Yeah, I know I haven't been around much lately - life's been a little crazy. But I'm hoping to remedy that! So tomorrow at school I've declared it "Fancy Dancy day" - the kids get to wear dresses / nice clothes if they want tomorrow. The girls are SO excited! ; I thought for Mother's Day I would take some nice pics of the kids in their nice clothes. ; Of course Ive NEVER done any portrait photography and this is going to be kind of informal. So we'll see. Anyway today I pulled out my "Understanding Exposure" and "Portrait and Candid Photography" books to do some research. ; I did a lot of reading about reflectors and how they can help even out those nasty shadows you get in the sun. ; I did some reading online and well and started reading about DIY ; reflectors. ; I had to go to the dollar store anyway so I picked up a piece of white foam board and a roll of aluminum foil. Since I don't have any models I went outside with my make shift reflector to take some shots of the one flower growing in our backyard so far. ; I THINK I see some differences and I like what I see - the shadows are a lot less harsh to me! ; [expando]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q121/ktmac111581/none.jpg[/expando] No reflector [expando]http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q121/ktmac111581/silver.jpg[/expando] With reflector aka foam board covered with foil! Katie Deciding if I should take my DIY reflector with me tomorrow (with the HUGE box of stuff I have to take anyway) to see if it would help any. ; I don't really have it planned yet. Hoping to get some shots outside - not going to have a lot of time anyway, just for fun. ; PS. - Whats the best aperature to use for the 18-55 kit lens for portraits? How about for the 50mm f/1.8?
I see a difference with the reflector and you will see more of a difference with the kids. ; As for aperture, what kind of backgrounds are available? ; In the thread with Miss Mandy's sister, she had a nice background of greenery. ; The 50mm f/1.8 on a cropped dSLR makes for a nice portrait lens. ; Be careful not to use it at f/1.8...try f/4 or f/5.6. ; That way you won't get noses and ears out of focus when you focus on the eyes. ; The background will still be a bit out of focus at those apertures, too. Good luck and I hope you will post some of the photos.
Thanks Scott! ; Right outside my classroom there is a bench surrounded by some tall evergreens that I might use. ; I might try to dig out a decent looking blanket that I could put on the grass as well to change it up a little. Probably not going to use any props, but we'll see. I was just thinking one of my girls has a stuffed puppy that she absolutely adores so that might be cute to use. LIke I said, its not really a photoshoot and I still have to be in teacher mode so I won't have too much time. ; But Im kind of excited!
Scott, the pictures turned out pretty good. Looking back Ive still got a few things to work on but I think the Mom's will love them. ; Ended up using the 18-55 since it gave me a little more space to move around. ; Will send you a few examples by PM when I finish playing with them! ; Thanks again for your help! Katie
Glad to hear it worked out well. ; If you hadn't taken the pictures yet, I was going to suggest having one of your students be your assistant and hold the reflector for you.
Actually did well by laying my reflector on the ground right at the kids feet just out of the picture. ;
