[cassie]

My father in law is a switch operator and just changed his facebook profile image to this sign: https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10632884_824619654228012_5782695884733585373_n.jpg?oh=0c34870b578400e80e71909220f734d8&oe=550C7D72

[cassie]

So, we never had enough money to buy a flatscreen TV and a good monitor. So we bought a 55″ 3D plasma at costco for $500 when they were clearing out their display models that is connected to the computer and the cable box.

Needless to say, nunya, I think I may need more than bleach. My living room might have had quite a bit of a nuclear-like glow…

[cassie]

Curious Don what you would want to see different if I did go pro (not that I am right now but has been something that I’ve considered doing in the future when life settles down a little bit more). Is it mainly the DOF thing that CC has pointed out, an equipment thing, what do you think needs to change the most.  Thanks in advance for the clarification!

[cassie]

I think the lighting is good. Did you try any shots from different angles in relation to the table? Not necessarily side to side angles, but from up above and also straight on, rather than slightly above? I would have liked to have seen some of the snakes from up high and the snacks and rats straight on, rather than the slightly above angle.

[cassie]

I think you’d be better off investing the time you’d have worked to pay for FB ads, etc into some good business cards and going to businesses. Leave a card (or flier) with receptionists at community centers, centers specializing in counseling/ psychotherapy, occupational therapists, physical therapists specializing in children are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. There are many LMFTs that are specializing in families that have children with special needs now, especially with further awareness of SPD and ASD. Pediatric offices sometimes have bulletin boards that you can post business cards on.

AND, I think an even more effective way to use FB instead of paid advertising (and this part is completely free but does require a little more FB legwork from you but does NOT require updating a page with new material) is find your local B/S/T pages, join the group and then post a link to your portfolio and site with a quick blurb about what you do. You’ll get a lot of immediate contact from that one post.

[cassie]

I think cameraclicker might be on to something for you eyedoc.

At the hospital my husband works at, they don’t have a community bulletin board but they do have employee bulletin boards where the employees can post things they are selling, events, etc going on.

[cassie]

We did a paid newspaper ad at one point for my horse riding business. I think we garnered a whole 3 customers from it. One of them ended up referring a few people to us and the others were duds, so we never renewed the spot. We were also in the yellow pages at one point which was also not worth it.

You know what has paid itself off time and time again? A website. Not FB, not pinterest, not twitter, not a blog but a plain old website. Plus it only needs updating periodically so you don’t need to muck with it every day. We’ve gotten referrals through FB but they are all through existing clients already.

[cassie]

barefootmama- I teach horseriding lessons, and one of the sayings we have is “if you don’t like to do something with your horse, it’s probably because you aren’t good at it”

And that is why I don’t like doing b&w conversions! lol

But now that I’ve been working more at them, and getting better at them, I am actually coming to like the process and result.

[cassie]

Thanks for posting that CC! I followed the video with a photo of one of my kids side by side and it came out good! It’s definitely one of the best I’ve been able to follow 🙂

[cassie]

Are you on pinterest? If you are using lightroom (also for photoshop and elements) totally do a search on black white conversions! Mine suck so I’ve been delving into tutorials online lately and pinterest has been my go to site for finding them now. I’ll usually open up lightroom and then flip back and forth between a photo I’ve picked to work on and the tutorial.

The big thing I notice is that the editing style isn’t consistent between shoots. I’m not sure if it’s because you are just uploading SOOC or if you have actions/ presets that you are mixing in post. iheartfaces.com just recently had a blog post about developing your own consistent editing style so that you can have faster workflow, clients know what they are getting, and so on. I would also try printing the matte look ones and seeing how they look on matte paper. I personally don’t edit that look on purpose, so I don’t know if this is true or not, but I’ve heard it prints horribly and while it’s a big look floating around it isn’t going to make a great print on the wall.

[cassie]

That makes a lot of sense CC! Thank you for the links. I really meant more writing a chart out for myself to carry around for a little bit while I get a feel for a more appropriate aperture for what I’m taking photos of. I’m one of the last people to not have a smartphone lol, so I’d have to program my graphing calculator and drag that around with me if I calculated it each time myself 🙂 If I write it out though I’ll probably get it.

[cassie]

I must’ve already noticed the eye thing with the close up of my middle kid because when I found it in lightroom it had already been sharpened up a bunch. Is this better?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/64132459@N05/14494944800

I also took the new pics and the DOF on some were still pretty narrow. Definitely finding a DOF calculator and writing it on a card to take around in the camera bag 🙂

[cassie]

Thank you eyedoc and cameraclicker

Cameraclicker- I have actually started to step down aperture for most of the kids’s portraits to somewhere between 2.2 to 2.8 for most of their stuff. Pretty much for the same reasons you state. The photo of my middle kid, I see what you are talking about with it looking like bath water up to her chin. I laid my 3 month old in the same spot, only shot with a 35mm so it’s not so in her face, and with my speedlite bounced off both the wall behind me and also the wall closest to the top of her head. No matter what, that shadow was there to stay. It was just flat out bad lighting on my part when I should have looked for different spots to stick her on the bed in relation to the light. For sure I definitely need to watch my light more. I think it’s time I did the egg challenge instead of just watching the video.

Next time we go to the zoo I will definitely get the falcon with narrower aperture and wider DOF again. He isn’t going anywhere anytime soon 🙂

I also took some indoor and outdoor stuff today and will try and post some of that to my flickr when I get my computer back from the kids later. Thanks again!

[cassie]

Looking through your pics, I’m seeing a lot taken at really high ISO (3200) and stopped down apertures. I know that a large part of this is personal taste, but I think the portraits would come out nicer if you lowered ISO a bunch and widened aperture more. Xavier’s pictures were all taken at 3200 with narrow apertures. They were outside. You could have gotten the same shutter speed with lower ISO and a wider aperture and he would have stood out from the background better. The building is pretty darn cool looking but it shouldn’t be the focus of the photo either. Reyna is another one taken at high ISO even though she is outside in the sun. Whichever filter is on the second photo in the stream looks funny to me but that could be the monitor I’m on right now. Guitar guy shutter speed was too slow (it’s a good thing he can hold super still). This one should have been shot higher ISO or wider, maybe a combo of both.

The photos that you are shooting with a wider aperture though aren’t focused well. The really wide one, the girl against the yellow background, the background is in focus, not the girl. Veda isn’t in focus at all either. Well, it looks like her scarf might be in focus but her face definitely isn’t.

How are you using AF with your photos? If you aren’t already take advantage of the other AF points you have other than just the center one. Use AF on the subject’s eye. Definitely read (or reread if you have already) your camera manual section on focus. I would also practice a lot more with a wider aperture so that you are able to get sharp images with the narrower DOF.

[cassie]

My kids make that face right before they spew all over the place

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