if you know how to use your flash, use it with wild abandon at night.

Why not?

If you are not happy with your camera’s flash or do not know how to use it, bump up your ISO.

In the days of film, you would have gone to the store and bought some 1000 ISO film. Now, you just change your camera’s settings.

Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/2.0
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Flash: No Flash

Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 2000
Flash: No Flash

It is all about the ISO.

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 2000

I have my camera on spot metering and my camera is pointing right on her face.

“Find the light, Katie,” I shouted.

And she did.

As winter approaches here in the Northern Hemisphere, the time I have with my Katie during daylight hours is very short.

Never fear, I say. Higher ISO’s are here to save the day!

Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture: f/1.4
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 1000

This is just window light at four in the afternoon. I’m so happy I gave it a try, I love the light in this picture.

I am feeling more and more confident to move that ISO button on my camera.

What’s the worst that can happen?

Give it a whirl!

Encourage one another,
Donna

Layer Mask Tutorial

Ree Drummond — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:43:38 +0000

By Jodi Friedman of MCP Actions (Thank you, Jodi! This is an awesome tutorial. -PW)

Do the words “adjustment layer” or “layer masks” scare you?

If so this is a MUST Watch, Must Share, and Must Bookmark video tutorial.

Here are some notes to help you along:

- White Reveals (shows)

- Black Conceals (hides)

- Use a “airbrush soft round” to paint (change the hardness as you get close to subject if you can see halo or marks but never go to 100% hardness)

- Make sure your layer mask is selected (has a box outlined around it)

- Change the opacity of the brush as needed for more control – I often work with a low opacity brush and let the effect build.

- Shortcuts used “[ or ]” – the left bracket makes brush smaller and right bracket makes the brush bigger

- D puts default colors as swatches (white foreground/black background) – X swaps these two.

Link to the video:

Layer Mask Video Tutorial by Jodi

Reverse Photoshop Tutorial

Ree Drummond — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:40:20 +0000

This is how I roll: I remember seeing something somewhere sometime somecentury about the problem I’m about to show you, but I’m too lazy, too tired, too busy, and too chubby to dig to the necessary depths to find out the answer and the solution.

Will you help me?

Can you help me?

What is that? The curious white halo surrounding the silhouettes in my photo of an icy blue morning last week?

Here’s a closer look.

To be specific, my questions are:

1. What causes the halo?

2. How can I avoid the halo?

3. How can I remove the halo?

4. Why does my belly jiggle?

5. Why do I have a cowlick?

6. When will you be over with the Coffee Haagen Dazs?

Answer those six questions and you’ve got a friend for life.

Well, you’ve got a friend anyway…but the Coffee Haagen Dazs would seal the deal.

Love,
Pioneer Woman

The Open Road

Ree Drummond — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:08:35 +0000

I snapped this photo yesterday on my way to a remote set of pens, where Marlboro Man and crew would gather 200-plus pairs, sort off the bigger calves, and ship them to a new home. The sky was brilliant—orange and pink and bright—and a light rain the night before made the pavement glisten with the colors of the sky.

I was late to the pens. I just had to stop and take this in. And afterward, I could have fiddled with the photo more, lightening the road and making it more visible. But I wanted to leave it close to how I saw it.

Here’s a high-resolution download for you. Print, use as your desktop background, or share with a buddy who likes sunrises—whatever your heart desires!

Sunrises are meant to be shared.

Shutterfly Photo Book Winners

Ree Drummond — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:58:15 +0000

Wow. What a toughie!

There were so many amazingly wonderful photo book submissions, I actually fainted. Three times! And when I woke up, it was two days after I was supposed to have announced the winners. You guys are killin’ me with your creativity!

Thank you so much to Shutterfly for hosting such a wonderful giveaway—it was so great to see the different ways everyone pieced together their beautiful face photos with text. I’m blown away!

THE WINNERS

It was difficult to select one winner, as there were so many different creative approaches. But for the sake of awarding prizes…

The Grand Prize winner is:

Molly Heiser – Faces Framed – Completely original. I love it. Looked at it several times. Couldn’t get it out of my head.

Here are some spreads from her book:

Out of this world. I love it.

Congrats, Molly!

RUNNERS-UP

There are twenty runner-up prizes, too. Each of the following members win a second-place prize package from Shutterfly:

Robin M. – Portraits of Homelessness – Haunting, beautiful, exquisite photography. You’ll cry.

GingerLea – The Sweet Face I Love – A book hopelessly devoted to one beautiful little girl.

Lanette – My Picture Book Faces – Too beautiful for words.

Annmarie – Cousins – Utterly gorgeous.

Michelle Thomas – Their Faces – Michelle, you’re 100% responsible for the next baby I’m going to have. Well…not 100% responsible. Marlboro Man will have a little something to offer. But still!

Brenda E. – Face of 2009 – I love this. Chipmunks. Ducks. Sisters. Friends. Humans and Animals alike!

Kaitlynn Chritton – My Favorite Faces – Wonderful

Joey B70 – Faces2 – You’ll faint over these boys. Great black-and-white shots!

Kelly W – My Everyday Faces – Absolutely charming. Complete with Border Collie.

Sarah K – Faces of 2009 – Gorgeous portraits. Love the colors!

Tonya Poitevint – Fall Faces Through My Eyes – Lovely, beautiful colors!

Stephanie – Look Again – A great combination of children, adults, dogs, and giggling. And freckles. CUTE!

Stephanie G. – Of These I Love – Beautiful, everyday, candid moments.

Carrie Vines – Beautiful – So, so lovely.

Tina F20 – Faces – Love these! Such emotion and personality.

Rebecca Carpenter – Great Commission Camps – Black and white…and beautiful.

Keonali Hutley – Hutleys Fall 2009 – A precious and lovely family album. There’s love here!

Karen J – Family, Friends, and Others – This has some really different scenes; lovely faces. A great one!

Dustyn – Face – Lovely scenes. I enjoyed this one!

Congratulations, winner! Contact prizes@thepioneerwoman.com to claim your Shutterly prize packages.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

For fun (and for neat little prizes) I’ll be announcing some honorable mentions for this contest this Friday. Stay tuned!

Congrats, all!

Thank you, Shutterfly, for hosting this awesome contest. Everyone’s so creative!

Silly Girl Bokeh

Ree Drummond — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:02:57 +0000

I can’t really explain ‘em.

But I love ‘em.

Here’s the photo info:

Lens: 70-200 f2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
Exposure: 1/250
Aperture: 3.5
ISO: 1000 (ooops! A little high.)

You know you want to sing it with me:

How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word the means ‘Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o’-the wisp! A clown!

I just love Silly Girl Bokeh.

_______________________________

NOTE: Shutterfly winners will be announced today! It’s taken me a lot longer to pore through each Photo Book than I anticipated—there are so many good ones!

Thanks for being patient.

Flying East

Ree Drummond — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:28:55 +0000

Flying east in the evening is an experience. First, the sky outside becomes a beautiful shade of pinkish salmon.

Then you look back to the west and see this.

And seconds later, it looks like this.

I love this universe.

Then you read a magazine with your sister-in-law and find three pairs of boots you’re not cool enough to own…and suddenly it’s pitch black outside and you’re flying over Albuquerque.

Not that the flight attendant knew this when you asked him.

But that’s okay! I didn’t know North-South-East-West until I’d been married to a rancher for a few years.

Then you read an article in The Economist about falling fertility…and you’re flying over the big city closest to your ranch.

(I just can’t account for the magazines I buy when I fly. It’s a motley, unlikely mess of periodicals.)

And then you see downtown.

And you’ve never been happier to see city lights in your life.

Here’s a high-res printable download for you. I’m going to start peppering these here and there for you to do with them what you will. Enjoy!

What is Metering?

Ree Drummond — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:24:11 +0000

By Miz Booshay.

I will try my hardest to explain what I mean by metering.

I think this will be hard for some to understand and way too easy for others.

So here goes nothing!

Your camera has a little meter inside of it. It measures the light that is coming in through the lens.

You do not need to do anything to make your meter work properly if you are shooting on automatic.

If you feel daring and want to learn to shoot on manual, then you need to learn what is happening and how to control the aperture and shutter speed.

As you know, the aperture determines how wide the little blades will open when you take a picture.

Small numbers have a big opening and will let in a lot of light.

Big numbers will only open the shutter a little bit. Letting in less light.

Next, your camera has to know how long to hold its shutter open to properly expose your picture.

These two things work together.

Let’s say I am taking a picture of some leaves. I want the leaves to be in focus but I want the background to be blurry.

I go ahead and set my aperture to 1.6.

Exposure/Shutterspeed: 0.001 sec (1/1600)
Aperture: f/1.6
ISO Speed: 400

Now I have to set my shutter speed because I am shooting in manual.

In my camera is a ‘0′ and many little dashes that look a bit like a number line. When I look inside my camera this little ‘number line’ is at the bottom. I can also see more information along bottom of the picture such as shutter speed, f-stop, ISO and number of pictures left on the card.

I think this information is in a different place on a Canon.

(You can let us know in the comments where this is, please.)

Now, this is one of the hard parts to explain because we all have such different cameras.

You must line up your number line to match even with the zero.

This is done by moving a dial on the back of your camera. I move this button with my thumb.

(It is called the Main command dial on my Nikon.)

On my camera, left of the zero is slower shutter speeds and right of the zero is faster shutter speeds. To learn how this works, experiment with your camera.

(I have learned with my camera that I need to be a little bit left of the zero to expose properly.)

Each click to the left on my dial drops my shutter speed slower and slower. This means your shutter is going to stay open longer, letting in more light.

The only tricky part of leaving your shutter open longer and longer is there is a point where you will start to notice blur from movement.

If it is super bright outside, you will be moving your dial to the right causing your shutter to open and close faster, letting in less light.

Now, remember that this light meter is reading the light that is coming into your camera. My camera has three types of metering modes; Matrix, Center Weighted and Spot.

(You can look these up in your manuals)

I use Matrix and Spot.

Matrix meters the whole area you are pointing the camera at. Spot has a little beam that meters just what the center of the camera is pointing at.

I use spot metering a lot with portraits, especially when taking a back lit shot. My aim is to have a perfectly exposed face and if the background is not perfectly exposed, I am not too worried about it.

(Spot metering on her cheek.)

Exposure: 1/4000 sec
Aperture: f/1.4
ISO Speed: 640

See where it says exposure? That is the shutter speed. Don’t ask my why my ISO is on 640. Just being a dork.

The matrix mode is best for landscapes. Remember how I said I pointed at the sky and metered off the sky and then I pointed at the trees and metered off the trees. This just means I pointed the camera at the sky, looked in and moved my main command dial to be even with the zero and I took the picture.

(These were taken only a minute apart. It’s all a matter of shutterspeed/exposure)

When I said I metered off of the tree, this meant that I pointed the camera at the tree, looked into the camera and moved my main command dial to be even with the zero and I took the picture.

Because the sky was dark a different amount of light was coming into the camera thus the shutter speed was different than when I metered off of the tree.

They are partners in crime: Aperture and Shutterspeed. A mechanical teeter tooter….and wonderful balancing act.

All taking place inside your camera.

Our wonderful digital cameras can do all of this for you.

But if you want more control, you can be in charge of every little thing you do with your camera.

It’s a challenge but it is fun to be in charge and gives you creative control….and if that’s something you are interested in, why not give it a try?

Exposure/Shutterspeed: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO Speed: 800

(In this picture, I metered the sky.)

(Who’s that girl?)

I sure hope this is clear to a few of you and I have not confused you. I wish you could all come over to my house and I would show you how this works.

That would be so much easier, wouldn’t it?

Encourage one another,
Donna

Shutterfly Photo Book Contest!

Ree Drummond — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:27:04 +0000

Contest Time!

This’ll be a fun one.

First, let me show you this:

Pioneer Woman “Faces” Photobook Sharing Page on Shutterfly

It’s a sharing page I created on Shutterfly.com, where I shared a photobook I created this morning. The photo book is filled with my favorite FACES—shots of my children over the past three or four years, shots of cowboys, my husband, dogs, birds, and cows. Faces are what I love best, after all, and it was the best theme I could imagine for a photo book contest!

Here’s a peek at one of the spreads (click on the spread to see the whole book!)

I love faces.

I loved making this photo book.

And I’m having a contest!

DETAILS

This week, I invite you to create a “Faces” photobook on Shutterfly (totally free), then upload it to my Pioneer Woman “Faces” Photobook Sharing Page. I’ll be reviewing each and every photo book myself, and will be awarding some great prizes!

HOW-TO

1. Sign up for a Shutterfly account (absolutely free, of course) if you don’t already have one.

2. Click here to select the size of Photo Book you’d like to create.

3. Click “Go Get Pictures” to create an album and load the photos you want.

4. Follow the steps to complete the photo book—the instructions really walk you through it. They’re very intuitive!

5. Once your photo book is completed, go to my Pioneer Woman “Faces” Photobook Sharing Page and share your photo book there.

6. Next Monday, November 9, I will announce one (1) grand prize winner and twenty (20) runners-up. I will also be awarding several “Honorable Mention” prizes.

THE PRIZES

Grand Prize – One winner will be awarded the following package:

1 Digital Camera
2 7×9 Photo Books
25 Greeting Cards
25 Stationary Cards
1 Calendar

Runner-Up Prizes – Twenty winners will be awarded the following package:

2 7×9 Photo Books
25 Greeting Cards
25 Stationary Cards
1 Calendar

Honorable Mentions – SURPRISE!

In addition to Shutterfly’s prizes, I’ll be awarding ten Honorable Mentions for fun, wacky categories.

This’ll be fun!

And I’m sorry, but I have to show you another spread:

Look at that baby on the left!

I can’t believe how much he’s changed.

__________________________

Thank you, Shutterfly, for sponsoring such a great contest!

Rounded Corner Winners

Ree Drummond — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:12:02 +0000

“Winner” is a relative term. There’s no way I could possibly honor all the wonderful submissions for the Rounded Corner assignment!

So I’ll just do a hail Mary, select three that made me swoon, and hope you all realize how much I’ve loved looking at your beautiful photos.

Group 1 Winner: Emily O. I can’t explain why I love this photo so much. It’s just so evocative; reminds me of another decade. Makes me feel like I’m there.

Group 2 Winner: IslandGirl. The color…everything. I love it.

Group 3 Winner: Superdewa. I got chills. They’re multiplyin’.

Congratulations, Winners! You each win a $150 gift card to B & H Photo. Enjoy your mini shopping spree! Contact prizes@thepioneerwoman.com to claim your loot.

THANK YOU to everyone for sharing your beautiful creations.

I love them all. They inspire me.