Posted by DrewB on January 9, 2012 · 2 Comments
Before Christmas I was invited to see a demo of the new Lighroom 4. I’ve been dying to unveil the new changes to you, but had to keep my mouth shut until today. There are some VERY excited changes that have been made, which I’m so excited to share with you!
Here are the highlights:
1) One thing I use Photoshop for that I haven’t been able to do in Lightroom previously is album design. If you like using Blurb to make albums, you’ll love that Lightroom has partnered with Blurb to make creating photo books that much easier. In just one click you can publish your book to Blurb.
Included in the book module are professionally designed templates. You can also add text. It would be awesome if in the near future templates for specific photo labs and album companies were added as well! But, the new book module will do for now!
2) Another feature I am super excited about is the ability to play and edit videos from DSLRs, point and shoots and even smart phones. Since I’ve been using my 5D Mark II more, I have been trying out video. The problem I’ve been having is that my pictures always look way better than my video. In Lightroom 4 you can make basic color corrections to the video including white balance, exposure, contrast among other things. Hello? How cool is that? You can also trim your videos as well. This is a feature I will be using a lot! And you can directly publish the videos to Facebook and Flickr as well!
3) Local editing adjustments have been added including the ability to do a local noise reduction and white balance, which is AWESOME! There have been changes made which should also simplify the develop module.
4) With a new map module you can now “geotag” your images and organize them by location. This makes searching your images that much easier!
5) Emailing images has been simplified. With Lightroom 4 you are able to email images directly in Lightroom using any email account that you’d like! It’s super easy.
There are many more improvements, but don’t take my word for it. You can download the beta version of Lightroom 4 here… for FREE! Go try it out for yourself and let me know what you think! Have fun!
- Hide SexyBookmarks: 0
- Hide OgTags: 0
Posted by DrewB on January 5, 2012 · 6 Comments
Earlier this week I started “sleep training” Kennedy. That sounds much more hardcore than it really is. I’m really just trying to get her to nap in her crib once a day. So I can actually get something done while she sleeps. On day one she screamed her head off for about half an hour. After going in and comforting her 10 times and turning on the white noise app on my iphone she fell asleep for about half an hour. Then she woke up. Pissed.
Yesterday was better. She actually fell asleep with no crying at all. And stayed asleep for 45 minutes. Begineers luck? I’m not sure. Keeping my fingers crossed that it works again tomorrow!
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 1.2
F 1.2, 1/125, ISO 1600
Some of my favorite images of my kids are when they are sleeping. I always ask myself, is the shot worth the risk of waking them up? If it is I:
1) Wait until it’s close to the end of nap time to attempt the shot. That way if they wake up it’s no big deal.
2) Try to determine what my settings should be before taking the shot. If they wake up or if their eyes open you can run out of the room really fast and hope they go back to sleep! :)
3) Turn off the flash! That’s a sure fire way to wake your baby up. You can see from my setting above that I had my aperture wide open and my ISO up super high. I’m a little shaky (especially when my aperture is wide open) so I don’t like to go below 1/100 in my shutter speed.
4) Turn the beep off! Another sure fire way to wake your kid up!
5) If they stay asleep during the first few clicks, they will probably keep sleeping. Try a few different angles and adjust your settings if necessary!
- Hide SexyBookmarks: 0
- Hide OgTags: 0
Posted by DrewB on January 3, 2012 · 3 Comments
In early December I bought myself an early Christmas / end of the year tax write off present. I had been coveting the Canon 100mm 2.8 L Series lens for a while and I finally took the plunge and bought it. Macro lenses are great for getting super, duper close up on your subject. You’ll see macro lenses used a lot in nature photography. It’s a prime lens, which means you can’t zoom in or out.
I’ve had the Canon 100mm 2.8 macro (the non L Series version) for a few years. The only time I ever used it was for ring shots at weddings and it did it’s job.
The big problem with that lens is you basically need to manually focus it, which is fine when you’re shooting objects that don’t move. It was a lot harder to use on things that moved, like my squirmy kids and the newborns that I’ve been shooting a lot more of in the past year.
The 100mm 2.8L is a totally unnecessary lens for most Mom*togs and even a lot of photographers. It’s pricey. But, I LOVE it. It’s really fun, super sharp, and the focus is great. My only complaint is that I wish it stopped down to 2.0.
I would highly recommend renting this lens if you have a new baby or even to capture the little details of older kids. You’ll have a lot of fun with it. The only problem is that you might not want to give it back!
PS If you were interested in buying the 100 2.8L, there is a $110 instant rebate that ends January 7th!
Canon 5D Mark II, 100mm 2.8 L
F 2.8, 1/160, ISO 800
F 2.8, 1/100, ISO 1000
- Hide SexyBookmarks: 0
- Hide OgTags: 0
Posted by DrewB on January 1, 2012 · 2 Comments
Happy New Year, Mom*togs! I hope you did something more exciting than I did. Yep. In bed again before midnight. But, the baby woke me up at 12:15 so I guess I was kind of up to celebrate.
In honor of the New Year I wanted to look back and choose my top 11 favorite images of 2011. Always fun to take a look back on the past year while thinking ahead to all the exciting possibilities of a new year!
11) Brayden’s new favorite place in 2011 was Sea World. In fact, we spent New Years Eve there! I love this shot because it reminds me of the wonder of being a kid. How everything is always “so cool”. This was also our last trip down to San Diego before Kennedy. Our last little trip as a family of 3.
10) I recreated one of my very favorite shots that I took of Brayden and Hauggy with Kennedy. As soon as I found out I was pregnant I was excited to do this!
9) Announcing to the world that were pregnant! Crazy that this wasn’t even a year ago. We didn’t know that we were having a girl yet. It’s amazing how that little blob in the ultrasound is now our Kennedy. Amazing.
This shot makes me so happy. I took this from my hospital bed. It was before I was up and walking. It was Brayden’s second time meeting his baby sister.
7) Last year I discovered the joys of my remote trigger. And I got to finally be in some of the shots!
6) This shot is just pure happiness. Love that kid.
5) Kennedy at 2 days old. First shots I took of her.
4) One of my greatest accomplishments – both kids napping at the same time. It had to be documented!
3) Testing the light for a shot and Hauggy just had to sneak in there. Love when happy accidents turn into my favorite shots.
2) 2011 was the year of the super hero. I don’t know where he got that look from, but it cracks me up!
1) The last of the belly shots. The belly shots were a labor of love, but I’m so happy I have them to look back on. This one is by far my favorite! She’s much cuter out of the belly than in the belly!
What were your favorite shots of 2011? Would love to see them in Real Mom*togs!
- Hide SexyBookmarks: 0
- Hide OgTags: 0
Posted by DrewB on December 29, 2011 · 10 Comments
Canon 5D Mark II, 50 1.2
F 2.0, 1/125, ISO 200
Shirt from Little Wellies
- Hide SexyBookmarks: 0
- Hide OgTags: 0
