Don’t say Cheese! – How to get real smiles for the camera!

by Lilypad | Jun 8, 2017 | Families, Kids & Portraits, Featured, Photography Basics

Don’t say Cheese! – How to get real smiles for the camera!

Capturing natural smiles!

Make it fun – not cheesy!

One of the questions I’m asked most as a professional family photographer is just how do I manage to capture natural smiles? You’d think something we all do naturally shouldn’t be that hard, but let’s face it – it can be really hard, particularly with kids or for “posed” portraits.

I have two simple rules that will give you the best chance of photographing natural smiles.

Rule one: You have to make it fun!

Yes – It’s really that simple. Keep it positive and don’t ask people to say cheese or you’ll only get that fake square smile, particularly off kids. If you’re photographing your kids you need to work extra hard, make it a game, be silly, crack a joke and no matter what you do, don’t get frustrated and bring out your “parent” voice – it just doesn’t work for photos! Instead, be as silly as you can. Try acting the clown or cracking a good poo joke. Seriously, poo jokes!! They work almost every time on almost everyone!

Keeping it fun is especially important if your first problem is that your little one doesn’t even want to stand still for their picture! Rather than rattling off instructions like; “Stand here” “Stop wiggling” and “look at me!!!” Give them something fun to do instead, something to focus on that’s not having their photo taken like looking for the dolphins, bugs, shells or throwing leaves or snow. With older subjects, the same goes, relax them, chat, ask about their interests, don’t take the shot while they are talking, but the smile after.

Rule two: Be prepared!

Channel your inner boy scout and be prepared BEFORE you attempt to wrangle the subject. Make sure you’ve found the right light, angle, backdrop and your camera has the right settings, even take a test shot or two to make sure the light is right and the exposure spot it, and then, and only then, call in your subject. Nothing brings on the fake smile faster than having to wait while you fix your settings, or worse, missing the magic and having to redo the shot over and over again.

The best way to print your instagram photos

by Lilypad | Feb 13, 2017 | Gear guides & reviews, Holidays

The best way to print your instagram photos

The easiest way to print your Instagram photos

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’ll know that I am really passionate about capturing gorgeous images of your family. Like really passionate! But what you may not have picked up on yet, is that I am just as passionate about printing those images. Getting them off your camera and out of the cloud and onto solid ink & paper. Prints that you can hold, touch and see even if the batteries are flat or the wifi is out. Printing your photos make you smile, in fact, there was a once a study done that having print family photos around your home helped to improve your children’s self-esteem.

But hey, let’s get real here. Printing photos takes time. It takes effort. It’s rarely going to make it to the top of your to-do list. Heck! I’m a professional photographer and printing my own photos rarely makes it to the top of the list. It may or may not be the case that I only just recently did the first print, reshuffle & refresh of the family photos on my walls in nearly three years!! And as for photobooks, well I’m not sure I’m prepared to incriminate myself there – more than I’ve already done anyway 😉

If you’re anything like me I have the best news you’re going to hear all year! What if I told you, printing photo books could be done in just a few minutes. Or, even better you could set it on autopilot and have gorgeous photo books printed beautifully and sent you on a regular basis without you even clicking a single button on your phone. Impossible? You’re crazy Lisa I hear you say? That last part may be true, but happily, for busy people the world over, you can now automate your photo books. I bring you chatbooks. Beyond easy photo books!

You can create custom photo books, or set up a Photo Book Series, then forget about it: photos you post on social media (Facebook or Instagram) or choose from your phone will be added in automatically.

How to create the easiest ever family holiday photo book

Naturally, I had to fully test out the book before I’d recommend it (which I absolutely do). I’m a tough sell too, not only do I want good colour and consistency, I want the software to be easy to use. A recent family holiday in Croatia was the perfect opportunity to road test Chatbooks. See, I take a lot of photos when we are on holidays, a lot, and for special trips, I also love to keep a diary of the holiday. When I get home the intention is to make a photo book from the images, but the sheer effort involved in culling my images and setting up the book means it can be years, and then a few more before anything happens. This trip, I had myself a photo book, with a daily note/diary entry in my hand in just a few weeks after the trip, to use their tagline – it was beyond easy!!

During the trip I simply uploaded a photo a day to instagram, said a little or a lot about the day, and added a unique #hashtag to those photos. When I got home, I simply created a custom photo book based on the #hashtag, checked I hadn’t missed a day and that they were in order. And shazam, this beauty arrive in the post a few weeks later.

Yahh me! Even I was shocked at myself. Not just for special events. These photo books are perfect for photo a day projects and for daily life. Just set up the photo book series and chatbooks will automatically print and send you a book for every 60 images. They’ll let you know when you’re getting close so you can go in and edit the selection. You can set this automatic process for photos on your Instagram, facebook or your camera roll if you don’t use social media.

I was really happy with the colour and the printing of my photos, the quality of the paper and the book was amazing for the price. Oh yes, the price. Let’s talk about that.

The most affordable photo book

How much does this all cost I hear you ask? Surely such simplicity is going to cost me. Nope, these are some of the most affordable photo books I’ve ever used. At the time of writing, just $8 USD for the automatic books, and $12 for custom – free shipping per book. Even taking into account my upgrading to a hardcover and adding a few extra pages and shipping to Australia, it was still great value!

Try them out yourselves

But don’t take my word for it, try Chatbooks for yourself, don’t loose your precious memories in your hard drive!

Go – get printing – you just ran out of excuses!

Behind the Scenes | How to take an environmental award winning family portrait

by Lilypad | Sep 21, 2016 | Behind the scenes, Families, Kids & Portraits, Pro Photography

Behind the Scenes | How to take an environmental award winning family portrait

This image was a part of a family session, right from the time of booking Dad was keen to have a shot in their garage with his boys. I love environmental portraits, they offer a real window into the life of the subjects. This image won a silver award at the recent 2016 National Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPAs).

Time of Day & Location notes

As we were also shooting outside family portraits, the session took place late in the day, around 4pm. The garage door was open behind me throwing a lovely soft light inside.

Setting the scene

This was all about the them, Dad’s garage, cars and boys. They set the scene, I merely suggested where to stand and what to do.

The tech stuff

I used a tripod so I could shoot as narrow a depth of field as possible, and a wide angle lens to include as much of the garage as possible. Using my 35mm f1.2L, 1/50sec, no one was moving fast, f9, ISO1600.

Editing

First I corrected the image for the distortion the wide angle lens gave on the yellow struts and roof. Then a reasonably strong HDR effect was applied to the image on most areas of the garage. I also softened & darkened the strong light that came from the roof and highlights throughout the garage. The image was printed on a matt paper that softens the effect so I went a little further digitally then I normally would.

How to take an award winning family portrait

Behind the Scenes | How to take a composite award winning family portrait

by Lilypad | Sep 19, 2016 | Behind the scenes, Families, Kids & Portraits, Pro Photography

Behind the Scenes | How to take a composite award winning family portrait

I’m going to fess up and say this composite image was something I thought of after the session, it would have been easier if I shot specifically for it, but I didn’t. It wasn’t until I was editing the session images that the idea came to me to put them together like this. This image won a solid silver award at the recent 2016 National Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPAs) and a silver with distinction at the WA professional photography awards.

Time of Day & Location notes

The family wanted an early morning beach session, so we met at sunrise. There is a very small window of time where the light is soft and lovely, before the sun breaches the hills behind the beach and the mood changes. The light becomes harder. I live on the west coast of Australia. Here the sun rises over the city and sets over the sea.

Setting the scene

Dad suggested the races during this shoot, which was a gift for his birthday. He loves playing at the beach with his kids and races are something I love including in sessions. When kids are about to melt down, it’s a great distraction, I get great images and they get to play and burn off steam. Win win. The family had at least 5 races.

The tech stuff

I stayed in roughly the same place, yelling at the kids. Because I didn’t have a composite in mind, I used my 24-70F2.8 zoom lens, and I zoomed in and out to compose different images. The post production would have been easier if I’d stuck with one focal length. 1/800sec to freeze the action and f4.5 for plenty of depth of feild. ISO640.

Editing

The final image was a composite of five different images, the three main races, and one extra of the dog (who was missing totally from one race shot) and a different shot of the little girl. One that would tell a better story. The little one is loosing, she makes a break and ends up winning! All edited together as best as possible to appear as one image. The ocean being the hardest, as the waves had naturally completely moved.

Behind the Scenes | How to take a creative award winning family portrait

by Lilypad | Sep 19, 2016 | Behind the scenes, Families, Kids & Portraits, Pro Photography

Behind the Scenes | How to take a creative award winning family portrait

This gorgeous image was taken as one of my whimsical portrait sessions. Where I work with the clients to take one amazing hero shot of their kids that really showcases their personality. Whimsical sessions are great fun and result in a quirky personalised art piece for the family home. This image won a solid silver award at both the recent 2016 National Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPAs) and the WA professional photography awards. Here’s the inside scoop on how I set up and captured this image.

Planning

For these stylised sessions I ask a lot of questions about the kids, what they love, what they are in to, colours, foods, habits etc and brainstorm various ideas for a set up. In this instance, the older swimming loving sister who also loves to draw was painting a picture of her little brother, lover of small dinosaur and animal toys with the usual destructive nature.

Time of Day & Location notes

As this was taken indoors, the time of day didn’t matter. It was around 11am, and we cleared a wall in the kitchen by moving a table. There was a bank of windows to the right, and a smaller set directly behind me. The scene was actually taken as two images. The boy then the girl, and joined together in PS. This was bot for reasons of space, and because it’s easier to get the exact individual expressions when capturing just one subject.

Setting the scene

The little boy wasn’t feeling great at our session, he’d been sick for a few days. I made sure the entire scene was set up ready to go, the lighting was right and the camera set on a tripod before encouraging him into the shot. This way, no time or good humour was wasted getting things right, all he had to some come in and play. Be a dinosour and smash up the city. His older sister was easy, happy to do what ever we asked. However I still made sure everything was ready for her.

The tech stuff

Shot using natural light, I set the camera on a tripod so that if I had to make any composites it would be an easy swap. Also the tripod allowed me to not hide behind the camera which allowed better engagement with the subjects. I used my 35mm 1.2L lens, at f4 – I wanted depth of field here.

Editing

Editing this award winning image was a matter of combing the two final images. A lot of work had to be done to make sure the floor aligned as well as the skirting boards and blended so that no join could be seen. I also removed distracting elements like power points and a small window. A few marks on the walls were cloned off. The final image was then given a slight HDR look with a heavy tonal contrast in PS. This gave the image and ever so slight cartoon look that I really think helped to set off the image!