June Weddings

June is a very popular month for weddings with its mildly warm days, cool nights, and a beautiful blanket of summer green draped over every inch of ground. Well, at least that is what June looks like in Arkansas!

With that said, I have decided to make June "Wedding Month"!

For the entire month of June I will be posting tips and tricks for photographing weddings, quick and easy editing options, and also some great links to make planning a wedding a little easier. (Well, as easy as planning a wedding can be.)

To kick-start this month off, here are a few tips on photographing an indoor wedding in low light without a flash:

• Shoot in RAW if your camera allows.
• Use a high ISO. 
• Use the lowest aperture that your lens will allow.
• f/2.8 or lower is recommended.
• You could also shoot in aperture priority mode.
• Use a slower shutter speed. 
• If shooting by hand, do NOT set your shutter speed lower than the shortest focal length of your lens. ex: My lens is 18-55mm, so I use a shutter speed of 1/20 of a second because the next lowest number on my camera is 1/15 of a second. This will help reduce camera shake.  
• Use a tripod if able.  

Here are a few websites that go into more detail that will help you better understand each of these points:

RAW vs. JPEG

ISO explained

Aperture explained

Aperture and Shutter Speed explained

Snapsort's Low Light Photography Infographic

Picture "Perfect"

I see so many gorgeous, perfectly focused, sharp photos out there, and I wonder how in the world do they get such "perfect" shots? I often struggle with getting my subject as sharp as I want. The absolute worst thing is when you get that "perfect" shot with the lighting just right and the perfect facial expression, and you pull it up on your computer only to find that the subject's face is out of focus!! Oh, I just get such a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I see those could've been perfect shots.
I found some REALLY good tips on this blog about how to have less of those sick feeling moments. And to my surprise, they really weren't hard to do, however I did have to dig out the good old camera manual because my camera is quite a bit different than his. I am looking forward to trying it out in my next shoot, and will let you know how it turns out. :)
Get these simple yet really useful tips HERE!

Bethel Church Podcast - FIERCE = UNTAMED + BRAVE

This is such an amazing message from Danny Silk about shame!
Listen HERE because it will truly change your life!

Giveaway

Florabella is giving away their newest package to 5 lucky people!!

Details HERE

TAMRON LENS GIVEAWAY

Another great giveaway from MCP!
Get all the details here!
http://www.mcpactions.com/blog/2010/10/12/contest-win-a-tamron-sp-70-300mm-lens-for-nikon-canon-or-sony-dslr-cameras/sp70-300-vc-usd_a005/

The winner will be chosen June 2!!! I am so excited!!

Here are the photos I entered for the contest:

Challenge # 3: Friend

Challenge # 2: Sunny day with sunflare 

Challenge #1: Neighborhood

The neighborhood got together to throw a birthday parade for one of their friends! :)

 Happy 50th Uncle Mike!

Challenge #4: Motion Blur 

Challenge #5: One Click

Nothing like Memorial Day smores with the fam!!

It is a bit overexposed, but this truly was the first shot. It was so hard not to edit!! :} 

MCP

MCP Actions: Photoshop Actions & Training MCP is another wonderful photography blog. They have so many great tips and tricks for new photographers, like myself. They also have tons and tons of actions for Photoshop, PSE, and Lightroom. Go check them out!!

Photoshop Actions

I have recently discovered this wonderful little photoshop trick called Actions. Actions are presets that bundle all the complicated little steps together to produce a specific outcome. Let's say, for every photo you edit you find yourself adjusting the levels, sharpening, and boosting contrast. Well, an action basically bundles all of those steps together for you so you can access them by simply clicking and dragging the action icon onto your photo. So, by running an action you then turn 3 steps into 1! You get the same result in half the time! It is amazing!! Another cool thing is that, in most of the actions, you can still adjust the layers to taste. 
thecoffeeshopblog has so many fabulous FREE photoshop actions and tutorials. She makes it so easy to obtain that "professional" look even when you don't really know what you are doing. ;) And, if you are anything like me, you get super excited at even the thought of making photoshop a tiny bit easier!
Here is a before and after using one of the Coffeeshop actions:

Before

After  

In this photo I used Coffeeshop Sunny Pop action which you can find HERE.
I hope you enjoy!!

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