Watch Bones of Faerie book trailer and Win the Trilogy!
Tuesday, June 11, 2013 • 0 Comments
The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Or so 15-year-old Liza has been told. Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, and Liza’s world bears the scars of its encounter with magic. Trees move with sinister intention, and the town Liza calls home is surrounded by a forest that threatens to harm all those who wander into it. Then Liza discovers she has the Faerie ability to see—into the past, into the future—and she has no choice but to flee her town. Liza’s quest will take her into Faerie and back again, and what she finds along the way may be the key to healing both worlds.
Photo Class a Day- May 13th {Gestures}
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 • 0 Comments
It’s all about the hands. The slight change of hand can alter the feeling of the message. Take for example these images, all from the same shoot.
On the right, the hand at the chin gives this image a more delicate feel. The middle image is more ladylike than the left, relaxed look of the model. All because of where the hands are.
Next time you shoot a portrait of a person take a look at their hands, or have them place their hands somewhere else other than on hips (I do that a lot, too). What would your picture look like if your subject has their arms crossed, or if brushing their hair back, or resting on the wall at their side?
Photo Class a Day- May 9th {Lighting}
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 • 0 Comments
Lighting can be tricky. But also it’s the most important thing about your photos.
For portraits you can have harsher lighting to give your photos drama
or soft, overall light
or something in between
What’s your favorite? All-over natural light or one-source dramatic lighting?
OH BOY!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 • 0 Comments
I AM back. Finally home. With internet.
This trip had been so much fun but also busy and majorly lacking internet. And then to make matters worse, my external hard drive is kaput and I hope it can get fixed soon or else a huge number of my photos will be GONE.
So my grand plan of doing this photo-class-a-day has gone horribly awry and is majorly lacking in posts. So apologize.
I’ll have a post after this with a few examples of things and quick posts on the major days so far unless you want to see something specific.
That said, I have loved seeing everyone’s posts on instagram( #photolassaday) and you guys are so great for tagging along. Now I’m back will be much better about doing it and so I hope that you will stick with me for the rest of this month! Don’t lose steam!
As always, you are all awesome!
Photo Class a Day- May 3rd {Bokeh}
Friday, May 3, 2013 • 0 Comments
Bokeh get s a little technical so here’s a quick post about how to achieve it.
A lens that is great for achieving a great bokeh is the 50mm and the one I most often use. Basically bokeh is how light is rendered in the out of focus background of your subject. Usually it looks circular in shape.
It can be as simple as this blurred out background. Notice how there’s a bit of that circularity we look for in bokeh and yet the background isn’t so blurred that it’s just large blocks of out of focus shapes like this one below:
The trick is to shoot your subject close up and the background to be far off. Keep in mind that your background cannot be blown out, meaning over-exposed by the sun or light source, because then there wouldn’t be a background.
Like this:
For example, don’t shoot in shadow with your background being the over-lit woods behind your subject. (that’s called being backlit and another topic for another time).
Tops of trees like the above image offer a nice bokeh effect since the light peeking through the branches gets distorted in that nice circular shape we like to see.
When using a 50mm or really any lens with a low aperture (how much your lens will open to let light in) Don’t us anything below a 2.8 aperture because anything lower than that will only let you focus on small parts of the face. Like tip of nose, eyelashes, brow or lips. By using a slightly bigger aperture like 2.8 or higher you’re still facilitating that blurring out effect in the background but your subject will stay more in focus.
Shooting at night also gives a great bokeh effect if there’s lights around. I plan shooting in NYC in Times Square when I’m up there later this month and hopefully give you guys an example of the effect during night time.
Got questions? Still confused? No worries, leave a comment below and I’ll make sure to answer!
Photo Class a Day- May 2nd {Sun Flare}
Friday, May 3, 2013 • 0 Comments
Once again I am thwarted by the lack of decent weather here. I promise I’ll post new photos for these past few days to make up for it.
So here’s a few examples for today’s challenge.
What I like about sun flares is that it gives photos a lovely ethereal, dreamy quality. One thing I learned over the years is that a little flare goes a long way. I tried not to have so much flare that you can’t see the subject.
When I was shooting Margie (below) the sun flared so bad within the camera that the camera was focusing on the flare and not on Margie. Was a bit problematic. But we were able to get a lovely shot of Margie at the end when I manually started to focus to avoid the in-camera confusion.
{Sunset over LA from Griffith Park}
Got any questions? I’m posting the bokeh post tonight to help you guys a little ahead of time for tomorrow’s shot. I’m having so much fun seeing everyone’s photos on instagram. Don’t forget to tag me wherever you post them!
