On the Edge of Time

I took these pictures of my boys on St. Patrick's Day. I used natural lighting (which if you can't tell I love). Then to give a timeless feel I added a gradient layer in photoshop. I think it really adds emotion to the photos.

More Eyes

I know I've already blogged about adjusting the eyes in a picture, but I think that the eyes are the most important element in a picture (if they are seen of course). In the eyes is where all the emotion is. In these photos using natural light caught the extra sparkle in the eyes of my boys. I then just gave it a small boost in photoshop.

Blue Contrast

In our son's room we painted the walls a blue color that I just love! I took these pictures in his room using natural light and then ramped up the contrast in photoshop. I like how it makes the eyes stand out. It also has a more modern feel to the picture.

Black and White

I am a fan of black and white photos. They have more feeling to me - more emotion. They have a feeling of a precious moment frozen in time. It also helps that they make imperfections disapear. Here are a couple photos I took of my boys using natural lighting and then converting them to black and white.

A Little Natural Light

So I don't know about other photographers but I love to look at other photographers photos; see what they're doing and sometimes try to incorporate some of their techniques/styles into my own photography. For this reason I decided to play with using only natural lighting. Below are a couple of end products from a mini shoot with my boys and a little nautral light. (I love how there are no shadows!)

All About the Eyes

I have seen other photographers pictures and was amazed at how the eyes of their subjects were so intense. Today I set out to figure out how to enhance and change the eyes in a photograph. I used my kiddos as my subject matter and below are the results. This first picture of my little guy is the original without any edits.

Below is a black and white of the original. (Eyes seem too dark.)

Then I played with the brightness and contrast of his eyes. (Maybe too much with the baby blue background.)

Then a black and white after the eyes had been altered. (Like them much better then original.)

With my second little guy I changed the color of the eyes. Here is the original.

A little on the blue purple side, but more vibrant then the original.

Black and white after the alterations.

Overall I like changing the brightness and contrast more than color. Seems more true to form. Fun, quick, edit that I will be using a lot more often.

Papa's House

During our recent trip back to the states I took these pictures of one of my boys. My dad's land has a nice wooded feel to it and provided a great backdrop.