Missy Fonnesbeck Photography: October 2010

Running & Running

The weather was to beautiful to stand still for long.

Catching a fast little one while she was running and running sure kept me on my toes!

We all had fun-Thank you!

There It Is

A lot of the time when you take a picture, you are not able to have as clean of a background as you would like. Some times this can be a big problem...

The idea is to get it as "clean" as possible using your camera, but sometimes you will need a photo program to help find the Photograph in the picture...

For all of these edits I used Corel PaintShopPro Photo X2

I will start with the SOOC (straight out of camera) picture first...

In this photo I wanted to clean up as much as I could to be able to show the car.
So I used the "copy" application to remove the people, coolers, sticker in the neighbor car's window and the shadow from the car in the lower right. And cropped it to the size I wanted to use for printing.

Next I did a "vivid" photo effects action and added a border the same color as the car, signed it and Viola!

I did the same things to this next car as well...

While I like this next picture, I wasn't thrilled to have all my kayakers going in different directions...and it seemed to dark for the time of day it was....

So I took it into the paintshop and adjusted the color, then used a clarify action, cropped it, added a border to match the kayak, signed it and was happy with the photograph that I found in the picture.

I took a few pictures this Summer in an early morning rain storm and I was not to thrilled with them. But knowing I could play with them some I went looking for the photograph hidden in the pictures...

First thing I did was get rid of the rain gutter hose! Next was to color adjust, clarify brought out the rain on the umbrella the way I had wanted, then I added a border to match the umbrella and added a quote, bumped it with a drop shadow...and now there is a scrap book worthy photograph...

This last one had a horrid background with a precious pose, and it played down the bright blue of her eyes... So back to the shop to find the portrait within...

First I found the portrait I was looking for and cropped. Next came removing the chocolate from her forehead and the corner of her mouth and then I removed the digital camera noise, adjusted the temperature of the color to cloudy, then sharpened it, and ran a "vivid" in effects. Her eyes were a little to bright so I used the "burn" tool to deepen them...

I thought about running a black and White edit, but I couldn't bring myself to loose her bright eye's...

So whether you have an art picture, a poster, or a portrait you want to find a little more in...don't be afraid to edit it to find the photograph you "saw" through the lens of your camera!

Now lets go capture some fun and if you have any questions leave a comment or email me at angelchaps1959@hotmail.com

Take It To Their Level

When photographing, especially children and babies, it is a very good idea to take it to their level.

It is less intimidating for them, and, they seem to relax often helping you get better pictures, which makes everyone happy.

Again you may need to lay on the floor, squat, sit, or kneel down.

It will be worth it an I think you will like the angle of being at their level...

Happy practicing!!!

Camera Angles-from below

I thought I'd take a couple posts and talk a little about your camera angle's. Because you will get very different results from this one very important idea.

Some times the angle of the picture is the most important thing a photographer can add to a portrait.

For instance if you have a tall building in the back ground that you want to show more than the things closer to the ground.

Or trees, or trellis, etc.

Some of the choices for the lower angle could include,
kneeling, sitting on a chair,

sitting on the ground, laying down.

Or using things close by.

A bench to lay on, a fountain to prop on...

One very important caution to always remember is this:

Avoid taking pictures to close from below...

A nose is sooo not flattering from that angle!

This angle may also add boldness to a pose.

Make a person look taller, stronger, a little imposing...
The angle you want may be slight, or it may be strong.

So depending on what "look" you are going for,

this may be the angle you may want to try.

Busy Bee

Bee's are busy right up to the last minute they can be.

Wish I were more like that...

This is the sooc (straight out of camera)

This one I took into Photomatix Pro3

I like how it brightened it and still kept the bee and pollen life like.

In doing this picture I noticed the pollen on the flower looks like a heart!!

If you have photo programs and your not quite sure how to use them, or what to do with them. I suggest that you take a picture in and try every thing out. Take your sliders and pull them all the way to one side and then the other. To see what they do. Getting familiar with your programs is frustrating and it is a lot of fun!

the best part is; if you don't like how it looks you can back up a step or just go back to the original picture and start over.

Experiment!!