Photography Q&A
Beautiful! (Kids, decor, everything!) Okay, can you share your secret? I have always struggled at Christmas time to capture the glow of the lights, the sparkle in the kids' eyes when decorating (the reflection from the lights in their eyes) and you did it... can you give me some hints on your settings? Taken during the day? Night? Fill flash? No flash? ISO? I can't seem to get the right combination! Thanks for sharing!
These pictures were taken at night with no flash. I do not have a fill flash and I never use my on camera flash -- I hate it. Ha.
The shots of the kids putting the ornaments on the tree ---> shot at f/1.2, ISO 400 (which makes them a bit noisy on my camera ... grr) and I was shooting on TV, which is shutter speed priority. Since it was dark, I knew I needed to keep my shutter speed up so my pictures were not blurry ... and I didn't want to increase my ISO because of noise. So I went with shutter speed priority at 1/125 ... although Mason's picture was shot at 1/80 -- not sure what the deal was there.
So with those settings, I kept my focal point on their eyes (of course) and tweaked a bit in Photoshop CS4. And even so, they still are not tack sharp ... but for the purposes of my blog, I didn't care. Ha.
The mantle and ornament shots were taken on AV using a higher ISO and then I used noiseware to try to remove some of the noise from the pictures. My shutter speed was lower and my aperture was upwards of 2.0 - 4.0 since I wanted them a little more in focus. Shooting that close at 1.2 gave me a lot of bokeh ... which is beautiful, but not what I was looking for here.
What lovely pictures. I'm very impressed and inspired. Okay, I have to know - what camera and lens do you use? Such beautiful clarity in your pictures.
Thank you! I shoot with a Canon Rebel xTi ---> however I desperately want to upgrade. The Christmas pictures were taken using an 85mm 1.2 lens ... which is a magical dream lens that I am renting. And of course, the pictures were all tweaked in Photoshop CS4.
These pictures were taken at night with no flash. I do not have a fill flash and I never use my on camera flash -- I hate it. Ha.
The shots of the kids putting the ornaments on the tree ---> shot at f/1.2, ISO 400 (which makes them a bit noisy on my camera ... grr) and I was shooting on TV, which is shutter speed priority. Since it was dark, I knew I needed to keep my shutter speed up so my pictures were not blurry ... and I didn't want to increase my ISO because of noise. So I went with shutter speed priority at 1/125 ... although Mason's picture was shot at 1/80 -- not sure what the deal was there.
So with those settings, I kept my focal point on their eyes (of course) and tweaked a bit in Photoshop CS4. And even so, they still are not tack sharp ... but for the purposes of my blog, I didn't care. Ha.
The mantle and ornament shots were taken on AV using a higher ISO and then I used noiseware to try to remove some of the noise from the pictures. My shutter speed was lower and my aperture was upwards of 2.0 - 4.0 since I wanted them a little more in focus. Shooting that close at 1.2 gave me a lot of bokeh ... which is beautiful, but not what I was looking for here.
What lovely pictures. I'm very impressed and inspired. Okay, I have to know - what camera and lens do you use? Such beautiful clarity in your pictures.
Thank you! I shoot with a Canon Rebel xTi ---> however I desperately want to upgrade. The Christmas pictures were taken using an 85mm 1.2 lens ... which is a magical dream lens that I am renting. And of course, the pictures were all tweaked in Photoshop CS4.
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I have received a lot of questions about photography that I'm positive I have not answered, so here is your chance ---> ask away!