Valentine Portraits

This is going to be a long post, lots of pictures. Our assignment today at Simplicity was portraits, so I spent a little time photographing the girls. Taking pictures of the kids is why I started taking pictures and how I fell in love with photography. I am a beginer, but this is how I go about photographing my kids.

I take a lot of pictures....a lot. I never know what I am going to get. Ususally the shots I think I am going to like end up being the ones I don't use and then I always find favorites along the way that I did not think I would like at all. I usually pull all of the photos into Lightroom and crop and edit them there first, adjusting lighting, exposure, color, etc., if needed. After I choose the pictures out of Lightroom I may edit them in PSE if I want to add a texture or an action.....That is basically my method.

This is the first shoot I did totally in manual. Next time I will increase my shutter speed because I had a lot of blurred photos (nothing to do with a 9 month old that is in constant motion) and hand shake. I may also try to use a tripod, however, I like the freedom of not using one. So here they are...............

{Portraits}

{Favorites}

{Out takes}

{Set up}

I am also participating in "The Joy of Love" at Willette Photography and More. Her first tutorial was on "catch light", the little twinkle you catch in someones eyes when you photograph them.....I tried to encorporate her suggestions when taking these portraits and I did get a bit of "twinkle"!