Monthly Archives: November 2011
Enter for your chance to win a FREE one hour photoshoot! No hidden charges, you don’t have to buy prints or anything. ‘Tis the season! Follow the instructions below and good luck!
.
.
Here is the FB link http://www.facebook.com/pages/With-Love-Photography/118561931505133
I have been asked countless, COUNTLESS times how I do my floating photos. First of all, there is so much I DO NOT know, I want to take a class on it myself. However, I do know the basics of it. I taught myself honestly, and there may be a lot of different ways to do this. This is the only way I know that looks real and is actually very simple. Someday I hope to learn how to float in all different situations like My Brooke does…. maybe by sharing what I know I will be more likey to have the favor returned
.
This is my first tutorial so I hope you can follow along!! Here we go!
My Easy Peasy Floating/Levitation/Flying Tutorial
.
The Photo-taking Part
.
1. Set up your camera & tripod.
2. Put stool in place and auto focus the camera on it.
3. After it’s in focus set your lens to “manual focus” to ‘lock’ the focus and don’t change it.
4. Climb on the stool and try to look weightless
5. Use remote to take photo. (if you don’t have a remote. Set the timer and run to the stool and lay down as fast as you can)
5. DO NOT MOVE THE CAMERA or the tripod or change the focus!
6. Get down and move everything out of the camera’s view.
7. DONT TOCUH THE CAMERA or the tripod or change the focus!
8. Take a photo of the empty background —being careful to not move your camera!
That is it for the photo taking part!! (you can put your lens back on auto focus).
.
.
The Photo-shop Part
.
1. Open the floating photo.
2. Open the background photo.
3. Push “V” on your key board, click on the floating photo and drag it onto the background photo.
4. Lower the opacity to %50 so you can see where to line up your photo.
5. Move the opacity back up to %100 and click the “layer mask” icon for the top layer.
6. Grab a black brush. Leave it at %100 and set it at about %50 hardness.
7. Start painting over the part of the stool you want to erase.
8. If you mess up switch the brush to white and fix it.
9. Zoom in to make sure you get all the stool.
10. Zoom back out and switch from black to white till you get it perfect.
11. Admire how cool you look floating in mid air!!
12. Flatten the photo tweak it and run some actions to make it look even more real!
13. That’s it! Share with friends
So many blogs are written by photographers about why professional photographers are such an investment (aka charge so much). I, myself, have written one similar. But not enough blogs are written to express how the photographer feels about their client and their sessions;…so that is what I am going to attempt to do right now! First of all I know how difficult it is to find a good photographer in your budget that offers everything you want. I also know how hard it is to plan a day for a shoot. To get your family together is hard enough but to get them all together and in a good mood?? Good luck!. Picking a day is one of the most difficult steps, sometimes you just have to pick it and hope for the best. Moods always change. I know it may not work out, I know your baby might get sick! Its ok, we can reschedule! (once, for free. I know that you and the Mr. (or Mrs) will probably be fighting when you arrive, and I say “probably” bc you almost always are!. Maybe you got lost, maybe mom forgot to change into her nice shoes bc she was getting the kids ready for the shoot and naturally this is dads fault.I know you are stressed out! It is okay! You don’t have to put on a pretense for me, its life… and its ok! I love you anyway. Just stay calm and we will get a great shot.
. I know that you and the Mr. (or Mrs) will probably be fighting when you arrive, and I say “probably” bc you almost always are!. Maybe you got lost, maybe mom forgot to change into her nice shoes bc she was getting the kids ready for the shoot and naturally this is dads fault.I know you are stressed out! It is okay! You don’t have to put on a pretense for me, its life… and its ok! I love you anyway. Just stay calm and we will get a great shot..
.
.
To help make your shoot super special I understand how hard you worked to pick the perfect outfits. I try to help guide you into what to buy but I am not the one searching the mall for hours to find the perfectly matching, not too bright, not too girly, and not to expensive outfits that will be in your photos for.. ever, you are! And I know it’s not fun! You’ve already paid a lot of money for a photographer and now you have to spend X amount more on the clothes! So I understand and respect the effort you have put into your shoot. Just remember that there is NO such thing as perfect. My goal is to get you at least one MONEY shot (that’s what I name the best shot, the one you’re going to want to print huge) but it is NOT to make your family look like porcelain dolls. You are not paid models and more importantly your children are not either! Those types of photos are what you get in a studio, that is not what I do. I will Photoshop you to look refreshed, but I can’t Photoshop a bad attitude or the sad face off a child who just got scolded for not smiling good enough. I have 6 kids and understand what you are going through, I will do my best to make you happy but the more relaxed you are the better your photos will turn out.
.
.
I feel a photo shoot will only turn out beautifully if there is mutual love and respect between the client , photographer and the kids! Try to be open and honest, and I will do the same. Just don’t worry so much, its only a photograph. People first, then photos.
.<3, T
