Tuesday Photo Day!

Alright People!!! Are You Ready?!!!
I am super excited about photo day because I know there are tons of great photographers out there and I am part of that group.

So here is my little help for the day on how to make your photo look a little more awesome.
1. Take your photo in the shade but what really makes it awesome is if you have light bouncing onto that person. I know your like What? Light Bouncing? Yes my dear friends, light bouncing. The best place for a photo is in a shadow but across from a wall that light is hitting. Heres an example.

See that really bright wall in the back ground? We are going to use that wall. So.... notice my cute super white baby is in the shade which makes her skin tone cooler? Alright, now we'll move her.

BOOM BABY!!! See that nice warmth coming in on the right? So she is in shadow but there is good exposure and warmth from the light Bouncing off the building next door. I get awesome lighting in my kitchen in the morning because light hits the wall in my back yard and bounces into my kitchen.

2. Now that you have a photo that you like heres a way to add to it and make it look just a bit better. I use photoshop cs2 I think you can probably do the same think with photoshop elements.
a. Open your photo.
b. Go up to the top menu labeled layers select duplicate layer.
c. Go to Filters
d. Select Gaussian blur and set it to 14 pixels
e. You now have a very blurred layer. On your layer box go to the lighting tab and select soft light.
f. And BOOM!!! it will give a softness to everything and punch up your colors. If you want to have more details in an area then you can use the eraser and erase those areas.

Example. Compare this photo to the one above it, same lighting, same area, but I did those steps in photoshop and now it is AWESOME!


Alright, couple more tips..

Zoom in on people, nobody really needs your person to be 5% of the photo, they should really be at least 50% of the photo because that's what people really want to see. It also gets rid of all the noise in the background that makes a photo too busy.

Examine your lighting, really try to find a natural light area instead of a flash.

Take LOTS of PHOTOS. If you are shooting digital then go crazy with it, you can delete the bad ones later and it will give you great practice at what looks good and works for you.

Alright, have a happy photo day, send me some of your favorite photos and I'll feature them on one of my photo days. Next week we will be discussing macro photography.