Here are a few more pictures from our visit with my brother and his family on Saturday. I had fun experimenting with natural light for these photos, due to
Lisa's inspiration...and
Pete's inspiration...and the book
How to Photograph Your Baby by Nick Kelsh (recommended by Lisa). I'm absolutely convinced that natural light photography is superior, but I sure do get a lot of blurry pictures. Oh, well...I'm working on it...having fun in the process...and rejoicing in the fact that I have a digital camera and can shoot 50 pics to get a few decent ones without the expense of developing them all!
~ Jacob playing a soccer game with Josiah and David...Jacob is SO GOOD with his younger cousins!
~ Grandma and Elizabeth at the piano...in case the picture looks like it's not straight, you can blame it on Lisa...
she said we should try shooting pics at an angle, so I did...
she also said we should never, ever use the flash, so I didn't, and my mother's clapping hands are blurry...
she also tried to teach us things like shutter speed and ISO (whatever that stands for!) which would probably resolve the blurry hands issue, but I haven't gotten that far in my free tutorial from her ;)
~ I love this picture (even though it's not technically the greatest) because it captures a sweet moment when my brother came upstairs to lean against the half-wall behind the piano and listen to his daughter and his mother play the piano together
~ Isaac in a quiet moment
~ I always like to get a picture of the two Davids together...here, Uncle David helps my David get the wrapper off his cupcake...
~...
this cupcake, which David thoroughly enjoyed!
~ Jacob playing a soccer game with Josiah and David...Jacob is SO GOOD with his younger cousins!
~ Grandma and Elizabeth at the piano...in case the picture looks like it's not straight, you can blame it on Lisa...she said we should try shooting pics at an angle, so I did...she also said we should never, ever use the flash, so I didn't, and my mother's clapping hands are blurry...she also tried to teach us things like shutter speed and ISO (whatever that stands for!) which would probably resolve the blurry hands issue, but I haven't gotten that far in my free tutorial from her ;)
~ Isaac in a quiet moment
8 comments:
You're doing wonderfully with the photography Davene -- I loved the shot of the hands playing the piano yesterday, and Tobin laughing is just delightful. Well done!
Morning, THANK YOU for the encouragement!!!
So sweet! Like always, it's fun to see David and family in your blog. :)
Great pictures. I haven't even TRIED to follow Lisa's advice. not sure my camera is up for the challenge at this point. *wink*
Davene, these photos are GREAT! Keep it up! I can't wait to see more.;-)
I love family photos. I almost like the everyday pictures better than studio photos.
You're doing great with the photos. I didn't know that the flash was bad. Thanks for the tip!
Thanks, everybody! :)
I was thinking I should add my two-cents worth to the flash discussion, actually. I agree with Lisa that natural light photos are generally far nicer than those taken with flash, and whenever possible using natural light is best. But if you're using natural light and getting blurry photos then you simply need more light (or subjects that aren't moving). Try taking the kids outside, turning on the lights indoors (even on a sunny day), opening the curtains, moving the action nearer the windows, or posing your shots.
But I'm not against using flash in some situations, as there's sometimes simply no other way to get decent shots if you can't increase the light or stop the action. And especially if you're photographing your babies being busy, there are some moments that warrant a sure-fire capture, even if they don't look like professional photo shoots. So I'd use flash here.
To get a bit technical, if your camera shutter speed shows anything under 1/60 second (so 1/45 or 1/10 or anything slower than that), then you won't get sharp photos by hand holding the camera. You'll either need to use a tripod (or put the camera down on a beanbag or stack of books, or brace yourself as much as possible) or the flash. And a tripod is really only useful if the person or thing you're trying to photograph is pretty still. So you might be stuck with flash.
The other time I'd use flash is if my subject is standing infront of a very bright light (for instance, if the sun is behind your subject). Using flash at these times lights up the shadows on your subject's face (which will otherwise be dark). And you won't even notice the flash has been used.
And of course you can fix some flash problems (like red eye) in photo-editing software if they really bother you.
So I guess I'd say that, used wisely, flash can improve some photos in some situations, especially in low light.
Morning, thanks for these comments! I agree with you about the flash, and even the "How to Photograph Your Baby" book talks about the need for flash in certain situations, because you just can't take certain snapshots without it. So I think you're exactly right.
For me though, I used to ALWAYS (well, almost) :) use the flash and didn't pay much attention at all to natural light...so it's been fun to experiment with that recently.
But THANKS for the clarification that all flash is not bad! :)
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