Photo Recipe: Old fashioned Photos

It's time to get back to being creative with photos. :)
Last month, I shot some family photos for an awesome local family.  A few years ago, they were able to purchase the farm that had belonged to the great-grandparents of these four children.  Can you imagine the wonderful history and the new memories that are being made?  It just warms my heart.
As we wandered around the farm, taking photos, I decided that I wanted to try to capture them on the swing (not original) with very serious expressions, like a photo might have been 80 or 90 years ago.

As you can see, they struggled a bit keeping the serious face.



When I came home and started playing with the photo, I tried to imagine the photos I may have found in an old shoebox at my grandma's house.  The first thing I did was use the layers function in Photoshop to add a black and white layer to convert the photo to black and white.  Nothing fancy, but I did lower the opacity of the black and white layer to 90% to allow just a hint of color through, like the photo has been colorized.



After that, I browsed my Love that Shot Olde World Collection textures.  I was looking for one that would give the photo a yellow tint and maybe make the edges look like they were slightly damaged. I chose a texture called "Sicily" and applied it in "hard light" mode at 40% opacity.

Here's what I ended up with.



I'm pretty pleased with it. I think that I may experiment with a little blur to see if I can make it look more old-fashioned.

If you'd like to try out some of Love that Shot's textures, you can check them out here.

Have fun being creative!

I hate gym lighting/A photo recipe

My daughter is now playing junior high volleyball.  I have spent four summers capturing softball and baseball and I pretty much have that under control.  I know where to sit and how to handle the bright sunlight and when to click.
Volleyball is another beast entirely.  The action is so much faster, the gym is so much more compact and the lighting is just terrible.  Awful.  Pardon my French, but it sucks, especially in a building that was built in the 1930's.
I have a photographer friend whose daughter also plays volleyball and her photos are so much brighter than mine.  Part of that is her better camera (I can't do anything about that right now) and part of it is light.  So I started thinking about whether or not I could fake the light.
Here's what I started with.  My daughter is a setter.  This was their 4th match of the season and I finally got a decent photo of her waiting for the ball.



I have learned that it is better to shoot wide and then crop...I have a better chance of getting the ball in the frame, especially since I am a newbie.  So I cropped it to make it look like I am really good.  ;)



First I did a little levels adjustment to brighten it up and then I looked at color.  Between the fluorescent lights and the yellow floor, there are all sorts of awful colors going on here.  I thought that white wall looked rather blue, so I toned down the blues a bit.  I eyeball all of this.

Finally I really wanted my daughter to stand out.  I went to the Love that Shot Olde World  Collection Textures (my favorites) to look for one that would really brighten things.  I chose one called "La Rochelle" and applied it at 50% in overlay mode.



Is it perfect?  No?  Do I love it?  Yes.  The texture brightens my daughter and creates a slight vignette.  You can still tell that it's a photo taken in a crummy gym, but it looks less like a snapshot and that makes me happy.

Photo Recipe: Faking the Golden Hour

You've heard of it, The Golden Hour, that magical time of day just before sunset when the light is warm and bathes your subject in the most flattering light.  Perhaps you've even had the skill, or luck, to capture it beautifully.  I've been lucky once or twice.  My very favorite golden hour photo is actually of my daughter, in the softball dugout, with a giant welt on her shoulder after she wore a pitch.  Is it wrong that I love it?
Two weeks ago, my son had his first baseball game of the season and it was beautiful (a bit windy, but hey, it wasn't snowing.) As the sun set, and I realized there were no artificial lights, I was giddy about the quality of the light.  By the way, I am fairly certain the other parents think that I might just be certifiably insane, but whatever.
I got home and looked at the photos and was kind of disappointed.  They weren't nearly as golden as I had hoped they would be.  (Um, it would probably have helped if *some* people didn't leave their white balance on auto all of the time, but it was too late to deal with that issue.)
I was disappointed until I remembered my most favorite Love that Shot photo veil ever.  It's called "Fire" and it's found in the Simplicity Collection.  I pulled it up and added it to my two favorite shots of my son from the game and I fell in love.

Here are the before and after of my son at bat:



And one of my son after he caught a fly ball (the center fielder is ducking down so as to not take a baseball to the face.)



Isn't it amazing how that single, simple veil changed the photos?  They now look like they had looked in my head.  And the slight vignette does a great job of placing the focus on KJ.

I first fell in love with Fire back in the fall when editing some senior photos.  It was another case of the photos not matching what I had remembered.  They just weren't as warm as they had been in my head.  I added a little fire (and some other senior-type edits) and voila!



So, to test my theory that Fire is amazing and can give photos that nice, warm glow, I tried it on a photo that I took of my daughter's softball team at about 11:00 am.  No warm glow from the sun at that time of day.

Here's what I started with:



Then I added the Fire veil from the Simplicity collection, in Overlay mode at 50% and here's what I got:



The shadows give it away that this was not taken at sunset, but I love how warm it makes the photo.  I may just start putting it on every photo I take. ;)



P.S.  I tested it again today on my daffodil.  I still love it.

Photo Recipe: Using Textures to disguise a background

I am attempting my 4th Project 365 (I made it about 75% through the first one, completed a second and then let's not talk about the third time.)
Some days, I am inspired. Other days, I look around my house for something-- anything-- to shoot. This was an "other" day. An, "Oh, crud, it's time for bed and I didn't take a photo today." I looked at my dining room table, covered in the paraphernalia that broadcasts, "Two very busy kids live here" and saw my son's new baseball glove. I took one shot, didn't like it, re-positioned the glove and ended up with this:
 I liked it, but then again, I like photos that document my kids' lives. What I didn't like was the warmth of the glove against the cool white window frame, green curtains and that chair on the right.  I went to my favorite textures from Love that Shot, the Old World Collection, and chose "Madrid."
I have a penchant for the dramatic, so even though I toyed with taking the opacity down a notch, I ended up keeping it at 100%, soft light. I love the brick texture on the left and how it made the photo seem more artistic.
 

 I decided to apply a layer mask, though, and remove the warmth off of the baseball a bit.

 

Finally, I added one last texture from the Old World Collection, "Salerno."  I applied it at 50%, soft light, to give the photo a little more vignette and to draw focus to that ball and glove.
  I really liked the way that the photo went from being a snapshot in my dining room to something a little more artistic. The warm background isn't as much of a distraction from the glove and ball.
If I can do it, with no formal training, you can too! Misti and Michelle at Love that Shot have taught me all that I know. If only they could end this long, drawn-out winter so we can play some ball!

 

Photo Recipe: Fun with a snapshot.

Last week, I was lucky enough to go to Las Vegas with my husband, just the two of us.  I left the DSLR at home, so that I wouldn't be all-consumed by trying to find neat angles and interesting subjects and in turn, ignoring my husband.  I would like to say that I was moderately successful.  I was still a little obsessive about documenting the trip, but not as crazy as I would have been with lens choices.  :)

One of my favorite photos from the trip is this one of flowers in the Atrium at The Mirage.


I was pretty darn happy with it, SOOC.  I like my little point-and-shoot.  But, I also like to play and to see what fun changes I can make to the photo.

This time, I decided to concentrate on using Love that Shot's Simplicity Photo Veils.  My favorite one in the group is called "Fire."  It's great for warming up a photo that is too cool.  I applied it in overlay mode at 50%.



I liked the way that it made it seem like we were in the warm wonderful sun, and it added a slight vignette, drawing your eye to the tulip.  I decided I wanted a little more vignette, so I chose the "Northern Lights" Veil and applied it in overlay mode at 25%.


And because I can't just leave well-enough alone, I decided that I wanted a little texture.  The "Twinkle" texture is totally fun.  At full-strength, it will give you the feeling of light being reflected off of a disco ball, or bubbles underwater.  I restrained myself and dialed it down to 50%, soft light.



If you look closely, you can see the texture in the sky.  I think it makes it look like there are clouds floating by.



Hop on over to Love That Shot to check out all of the photo veils and textures that you can use to make your photos more eye-catching!

Photo Recipe: Using textures to add a vignette

This has been the never-ending winter.

Snow.
Cold.
Rinse.
Repeat.

I set a goal for myself to use my Lensbaby for all of January.  It was fun at first, but after a while, because I was stuck inside due to the NEVER-ENDING WINTER, I had run out of things to shoot.

And then, miraculously, we had a day that was 45 degrees F.  The clouds parted, the angels sang and I took the Lensbaby outside looking for something other than snow to photograph.  I found this flower between my yard and my neighbor's yard.  I have no idea what it is, which is embarrassing since I have lived here for almost 15 years, but we won't worry about that.  I just liked what I started with:



I liked the blur.  I wish I had placed the flower a little more off-center, but with an impatient puppy, it was good enough.

I wanted to make sure that attention was drawn to the flower, so I wanted to add a vignette.  I went to Love that Shot's Olde World Collection (because I am in love with the textures) and chose "Calais."  Calais reminds me of an old parchment with ink spilled all around the edges. I added it to my photo in soft light mode, at 75%.  Here is the result:



I liked the vignette, but I am never satisfied with subtlety, so I went back to the Olde World Collection and grabbed "Sicily."  I added it in overlay mode at 50%.  And I was in love.



I really liked the strong vignette and glowy center so that your eye is drawn to the flower.  And I loved the colors that the textures added to the photos.

Two simple steps and my photo became much more interesting.



Check out the products and workshops that Love that Shot has to offer!

Photo Recipe: Winterizing a Photo

We got a puppy yesterday.  We've had cats for all 17 years of our marriage and while I love animals, I love cats for their lack of neediness. (Read: we can be gone for hours with no worries.)  But when my in-laws' dog had seven puppies in September, I knew we were toast.  How could we not take on of Bella's puppies?
Rue joined our family yesterday.  Boo and I went on a shopping spree at PetSmart last week and decided that she needed a winter coat.  She is a short-haired dog, after all and and it's supposed to be one doozy of a winter here in Illinois.  When my daughter got home from school, we dressed her up to go outside and of course, I had to take photos.
{Nikon D7000 | 55-300mm lens @ 85mm | f/5.6 | 1/125s | ISO 1000}

This is what I started with:



I'm not one for posing (and 10-week-old puppies and 11-year-old girls feel the same way) so we took a bunch and this one was by far my favorite.  I first adjusted the levels to get the black of Rue's fur a little "juicier." Then I decided the whites weren't white enough.  I went to Love That Shot's Simplicity Photo Veil Collection to see what I could do.  I chose Chamomile an applied it at 25% in overlay mode.  I was pretty happy with the result.  Rue's black was blacker and her whites were definitely brighter.



I am never happy with just one adjustment and I wanted a little more vignette, so I went back to the Simplicity Collection and added the Fairy's Frock Veil. I made sure to choose a veil in the cool range and with the purple-tint of this one, I thought it might be perfect.  I added it at 50%  in overlay mode.



I liked it more, but wasn't quite satisfied, so I added a hue/saturation layer and decreased the saturation to -25 to take a little of the color out of my daughter's hat and coat.  And then I discovered one more veil to really make things look ice-cold:  Vanilla Twilight.  I added this at 50% in soft light.



I really liked the end result.  I think the photo looks plenty chilly now!   If you enjoy simple ways to play with your photos, check out what they have at Love that Shot.  Misti and Michelle will take care of you!

Photo Recipe: My Moody Winter Sky

I was was so proud of myself for keeping up with my thankful posts even as I struggled because I didn't want it to turn into an inventory of the reasons my life is awesome (I didn't want it to feel braggy.)
So, one co-old morning, when I opened all of the shades completely to let the sun shine in and warm the house (total opposite from a typical summer day,) I realized what was what I was thankful for that day: the warmth of the winter sun.  I went out on my front porch, in my pajamas, and tried to get a photo of the winter sky.  I wanted leafless tree tops and that cold blue sky and that quality of the sun that just hollers "It's winter!"
Now, my house is across the street from the Junior High School where my son is an eighth grader.  I did not take the time to play with a lot of settings because I didn't want his buddies to look out the window and see crazy Mrs. K on her hands and knees taking pictures of the sun.  They all know the camera is attached to my hip, but still...
So, I came inside, loaded the photos and this is what I ended up with:



Bleh.  I like the silhouette of the trees, and the sky definitely doesn't look summery, but I just didn't love it at all.

Three days after this, we had horrific storms (I live about 9 miles from Washington, IL) and all I could think about was what a moody, fickle sky we have.  With that in mind, I decided to aggressively edit the photo to make it moody.

I am an experimenter and I picked some different textures from the Love that Shot Collections to see what they would do with my photo.  I started with "Wicked" from the Fairytale collection.  It has a nice midnight-blue feel.  At first, I had hoped it would give me a little blue in the sky, but that's not what happened.  But I loved the way it looked:



I next decided that I wanted a little more color variation, and more texture (remember, I am not subtle) so I chose a texture called "Mauna" from the Kalani Collection.  I loved the colors it added to the photo around the sun:



Finally, I decided to completely embrace the dark, foreboding feel that this photo was taking on.  I went to the Olde World collection (my favorite of all of the collections) and chose a texture called "Calais" for its dark vignette and ancient feel.  It reminds me of old parchment that has had ink spilled on the edges.

After I added that, one, here was the finished product:



In review, I added Wicked from the Fairytale Collection (overlay, 75%) then "Mauna" from the Kalani Collection (overlay, 75%) and finally "Calais" from the Olde World collection (overlay, 75%.)  Here is the comparison.



I like how my winter sky now looks like a creepy full-moon Halloween night!  I didn't end up with what I had intended, but sometimes that's just how life is.

If you'd like to learn more about Love That Shot's Photo Veils and Textures, just click here! Experiment and enjoy!

Ink

I have issues. I am willing to admit it. For as long as I can remember, I have loved pens.
I'll backpedal and admit thatI love handwriting, but that didn't start until later in life. My mother forced my 5th grade teacher to give me a failing grade in handwriting because my writing was so atrocious. Fast forward to the 8th grade, when I had an ecentric teacher who made us practice handwriting everyday. And she marked it wrong if it didn't match hers exactly. So, although she was bizarre and intense (really intense) I credit her with improving my handwriting and helping me to love the art of forming letters.
So, why this picture? I took it for a "Collection" theme. These are bottles of fountain pen ink. Yes, you can still buy that stuff. I absolutely love writing with fountain pens. There is something about the liquid ink, the way that there are variations of depth of color in each stroke of the pen, that seem like artwork to me. I especially love it when I use certain papers and the blue lines repel the ink a little bit, giving even more variations in the pen stroke.
If I didn't know it would be completely insane, I'd have even more bottles of this stuff. Yeah, I get ink all over my hands. Sure, the liquid ink smudges easily. Yes, I have ended up with fountain pen ink on my face. But it's all worth it for the handwriting. In this day and age of email and text, we are losing the personal touch of a nice, handwritten note.
And so I treasure my bottles of old-fashioned, impractical, fountain pen ink.

Success!

I have shared many a photo that failed in one way or another. For once, I am sharing one that I am in love with (click on the photo to see it larger.)
My daughter and two dear friends were playing in our backyard Tuesday afternoon. When I went out to check on them, I found that they had raked our pine needles into a Big Bird-style nest and were playing in it. (I had always been a little sad that we had to cut down our big oak tree, but I guess pine needles are fun to play in, too.)
How could I NOT take a photo of this? I ran in to get my camera, and when I came out, they were plucking morning glories to decorate the nest with. That was even better!
And then, when I asked them to pose, they all posed like champs! (I can tell that my friend has worked with her two DDs on their picture posing!)
I decided to make it even better and followed Misti's tutorial http://lovethatshot.com/2010/07/09/controlling-textures-with-layer-masks/ on photo textures and layer masks at Love that Shot. So, now, I have a photo that I am actually proud of. I'll admit it.
Shot with my d3000. 50mm/f1.4 lens. 1/1250. ISO 400. f/2.