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Photography Week #2: Say CHEESE!

Hi, I am Kim from My Go-Go Life. I started blogging only a few weeks ago so I was gobsmacked when  Sara kindly asked me to do a guest posting about taking photographs for blogs. I am not a photographer and do not even play on on tv. I have only very basic knowledge of my camera and am lucky enough to have an amazing friend that will give an honest opinion on my pictures before I ever consider posting them. He is a graphic designer so I trust his judgement over mine any day and twice on Sundays :o) I hope I can be somewhat helpful in making your photographs better even if it is not for a blog.

For me the most important thing is to keep the main focus on what you want others too see. Here are two pictures of Sara looking amazing as usual.  Sara sent the one on the top to me to play with and when  I sent her the “played” with pic back her first reaction was, ” What is different?” and that would be my first reaction too. It is little changes that make her the center of the photo not the plant, house or tree in the background.  You see beautiful Sara, her stunning dress cowboy boots and all! I also used features in iphoto to lighten the photo and warm it up. Not so much that it looks fake but just enough to make it more warm and not washed out.

Before

After
Here is another example of focus of object. Spring has finally decided to come to Virginia and my flowers are starting to bloom. So I took my Winter weary self outside in my garden to take some pictures of some of the beauty.

This one is okay

I think this one is much better since you can focus on the flower more and the background lattice less. I used the flower setting on my Canon Rebel for this shot, my son told me that one is for the close up shots 
No cropping or editing needed at all.
When I photograph my quilts I like to show the details. Lighting is everything to me. I like early morning or late afternoon best otherwise the photos get too washed out. This was taken late afternoon but too late.
Before, too many shadows and very dark.
Using iphoto I used the edit then selected effects and used the lighten effect to make it brighter. Not perfect but much brighter without taking away from the real colors in the quilt. 

 If I do have to photograph something large that will require that there be background in the photograph I look for interesting backdrops.  Something that will compliment the item being photographed. 

I am not sure if I was very helpful but these are the thoughts and little tricks I use when taking my photos. I also take many, many, many shots because the one shot I thought would be perfect usually is not the one I end up using at all.

Sara, Thank you so much for having me on your blog!

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2 thoughts on “Photography Week #2: Say CHEESE!

  1. Kim, your last photo of the quilt is stunning! Also, I think it is important when you crop a photo to still try to maintain some regular photo proportions (like 5 x 7, 8 x 10, square), so it looks less cut down…just a thought! 🙂 Thanks for sharing.

  2. Kim says:

    Thank you so much and I agree completely! I am still learning the cropping process in iphoto, I made some look like a fun mirror,LOL!

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