Tips and tricks from the camera

Vintage Photo

2010-04-23T09:20:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe how long it has been since anyone has posted on this site. I guess I will do a small post.

This is a picture I took and I applied two textures, one crackle and one cloth. Then with a little vintage action, it looks like an old picture. Pretty fun to do.

How sad....

2010-01-12T18:47:00.001-08:00

That we havent had a post in FOREVER!!!!!! I hope we are able to contribute to this blog and help each other grow! Its been so unfortunate about the news about Kiddie Kandids, but what does that do for us? This gives Utah a huge chance to grow in the custom photography industry! Lets help one another do this! I have a few photoshop tutorials that I can post, but I want to see what everyone else is up to as well!

Insurance

2009-11-14T07:29:00.001-08:00

So my Canon XSI had an unfourtunate encounter with a pool last week. Everything was ruined. Water and electronics don't really mix.

The water didn't hurt my memory card. Here are a few tips on what you can try if you drop your electronics in water.

1. Don't turn it on to see if it still works till it's completely dry! If you turn it on and there is water in there it can cause it to short out and fry everything.

2. take everything apart and let dry. You can put it in a containter of rice. The rice helps draw out all the water. (if it's a phone take your SIM card out right away! Water usually doesn't hurt those)

3. pray :)

I have insurance so I have a new camera coming this week! I want to stress the importance of insuring our cameras! My insurance is $11/year because it's added to my home insurance.

If you don't have a good policy or your insurance won't cover you then call State Farm.

They have a personal articles policy for $40/year that covers up to $4,000 worth of items.

State Farm

Dan Eggbert

801-627-0590

P.S. Don't park the stroller too close to the pool on a windy day. :)

Happy Shooting

More Before & After...

2009-10-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a before and after...I was working with window light and didn't notice the goo on his face...I was just so excited that my two year old was actually letting me take a picture!!!

In b&w...

Before and After

2009-10-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

Here are some before and after pictures:

Before

After, with a little bit of cropping to zoom in on the family.

Before

After

I love to see the before & after effects. It always blows me away. Hopefully I don't get carried away!

Before & After

2009-10-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

Before

After

Blogger....

2009-10-25T10:03:00.000-07:00

Man, now i remember why I changed to wordpress ;) if anyone is amazing at blogger templates etc can you please help this poor blog out? lol. Its an eyesore but i dont know much about blogger but man my photos i just posted dont look so hot lol =)

Before and Afters........

2009-10-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

Before......

After.......
I hear a lot of new photographers, and even old ones, astonished at the before and afters of images. Lets face it photoshop is like our new dark room. So I thought it would be fun to show everyone a few before and afters :) I know kind of scary at the same time too but we are here to help one another ;) So here is me posting my "naked" photos straight out of the camera!!!!! I just want everyone to see what really comes out of a camera and what it can become. Again this is just to show some examples please know that photoshop does not "fix" everything but in other words enhances what is already great :) so we want to make sure our focus, exposure etc are good out of the camera. So if you have any before and afters please post them!!! Ill see if i can round up a newborn before and after as well

Blurry Photos

2009-10-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

I seem to have tried everything and I am still ending up with blurry photos. I always keep my shutter speed above 125 to prevent camera shake, but am still having trouble. Any suggestions??? I just want my pictures to be clean and sharp--help!

A good read for all of us photographers, or those considering it a business....

2009-10-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this great read on mcp actions blog. I think she has a lot of valuable information in this article worth looking at.....

http://mcpactions.com/blog/2009/10/12/how-should-i-price-my-photography-words-of-advice-from-jodie-otte/

HELP!

2009-10-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, let me first apologize for my second post in a row! But I have a few photos I took that have some really cool sun rays in them, BUT they also have sun rays shining right over my subjects and has sort of taken over the picture. They seem pretty hazy and the rays are just ridiculous. Does anybody know if it is possible to remove any of those rays...at least from their faces? I tried Googling the topic but was unable to find anything, which makes me wonder if it's a possibility. Ugh!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Kim

Locations???

2009-10-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Just wondering if anybody can help me come up with some fun shooting locations between Farmington & Salt Lake City? I live in Lehi so I'm in need of some places up north to keep in mind when shooting up there. I've got a family shoot on Saturday that I'm thinking I'd like to do up in that area, so I'd really appreciate your ideas! :) Thanks loads!!!

Photo Shoot At Murray Park

2009-10-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

Here is the first installment of the photo shoot I did Saturday morning at Murray Park.

I love how brother is tenderly kissing his baby sister.

This little girl has amazing eyes, AND her mom knows how to dress her! She is cute!

These two kids are so cute together. They sure do love each other!

And for my favorite....... See below!

Isn't she just adorable?

There are many more pictures at my Flickr account.

and more at my blog www.brettrowe.com

Sun flare

2009-09-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hollie this is SOOC at around f18. Hope that helps

How to make sun rays??

2009-09-21T08:16:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know how to make sun rays? I went on walk last night and took this picture of the sun shining through some sunflowers. I was trying to get the sun to look more like the bottom picture(taken by Annie West of http://sweetyesterdaysphotos.blogspot.com/ ), but couldn't figure it out. Is it something you do with the camera or in Photoshop after?

Please give me some tips if you know how.

A few from the class...

2009-09-17T18:49:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to share a few of the pics that I got from the workshop last weekend! I had a super blast Marissa....thanks for letting me do this one! I LOVED it!

This one's for you Hollie! hee hee

Thanks again Marissa....love ya muy muy mucho!!

My blog....

2009-09-17T15:25:00.000-07:00

Check out my blog for your chance to win some FREE snazzy sets of actions!!!! They are pretty cool! Nope they are not mine, but a very awesome sponsor is giving them away!

www.marissavargasonphotography.com/blog

and i PROMISE more info to be coming soon on this blog such as tutorials (both camera and photoshop) and some challenges!

Fun workshop!

2009-09-16T21:50:00.001-07:00

I had such a great time at the workshop! Here are a few from the day.

I know you'll hate this one Marissa... I just had to post it!

Black n' White

2009-09-16T07:25:00.000-07:00

To do Black n' White i just use the black n white adjustment in Photoshop! I adjust my contrast and colors and WAL LA!!

Logo Design

2009-09-14T09:32:00.001-07:00

A few people at this last workshop were asking about logo design so here is some info :

www.hartmandance.com

We do all kinds of logos and can design something fun for your business. We will also include photoshop brushes of your logo to stamp on your photos.

Before and After

2009-09-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

After
I removed the weed in the background, added a texture, lowered the saturation and upped the contrast.
I really like using textures, but make sure to use a layer mask to hide the texture on the face and skin.
*tip- the texture I used was actually a picture I took of a wood door. If you see cool textures take a pic of it and use it just like a regular texture.

Before edits

2009-09-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

I've gone back and forth on how I do black and whites - sometimes I use Pioneer Women actions or RAD actions - but lately I have just been doing the simple "Black and White" Adjustment on Photoshop and playing with the color scales - then uping the contrast. Love it!
-Natalie

Black and White

2009-09-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

I like Pioneer Woman's Black and White Beauty a lot as well as MV Basic Black and White. Sometimes I will use the pre-sets in PS as well, and if I have time (not often!) I will change the gradient. I am looking forward to the Tutorial though! Thanks Marissa!

black and white.

2009-09-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

for my bw edits i usually use 'MV Photography's basic black and white' action. I sometimes will go back a step and take off the added brown hint but sometimes I leave it. thanks marissa :) I also really like pioneer women's 'b&w beauty' but usually have to use levels after to get the look i want. im too lazy and use actions way more than i should. ha.

comments fixed.....

2009-09-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

sorry not sure what was going on with the comments section but i have fixed it, now we can leave comments yay!

The infamous black and white.......

2009-09-08T18:58:00.001-07:00

How do you black and white???? Im interested to hear how everyone does there black and whites, you dont need an in depth description, just a so and so's action, or gradiant map etc. Then i will be posting a tutorial =)

More Catch Lights

2009-08-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

I did a photo shoot at Murray Park last night. Here are the results:

This photo is completely un-edited or processed. I just love her glassy, bright eyes!

Here is her brother, with those same beautiful eyes!

Click HERE to see more pictures of their family.

Photoshop Class and additional mentoring....

2009-08-15T08:26:00.000-07:00

Ive had some requests to see if ill be doing an additional photoshop class or any other mentoring. During the holiday season (sep-nov) things tend to get crazy, but i thought hey, why not throw that out there. If anyone is interested in doing a class let me know. This would be a smaller class then my normal photoshop with a minimum of 4 people and a maximum of 8. I was thinking that we could do 4 hours of photoshop and possibly mentoring depending on what everyone was interested in, maybe even longer. Price for doing the photoshop portion would be $150 for the four hours. Again this is a small group setting. Let me know if you are interested by email and ill start a list. marissavargasonphotography@gmail.com

Catch Lights

2009-08-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple pics I took last week. I tried really hard to get catch lights buy turning her in each direction. They were facing south in the first shot and north in the second shot. I did this shoot around 7:30.

The Ruler tool tutorial

2009-08-04T17:29:00.000-07:00

If your like me you tend to shoot not completely straight. When I say that I dont mean angling on purpose, I mean flat out your just crooked lol. If so, the ruler tool will be your new friend!! Heres some step by step pictures to help you along! and sorry this pics are so small i really am not blogger friendly anymore, so if anyone can help that would be great :)

First you select your ruler tool. Its in the group of tools with the eye dropper.

Then at the top of my picture you will see a black line. What you do is draw a line on a straight object in your image, this is what the ruler tool uses as a guide to "straighten" your image.
Then you go to Image>image rotation>arbitrary....
Then this fun box pulls up! Whatever you do, do NOT change the numbers or dots in this box. The ruler has already set the guide for you. Click okay to continue.
Your image will then "straighten" itself. Leaving white or black behind the image. What i do then is crop my image to my liking and continue on with my photoshop work.
This is my image after rotation. She is no longer leaning =). This works great for those places where there are very dominant lines that need to be straight such as beadboard, brick, structures, etc.
Hope everyone has enjoyed this ruler tutorial!

A little late!

2009-08-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

I'm sure this face looks very familiar to one of you. I am just barely posting this picture from our amazing workshop with Marissa! I missed the posting on bokeh so I am posting it now.

Catch Light!

2009-08-02T14:43:00.000-07:00

This was my first new born session over the weekend and this baby girl was so adorable. Let me know your thoughts.

Photoshop Tutorial

2009-07-30T16:27:00.001-07:00

I thought Id pass along this great tutorial on how to dodge and burn without damaging your pixels. Instead its done on a seperate layer. First have your image open. Select Layer, new, layer.
Then you will see this box come up. Under Mode, change from Normal to soft light, then check the box underneath that says "Fill with soft light layer 50%" then hit okay.
Then on your swatches, if the foreground color selected is black, it will darken any areas you are wanting to "burn." If the foreground color selected is white, it will lighten any areas you are wanting to "dodge." Just make sure all the work you are doing is on your new layer.

Voila! Then you are done! Here is a finished example.... I slightly dodged the background, and burned her tutu. Just very subtle.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Let me know if you have any questions.

Catch Lights

2009-07-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

Well, here is my contribution to this fun blog. Marissa did a mentoring session with me several weeks ago. When we were reviewing my pictures, she came across this one and said she loved it!

In fact, her client contacted me for a copy of these pictures.

This one (above) is one that I really love. I like how she has glitter powder on her face and her fingernails are painted pink. So cute!

Catch lights.

2009-07-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

I love catchlights! And I am always trying to get some good photos with great catchlights. Here are some recent photos I've taken.

BW catchlights!!!

Catch Lights

2009-07-28T05:52:00.000-07:00

I took this one in my backyard a couple weeks ago around 7:30 p.m. She was actually in the shade facing west. She has beautiful eyes anyway, but they have some great catch light in this image.

How to make a 3D frame

2009-07-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

This is a really fun and EASY way to make a reall cool 3d frame on pics.

I just did a really simple one to give you the idea, but you can get really creative with this!
-Open your file and open a frame. (you can make your own with a square marque tool.)
-Have the frame layer on top of the picture.
-Add a layer mask to the frame layer.
-double click on this layer and in Layer Style>blending options click "layer mask hides Effects"
-Adjust the opacity of your frame (25-50%) for the next step so you can see what parts need to be erased.
-Then paint with black the parts you want to be coming out of the frame. (make sure you are painting on the mask not the frame)
That's pretty much it. You can do a lot with this idea so have fun with it!
(if you try it add the pic to this post!)

Lighting....

2009-07-26T17:08:00.001-07:00

I think learning lighting is essential, this may be a refresher for some, but i think its a good refresher. To get those amazing catchlights in eyes you have to have a direct light source. This is either the sun, or a strobe, or some sort of artificial lighting. You want that light source to directly make contact with your subject. Okay I here the questions already, but if we have our subject towards the light, they will be squinty and have horrible lighting. Yes this is true, this is why we look for diffused lighting, or you can use a reflector. A reflector can be even pavement or something to that extent. Before I get further in depth with lighting, I think its a good idea to experiment with a subject (a cooperative one being ideal ;) ) Take your subject in a shaded area (good lighting) and take a picture with your subject facing each direction (N,S,E,W) and then take a look at how even the slightest turn makes your light differ. Notice that when your subject faces the light source (even in the shade) they have beautimous catchlights! So come on lets go out there and play! I want to see your favorite angle of lighting and let us know what time of day you took the picture at as well. The temperature of light differs as well from morning to night.

Help please?

2009-07-14T16:15:00.000-07:00

I want to know how you get your logo's on your pictures. You all have great names and logos that you are putting onto each picture, can you share your secret with me and let me know how I do this? I would appreciate it, I just feel like my blog is so BLLAAHHH

bokeh challenge

2009-07-02T20:41:00.001-07:00

My little boy, ready for his nap :D

challenge.

2009-07-02T07:44:00.000-07:00

one from a session I had last week.

p.s. marissa you should widen the blog a bit. haha.

Portrait Challenge

2009-06-30T17:44:00.000-07:00

My little girl in black and white.

Portrait Challenge

2009-06-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Here are two portraits I took this week.

I'm not really sure why the whites in this image are blown. I'm having a tough time with that lately. Any ideas?? Am I overexposed?

A little too much blur??? What do you think?

Daughter

2009-06-30T15:28:00.001-07:00

Here's one I recently took of my daughter -
(this blog template isn't wide enough for my photobucket upload and cut it off on the right- so this is just from blogger)

(do you want stats on the photos too???)

First attempt...HELP

2009-06-29T18:48:00.000-07:00

This was a lot harder then I thought it was going to be. This picture is of my crazy brother. If you can manage to take your eyes of his tattoo's :) you will notice the background is blurry, almost as if it is going in a clockwise circle. I need help though cause I took about 90 portrait pictures and this is the only one that came out with a semi-blurry background. Anyone have ideas on this trick besides lowering my aperture?

~Brittney

Who is up for a challenge???

2009-06-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

I want to start doing weekly challenges for those that want to participate but i have to say.....in order for me to continue having challenges we have to have participation :) Our first challenge is going to be easier than others....in otherwords we are starting out small and moving to the big guns lol.

This weeks challenge is to take a portrait of someone (dad, mom, bro, sis, child, hubby, neighbor, whatever lol) and post it. What i want everyone to look for is how they can get that blur (or bokeh) behind the subject. Remember to have your apertures set to approx. 2.0-3.5 or as low as your lens will allow and focus near the eyes of your subject. Good luck everyone!!! yay!

Also for those interested there is a giveaway on my blog for a really cool camera strap, just leave a comment and the winner will be drawn Monday. They rock, they have padding and a lens cap holder yay!!!! So stop on over www.marissavargasonphotography.com/blog and enter to win!

Photo Adventure...Move date

2009-06-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,
Looks like this weekend isnt good for a lot of people and it might rain so lets maybe shoot for next weekend. Email me at brittneyandco@gmail.com and we can discuss some places and ideas.

First Photoshop Attempt Since Class

2009-06-24T06:14:00.000-07:00

I volunteered to take pictures for my daughter's softball team. I was really excited to try some of the new techniques I learned in the class. I thought it was going to be a great day to take pics because it was really overcast. However, right before the shoot, the sun decided to come out. It was about six in the evening. I didn't realize until later the harsh highlights this created on everyone's faces. Anyway, worked on the photos for hours and hours to get them to this point - replaced the sky (using a mask), darkened layers, burned edges, sharpened. Still doesn't look like I imagined it would, but I learned soooooo much. Used F13 (based on 13 people in pic as you suggested) and my 50mm lens. Probably should have used zoom lens since I had to stand a rediculous distance away to get the whole group. Will definately be more conscious of background, current lighting, wind, and light meter on next shoot. Anyway, thought I'd share.

Marissa, I would love a new assignment to keep me going. Thanks for everything. Janece

Anyone Available???

2009-06-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

Hey Hey Hey....
Is anyone available to go out and shoot this coming weekend? I am wanting to practice more in "M" mode and think it would be fun to get some photographers together for a little adventure.
Let me know if anyone can do like Saturday morning somewhere in the Salt Lake Valley. It would sure be fun :)

~Brittney

First Editing Experience

2009-06-16T20:59:00.001-07:00

This is my first edited photo. I know this is pretty amateur, but for those of you that do this all the time please give me some feedback and let me know what could be done differently.
Thanks!

QUESTION...

2009-06-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

Hey I am one that has a Canon 50D SLR and during the manual class we couldn't find out how to do the noAE lock focus thing on my camera. I was wondering if anyone has found out how yet. I would really love to start using that technique. Thanks!!!

Picture Contest

2009-06-11T21:14:00.001-07:00

For some reason I wasn't able to add this picture to the post below so I just added it on a new post. Hopefully I'm not too late!

Pics from Manual class 6/30

2009-06-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

I was unable to post this under the same post, so I just made a new post of this cute little guy.

Thank you!

2009-06-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

Thank you Marissa and Jen for a wonderful photography workshop! I learned a TON! I now know what most of those settings are...and they're pretty useful! :) Here are some of my favorite photos! Thanks again!

Shooting in "M"!

2009-06-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

Annie and Marissa,

Thanks again for taking time to teach the manual class. I don't have any pics of the family, but here are a few I took recently using what I learned in the class. Thanks again!

Thank you

2009-06-08T16:08:00.000-07:00

Jen and Marissa thank you so very much for sharing your amazing talent with all of us. You were both so great to work with and made the experience well worth it.

There was so much talent and knowledge amongst the group and i appreciate everyone who gave me quick hints on where my camera should be set for the particular setting.

I hate to bore you all with my unedited pictures but i am still an amateur ...THANKS, Linds

Contact Sheet

2009-06-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

This is great to give to your clients to look through and decide which pics they like. (I also use it for scrapbooking if I want a bunch of small pics on one page)

Here are the instructions, it's really easy.

-In photoshop click File, then Automate, then Contact Sheel II.

-Browse till you find the folder you want to use. (you can only use a whole folder not pick and choose images.)

-You will see a window that you can customize the size and amount of pics on each page (columns and rows) and the size of the page (probally do 8x10 so you can easily print it from your home printer).

-You can have the file name printed under each pic ot left off by unclicking the box at the bottom.

-Just play with it and then when you have it the way you like click ok. It will take phooshop a sec to put it together, but then you're left with a really cool sheet of all your pics.

Manual Class-May 30th Contest please read....

2009-06-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

We are going to start posting the pictures from May 30th here in this post. Please just add to the post, if you are unsure how to add to a post please email me, just go to edit post and choose this post and at the end of the post just add your picture, make sure you label it with your name or some way so we will know whose is whose =) We will close this contest on Thursday June 11th.

Great class Jenn and Marissa!!

2009-06-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

I was so excited for the class today, and it definatly did not dissapoint! You both are great teachers and I loved learning from you! Thanks for the confidence in manual shooting (and the adorable models were a nice touch too :)

I had to include Jen teaching us about hot spots because I am always forgetting to check for those! Hope you dont mind Jenn!

Thanks again!!

Kristen Coleman

Thanks Jenn and Marissa

2009-06-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks Jenn and Marissa! I had such a great time today and i really appreciate you both for taking the time to teach us! I feel so much more confident in my shooting now! I can truthfully say i will never shoot in "P" mode again!!! Here are a few of my favorite pix from today! Thanks again, Bre Curtis!!

I loved the Manual class!!!

2009-06-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

Thanks again Jen and Marissa - it was soooo fun this morning and I learned a ton. I have never taken pictures like this - it's like a whole new world to me. Here's my 3 favorites....
-Natalie Steed ;)

Wheeler Farm!

2009-06-06T16:06:00.001-07:00

thanks to those that came to the manual class with Jen and I! We had a blast and what a fun location!!! I recommend everyone check out Wheeler Farm! I didnt go more than a block but loved it!!! im already scheduling a time to go back!!! Please post any photos from the class on here that you would like others to see!

Manual Class-Post your pics!!!!!

2009-06-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

I would love everyone to post there edited pictures for the contest!!!

Welcome!!!!!

2009-06-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone!!!! This will be the home of our new blog! We will have fun challenges, questions and answers, and a way for everyone to post some pictures for critiquing! If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me!