Day 13: Err...I Mean 12. Wait, What Day Is This??

I have always heard that there is something called Mommy ADD. I never believed it until I actually became a mommy. Mommy ADD can be described as knowing thing one needs to be done, and starting it. But, finding that something else, that is WAY more important, needs to get done before thing one. Which, of course, leaves thing one halfway done. Sprinkle in a few, "Mom, I need a ..........!" or a "Uh oh!!!" along the way, and that, in a nutshell, is Mommy ADD. And also what happened to my blog post from yesterday.

Hey, trying to document learning your camera and showing photographs daily is tough!

I am also thinking about documenting my life on here. And showing pictures to the grandparents...Brennen is out of town. I am chatty.

SEE!! It's happening again! This Mommy ADD!!!

So, Day 11 was just a link up day. On Day 12 of 31 Days To A Better Photo talks about white balance. I am going to quote Darcy with her definition of what white balance is. "White balance is the process of letting your camera know what is neutral so white things look white." What that means is, if we are taking pictures our boys in Colorado in a very bushy area where it's really dark and shady with little areas of light colors, it might be difficult for the camera to judge the neutral colors.

To fix that problem, you can use a white balance preset. On my Canon, they are:
Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, White flourescent light, Flash, and Custom.

I have been shooting all of my pictures in auto, and it's done very well in most instances. But, when I take the pictures of my boys at night in their rooms, the pictures always look yellow. If I were to take the pictures with a Tungsten white balance, it would put more blue into the photo to reduce the yellow-ish tint. YAY! This is exciting!

So here is me playing with my camera, and adjusting the white balance as needed.

1/1250s f/5.6 ISO 100

White balance set at Sunny or Approx. 5200K (kelvins)

1/1250s f/5.6 ISO 100

White Balance Approx. 5200K

While the auto white balance pictures look very much the same, I did notice a little bit of difference. The pictures weren't so bright, if that makes sense.

I have tried to get pictures of the boys, but I have failed over the last days. Let's see what I can get this afternoon.

Day Ten: There Is a Meter in My Camera?

Yes!! There is! And you know what is the most exciting part? It will tell you if your picture is over exposed, under exposed, or just right. I was just as shocked!!

In day 10's lesson at 31 Days To A Better Photo, Darcy explains about the mysterious meter. If you have a DSLR camera, it's the scale thingy on the screen on your camera.

If you have your ISO, shutter and aperature correct, the scale will balance at 0. On my Canon camera, if the picture is under exposed (or too dark), the meter will be on the negative side (-). If I have my setting too high, the meter will be on the positive side (+).

I actually had read ahead a few days and used my meter when taking pictures on Saturday. I couldn't be happier with the results! Because I am gaining knowledge on where my ISO and my aperature should be, it was easy changing the shutter speed. I was taking lots of stills so the only adjustment I made was to the the shutter.

I did keep in mind that the last modification that should be made is ISO. Remember, a high ISO creates too much noise in your picture.

Here's your grandkid pics for the day. I had intended on taking more pictures. I walked/ran five laps while the boys were playing, and then I started snapping some pictures. By the time I got to picture number 5, Ethan had made a friend and kind of left Evan behind. So, Evan and I went to the swings and had fun going high.

The bonus tonight is another post. It's an interview with Evan. Be sure to check it out!

Day Nine: Understanding the Rules of Shooting

The lesson for today in the 31 Days To A Better Photo covers the rules of shooting. It talks a lot about numbers...ISO, aperature, and shutter speed. There is more than one way to get a photo. Let's say I am shooting pictures of the boys and we are in the shade. I know that they are busy and to get the best photo I am going to have use a fast shutter. So, I set my camera to 1/2000s, but because my shutter is fast most likely my image will be dark. What needs to be done to correct this? I can open my lens with a wider aperature, and I can increase my ISO. But remember, the higher the ISO the more noise in the photo.

Vice versa, if I am taking still photos of plants outside on a sunny day, for example, I would reduce my ISO and slow my shutter down. Depending on how I want the picture to look, I might or might not mess with the aperature. Close ups of a bloom, I would keep my depth of field shallow. Pictures of trees, I would want a wide depth of field.

How do you know when you have your exposure correct??

Well, tomorrow I will talk about meters.

The boys are home, so here is your photos of the day. I interrupted them during the movie. I also threw in some of the Daddy, the Lug (Jet), and Miss Nosey Pants (Ruby Soo).

I love these guys!

Day Five: How To Make the Background Blurry

Today's lesson in the 31 Days to a Better Photo begins to tell me about aperature. Aperature means the opening of the lens. It is measured in stops, called f-stops. The larger the number, the smaller the opening of the lens. A f/1.2 is a lens has a big opening so it allows more light in, and requires less time to get the exposure right. It also gives you a shallow depth of field. A f/16 lens has a small opening which lets less light in, and requires more time to the get the exposure. But, it also gives you a deeper depth of field.

The depth of field is the depth of the portion of the photo that will be in focus. It's what makes your kids in a picture appear in focus, while the rest of your picture is blurry, without having to edit it with software.

The tip is the lower the aperature, the wider the aperature, but the shallower the depth of field.

Examples:

f/3.5 1/20s ISO800

f/6.3 1/20s ISO 800

f/6.3 1/20s ISO 1600

Lens: Canon 18-55mm f/3.5

In the first photo, the aperature is wide and the focal point is shallow. That means the candles are in focus and the background is blurry. The second photo shows more clarity in the background because the depth of field is deeper, but it's dark. That's because the opening is smaller, so less light is getting in. The third photo has the same f-stop, but I changed my ISO to allow more light in. I could have also slowed my shutter speed.

Here's tonight's pictures of the boys making sure to adjust my shutter, ISO, and aperature.