One common question I see from photographers about lens filters is whether to get a hard or soft graduated neutral density filter. Which one is better? You’ve probably seen a lot of photographers recommend soft GNDs (if you can only choose one), since they’re more versatile when photographing uneven horizons. But that doesn’t capture the whole story. Instead, the optimal GND filter depends as much on your lens – wide vs telephoto – as the scene in front of you.
If you are wondering which 24-70mm lens is the best for the Nikon F mount, we put together a detailed article that compares the sharpness of all currently available options on the market today. The comparison involves both 24-70mm f/2.8 lenses from Nikon, as well as three 24-70mm f/2.8 third party lenses from Tamron, Sigma and Tokina. In this article, we will analyze each focal length in detail and do a direct comparison between all five lenses to figure out which one of these is the ultimate champion.
I love finding a good deal on my kids’ clothes. The mom you see perusing the clearance rack? She could very well be me!
The big discount brands, while great for the rough and tumble play of a kid, often favor graphics and logos over classic styles. And especially when photographing children, I want clothes that are timeless and not distracting.
In an effort to minimize the clutter and overstuffed drawers typical of a family with kids, I have made an effort to buy our family less clothing. As such, I want every item of clothing to be durable and classic. I know we won’t mind having less if it is going to last longer and decrease the clutter in our home (plus the big bonus of less laundry!).
And I want every item of clothing to photograph beautifully!
With this new approach to dressing my family, I have spent the last several months searching for clothing brands that fit the bill. I have found myself drawn to lines created by women around the world that offer comfortable, classic clothing that will last.
I love to support other female business owners and these options are perfect for portrait sessions and daily life.
Meg, a mother of 5 learned how to sew as a youngster and began making clothing for her own children when they were babies. Like me, she desired clothes that would withstand the test of time and style and through that Canvas House Designs was born.
You are going to love the natural fabrics, the gentle colors, and the timeless silhouettes. Every item transitions beautifully from special occasions to play time to photo sessions seamlessly.
I am particularly smitten with the linen dresses and the adorable little bloomers!
I was immediately drawn to the soft fabrics and adorable designs of EmmiFaye. The sweet little bonnets, carefully curated prints, and classic designs make every item in this shop photo-worthy!
Even better, this is a business run by a mom who, like so many of us photographers, has taken her love of an art form and used it to support her family.
Her gauze baby bonnets are my absolute favorite and I could photograph little ones in those all day long!
Are you handy with a sewing machine? Then you are going to love this brand!
Jill, the owner of JillyAtlanta, is a seamstress and a pattern maker. This gives you the option to buy remade clothing or purchase patterns to make your own clothing in the fabrics and colors of your choice!
I love all the luxurious details that JillyAtlanta includes in her designs. Darts, pleats, gathers, tucks, and linings are not always found in children’s clothing. And yet, these little details make all the difference in fit and quality, making these clothing items beautiful and long-lasting.
I have purchased several patterns from this brand and find them easy to understand.
If you love linen clothes in natural colors with classic silhouettes, you are going to fall head over heels for jo + brett! This collection of dresses, tops, and rompers is enough to make any photographer rush to a field of wildflowers for an impromptu photo session!
Even better? This line of clothing is committed to being eco friendly and is ethically made in California. Every item uses only 100% natural materials which means that they are perfect for sensitive skin and for the earth.
I adore the supple softness and gorgeous details in her designs and think they are perfect for play or portraits.
No outfit is complete without accessories! And Lainey’s Room makes some of the cutest accessories around.
Lori, a mom of two, has a background in pottery and sculpture. She brings this fine art touch to her collection of necklaces, hair accessories, and bracelets.
The simple designs and natural tones of the recycled materials make these a perfect “something special” to add to any photo session wardrobe. My daughters love their necklace and I know we will be adding more to our collection soon!
Little Cotton Clothes, based in England, features a variety of clothing made from natural fabrics. The items range in sizing from babies to women, making it the perfect choice for when you want to coordinate the whole family.
The clothing that founders Imogen and Leonie design are inspired by their fun-filled days growing up in the English countryside. Each piece is simple, high quality, and designed to ‘let children be children.’ This means that you can run, jump, spin, climb and do all of the things kids are supposed to do in Little Cotton Clothes!
I love the modern colors paired with the classic look of their simple clothing. This keeps photos looking current without looking trendy, which is exactly what you want.
Inspired by the forests and the sounds of singing birds in the nature around her home, Noisy Forest was created by owner Vaide. Committed to creating clothes that are affordable and beautiful, this brand is perfect for photos and for play.
You are going to adore the details that only a designer who is also a mom would know to include. The soft fabrics feel good against a kid’s skin and the shapes of the designs allow for lots of movement.
I love that each piece in her store pairs so beautifully with the next. This means that I can mix and match items for single outfits and know that when I have multiple kids in the frame, they are going to look great together.
Tiny Stories is full of coordinating items in fantastic colors and natural fabrics. This means that I can have them all in a drawer and my kids can pick a top and a bottom and be ready to go. And my kids reach for these items often!
Comfort is often an afterthought in choosing clothing for photo sessions. But in my experience, if the clothes feel itchy/restrictive/pinched, the kids aren’t going to be happy. And they certainly aren’t going to want their photos taken! Tiny Stories solves this problem by creating simple pieces that feel as great as they look.
I love classic style and heirloom clothing. I appreciate the craftsmanship that each of these company’s pours into every piece of their clothing. I’m inspired by it.
This means that not only do my kids have clothes that they can play in and look great in, but their wardrobes also encourage me to pick-up my camera. The creative work of these clothing entrepreneurs fuels my own creativity. And I think that is pretty wonderful.
In my effort to simplify my home and life, I have found that being more intentional in purchasing our clothing has had a ripple effect. Not only are our drawers less cluttered, but my photos are cleaner without the distractions of crazy graphics. I am more inspired to take more photos. And I am proud to support other women who are working to support their families with their creativity.
Have an independent clothing brand you love? Tell me about it in the comments below!
The post 8 Picture-perfect children’s clothing brands great for photos and daily life appeared first on Clickin Moms blog: Helping you take better pictures one day at a time.
Clickin Moms blog: Helping you take better pictures one day at a time
Photography is one of the most enjoyable forms of art and there is no shortage of reasons why. From traditional portrait work to completely abstract, the possibilities of how and what we shoot are endless.
Regardless of the subject matter you prefer, all of us begin at a similar place. We have to learn from the ground up. The photography journey is full of experimentation. Growth is dependent upon testing out the waters and taking risks.
Trial and error are requirements to grow in this art and editing is no exception. However, there are some common editing mistakes that you can avoid! Understanding these no-no’s is the first step to correcting them and then moving on to explore a more cultivated creative process.
Color balance in digital photography is simply the correct rendering of colors. With correct color balance, grey is neutral, white is white, black is black, and so on throughout the rainbow.
When a photo’s color balance is off in a photo, our brains are trained to correct it. This how we know that the grass is green (even if there is too much magenta in the photo), the sky is blue (even if the photo is too warm), and a red shirt is in fact red (even when there is an overabundance of cyan in the photo).
However, as photographers we want to retrain our brains to see the color that is actually present. Because when you see a photo with correct color next to one with incorrect color, even our brains can’t fix that mess!
Learning to truly see color in photos as we edit is a honed skill. But we can practice by getting color balance right by the numbers! Practicing achieving correct color by perfecting the RGB numbers (the balance of Reds, Greens, and Blues) will allow you to gradually train your eye.
Pro tip: calibrate your monitor. Often our screens are not properly calibrated and this can mean what we see on screen will not look like what we seen when our images are printed.
Eventually, you will be able to see correct color straight away and will only need to check your numbers occasionally. This will make for more pleasing skin tones and more realistic representations of any scene you want to capture.
Too much sharpening is a classic newbie error. When used correctly, the sharpen tool can be incredibly powerful. It makes images POP! and enhances them with a more three-dimensional feel.
But here, the saying, “Too much of a good thing” most definitely applies. When a newer photographer gets a little too excited about sharpening, we start to see images that look “crunchy” and subjects that look almost alien. And that’s not good!
Over-sharpening can happen to an entire image, but oftentimes photographers will focus on their subject’s eyes. A bit of clarity on the eyes can really draw your viewer into your subject’s gaze. But taken too far and then suddenly we are looking into a pair of alien eyes!
If you are guilty of this, don’t apologize. So many of us have been there before. My best advice is to edit your photo and then reduce the effect by 10%. Walk away from your computer screen and then come back. Do you like what you see? Then that’s probably a good place to land.
With a little awareness and a fine tuned eye you will have your sharpening skilled sharpened in no time.
Much like sharpening, skin smoothing is one of those tricks that is so exciting that it is easy to find yourself getting carried away. One minute you think you are diminishing blemishes and the next you have made your subject look like a plastic doll!
With skin smoothing, a little goes a long way. When your grandma Mable’s face closely resembles a baby’s bottom, this may be your cue to back off a bit. Just like with sharpening, you should err on the side of too little smoothing rather than taking it too far.
Learning that we can adjust color intensity in post processing is a game changer. Who doesn’t want to pop color and enhance visual appeal to their image?!
But bad things happen when we take that too far. When colors are out of gamut they are beyond our working color space. We lose detail in that particular color. Losing detail in our image is no bueno. This means that they won’t render correctly on the screen or in print.
You can turn on warning signals in both Lightroom and Photoshop that will alert you when colors are out of gamut. Keep these on and pay attention to your histogram to be sure that you aren’t taking your saturation and vibrance too far.
Adding too much contrast to your image can result in the loss of detail. Highlights can blow out (meaning there is no longer detail in your whites) and shadows can clip (meaning there is no longer detail in your blacks).
Similarly to blowing color channels, excessive contrast can cause issues both on a screen and in print. Those spots of too-white and too-black can pull your viewer’s eye away from the important aspects of the frame. And the contrast in colors can leave things looking unrealistic and jarring.
While you should definitely aim to have a good range of tones in your photos (perhaps especially in a black and white edit), you want to be sure that you aren’t pushing the limits too far.
Dodging and burning are editing tools that can really polish an image. In some cases, applying a bit of darkening around the edges can help highlight the center or focus point of our image.
But when overdone, is can be quite a distraction. Instead of gently guiding the viewer to the center of the image, it can look like a strange, shadowy frame. This look is dated and definitely one to be avoided.
The current DSLR cameras have incredible capabilities. At times it can be tempting to depend on our post processing to correct our in camera inadequacies.
But take caution when lifting shadows on an underexposed image. At first glance it may not be glaring, but relying too much on editing to “save” an image can create unwanted noise and artifacts.
What are noise and artifacts? These are the little specks that you see throughout the image (especially in the shadows in digital photography as illustrated in the image above). This really reduces the overall image quality and will diminish details. The key is to get correct exposure in camera so that you don’t need to adjust the exposure too much when editing.
Actions and presets are very popular and readily available. Sometimes when using this shortcut for batch editing you can save a tremendous amount of time. That’s a good thing!
An important factor to keep in mind the most actions are not one size fits all. While some can be used on occasion for global adjustments, it’s very important to make sure that local adjustments can be made. This will allow you to tweak things for your particular photo and remove the effects of the action in select areas should it not work in one part of the frame.
At anytime during the editing process you are unsure if your action or preset has gone too far, check with the original image and compare. Often this little break will help tremendously. If you still aren’t sure, sleep on it or let someone else compare the two and give you an opinion.
Now that you have a solid understanding much of what you want to avoid when editing your photos, truth be told, making these mistakes is how we learn. While making errors can often feel like failure, they are actually secret signs that help send you in the right direction as you continue to grow.
All of the photographers featured here made all of these mistakes. Over the years, they learned how to harness the power of editing and use it to enhance their photos rather than detract. A special thank you to everyone who offered-up their early work to use as examples of what not to do!
Allow experimental editing to help you understand the power of each tool and how much of it you are comfortable using in your own work. Every step of this journey is just as important as the next. While the destination can be rewarding, the true fulfillment comes from enjoying the entire process. Happy editing!
The post 8 Common photo editing mistakes that you want to avoid appeared first on Clickin Moms blog: Helping you take better pictures one day at a time.
Clickin Moms blog: Helping you take better pictures one day at a time
In this in-depth review of the Fuji X-H1, we will take a closer look at what this mirrorless camera has to offer and why I consider it to be the best APS-C camera on the market today. One could argue that Fuji’s timing of the X-H1 release in February of 2018 was a bad marketing move due to the release of the X-T3 months after the announcement. I wholeheartedly agree, as the X-H1 certainly did fall into the shadows of the X-T3 and all the fanfare that surrounded the camera. After-all, the X-T2 was one hell of a camera (see our Fuji X-T2 review) and many Fuji fans anticipated the release of its successor. As a result, most ended up dismissing the X-H1, while many reviewers negatively criticized the camera, especially once the specifications of the X-T3 started surfacing on the Internet. After I took the Fuji X-H1 with me to Morocco and Uzbekistan, I realized that this is the camera I have been waiting for from Fuji. And even though I eventually tested out the X-T3, it was the X-H1 that I actually ended up buying for my needs. Read on to find out why.
