It's All in the Eyes

As I said in my last post, the eyes should be the center of focus in most portraits. Follow the eyes, consider where they are looking and what they reflecting. There is a story within every eye because the eyes contain emotion, depth and inner thoughts. I find this especially intriguing with babies. The photos below were taken outdoors in the soft, evening light (Only the first one is edited) and I think they do well in capturing the wonder of creation through the fresh, new eyes of a baby.

Beautiful Eyes

Have you ever noticed how striking babies' eyes are? In portraits, the eyes should typically be the focus of the photograph, especially when it's of babies. I just never get tired of those big, beautiful eyes.

The picture below is mostly unedited other than just a hint of Gaussian Blur.

Stepping Back in Time

I LOVE old photos.

Remember this photo from last week? I have already turned it black and white and have added a soft focus, now I'm going to add a more vintage feel to it.

Open the photo in photoshop and in the layers panel select "create new adjustment layer" this should open a drop-down window where you can select "hue/saturation". Now another window will pop up, in the bottom right panel there is a little check-box labeled "colorize", check the box then slide the "saturation" bar to the intensity of your choice. In the photo below I chose 35.

Now Compare:

It's like sepia, only you decide!

A Gentle Touch

These are the photos I started with:

Then I added a soft focus.

I have tried before to create this effect in photoshop but I could never get it quite right. After using several brushes, blurs, and combinations, it looked rather nice but it was not "the" soft focus I was looking for. Well, that has changed. After doing some basic research online I have at last discovered the technique, and it is surprisingly simple.


Follow these 5 easy steps and you can do it too!

1. Open your photo in Photoshop and duplicate the background. (You should now have 2 identical layers)

2. Select "Gaussian Blur" from the Effects panel and add to the top layer.

3. A window will pop us asking you to pick a radius. Select a radius of 4-10. (4.0 for low resolution photos and 10.0 for high resolution.)

4.Look like an out of focus picture? Good.

5. Make sure the top layer is selected and reduce the opacity to 50%
When I did this my jaw dropped open. This was exactly what I have been looking for! It was beautiful!!!!

Now, Experiment. Try different radius levels and different opacity levels to obtain precisely the look you desire.

On the Photo below I added one more finishing touch. I took the paintbrush, selected "dissolve", the color white, and a lower opacity. I then painted around the border of the image to lighten the shadows and bring the focus back to Calvin's face.

Now Compare:

Improvement?


I have used black and white photos for examples but of course, you can also do this on color photos, here are some more examples:











Soft Focus does not "fit" all photos but it is another tool in your toolbox for the ones that do.

Baby Photography

"There's a baby in our house..."

Cute New Baby=Endless Photo Opportunities

Here are some tips I've learned over the last couple of weeks:

1. As much as possible try to avoid using the flash (unless you have an exterior flash that you can bounce off of another object) use natural light instead.

2. Try Black and White, it's more forgiving, and adds such a gentle touch.

3. Try Photographing them in a car-seat or stroller so they are in an upright position.

4. Be ready to catch those ever-changing expressions.

6. Use colorful blankets as backdrops.

7. Get Close.

8. Be Creative. A baby's face is not the only subject worth noticing.

8. Someone holding the baby? Great, even better.

9. Remember, they don't have to be awake.

10. Think, Contrast. Cute outfits do help. :)

Now go find a cute baby...sorry this one's already taken. :)