Sunny days, shady ways

If you've ever tried to take pictures on a sunny day, you've probably experienced my recent pain. I came across a pretty blue field of flowers, and thought, "What a perfect spot for a photo!". But shooting in the bright, mid-day sun resulted in a picture that was all wrong: the strong sun created an unflattering combination of harsh shadows and overexposed spots on my son's face.

Short of leaving my camera at home on sunny days (which I've been known to do!), how could I create better images? Well, one answer is to find Open Shade.

First things first, not all shade is created equal. With Open Shade, you're looking for a couple key things: 

• Full shade created by a building, tree or other object to block the sun. You don't want your subject in partial shade or dappled light, because the bright spots behind your subject can be distracting.
• The sun should be behind your subject (although it will be blocked by the aforementioned object), with your subject facing the blue sky. The sky will reflect light back onto your subject.   
• A reflective surface in front of our subject  (like concrete, snow, sand, etc.) to bounce light back up at subject. Position your subject behind the sun/shade line: close enough to ensure light is reflecting back onto your subject, but not too close that the reflected light is overly strong.

Here are a couple images of how I set up my experiment with Open Shade.

My house is blocking the sun and my son is sitting behind the sun/shade line

My son was facing a blue sky (although it wasn't ideal since the houses blocked some of the light)

And finally the finished picture! The light is nice and even, which creates a creamy, bright skin tone. He also has large catchlights (the reflected light in his eyes), which add depth to the picture and draw your attention to his eyes.

For comparison sake, here's what happened when I tried the exact same shot, but placed him in front of the sun/shade line. 

In the side-by-side comparison, you'll notice that in the sunny picture on the right, his neck, shoulder and hat are very over exposed, while his face is lacking the brightness of the picture on the left.

One thing to be careful of is colour casts from the reflected light. If the surface in front of your subject has a strong colour, like green grass, that colour can bounce back up onto your subject. Take a look at the greenish tinge to my son's face below, particularly in the close up shot.

The reflected green is especially noticeable under his lips and to the left of his chin

Now that I have learned to love the shade in sunny days, I can't wait for summer to begin!

When to capture a moment...and when to sit back and enjoy it

When I was younger, I admit that I suffered from FOMO (a fear of missing out, usually related to social events).  Even though I've largely overcome this fear now that my Saturday nights at the bar are a thing of the past, a new kind of FOMO has emerged. A fear of missing the perfect shot. When I notice that the light is at just the right angle or Julian is making one of his adorable faces and I don't have my camera out, I often feel like I should be taking a photo. But truth be told, I know that photographing your life is about striking a balance.  While I'm lucky to have so many subjects all around me, if I miss one shot there'll be thousands more to capture.

I made sure to remind myself of this on our recent trip to Mexico. There were several times I purposely left my camera back in the room so that I could just enjoy the sun and sand without worrying about taking pictures. At other times, I forced myself to put my camera down even though the setting and light seemed perfect when I sensed that my not so patient two year old (and my ever patient husband) were done smiling for the camera.

Looking back at my pictures from our vacation at the Azul Fives resort, I think I was able to capture just enough of the moments to act as a great reminder of our wonderful week away.

Taking pictures at Kala House of Colour

Just before Christmas I checked out my friend's adorable pop-up shop, Kala House of Colour.  The home goods store had such beautiful products, I couldn't resist taking a couple of product shots. So much of my photography these days is of moving subjects, so my first thought was "this will be a breeze".  But I soon realized with product photography, you face another challenge. The little details matter...a lot! But before I get into that, here's a look at the simple set up I used to take the pictures: just a curved white piece of paper and natural window light.

With this first picture below, you'll see what I mean by attention to detail. In other types of photography, you can get away with tiny imperfections. Few people will notice if the picture of your adorable newborn isn't perfectly level. Not so with product photography. To help keep my camera level and to eliminate camera shake, next time I'll use a tripod.

My camera wasn't completely level, which made the candle appear tilted

In the second image, I adjusted my angle to correct the perspective

Here's another example of the little details making a big difference. At first glance, the photo below looks great, the bowl is well lit and the colour is strong. But what about the background - white is white, right? Not quite, as anyone who has picked out white paint colour knows! When taking picture of a product against a white background, you want a completely clean and bright background to let the product shine.

The background in this photo has a greyish tinge, which stands out compared to the white pages of this blog.

In this edited photo (I adjusted the White slider in my photo editing software), the background is more of a true white.

The pop-up shop has now closed, but Kala House of Colour will return this summer up north, so follow the store on Instagram or Facebook for more details. Here's a couple other photos of the store.

Twins?!?

We were lucky enough to welcome a new addition to our family a couple of weeks ago with the birth of our son. Pretty quickly my husband and I both agreed that he shared a pretty striking resemblance to his older sister when she was a newborn. But memories can be a tricky thing: sometimes they can fool you into believing something that doesn't quite match up with reality. I know that photography can capture memories but I wanted to see if it can also confirm a memory. To find out I decided to recreate some of my favourite shots of my daughter with my son!

And the verdict is... they aren't twins but they're pretty close (in case you were fooled, my son appears first in all the photos). Julian has a little more hair, is a little meatier and has a slightly more square face than his older sister but the rest of their features are very similar. But just like memories, a photograph isn't a perfect representation of reality. As much as I tried to recreate the photos, they were taken with different lenses, from somewhat different angles, and at different exposure settings (not to mention the fact that the poses and expressions aren't carbon copies), so it's hard to know for sure what accounts for all of the differences you see above.

What to wear? A smile and...

Most days when you choose your outfit you don't think about what the rest of your family is going to wear (well at least I don't - I'm usually just happy if Maelle puts something on within a reasonable timeframe without it spiraling into a breakdown). If on the other hand you're having photos taken, it makes sense to give it some extra thought. For family photos it's best to go for a coordinated look and choose colours that compliment each other while avoiding an overly matchy-matchy look. It can be a bit tricky to strike the right balance but I knew before shooting my friend's family we wouldn't have a problem (in fact she could give me a tip or two since she always has great style). Here are a couple guidelines when deciding what to wear: 

Consider your location

We took photos outside in the fall so the colour palette below of rich dark hues - with a pop of golden rod yellow on the tights - was a perfect choice to fit in with the background. If on the other hand I had of been taking photos of a family with a newborn, softer pastel colours might have been better.

Start with one person and build complimentary colours from there

One tip that works well is to start with one person as a focal point and build the other outfits around that person. In this case, my friend's little girl wore a plaid dress of navy and red, matching boots and a splash of yellow - and her parent's outfits complimented hers. Including a pattern can be a great way to introduce a cohesive palette but just remember to limit the number of patterns  (if there are too many they'll end of competing with one another).

Cohesive colours make the picture come together as opposed to creating a distraction. To highlight this point, I changed the colour of the boots and tights in the second photo on the right. Notice how your eyes are drawn to the mismatching items once your notice them, as opposed to the photo's subjects?

Layer, instead of adding bulk

In the first few shots my friend's family had their coats on but we quickly saw that removing the bulkier down jackets would be better.  Of course in the dead of winter you might not have a choice but since it was late October we were in luck.

Her jacket was a little too bulky (although she still looks adorable!)

Adding different textures can also add interest to a photo. When it got a bit chillier, my friend's little girl put on a cream coloured knitted sweater that matched the trim on her boots, which was a great addition.