I have a new reason for doing composites. A photographer hobbyist like me was giving me tips on how to take pictures of moving objects without the blur. So we’ve become friends on FB. She wanted to tackle composites. But it wasn’t working out for her. So I took the princess picture of her daughter and created a composite. And my reward was getting a video message from her adorable princess thanking me. There you have it! Another reason to play around with composites. I used the new AI Photoshop clip and mask feature that made it so easy to cut her daughter’s princess picture from the original, which was a messy background. 🙂 And I put her in a princess’s castle, mostly made-up background, but I added butterflies to give it more depth and interest.
I’m also in the challenge from Click Love Grow Photography to capture certain kinds of images with children. And of course it’s spring break, so I don’t have baby here to practice on. Not that taking photos is my main goal when she’s here. Sometimes she’s so fussy because she’s teething that picture taking isn’t happening. Holding, walking, comforting is about it.
But one of the tips is Lighting, Lighting, Lighting. Without it, pictures can be awful. Yep, how well I know. So in this challenge, open a door and have the subject gather the light from the outside that way. No baby to model for me, though I had already done this earlier, by accident. The dogs wanted out. The baby was in a box, and I opened the door, and all this beautiful light came in. But just to test it with a set-up situation, we were supposed to be outside looking in. I did one of the dogs. Max, the white havanese, doesn’t like his picture taken. Tanner, always is ready, eager, photo bombs me when I’m trying to take pictures of baby or my daughter’s dogs. I created a backdrop so they were isolated from the room, which would make a busy mess of chair legs and table legs. I used a sheep’s wool lap blanket (that’s the underside), clipped it to the side of the playpen, and voila! Insta backdrop. So here are the pictures of baby in the box watching the puppies playing out back, and the puppies on their cot in place. You can see the catch lights in Max’s eyes. I need to have Tanner’s face trimmed so you can even see his eyes. lol
You can do this with window light, opening the garage door to bring in light, yeah, I know! The worst sort of backdrop, but just hang something behind your subject to make it appear that you are in the best natural lighted studio in the world. I wanted to say that with natural light, the dogs look much more their natural color. When I take pictures of them inside without natural light, they often are not the right color. Don’t you love Tanner’s flyaway hair? He did that just for the photo.
The next topic was creating sharp images while the child, or other subject, is moving. I’ll share that tomorrow.
I’m only 4,000 from word count, still have a lot to write to finish the story, and the dreaded dental appointment! I have to keep reminding myself I have to go today.
While I’m listening to the awful sounds of the tools whirring sharply in my ears, I want you to have a wonderful day! You know, if that stuff didn’t make so much eerie noise, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad!
Terry
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male where fantasy is reality.”
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