Beyond Snapshots — how to take that fancy camera off auto & photograph kids like the pros

Where on EARTH are the Beyond Snapshots girls : a post about the best camera for you

We KNOW it has been too long since there has been a post here, and let us be the first to apologize. We are hard at work on the book and with the whole thing due on December first, we are in a bit of a frenzy of writing, shooting and editing.

Since we are spending so much time at work on book details, it is hard to even keep shooting our own lives as well. Then again, it is next to impossible for us NOT to keep shooting. We feel there is something integral to daily life missing when we do not photograph for ourselves…it is what keeps us growing as artists and people. It keeps us sane.

We get asked all the time for camera recommendations. People want to know what the perfect camera is. Some of you may have seen Rachel talk at BlogHer and if you did, you will know that our thoughts on the perfect camera are in line with the old adage… “the best camera is the one you have on you at that moment.” If your camera is at home in the camera bag in the closet, it may be safe, but it certainly is not taking any photos. This is not a new concept nor is it ours alone…this guy even wrote a book on it.

That said, we totally understand that at times you will just not be able to take your big fancy camera. We don’t always have ours. That is one of the reasons that it is so hard to compile just ONE post telling you what camera we recommend. So for all the reasons that fall under the heading “It Depends”, we want to begin a series of “the best camera for you” posts by focusing on the tiny one you have in your hand probably every day…

The camera phone.

Using a camera phone is not just convenient, but it is great practice. It frees you from the pressure to get the settings perfect and allows you to concentrate on composition and visual storytelling. Unfettered by the “right” f-stop and embracing the grain and unexpected colors, you can really learn to see the shots. With some phones, you can download apps that take the standard camera on the phone and turn it into a whole world of possible cameras from a vintage polaroid with expired film to a land camera loaded with black and white plates. Some of the apps have “the rule of thirds” grid option for the camera’s viewfinder. If you need help with composition, that tool will make it a no-brainer to put the subject in the most interesting position in the frame. We will share our equipment and favorite apps with you now.

Get ready to let yourself go and create some instant art.

Peta uses the iPhone4.

hipstamatic - $1.99

- fun!
- change lenses/ borders/flash effects to create different looks
- based on different vintage cameras/lenses
- square format pushes creativity
- upload directly to facebook/twitter
- classic viewfinder mode captures the scene slightly differently than what you see in the viewfinder, just like vintage cameras
- cute vintage camera interface
- option to purchase more “lenses” and “films” to change things up

cross process – $0.99

- great vintage cross process effects
- can either take the photo with the app or use photos from library
- choice to save a “straight” version of the shot in the library
- different colour effects to try
- straight forward interface
- doesn’t affect the quality of the shot beyond the colouring, which is great for when you want a bit of pretty colouring without going too lo-fi with the effects
- choice of border or none

Rachel uses the HTC Desire, an android phone.

Vignette – £2.99 full version (free trial version that works on the tiny size only)

- completely customizable effects even after taking the shot and you can save your favorite combinations
- option to save a copy of your image and then apply new effects for many different versions of one shot
- frequent free updates
- self timer and time lapse options
- square just one of the many different crops available
- large selection of borders or the option to have none
- easy upload to flickr, facebook, twitter and other web sharing sites from app
- can import any other photos to the app and apply effects at any time
- works with flash if your phone has one
- geotag your shots…great if you are location scouting and want to easily remember where an image was taken

Apps are great fun, but do you want to get even more out of your little camera? You can buy these awesome little extra lenses from photojojo.

We really think that training yourself to photograph things on a daily basis will help you stretch your limits. It will spark ideas that you can take further with your big camera. You can finally tackle that 365 – photo a day project that you have been putting off because the thought of editing a photo a day is overwhelming…well, at least that is what Rachel has done! You can follow her 365 self portrait project on flickr.

Peta and Rachel pin prints they do at home from their camera phones on boards as a visual sort of record for upcoming projects. You can make your own with a blank canvas from the dollar store or a magnetic panel from Ikea.

Peta is framing small prints of her favorite shots in large frames with big white mats. Rachel would, but she A) takes too many darn photos and B) totally forgets to frame anything.

Our only warning…get organized because you are going to take A LOT of photos! Make sure you download the images from your phone on a regular basis so that you don’t lose all those shots if your phone goes missing or crashes! Rachel has a folder on her computer called “phone-tography” where she keeps all of her camera phone shots in dated subfolders. With her 365 project, she downloads her images daily.

Are you shooting your life with your camera phone? We want to see! Please link your sites, sets or just your favorite shot in the comments so that we can all watch your art grow. Let us know what camera-phone you have and your favorite app if you have one.

For all of you wanting to buy a new DSLR, we will be having more posts coming up with our thoughts on Nikon options, Canon options and then the great gear from other brands! This is just the beginning. In the meantime, keep working with whatever you have!

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For the love of

Mom / Mum / Mama / Móðir / 母亲 / мать / Moeder / Madre / 母

In honor of Mother’s Day (in most countries) this weekend, we would love to “meet” your moms.
Images from years gone past or just an iPhone snap that you took yesterday… please share with us!
(Maybe your photo will be our next Spotted. post!)

No photo handy, tell us a quick story about the woman you call mom or even just her name.

We’ll start:
Here is Rae Lou, Rachel’s mommy with (almost) all of her grandkids from last summer.

And here is Peta’s mum, Leah with baby Peta, 23 years ago.

We love you Mom and Mum! Happy Mother’s Day.

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Work Spaces – Joyce Smith

We are excited to introduce the new Work Spaces feature to Beyond Snapshots, showcasing all kinds of photography related spaces, from studios to home offices. We are sure these places will inspire, whether you are in business or happy snapping away at home.

There couldn’t be a better candidate for the first feature of this section than the wonderful studio space of Joyce Smith. She has transformed a dreary office unit into an beautiful and fresh natural light photography studio. The perfect place to create those gorgeous light, airy images she has become so well known for.

The before and afters need to be seen to be believed!

clearly you have a great love for mid century modern furnishing, what piece are you most excited to use in your photo sessions?
It’s funny, because I studied Victorian literature in graduate school and used to have a great love of the frou-frou. Now I adore the clean lines of midcentury modern furniture and have been redoing my whole home over the past two years (much to hubby’s chagrin) and, of course, having a field day with the studio. I’m excited about the white Eames rocker and the green Eames elephant. I’ve never been a prop kind of girl, but already the elephant has proven it will work as I’d hoped–capturing the attention of a busy two year old and giving me a prime headshot opportunity!

what’s next on your shopping list?
New canvas samples and new packaging goodies are on the way. I’m still looking for perfect throw pillows. I don’t think any more furniture will fit!

what was the most difficult part in the process of creating your studio?
Envisioning what it could become was difficult. After signing the lease I was thrilled for all of ten minutes and then utterly despondent at all that remained to do. It was a mess! In a dark hour I even entertained the crazy notion of paying for the year’s lease to get out of it and continuing the search. Deciding how much money to pour into what might be a temporary space was tricky too. My landlord paid for the paint so the electrician’s bill (gulp) and floors (double gulp) were on me.

and the most exciting?
The shopping! I love nothing more than researching something into the ground and this was no different. It was tough because I did have a fairly short time frame and didn’t want to wait for 16-week turnarounds. Oh, and I am annoyingly picky and indecisive–always wondering if “the one” would be right around the corner.

the papercut dividers are so beautiful! where are they from? they look so delicate, are you not afraid of them and other things like them being broken by little hands? or is that something you have come to accept as inevitable?
Thank you! They are the work of Dutch-born, London-based designer Tord Boontje and they are actually made of Tyvek! They are the only items in the studio that gave me pause as potentially not child-friendly, but they have already withstood the fury of a few toddlers. So far so good! I looked at every possible room divider. Most were cheesy. Some were $12K. Some were available only on German websites with no US distributer. It was maddening. My favorite, which would not work because of the track lighting, was Parametre by 3form. Maybe in my next studio!

all the white is so calm and fresh. did you know from inception you wanted to go with this kind of colour palette?
Sort of. I didn’t want EVERYTHING white, which at this point it mostly is, but I knew that I needed white floors to transform the space (and bounce light!) and that I wanted splashes of color. The splashes of color are still a work in progress, but I have some cute Fauna pillows and some bla bla animals on the way. The canvas samples should provide some color as well.

are you finding more people are booking studio or on location sessions?
At this point I have not advertised the studio at all, other than to place images on the blog and add one line to my new client inquiry response. And yet, I’ve had three sessions at the studio in the two weeks or so that it’s been officially ready. It’s a little surprising to me, actually, since I am obviously known for location work. Once the first two workshops at the studio are finished, I hope to host an open house for my clients.

will your studio get good natural light year-roud? if not, have you considered using lighting in the greyer months?
It does get enough light. I would not say that it’s an abundance of light a la the perfect industrial loft with rows of six foot windows of which I’m still dreaming, but it is plentiful even on grey February days. A typical reading near the big window on a cloudy, dark March day was f 2, 100 iso, 1/400. I don’t usually get those kind of readings in private homes. One interesting feature of the studio is that you enter on the first floor (the only ground floor space I saw) but the back, northern-facing windows are on the second story which makes the light even better–no color casts, buildings, or trees anywhere near those windows. I may consider using lighting. I do have a simple lighting set up at home that I’ve never used for clients, just to learn for my own satisfaction. For quite some time now, though, I’ve had in mind a different sort of session offering for clients–a more commercial, heavily stylized shoot with studio lighting.

how is the studio set up? one big open space or are there different rooms?
One big open space of almost 700 square feet. It’s not a perfect rectangle–there’s a small inset in the back–but it is very open. There’s a small powder room and one closet–not enough!

have you noticed a change in your style between studio and on location sessions?
Not yet. Time will tell, but this is definitely something I have wondered about during the process. I think I will get bored pretty quickly (sssshh!) so of course I will always offer on-location sessions as well. I really, really, really do not want to continue to drive as much as I do now, though . . . hence the studio!

we have seen all the gorgeous furniture, but what other things do you do to set the mood of your space? The non-visual… music? scents?
One of the first things I bought was a Bose iPhone dock more to cover up the sounds of the business next door (and, ahem, some cigar-smoking construction workers who like to chat out back under my windows, oy!!). I’ve been cueing up Pandora and plan to add a “favorite musical artist” question to my client pre-session questionnaire. That way I can have their custom Pandora station playing when they arrive. I’ve kept up the lovely fresh flowers for a few weeks but I see low-maintenance, less sweet-smelling cacti and moss spheres in my future. ha ha!

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Skin Tone Quick Tip Processing Video

We get asked about skin tones so often that we thought we would share a really quick but effective processing trick with you.

The key to good skin tones is not just in the processing, so this will not be a miracle cure. You need to make sure that you have flattering light and great exposure to start, but sometimes you need to fix a slight color cast. Often we will forgo RAW and shoot jpgs for the quick processing and to save space. Rachel actually shoots both RAW and jpg at the same time with the D3 and will often just process the jpg while saving the RAW file for if it is ever needed. With proper exposure, all jpgs require are possibly a curves layer and some sharpening to be ready to go. Not everything needs the full RAW treatment.

Like this shot of Rachel’s daughter, Gemma. The light was nice and a little bump in curves was all it needed for exposure, but the setting sun reflecting off a red wooden fence has really added to the warm color cast in her skin.
We have included the before (left) and after (right) to show the results we got with 2 quick adjustment layers.

Here is what we did to fix the color cast.

It is a really simple trick and I am certain something that a lot you have seen before, but we thought a quick video would be helpful for those who are just really getting to know Photoshop. If you like the videos, we will look into doing more with a better production value, but for now, here you go! We have a new YouTube account, so if you are on YouTube, you can click to follow us there as well.

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Workshopping

The response to our last poll on locations for a possible teaching tour was really wonderful. Clearly there are a lot of you who would like to learn more and we have a much better feel for where we are considering holding these classes. We would love to hear from you now about budget and time. If you would just take a minute to answer this super short poll, we would appreciate your thoughts.

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we ♥ – kid related design inspiration

As photographers, we find inspiration not only in photos, but all sorts of cool, creative stuff.

We thought it would be fun to showcase some of our favorite places to whittle away the hours online.

First up, is a tiny tour of some of our favorite kid related design blogs. Grab yourself a coffee or tea and get comfy, you could get lost in these for a while!

ohdeedoh is the baby of apartment therapy, the awesome and hugely successful home design blog. It is a wealth of endlessly inspiring ideas for kids room/nursery design, and all kid-related design from toys to dinnerware.

dos family is a Swedish interior design blog run by two friends. Dos focusses on family homes, all are beautiful, quirky, livable and completely awesome.

lmnop focuses on pulling the best of kid fashion and accessories from the biggest tradeshows in Paris, New York and Tokyo and bringing them to your living room.

grosgrain’s author, Kathleen describes herself as an artsy craftsy, penny pinching, party planning, playdating, fashion finding, sci-fi loving, stay at home mommy who always keeps her sewing machine plugged in and loves all things charming. There is so much DIY sewing inspiration and give aways for those who are less craft-inclined. One of our favorites is the last minute frock tutorial, throwing together a dress in less time that it takes to run a load of laundry, that’s a novel idea!

Inchmark is chock full of fabulous home DIY and craft ideas. Author Brooke is a book designer and former art director at Martha Stewart. She is always coming up with ingenious creations and twists on every day things. It’s a little early in the year, but we especially love her home made Halloween costume collection

Modern Kiddo is another fabulous blog that features all things kid related and awesome… wardrobe features, party ideas, craft tutorials… endless inspiration. Alix and Dottie know their cool stuff. Look out for them in the launch issue of MAEVE magazine next month (another cool thing we are super excited about! More on that later)

We left Etsy out of this round, because there is just too much there. That will be a post for another day!

What are some of your favorite kid related design blogs? We would love to see!

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Spotted. In The Dollhouse

We love bringing you images from readers whether they are just beginning or already pros…like this shot from Carrie Hasson! Sometimes a shot just makes us smile. Many elements combined like great angle, wonderful expression and beautiful colors all bring this story to life in one frame. An outtake from a “bump” in her session.

I took this snap of Zoe the pug as I was preparing to photograph a little girl that she belongs to. Zoe is on the older side, and she has a new younger sibling, a pup that has 100 times the energy and 100 times less patience. Unfortunately, we had to postpone the shoot due to a nice sized goose-egg on the head of my little client that she endured after trying to rally the pups on top of the bed and instead threw her head back against the window sill:( Luckily, it was a friend and neighbor, and rescheduling was a cinch. In the midst of all the commotion, little Zoe decided to hide out in the dollhouse. The riley pup, you see, is bigger than Zoe and can’t fit:) Didn’t mean that the puppy didn’t try and try and try to get to Zoe, who by the way was raised in her early years surrounded by cats and is true to her nickname of Garfield the Cat. Have you ever known a dog to lick it’s paws and wipe it’s face with it’s paws? That would be Zoe. Have you ever known a dog to make feline hisses and growls at another dog, specifically a puppy that won’t stop barking and egging you on? That would be Zoe! Zoe aka Garfield:)

This shot was caught while mom was holding my little client on the bed, nursing her goose-egg and there was an ever so brief moment in time where said puppy pranced away from the dollhouse to check in on mom and daughter. In that instant, Zoe looked pleadingly in mom’s direction. I imagined her to be thinking something like this, “Come on mom, can’t you help a pug out?!”. And then as fast as I could snap the pic, the the puppy was back.

Shot info:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
50mm 1/60sec at f/ 1.4
ISO 160

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Introducing Some Beyond Snapshots Goodies

Does your camera take great pictures? Well, have we got a coffee mug for you.
Can’t stop taking photos of your baby? There is a onesie for that.

Beyond Snapshots has teamed up with the AWESOME, fantastic, Jodi Walker, the talented designer behind Itch Design to come out with a line of fun, quirky, photo-themed goodies for your enjoyment. We are beyond thrilled with what she has come up with and we think you will love it too!

There is something for everyone. We love that all the American Apparel tees are organic and we are really excited about the cute SIGG bottles and the adorable journals (it will be perfect for jotting notes for our book!)

Head over to the store to see the full range

More fun designs will be rolled out soon!

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Announcing the winner of the Epiphanie camera bag

Announcing the winner of The Lola bag by Epiphanie!

#11 :: Janine Coveney

Congratulations, you are going to love that bag!

Thank you all for taking the time to enter this contest and for sharing your images! We love seeing people interpret a theme and we will be doing more of that soon.

This contest was a random draw for the winner, but looking through all the links, we found some amazing photographs and we wanted to share just a few of our favorites with everyone. Please enjoy some of the entries for the “red” theme!

Left Right

Jodi Palmer Tomi Omololu
Charlie Jones Vanessa
Candice Renee Corina
Maggie Otharan Tania
Lisa G Kelly West Mars

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Processing :: tips for using presets in Lightroom

Everyone wants a quick fix and sometimes applying a preset can do just that. Often times though, the preset is just a starting point to getting a certain look. We thought we would share a simple technique to using presets to their fullest potential. While it involves using both Lightroom and Photoshop, it really is not that long or complicated of a process once you get started.

Since Rachel is the one who uses presets the most and she happened to have a bunch of personal photos she was editing for her blog, we thought we would share a quick run through of the process on this photo of… her feet!
Oh come on, we ALL have taken photos of our feet before.

Backstory: This is an image from the day she used her D200 with her Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 lens as a point and shoot. Because this was just a fun day out with friends, the images were shot in jpeg only. You don’t need to shoot RAW to use Lightroom. She wanted the images to have a sort of “lomo” look to them.

Here is one quick way to make a normal image

more funky in less than the time it takes to make another coffee and without having to use actions.

1) Process an image in Lightroom to get correct exposure and color. We prefer to use Lightroom over Adobe Camera Raw for working with presets as it is so easy to visualize the changes that will be made to your shot with the preview window. No guessing if a certain preset will work on that particular image or trying to remember what look a preset will give your image just from the name in a list.

2) Export that file as a jpeg. (example: base-image.jpg)

3) Open that image in Lightroom and apply a preset (this one is “on holiday” from Rachel’s Round Two set.)

4) Export that file as a new jpeg. (example: preset1-image.jpg)

5) Open the base file again in Lightroom and apply a different preset (this one is “the 70′s” from Rachel’s First Stop set.)

6) Export that file as a new jpeg. (example: preset2-image.jpg)

You can do this as many times as you would like to get the most options as you are just creating “layers” for your Photoshop file that you will create next.

7) Open all copies of the file in Photoshop.

8 ) Using “base-image.jpg” as your background layer, copy and paste the preset images onto that file.

9) Now here is where the playing part happens…reduce the opacity of the preset layers, change the blending modes, mask out parts of the image…it is up to you.

With these preset layers in Photoshop, you have the most control over the total look of your image.

In this case, the “preset2-image.jpg” layer was set to soft light for contrast but the jeans were painted back as they got too dark. The “preset1-image.jpg” layer was left as a normal top layer at 47% but the mask was inverted so that the effect was painted on to the image with a white brush on the black mask. Rachel did it that way so that she could control the look of photo as she worked letting the legs and feet and surrounding pavement come through from the lower layers.

Just another way to edit and use all those presets that you have just sitting there.