Expecting! ~ Ottawa Maternity Photography

I just love the glow of a new mom. The anticipation, the curiosity of the little person they are carrying, and the natural glow of pregnancy! This new Mom possessed all these characteristics! "J" was naturally a little uncomfortable at times, totally expected during the last 3 weeks, but such a trooper! I want to wish her all the luck over the next week or two, and I'm very much looking forward to meeting her little princess!

I also wanted to thank Melody for joining us and doing J's make-up just prior to the session! You are amazing!

Without further ado...

Baby Madison's 8 Month Photo Sessions ~ Ottawa Baby Photography

I'm desperately trying to catch up on proofing, ordering and blogging and it's tough with 3 little kids, a husband and a dog to take care of! Ok the husband can take care of himself, but the rest do need my full attention all the time! Of course, I did have to take time out this week for my baby's own photography session, and it lasted a whole 2 days!! She was subject to my set changes, outfit changes, tutus, and necklaces and was amazing about it!

On the first day I had a friend of mine, Danielle, come up and shoot with me, as I thought it would be fun to have company. On the second day, my eldest daughter helped me out by getting her to giggle and wipe her drool when needed (teething in full swing here!). Here is a little glimpse at some of what I captured:

Spring is here, at least to me it is! ~ Ottawa Family Photographer

Spring is finally here!! Ok, ok, maybe not according to the calendar, but to me when we reset our clocks, the snow is melting and the crocuses are starting to break through the ground - that signifies spring to me! Spring, summer and fall are the best times to capture your families memories because we can all get outside and PLAY!!

In order to celebrate the changing of the seasons, I'm offering 15% off of everything I offer - session fees, prints, digital images - EVERYTHING!! That is not all, join my Facebook Page and/or follow me on Twitter and receive an additional 10% off!

Christine Denis Photography | Facebook

www.twitter.com/ChristineDenis

Spring is in the air!!

Just a little something to brighten up your day!! (I know, I know - it's a fall blooming flower, but the colours are just so bright and fun I had to post!!)

Beautiful Baby "A" continued! ~ Ottawa Baby Photographer

I meant to post more photos from our session with Baby Ava from back in January, but was swamped with work and life time got away from me!! Now that things have quieted down a little, I'm able to go back and catch up on all that I've missed! You may remember little Ava, at 10 months, she had the most beautiful skin and eyes, and giggled at everything - she was truly a pleasure to shoot!

Channelling Stephanie Robin ~ Chelsea Newborn Photographer

I had the pleasure of attending a mentoring session with Stephanie Robin a couple weeks ago and I was eager to practice what I learned! Luckily a friend just had a baby so she came by with beautiful little Lola and of the many fun and cute shots, I got this one!

How Stephanie helped me on this one was teaching me how the pose was executed, the set up and most importantly post processing - for you photogs out there - check out her mentoring sessions, they are well worth the trip to Burlington!!

7 Month Old Baby "K" ~ Ottawa Baby Photographer

Last week little baby "K" came to visit and she was all smiles and giggles! Her big sister had a lot to do with it! She did a great job being my assistant and making her little sister laugh! Thanks for coming along for the session! Here is Mommy's sneak peek:

Thumbs up to a great session!

17 Days Baby "K" ~ Ottawa Newborn Photographer

Just before heading off to Burlington, I had the pleasure of photographing beautiful baby "K"! She was so good for me and so beautiful - the shoot just flew by! Here is the sneak peek for her mom and dad. Enjoy!

Baby "N" was in the house!! ~ Ottawa Children Photographer

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to shoot stunning Nalina! She was so adorable, cute, and BUSY!! :) At 10 months old, she was a mover and we were pulling out all the stops to get her to sit still :) Dad singing songs, Mom swinging her purse around and me acting like a silly good as I usually do for my baby and children sessions!! Right after the shoot they were off to Thailand to enjoy time with their family, yummy food, warmth! Here are some highlights!

Sweet Baby "A" ~ Ottawa Newborn Photographer

Little Baby "A" took is time joining us in the real world. He was due at Christmas, but waited until the New Year to arrive! He had the sweetest little face, and was a perfect model for me, sleeping on cue and allowing us to do so many different things! His parents were so nice and so relaxed, we had fun chatting while shooting and the time just flew by! I was a little late getting these out (trip to CHEO put a little bump in my deadlines!!), thanks for being so patient, ENJOY!

Some Tips for Getting a Sharper Image ~ Ottawa Children Photographer

I love learning and I also love to teach people. I learned a lot about photography and Photoshop on my own, taking workshops, but mainly from seeing an image that inspired me and trying to figure out what technique was used to get it. Sun flairs, bokeh, back lighting, and sharp images are some of my favourite things about photos and I am constantly trying to master the techniques to capturing these things in my photography.

Before I go into my photography tip, if anyone ever has a question regarding anything, and you can ask them anonymously, visit me here on this cool question answer site:

http://www.formspring.me/christinedenis

First off, what is a sharp image? For me, being a children photographer, it's that image that has the eyes 100% in focus, even when you zoom in to 100% in Photoshop.

My baby looking less than impressed to model for me!!
Recipie: 50mm 1.4, ISO 200, 1/160th

Here is the "before shot", not the best image, but the eyes were in focus SOOC (straight out of camera) - which is the most important thing!

Can you "fix" it in Photoshop to make them sharper if you didn't get them sharp in camera, unfortunately NO!!

Is it hard to get perfectly sharp images? YES, it's the most difficult technique to master because there is a lot at play to affect the sharpness of your image. I can admit, that of the hundreds of images I take maybe 10% are in focus. I'm constantly trying to improve that percentage, but it's hard!!!

So what are the tips for getting a sharper image in camera? (note that doing all this is going to help you get a sharper image, do you HAVE to do them all - no, but it's fun to practice!!)

1. Focus on the eyes, specifically the iris of the eye - or at least the thing that is most important for you to have sharp!

2. Use a fixed lens. Fixed lenses are always going to be sharper than zoom lenses by nature.

3. You need good glass!! the higher quality glass the lens has will give you a sharper image, and will, of course, cost more!! Luminous-Landscape gives a good overview of the different types of lenses for Canon users.

4. Light - in order to get those sharp images, you need great catchlights in your subjects eyes, so position them properly to maximize the catchlights giving great depth and sharpness in the eyes.

5. Shoot at the "sweet spot" for your lens. Generally two stops up from the bottom. So for my 50mm 1.4, I always start shooting at 2.8 then move down from there. For zoom lenses it's a bit different, so experiment with where the sweet spot is on your lens. For my 24-70 mm 2.8L, I've found that I get the best results at 50mm 5.6.

6. Don't shoot wide open, anything below 1.8 makes it super hard to nail that focus. When I shoot at 1.4 to get that nice blurry background, often one eye is in focus and the other is not, that is how shallow the D.O.F is.

7. When shooting wide open, toggle your focus points as opposed to locking your focus and recomposing. Toogle to the focus point that falls right on the eye and shoot. Repositioning can cause a slight change in the distance between your subject and the camera, and will throw the locked in focus.

8. ISO matters. It's hard for us shooting up here in Canada, when we only have "good" natural light for maybe 3-4 hours in the day. And even still, I am often forced to bump my ISO up to 400, which causes noise in my Canon 50D (unacceptable noise in my books, but I'm not able to do #9 yet!!). You want to minimize the noise as much as possible, this means shooting as low as you can, meaning 100 ISO when you can.

9. Invest in a better camera. Higher quality cameras will give you higher quality images. Even when you've got everything above bang on, and you compared two images side by side, one from a top of the line camera and another from an entry level SLR - you will see the difference!

10. Sharpen things up in Photoshop. While you can't "fix" an out of focus picture, you can enhance one that is bang on sharp in the camera, with the Unsharp mask or High Pass Sharpening.

11. Avoid camera shake and motion blur when shooting. Ensure your speed is at least 160th or 250th for this, light permitting!! Oh and don't drink copious amounts of coffee before a shoot - like I do!! :) A killer for those macro shots!

12. Practice, patience, and more practice! Trying to remember everything all at once is really hard, so work on a couple of these techniques over and over, until they have become second nature to you, then learn some more!!

Again, I'm happy to answer any questions I can, and I'll sometime post the detailed answers on my blog, just visit me at:

http://www.formspring.me/christinedenis

Good luck!

Newborn Baby "R" at 4 weeks old ~ Ottawa Newborn Photographer

The cutest little bundle came by for her first photo shoot last week! She was 4 weeks old and was so adorable you could just hug her all day!! She is the new proud baby of the HUSH girls and I'm sure she will be as stylish and beautiful as her mom when she grows up! Here is the much anticipated sneak peek for all you HUSH fans out there!

Baby "Q" and His Big Brown Eyes ~ Ottawa Baby Photographer

Not only did we have the pleasure of having Baby "A" from my last post, who had the big blue eyes, but we also were spoiled with Baby "Q", with the big brown eyes and priceless dimples! They were both model babies for a baby shoot, where I had an aspiring photographer shadowing me for the day - Nathalie Madore. Check out Nathalie's blog for some me in action shots and a few more of the babies form the shoot!

I will post more photos of baby "A", but for now, little "Q" gets the spotlight! Oh and you may remember this little cutie from his newborn session - back in July....

I'll have more of Baby "A" later on! Off to bed now...