Tuesday, January 24, 2012

my little model+ quick photo lesson

I struggle in low light so I've been practicing a lot with Addison as my model to produce better indoor photos.  I took these photos in her room right next to her window at 4pm when the sun was shining in just right. I used a reflector to bounce light onto her face. I made sure my exposure was spot on or just a notch overexposed. I hate turning up my ISO past 400 but after many previous failed attempts and ending up with grainy, underexposed pictures, I set it on 800. It really helped and there was a lot less noise then I thought there would be, or there would have been when trying to brighten it afterwards. So manual users (even though I've read it a million times and never listened) do not be afraid to higher your ISO!  
3b
5 copy
6 copy
4b
35mm ISO 800 2.8/f & shutter speed varied between 1/100 and 1/300 sec.

Since I've had a couple followers e-mail me asking me some photography questions I figured I would do a post in the near future to answer a few. So leave a comment if you have a photography question. Again, I'm still learning myself, but I know when I was trying to figure it all out in the beginning I received a wealth of information off of other blogs. So I want to try and return the favor for those who just picked up their first dslr :)

you can find my Facebook photography page here: Jessica Lacey Photography, I appreciate 'likes' :)

& yes, she does get near weekly photo shoots. I think she's already getting used to it :) We have another this Friday at a little studio I am super excited about!

Sweet Shot DayHappily Mother After

13 comments:

TeresaG said...

These are great...Thanks for posting the info...I am still learning to take better pics to I love to see advice. She is so darn adorable!!!

Jessica said...

These are so good, and I was surprised to read that you're not a professional! I was actually wondering the other day if you had another job or if your full-time job was being a photographer. :)

And my photography question is - during a session like this, how often are you evaluating the photos you just took and tweaking your settings? Do you pick your settings at the beginning of a session and stick with them? Aren't you afraid of missing that perfect moment because you're fussing with your camera? Maybe it's just because I'm slow in manual mode right now, but my daughter is long gone by the time I get all my settings the way I want them, and that's just at the beginning - I don't even try to evaluate things midway through. But then I run the risk of having a whole batch turn out off. Surely you've run into this with older children, right? Thoughts? Advice?

Katie said...

I love your photos!
Question: How do you get such tack sharp focus? Also, what posts were most helpful for you when learning??

Your baby girl is beautiful!

Katie said...

Oh, and another question as I was scrolling back up your page...do you edit/color adjust eyes? Do you know how to do it in LR? I tried with the iris enhance, obviously not correctly, because I ended up with big black blobs....THANKS SO MUCH!!!! :):):)

The Best of Both Worlds said...

Gosh Jessica she is beautiful!! I wish I had more patience to get pics of my kids like u get with your camera! I love your pictures! You do an amazing job!

Brandi Curtis said...

She loves to stick that tongue out! Shes so adorable.

Kati said...

She is so cute! Looks like she is content to have her weekly photo shoot. :)

My photography question: What picture size is the best. On my Nikon d3000 there are options to take pictures in small, medium, and large. I'm not talking about what format to put it in like jpeg or raw but what picture size would you recommed. I have asked a couple other photographers this question and they always tell me what format they use instead of what size. Hope you can answer this question.

nicole. said...

i have the same camera as you. i still shoot on auto

i know. i know.

my manual shots well suck.

Kristi said...

Really enjoyed this post and any future photography tips/posts are much appreciated!!
Addison is precious :)

Katrina said...

Amazing photos as usual & of course having such a beautiful model helps ;)

My question: what is your editing process? Overall for a clean edit would be great, but specifically for her skin - how do you get that perfect, light, creamy (not red, orange,or yellow) tone to the skin?

Kat said...

These are spectacular!!!! Can you take a shot of yours setup and show it sometime??

Shannon said...

Thanks Jeska for your photography advise. I too, am so scared to go past 400 ISO. I just took some picts the other day and my ISO was on 800. I will have to check how they turned out. I want to improve in low lighting as well. It's defiantly a down fall for me.

YOUR LITTLE GIRL IS STINKIN' ADORABLE by the way!!! I love all the photo shoots you do.

Unknown said...

She is too cute! I can hardly stand it! Great job on the photos with the lighting. Good for you for stepping out of your comfort zone. So glad you linked up to Oh Snap!shots of the Week....I'm featuring your photo at tomorrow's party!!! :)

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