THE ARCHIVE
TIPS & TRICKS FOR YOUR LIFESTYLE PHOTOS
Laughing and brunch dates for the win, amiright? I love to laugh and I love spending time with people who laugh and make me laugh. These friends make me laugh and I love everything about that. Two things happen to us as photographers.... we either take our camera everywhere we go... or we leave it at home. If I'm not careful I leave my camera at home (I'm currently telling myself it's because we're homebodies, haha.)
In an effort to take more lifestyle photos and continue to challenge myself as a photographer I wanted to come up with some tips and tricks for taking more and better lifestyle photos.
MAKE A PLAN
When I was with the girls I knew we would be taking photos every where we went, that's the perk of hanging out with other photographers. :) We planned to go to brunch and it was second nature to be toting my camera around. I had made a mental plan that I would take photos, that I would capture our moments together, and hopefully snap some style photos while we were at it. I made a plan. This is a huge tip for me, because most of the time I'm hanging out with non-photographers/bloggers. I get a little insecure when I pull out my camera and start snapping photos of everyone and their mom. Luckily, my closest friends are used to it, ha! Now that I'm home it's important for me to make that mental plan. I have to decided ahead of time I'm going to take lifestyle photos while I'm out and take pictures of everyone and their mom. ;)
KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR LIGHT AND SURROUNDINGS
I feel like I harp on light at lot, but hey, it's important, right? Light is crucial in our photos, but with lifestyle photos, because we're working to capture moments that naturally unfold, we can't always move our subjects. BUT, we can move ourselves or adjust our surroundings to create better light or a better atmosphere. During our brunch date we ate outside, which was great because it was beautiful and sunny. The light however, was harsh and direct. We ended up opening the umbrella over our table. This was great for two reasons; we didn't have light streaming into our eyes, and we had more even light to snap photos in.
DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS
Details are some of my favorite moments to capture. They tell a great part of your story and most of the time they are easy to capture. Details can be more then objects... they can be hands, accessories, moments, and everything else in between.
BE DISCRETE
Do you want to know a secret? One of my least favorite things is drawing attention to myself when I take photos. I wish I could be invisible and just snap away. If I'm hanging out with people who aren't in front of the camera often, I try my best to be discrete. I try to capture them when they aren't looking. I snap a few detail shots around them before actually pointing the camera at them. This allows them to get a little more comfortable in front of the camera and hopefully they relax.
Featured items: Punch Vintage Leather Cuff c/o || Natalie Borton Necklace c/o || Joyful Ink Calligraphy Drink Stirs c/o
*Save 10% on Natalie Borton jewelry when you use this link! Woot!
Every day is a new day to grow, learn, and experiment with our photography. Have you ever heard the quote, "We all have 10,000 bad drawings in us. The sooner we get them out the better." I feel the same way about photographing. The more photos we take the better we get. What are some of your favorite lifestyle photos tips? xoxo. Samantha
*Photo Credits: Elah Tree || Oak + Oats || A Love photography
WIDE OPEN SPACES: SHOOTING IN MANUAL TIPS
I never knew I would love photography like I do. I never knew capturing light through my lens would bring me such joy. I'll take photos any time of day, but if I can shoot during the golden hour, I'm one happy camper. A lot happens during the magic hour that really adds to my photographing and it's all about the light. Golden hour light is soft, it glows, and it makes the subject of the photograph glow too. It took me a long time to capture photographs the way I do today, but one thing that has remained consistent is shooting in manual.
I'm far more comfortable shooting in manual now then I was when I first started, but it was shooting in manual that taught me about light. Shooting in manual taught me photography. I never understood why my college professor harped on shooting in manual, but I understand the importance now.
UNDERSTAND WHY
Understanding why you're shooting in manual will help you understand it's importance. Shooting in manual forces us to take in all the different aspects of our photography process; from where the sun is, what the light is doing, where our subject is positioned, and how we want to compose our photo. We have the option to shoot in auto, or shutter priority, or aperture priority, but those settings don't give us full control over our picture making and that's what we need. We need to be able to control all the settings to create the photo we want.
Let's break down an example. If we choose to shoot in aperture priority, we pick our aperture, and regardless of what aperture we choose our camera will choose the shutter speed, the ISO, and the white balance. Say we begin to shoot an hour before sunset. We decide we want to shoot with an aperture of 2.8 and we spend the next 2 hours shooting. If we continue to shoot in aperture priority, without evaluating the light, then by the end of our photo session, the photos we create may not be what we want... and this is why.... When we shoot in aperture priority our cameras chooses our ISO and our shutter speed. As we loose light during our shoot our cameras may pump up our ISO resulting in un-wanted grain in our photos or poor lighting.
When we shoot in manual we are forced to evaluate our lighting as our photo session progresses. We know how long or short our shutter speed can be before the subject starts to ghost. We know how much light we need in the sky before we increase our ISO. We know how high our ISO can go before our photos get too noisy.
KNOW YOUR CAMERA'S SWEET SPOT
Every camera's meter has a sweet spot. Learning that sweet spot will help you create better photos while shooting in manual. When you're shooting in manual and you're reading your camera's meter you'll learn that your camera has a sweet spot in regards to how it reads light. One of my camera's has a sweet spot that is 1 to 2 stops overexposed, which means I know to get the best exposure I should test my light 1 to 2 stops overexposed. One of my other camera's has a sweet spot that is 1 or 2 stops underexposed, I know to get the best exposure I should test my light 1 to 2 stops underexposed. Shooting in manual and learning your camera's sweet spot will give you even greater control over the photos you create.
UNDERSTAND THE CHANGES IN LIGHT
Understanding changes in light will help you create better photos when shooting in manual. If we start shooting early in the golden hour and shoot until the sun has set then we need to understand how those changes in light effect our camera settings and our photos. The beginning of our shoot will be golden and glowy, and our settings will be specific to that lighting. However, as the sun sets we will need to adjust our settings. Our photos will start out with a warm tone and by the end our photos will have a cooler tone.
Beth's Wearing : Pieces of You Maxi Floral Dress || Ekata Stone Cuff Bracelet || Ekata Goldfilled Knot Earrings || Shop Ekata jewelry and receive 15% off your purchase, use code EKATA15!
Shooting in manual can be very overwhelming, but it can also drastically change the way you make your photos. What are some of your surefire tips for shooting in manual? When is your favorite time to do photo sessions? xoxo. Samantha
BEHIND THE SCENES AT LOYAL COFFEE
You know you've found your tribe when...
If the majority of your blog career has been spent alone (no other bloggers live in your town) and then you find your self spending a weekend with other bloggers and photographers... you finally feel like you've found your tribe.
There's nothing like spending time with a group of others who completely understand what you're doing and why you're doing it. They know why you're pulling out your camera. They know why you're taking a photo from five different angles. They know why you keep staring up at the sky... I look at the sky a lot, haha! They understand why you've spend a whole hour in one place just taking pictures.
Conversations about the best lighting are normal. Conversations about where to sit are normal. Asking to move a drink, shift just a little to the left, look a little to the right are normal. Asking someone to sit tight or hold that pose for just a bit longer... it's all normal. I just love that.
Those moments, were these moment at Loyal Coffee and it's a perfect opportunity to take a peak behind the scenes. I love the two pictures just below. Meg snapped a picture of me taking a picture of Beth's drink and you can see the "after" photo just below of Beth's drink.
What I loved most about these moments was watching how everyone's creativity unfolded. Seeing how each person viewed an experience and seeing how they chose to capture that moment through their lens. For the most part, I shoot rather methodically. I think through what the light is doing, I look around at backgrounds, distractions, people, and composition. I'll actually hold my camera up to my face and see my surroundings through my lens. Not all moments I capture are like this, sometimes I simply see the moment, like this one. But a lot of the time is methodical.
One thing I loved watching, was Beth. Beth see's people and moments and captures them unabashedly. She'll view one moment and capture it 5 different ways. This was so inspiring to me, it challenged and encouraged me as a photographer. It helped me to see things differently through my lens.
Look at that photo below... that might be my thinking face, haha! One thing I love about this collection of photos is that you get to see what it looks like behind the camera. In one of the photos below, I was snapping pictures of Beth and Meg was trying to sneak through behind. You can totally see her trying to get by. I love the photos below of Meg, Beth did an amazing job capturing great lifestyle photos.
Featured Items: (Me) Between Two Pines Pullover c/o || (Me) AEO Denim Skinnies || (Me) Punch Vintage Leather Cuff c/o || (Me) Natalie Borton Necklace c/o || (Beth) Punch Vintage Leather Cuff c/o || (Beth) Let's Get Lost Tee c/o || (Amy) Mountain Time Tee c/o
*Save 10% on Natalie Borton jewelry when you use this link! Woot!
Moments like this weekend are important and necessary. Jim Rohn once said, “You’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.” This really makes you think doesn't it? Who are those five people in your life? How is the time your spending with them effecting who you are? If I could spend time with these friends all the time I would and I definiltey believe it would change the way I grow and how my business grows, but I'll take what I can get. ;) xoxo. Samanth
Photo Credits: Elah Tree || Oak + Oats || A Love Photography || Rivers + Roads
GOLDEN COLORADO ASPENS
Blue skies and golden aspens, that's what Fall is made of, right? :) If I could hang out with photographers and bloggers every weekend I would be over the moon. Hiking out next to the water, stopping to take photos, getting lost under the swinging branches of golden aspens, and laughing until we can laugh no more.
Meg and Beth had planned a few specific outings while we were visiting and Crystal Lake was one of them. It was absolutely beautiful; the temperature was just right, we had bright blue skies, and beautiful golden aspens. I totally stole this quote from Meg's insta, because it's just put so well.
"And all at once (they never knew exactly how it happened) the face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and such a sweetness and power rolled over them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or good, or even alive and awake before. And the memory of that moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived, if ever they were sad or afraid or angry, the thought of all that golden goodness, and the feeling that it was still there, quite close, just around the corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well.” -The Magician's Nephew
We had the best time snapping photos. I took pictures of Beth. Beth and Amy took pictures of me. Amy took pictures of Meg. Meg took pictures of Amy. We laughed, we learned, and we loved every minute of it.
Featured items: (Me) Crisp in the Fall Graphic Sweatshirt || (Me) Joy is Contagious Mint Tank || (Me) AEO Denim Skinnies || New Balance 574 Cruisin || (Beth) Be Brave Graphic Sweatshirt
One of the best things about visiting Colorado was getting to spend time with Beth, Meg, and Amy. I learned so much, was inspired in so many ways, and I laughed until I couldn't laugh anymore. xoxo. Samantha
Photo Credits: Elah Tree || Oak + Oats || A Love Photography