How to Create an Awesome Photograph
Sometimes I like to think of myself as a photographer, but in reality, I’m just a sexy geek dad with a manly Canon PowerShot A540 point and shoot camera. I also use Adobe Photoshop Elements software for the post production work (Elements is much, much cheaper than the full Photoshop product). In the dark age of film, I use to do the post production work in the darkroom. And unlike software, if you make a mistake dodging and burning photographs, you can’t hit the undo button. For you younglings out there, a darkroom is a room for making prints, not making out.
Most of the photos I take are just snapshots. However, sometimes I actually plan the photo ahead of time — like the Naked Baby – Day 14 photo. In my opinion, planning and post production software are the keys to creating decent photographs without a digital SLR, photo studio, or fancy lighting equipment.
For example, here are the basic steps I took for last week’s Naked Baby photo:
- The photo was taken in the evening and the background was my wife’s black shirt
- The camera flash was disabled — otherwise the flash would have made the background too bright
- Track lighting was the light source for the photograph
- The camera was set to manual mode: shutter speed of 1/40 second and an aperture setting of f/2.6
- The sepia tone filter in Photoshop Elements was applied to the photograph (the track lights made the photo too orange)
- The background was darkened with the Photoshop Elements brush tool
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Never mind the sexy geek guy… The BABY IS SO CUUUUUTE!! :p
Read Mrs. C´s recent blog post..You Thought It Was Over…
No one cares about me anymore. It’s baby this and baby that. Baby, baby, baby.
Yup. Sorry. :]
Read Mrs. C´s recent blog post..You Thought It Was Over…
no matter how you alter it, you can’t alter how absolutely beautiful that baby of yours is :O)
Read kris´s recent blog post..
They have to be cute for all the sleep we lose at night. I feel like a zombie.
And the touch ups are perfect! :) I love so many great tools at our fingertips.
Hugs,
Holly
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When I was younger, I always wanted a darkroom. Now I do thanks to Adobe.
i have an old version of photoshop i tried to load. i have hte key and everything, but still no-can-do. i wonder if it just won’t operate with vista/???
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Vista might be the problem. You could try downloading the 30-trial version of Photoshop or Elements from Adobe.
I had the same problem, but with XP. There is apparently a patch out to get old versions of Photoshop to load properly on XP (not sure about Vista), but the patch is no longer distributed by Adobe, and it is hard to find. I just stuck with GIMP instead.
I don’t care how you did the photo… it’s the baby that counts! And who needs sleep when they are so darn beautiful?
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I don’t look so sexy with bags under my eyes.
Yes, nice photo. Good call on the non flash capture.
It’s amazing how bad point-and-shoot pictures look when using the flash, and yet so many of them get grainy in low light. Now if we could just get everyone to hooooold still all the time, we’d have nicer contrast!
Read choosydad´s recent blog post..childhood unsolved mysteries
What? You have problems getting kids to stand still for photos?
They say the best way to photograph babies and young children is with natural lighting and to get as close as possible. I took quite a few up close and personal, softly lit photos of my kids when they were very young.
And, yes, I used film cameras.
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We’re dating ourselves, aren’t we? I suppose you know what a record is too.
It doesn’t matter how much you photoshop that baby, he is too cute.
He’s very cute…when he’s not crying.
I have a new website! peepandroosmom.blogspot.com
Check it out!
so so cool … =)
Read Kay´s recent blog post..my favorite foods
I have been out of the look so long that I didn’t even know you were having another one! Wow, I really need to get back to computer land. When I am at work, I only get to leave my computer for 15 minutes in a 7 hour period so I don’t spend much time on it when I am home.
First off, CONGRATS!!!! Second…. Baby really is soooo adorable! *Sigh*.. if only I could convince my husband to have another one… haha thats never gonna happen!
Anyway, the pictures are adorable. I hope YOU are doing well with 4 around the house. 4 more and you could have your own TV show. ;)
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Beautiful.
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