Cell Phone Basics

Seeing as many people use their cell phones for photos, today I am going to give a couple quick (and I mean QUICK) tips on some basics of getting better photos with cell phones. For purposes of demonstration, I quickly took a couple photos of my Bison Coolers soft pack and did not edit any of these photos. I didn't even really think about composition, so this is really just bare bones here!

1. Tap on the photo to change lighting.
This first photo is mostly lit from behind (back lit) which will make the front of the cooler darker. Usually when you a subject is backlit, it will look like a dark silhouette. For this photo I had enough light coming from in the house that it wasn't super dark, but if you try something like this at home your photo might be much darker. Either way,  I tapped on the screen in a dark area of the cooler to lighten it up. I touched the screen where the dark strap is to lighten it up. This will help in back lit situations or in really bright situations. (You can touch on a bright part of the photo to darken the overall picture). My cell phone has HDR available which will also help even out photos that are really bright or really dark. However not all phones will have that, so tapping on the photo in light/dark areas will help even out exposure. Also HDR will probably not be as helpful with moving subjects as it takes two photos (one exposed for the bright areas and one exposed for the dark areas) and merges them together. So if someone is running across the frame, there is a chance they will be blurry since the camera is essentially taking two photos of them a second or two apart.

Now, I don't think you would ever want to put a cooler on a chair like this, but let's pretend this was the shot you were looking for. You can see the difference here in the grey chair. The first photo was dark so I tapped on the screen where the grey chair is and the photo was lightened up.





2. Look for open shade when photographing outside.
For a photo to come out clean and crisp, the camera needs lots of light. Luckily being outside will provide lots of natural light. However, you still need to think about how to best use that light available. One best way is to place the subject in open shade, meaning a shady area but still facing the sunlight. In this first photo, you can see that the cooler is in the bright sun with uneven lighting. If I moved it back just a couple inches as in the second photo, the lighting is much less harsh and looks nicer.

Also be sure to look for even shade, not spotty.  This first photo is in dappled light, which can be very cool if done well. This one is not done well and just looks like I haphazardly placed the cooler on the ground (which I totally did!). The second photo is moved to a spot with more even shade. Remember to still have the subject facing the sun so it will be lit nicely.

3. Pull your subject away from the background. 

To help give a little depth to your photos, pull the subject away from the background. This first photo is right up against the bricks with no breathing room. The second is pulled away about 3 feet and gives more depth to the photo. 

Pulling the subject away from the background will also help to give a more blurry background naturally. Editing in a blurry background can make your photo look fake and should be used lightly. If you get it right in camera, then you won't need to worry about editing it later! Notice the fence and kickball is much more blurry in the first photo than the second because of the distance to the fence. I also held the camera pretty close to the 'bison coolers' label, and tapped on the screen to focus on the lettering, to take these photos. That will also help get a blurry background. Even the grass in the first photo is blurry because I told the camera to focus on the lettering by tapping on the screen. Usually a little green box will come up where you tap and that is setting the focus point. 

 

Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.

Finding Meaningful Photo Session Locations | jen faith brown photography

As family photo season is upon us, many people are trying to find the picture perfect place for their session. As I have mentioned before in THIS POST,  I am all about using locations that have a personal connection to the family. I like to try to find the location that fits the family rather than forcing a family to fit into a random, yet pretty, location. Here are some three examples of how we decided upon certain locations for family photos.

1.
My sister got married in Fort Worth at Bass Hall. So for her family session we lined it up with her 10 year anniversary and showed the girls where Mommy and Daddy got married. Then we got ice cream and walked around Sundance Square. This definitely qualifies as somewhere pretty, unique AND has a background story for the family.

2.
Erin's family went for a walk in their neighborhood for their family photo session. As we got closer to a pond with nearby trees, Matt talked about how they look for 'trolls' in the trees with the kids, throw tree seeds into the pond and create competitions on who can hit the center fountain. This may seem like a small scale tradition, but this is what the family does right now in their lives, so this location and activity matches their family perfectly.

3. 
Nicki had recently moved here with her husband and baby. For Henry's first birthday she chose to do a cake smash at her new home. This was perfect to celebrate his birthday while showcasing their new location in this time of their lives. This makes the session more personal for the family when compared to doing a cake smash at a random park. And trust me, I took photos of Thomas' 1st birthday cake smash at a random park so I can say first hand the pictures are cute, but don't have a meaningful connection. Had it been his favorite park that we always went to, then that would make sense. However, I loved the combination of family photos in a new home plus a 1st birthday cake smash!

If you would like to talk about where we can photograph your family so that you have a meaningful location, please send me a message!

Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.

So You are Looking for a Photographer | jen faith brown photography

This week marked the beginning of fall: leaves changing colors, pumpkin everything, cooler temperatures (except not here in Texas where we will be in the 90's until Thanksgiving), and of course family photos. It seems to be the time where people scramble to get that one good photo for their Christmas cards. Today I thought I would share some tips on what to look for when searching for your family photographer.

1. Does your style match their style? Be sure to take a good look at the photographer's Facebook, website and Instagram. Is that the style you are looking for? I know that sounds silly, but there are so many different types of genres in photography and you want to find a good match. If you want posed family portraits, then I wouldn't suggest hiring a lifestyle photographer. If you want candid, documentary type photos, then you probably won't be happy with super stylized photos with props and over the top set ups. Don't assume the photographer can do any style you want- look for the proof of their style in their photos. Also, a little insider tip, many photographers will only show the photos of the style they want to do and likely that is the style they can do really well. So if you see candid photos all over their website, be a little cautious if they tell you they can do, for example, a very posed newborn shoot for you. They very well could, but you probably want to see some examples before signing any contracts!



2. Do you have high Pinterest expectations?  Use Pinterest wisely! You may find lots of wonderful inspiration for photos, but please do not expect the exact recreation for your photos. Rather, use Pinterest to understand what you are looking for in a photographer. When you start to fill up your boards with photos, look for a recurring theme in your pins. What is common across your favorite photos?  Perhaps you will realize you love the look of natural lifestyle photos instead of posed portraits. Or maybe you will see a theme of stylized photos with coordinating outfits for the family. Do you find yourself gravitating towards very bright and sunny photos or darker more jeweled tones or even moody black & whites? Knowing what you want will help you narrow down the search when looking for your family photographer.



3.Are their photos in focus? Sounds like a given, right? However I have seen some people's photos in which the quality was a tad questionable. Some things to keep in mind when looking at a prospective photographer's sample galleries:

-Are the photos in focus? Or are more than just a couple slightly blurry and not quite sharp? Obviously there are times when photos are purposely out of focus (the backgrounds for example), but there is a distinct part of the photo that is in focus.
-Are the people's skin a normal looking color? Not too grey, not too orange, certainly not a weird shade of blue?
-Are the overall colors of the photos looking normal?
-Does the lighting look ok? You typically don't want the faces to be super bright or super dark.
-Do the photos have a pleasing composition? Even if you don't know much about composition, do you like the look of their photos? Do they chop off parts of people's bodies by accident (ie hands, tops of heads, etc)?



4. Does your budget match their prices? It almost goes without saying to make sure you are comfortable with your photographer's prices. Be sure to make sure you are fully aware of what the overall costs are, what is covered in your session fee, and what the costs are for add-ons. Some photographers charge a session fee and then you later pay for the printed photos or digital files. Some photographers have an all-inclusive price. Just make sure you know what you are getting for your money! Also remember the whole 'you get what you pay for' adage. If you find someone that offers $50 photo sessions, you might really check out their most recent photos to make sure the quality is up to your standards.



5. Where are the photos being taken? This goes along with finding a good style for your family. Do you want to take your family photos in a studio with studio lighting? Do you want to take photos in natural lighting outdoors or in your own home? You will need to decide that before choosing a photographer, or at least discussing options with your photographer. Locations could drastically change your photo session, especially if using a studio. Some studios may be very small and may not be a good fit for a family with several children.

I hope these tips have been helpful! If you look through my photos and think my photography style is a good match for your family, I would love to be your family's photographer! Contact me HERE for more information.

 Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.

Shooting in Manual | flower mound photographer

Have you joined my August photo challenge over on my Facebook page? If not, please feel free to stop by and say hi! Today I am going to share a quick tutorial on how to take photos in manual. Learning to shoot in manual was a total game changer for me so if your camera can shoot in manual (a dslr and some point & shoots), you should try it out! I am currently using a Canon 6d which is an upgrade from my Canon Rebel I was using up until January of this year. You will probably have to look in your user's manual or google where some of these buttons are, but once you know how to change the settings then you will be on your way to taking better photos!

First, switch your camera to M for manual. On my camera is it the round dial at the top where you have all the choices for different shooting mode (Automatic, Av, Tv, etc). Hopefully this will be the last time you ever touch that dial and keep it on M forever!!! You should be able to set your camera using natural light and not need to use your flash. I haven't used my flash since I turned the camera to manual about 2.5 years ago.

Now that we are shooting in manual we have to tell the camera what we want it to do so that the pictures aren't too bright or too dark. This is perfect because our eyeballs are seeing the light in real life and we can figure out how to set the camera exactly how we want the photo to be in the end, instead of the camera making a good guess as to what you want light and dark.

Below is an example what your screen might look like on your camera. The top row here are the three things are looking at today: Shutter speed (ex 1/125), aperture (ex: 8.0) , and ISO (ex: 100).

When I set my camera, I always set my shutter speed first. This is how quickly the camera takes the picture. You can hear your camera click as it takes a photo. The longer the click, the slower the shutter speed and vice versa. This is shown as a fraction on your camera (1/100, 1/300, etc). So an example of a slow shutter speed would be 1/50 and a fast shutter speed would be 1/2000.

• The faster the camera takes a picture, the less light will hit the camera. The slower the camera takes a picture, the more the light will hit the camera. Think of elevator doors closing. If they close slow, lots of people can get in. If they close super fast, very few people can get in. This is the same thing with shutter speed and light.
• The faster the camera takes a picture, the less blurry the photo. So if your child is moving quickly, you will need a higher SS to keep it from being blury.
• The more light you need, the lower you will need your SS so that way the camera has more time to capture the light.
• When photographing my kids who move a lot I try not to go below 1/125 otherwise the photos will tend to be blurry.
• Remember that YOU can make the camera move when taking the photo which means the picture can be blurry. So try to be as steady as possible when shooting with a lower shutter speed. If you are using a really low shutter speed, use a tripod or set the camera on something (like a counter) to keep it from moving.

Here is an example of where the dial is to change the shutter speed. Yours may be in a different spot so if you don't find it check online or use your owner's manual. 

Once I have set my shutter speed based on if kids are moving and how bright the light is, the next thing I set is my aperture (or f-stop).  Aperture is the opening in the lens for the light to go through. This is shown on your camera like f/2, f/3, etc. or F2, F3 (like in the above example)

• The smaller the aperture (ex: f/2), the more light will come through. The larger the aperture (ex: f/11) the less light will come through.
• The f-stop also narrows in the focus and sharpness on the photo. So if you are looking for those blurry backgrounds, you will need a low f-stop. If you want your whole photo in focus, including the background, you will need to have a higher f-stop.

This may be harder to find on your camera because I think to access the aperture on some cameras you have to hold down a button and turn the dial at the same time. If you need help, google it!

Finally, I set my ISO which is kind of like an internal light to help in low light situations. You can up the ISO if the photo is coming out dark, however the higher the ISO, the more 'grainy' the photo will become. You will want to keep the ISO as low as possible but I have found there are just simply times when I have to put my ISO super high. The below camera example shows that the top arrow button is used to access and change the ISO. Again check your manual if you can't find your button.  

Confused yet?! :) Don't worry! Let's look at some examples. These are some recent photos I have taken around in different light situations. Yours could be quite different based on what kind of camera you have and the lens you are using. But at least you can see some examples and the reasons for the settings I used.

Thomas sleeping in a dark room, inside. I even had to turn on the lamp because it was dark. So my settings were SS 1/80 (low because it was dark and I needed light, but he wasn't moving so I didn't have to worry about it being blurry), F2.2 (needed as much light as possible) , ISO 6400 to add more light. If you are taking pictures in a really dark space (ie in a dark room when a kiddo is sleeping) you can always turn on lamps or hallway lights, use an ipad to shine light on the person (lay it on the bed or crib but out of the frame of the camera), or if it is during naptime you can try to open up the blinds a little. You need enough light to get the camera to focus, but overall the photo can be dark since that is what is happening in real life.

Mom and daughter playing on beach, bright sunlight. SS 1/1600 (because I needed to cut down on bright sunlight), F3.2 (because I wanted blurry background) , ISO 160 (low because I didn't need to add more light to the bright sunlight)

Boys during glow-in-the-dark golf. Shutter speed needed to be as low as possible to let in light because this room had no overhead lights or windows, ISO high as possible to add light, and aperture low to let in light, but high enough to get the boys in focus.

SS 1/100, ISO16000 F3.5

Boys inside near a window. I wanted shutter speed high enough to freeze motion but low enough to let in light since we are inside. SS 1/125, F3.5, ISO 640

Boys inside near window. Similar to above I wanted low SS to let in more light because the room was darker than the picture above, but I also wanted a bit darker background. The boys also weren't moving much since they were sitting to paint so I could have used a lower shutter speed if I wanted to. SS 1/125, F2.8, ISO 2000. Notice that Matthew's face (on right) is nicely lit because he was facing window and Thomas' (on left) is darker because there isn't light on his face.

So, now it is time for you to practice, practice, practice! It takes a little while to remember how all the settings change and how they affect each other. Take a bunch of pictures but try not to get frustrated. You will find out really quickly that light changes everything in a split second. A cloud can move across the sky, the kids run from the shade to the sun, the kids move away from the window, etc. When the kids move to different lighting, I will just wait until they come back instead of chasing after them and switching settings over and over again.  Also remember that once you get the feel for your own house then you probably will know what the settings are without a lot of guessing and checking. Notice my settings aren't drastically different in my house from location to location, especially the SS, so it just minor changes as we move about.

So once you get a photo that looks properly exposed (not too bright and not too dark) then share it on facebook. I don't care if it is a photo of a stuffed animal since it makes things less complicated that good ol' teddy isn't moving. I would love to see how you are doing!

Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.

Bring The Camera Everywhere | flower mound family photographer

Seeing as I am dead set on documenting the small every day details of our lives, I learned early on to take my camera with me wherever we go. Now, I don't have my camera with me 24/7 because with three little kids, sometimes it just isn't feasible to take photos when we are out and about, especially if Brad isn't with us. However, I take my camera with me even to the weirdest places. I may get some funny looks, but whatevs. I don't really care! So, here are some examples of photos I have taken in random places...some more random than others.

1. Barber Shop
Having three boys with particular haircuts means we are at the barber shop almost every month. We usually see the same stylist so she probably knows me as 'the mom with three boys who always has her camera'. I have a ton of photos of these boys getting haircuts (or waiting for their turn), but I love them all!

2. Restaurants
We don't take the boys out to eat a lot because they tend to get antsy and they are picky about what food they like. So on the rare occasion we eat at the restaurant instead of taking it home, I have to snap some photos.

3. Doctor's Offices
These photos were taken in the waiting room of Matthew's speech therapists office, although I have been known to take several photos at the dentist office and try to entertain the boys with photos at the pediatrician's office. The dentist is pretty easy since they are contained to a chair, but the dr's office is more tricky since we are usually crammed into a tiny room without any windows. However, I still have that camera with me just in case I can get a good photo!

4. Library
We make it to the library for story time every once in a while, and the camera is packed along with our overdue books that we seem to always have at the house.

5. Random Sidewalks
Cool lines means photo op!

6. Grocery Store
Might as well seeing as we are always there and the boys eat a ton of food each week!

7. Tire Shop
Sometimes we have the boring errands to run, but a precious boy makes it more bearable!

8. Nursery

This is one of my favorite photos of the three boys together. Good thing I had my camera with me when we were shopping for flowers for the backyard! 

9. Parking Lots
On a foggy day, Thomas and I hung out at the back of the parking lot after dropping off Matthew at preschool. I managed to snap a couple cute ones in the ultra rare foggy weather in Dallas.

I have had an idea of a project where I shoot photos in completely random and even ugly spaces to see how creative I can be to make such settings photo worthy. I think I might start that one soon so check back and see how it turns out!

Jen Faith Brown is a family photographer specializing in storytelling family photography session, either in home or on location. Jen is married with three young sons who keep her quite busy and give her abundant practice in photographing always-moving children! Jen is now booking 2015 sessions in Flower Mound, Southlake, Highland Village, Lewisville, Coppell, Frisco, and surround DFW areas. Please visit www.jenfaithbrownphotography.com for pricing and to view sample galleries.