Pink and the will of a 2 year old Girl

My daughter is 2 1/2 and is fully into her "Pink" phase. Everything she wears has to be pink, and she has to put it on herself. So I let her dress herself, because I love to see how proud she is when she comes to show us her outfit. Backwards socks and underwear aside, she is pretty good at it. The other day we went for a little adventure - I was just checking out some locations for summer shoots and they were just exploring, and here she is in all her pink glory! (BTW - this is the Wakefield Bridge.)

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!

While not shooting... ~ Chelsea Photography

As many of you know, I'm on maternity leave this year "hanging" out with my beautiful girls. So while I am not shooting other beauties, I'm shooting mine (and boy are they a handful!!)

My daughters take their face painting very seriously!

I Heart Faces ~ We ♥ Tooshies!

This week's challenge is all about the tooshie! I instantly thought of this photo I took two summers ago of my two girls on our deck:

Priceless! Check out more tooshie images at I ♥ Faces, they are bound to make you smile!

November Mini ~ Chelsea Children Photographer

On Saturday, I was treated to a fun little mini session with two awesome little guys! The sun wasn't shining, but regardless it was warm and just perfect for the shoot and for little "B" to get in some Bender time.

My Session and Print Prices ~ Ottawa Chelsea Children Photographer

I am often asked what my session rates are and what they include. I thought I should summarize it on my blog to make the information more accessible to those who are curious! If you would like to find out more information on the sessions and print products e-mail me at info at christinedenis.com


Standard Creative Session
Cost: $150 + tax

This session begins with a telephone or in-studio consultation to discuss your vision and how we will work together to create images that will represent that vision. We will discuss the shoot, how to prepare for it, clothing suggestions and ideas that you may have and how to incorporate them into the experience.

Once your date is set, your session will last a maximum of 3 hours at my home, or in my natural light studio in beautiful Chelsea, Quebec (about 15 min from downtown Ottawa).

Approximately 2 weeks after your session, you will be presented with 25 to 40 images in a private on-line gallery, this will allow you to preview your images and make some preliminary selections prior to the ordering session.

At your earliest convenience, we will book a private ordering session at my home where we will review the images together, discuss print and product options and select the images you wish to display in your home or album.

Precious Newborn Session
Cost: $175 + tax

This session also begins with a telephone or in-studio consultation to discuss the concept of newborn photography, the creative vision you have for your photographs and what particular details are important for you to capture during our session. If you choose to order my custom designed birth announcements, details of the announcement will also be discussed at this time, this way the announcement will be ready for order right after our session.

Once the date is set, your session will last a maximum of 4 hours at my home, in my natural light studio in beautiful Chelsea, Quebec (about 15 min from downtown Ottawa).

Approximately 2 weeks after your session, you will be presented with 25 to 40 images in a private on-line gallery, this will allow you to preview your images and make some preliminary selections prior to the ordering session.

At your earliest convenience, we will book a private ordering session at my home where we will review the images together, discuss print and product options and select the images you wish to display in your home or album.


Maternity and Newborn Combination
Cost: $250 + tax
This combined session includes your maternity shoot plus your newborn session.


If you prefer, shooting on location at your home or on weekends can be arranged for an additional $75.

Please note that session fees are due, in full, upon booking and are non-refundable. Session fees can be paid by cash, e-mail transfer or PayPal. Please contact me for further details.

Prints
Gift Prints: 8 x 10 and smaller $40.00

Collections
start at $540.00

Halloween Mini-Sessions, The Highlights ~ Ottawa Children's Photographer

The Halloween Minis were a huge success! The afternoon at HUSH Clothes shooting the cutest little kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes was really fun! Each session was a quick 30 min and with little kids, that can be pretty risky. However, I can honestly say each and every little tiger, piglet, pumpkin, princess , dog and Dorothy were amazing! I had a blast! Here is the preview video and images, Enjoy!

And a closer look at the images featured in the video:

Thanks to everyone who came and Angie and Allison for letting me move in for the afternoon! Off to work on your galleries!

Halloween Dress-Up ~ Ottawa Children Photographer

This week at I Heart Faces is all about Halloween Dress-Up! How fun! Here is my entry:



Head on over to their site for more Halloween Dress-Up fun!

The Zeds Part 2

I spent the better part of the past couple of weeks nursing our very sick girls back to health; croup, strep throat and fevers for 5 days took time away from my photo editing. But alas, everyone is healthy again, except for some runny noses, so I had the opportunity to complete a couple of galleries!

When I finished I realized that I had missed posting some real gems from my last shoot. How could I have miss these beautiful faces:

The Z Factor ~ Ottawa Family Photographer

Last Monday, I was treated to a fabulous shoot with two adorable kids! (and their equally adorable parents :) ) We decided to bump up the shoot by a few days so that we could take advantage of the "warmer" weather and beautiful leaves. I say "warmer" with a little bit of a smirk, because it was quite chilly and the wind was blowing quite a bit. But in the end we did managed to stay warm and keep smiling for some great shots at the Museum:

Maia and Ella Continued ~ Ottawa Chelsea Children Photographer

Finally I get to continue on from last post! My girls fell sick this weekend, so with that and Thanksgiving festivities, I fell a little behind! Ella was joined by her little friend Maia, who gave us some very funny moments and exclamations of joy during our shoot! Lots of laughing and giggling during this one :)

Beautiful Ella ~ Ottawa Children Photographer

Just a super quick and short post today! I'm heading out for another session at the Museum, but I wanted to post this one really quickly. I'm working a little backwards here this week, and with the kids getting Croup, I'm falling a tiny bit behind!

I had the pleasure to photograph this beauty, and her friend Maia (coming up next!) in Chelsea on Tuesday. She was just so naturally beautiful and easy going, I had a great time!

Up next will be spunky little Maia!