Friday, April 8, 2011

So Stinkin' Adorable












I had the best time with these two little sweeties. Mr H is turning 3 this weekend. The morning of our photoshoot he managed to locate and open all his birthday gifts. That little tidbit brings understanding to the mischevious spark in his little eyes. Oh my! His sister is about the cutest thing ever. At 6 months of age she showed off all her milestones to perfection. Major kudos to my SIL for making the fun paper flowers.

Monday, April 4, 2011

High Key

I recently added some paper rolls to my photography collection of toys. High Key is a lot harder than it looks. Last night I tried out the white paper for the first time. I used a key light (large octabox mounted on an AB 800) only just to see what the photos would look like. They turned out ok but required too much editing because the lights did notblow out the white paper imperfections like wrinkles, tears, and shadows. This afternoon I pulled out my second light and clamped a large piece of foam board to flag the light and focused it to feather across the background. Then I taped 4 large pieces of foamboard together to create a large reflector as my fill light. With the main in the same location the photos turned out MUCH better. Only 3-4 minutes of editing per photo or less! Hooray! Thanks to a fellow photographer for letting me borrow her light meter. I nailed the exposure of my subject and then raised the light level of the backdrop light by a stop. For perfection I really "need" a third light since the backdrop light was obviously much stronger closer to the light. Correcting the light drop off took the most editing time....that...and cleaning off my child's booger nose and ketchup face!