Bringin' Back Sittin' Time

I know I've talked about this before, but it still amazes me every time! 

I was recently rudely awakened to the fact that I was slacking in the training of Lillian and Rhodes.  Specifically, training them to sit still when I tell them to.  I'm a true believer that you can't expect a behavior from a child out in public if it is not something that you PRACTICE and expect at HOME! 

When we were at Olivia's birthday blessing at school followed soon by her baptism up at the church, Lillian thought it was just A okay to wander around up and down the aisles of the theater.  I have to admit I was slightly embarrassed that I couldn't quite get her under the control I wanted.  She wasn't making a spectacle or throwing a fit, she was just resisting me (and testing me) more that I wanted.  Robert had Rhodes and he was just a typical 17 month old wanting to run around. 

Anyways, the next day it was BACK TO SIT TIMES!  Oh yeah!

I pulled out the trusty ole blankets, spread some books and toys and set the timer.  Lillian knew exactly what was going on.  She knows about sit times...I had just slacked off with her in being consistent!  But this was Rhodes' first time.  He sat great for the first several minutes.  Then decided to wander off to get another toy.  One swift swat to the bottom, quickly returning him to the blanket, making eye contact with him and explaining 'why' we aren't getting off the blanket - we were back on track.  

And y'all, he got it.  He cried a little bit, but he wasn't.going.anywhere.

It always amazed me how much that actually DO understand!

Then immediately after the timer goes off, I go went over to him and praised him for sitting still with lots of hugs, kisses and at-a-boys!

Sooooo, this past Wednesday I got a chance to practice in public what we'd been working on at home.  My main focus was Lillian because she is definitely old enough to hear, understand, and obey. 

We went into school for Landon's birthday blessing.  I pulled up a little chair next to me and said, "Lillian, we are going to do a sit time here just like we do at home.  You are going to stay in this chair like a big girl until this is over. Yes ma'am?"   "Yes ma'am."

And y'all, she DID it!  The whole time.  That little bottom didn't come off that chair. 

I didn't sit Rhodes in a chair this time.  I believe he needs some more training at home before I expect it out in public.  BUT, he did settle a little better than the time before and I didn't have to get up and chase him or walk around with him. 

Progress people!  Such a huge payoff for such a simple task!


Do y'all have any little training tips or techniques that you like???

Let's Talk White Balance

Over the past weeks, I've been able to hang out with some friends and/or family and let them pick my brain about photography/camera/lenses, etc.  And I had a total epiphany!

I can "talk" photography much better when asked a specific question!!!  (Y'all are all probably saying, "DUH!")  When I begin to try and explain things on a whim (which I feel my brain thinks a little differently anyways), I can't get one single point across.  But when someone gets right to the point, I can get right to the point!  Really quite obvious.

So I was thrilled to answer the question I received from Rebecca.  "Lindsay, How do you get your indoor shots to keep from being orange?  I have been tweeking my Ap and F and still can't avoid this!"

Though I don't quite understand what she meant by Ap and F, I want to try and and answer this question with some of my own photos.  I could just go linky on you and give you an article to read, but I was up to the challenge of explaining it myself.

First off, white balance is making sure the colors in your photos come out looking like they would if you were there in person.  Our eyeballs know what true white looks like and can adjust in any light setting.

Well, our cameras aren't that smart.  They need a little help figuring out when white is really white!

So here are some photos I took this morning.  First on Auto White Balance, and then in all the white balance setting my camera offers.

These are all completely untouched, straight out of the camera.

ISO 500 f/2.8 1/40 17mm

AUTO WHITE BALANCE

The camera didn't do a very good job at picking out white in auto white balance. 

ISO 500 f/2.8 1/40 17mm

TUNGSTEN SETTING WB

Definitely MUCH better!  And suffices most of the time when I seem to get an orange cast on indoor photos.

ISO 500 f/2.8 1/40 17mm

SUNSHINE WB SETTING

Just for kicks I took the same picture in all the other white balance settings.  The sunshine setting was still very orange.

ISO 500 f/2.8 1/40 17mm

Cloudy WB Setting

The cloudy setting turns the picture even ORANGER!  And that is because on cloudy days, there can be a bit of a blue cast in pictures, and this can off set it to make the colors look more accurate. 

ISO 500 f/2.8 1/40 17mm

Shade WB Setting

Same thing with the Shade setting.  Shade can cast even more blue shades in a photo and this setting helps off set some of the cool tones that can appear in photographs!

ISO 500 f/2.8 1/40 17 mm

"K" setting 2800

This is the "K" setting my my camera.  This means that I manually select a number ranging from 2500-10,000 which is assigned a "temperature".  The "K" refers to Kelvin, I'm guessing that's who came up with all this, and is really for more advanced users.  I'm not completely proficient in these numbers, but I have memorized what works best in my home - this one was set on 2800.  Which I think is just a hair too cool.

ISO 500 f/2.8 1/40 17mm

"K" Setting on 2900

Which is pretty close for manually manipulating the camera.  It looks like it has a bit of a green tint to it, which I can also correct in Camera Raw. 

So as my final edit in Camera Raw, I took out the green in the photo (with the tint slider), boosted the brightness, contrast, clarity, and vibrance (all just a hair) and slight edge burn and we're good to go.  From here I save my pic as a JPEG, and if I then decide if I want to run any actions on it to spruce it up even more.  

Voila!!!

Just for kicks, I processed the CLOUDY white balance photo too.  WOW, what a change!  This is what shooting in Raw is so helpful with - to help correct some minor things in photos and still preserve the quality.  BUT, for you jpeggers out there, there are still ways.  And also, The Pioneer Woman also has some cooling and warming actions that help with this too!


Even though I can go in and change the white balance in photoshop or camera raw, I still try and adjust it and take a good picture right off the bat.  I don't want to rely too much on software to produce my photos!   But sometimes, just a little tweak can help!

I hope this helps you too!!!

Only Robert and Shutter Speed

Only Robert would think of fishing like this.  And catch something.

ISO 200 f/5.6 SS 1/640

ISO 200 f/5.6 SS1/1000

ISO 200 f/5.6 SS1/1250

I shot all these in Manual mode and RAW on my camera, processed them in Camera Raw, and didn't run any actions in Photoshop.

The reason I varied shutter speeds in each picture was so that I could get the shadows off of Robert's face.  In the first picture, my camera meter was probably telling me that I was over exposing the picture an entire stop (probably reading around +1 or more)  But in bright broad sunlight, if you meter it at '0' then you most of the time you will end up with lots of shadows.  With the bright sun and light reflecting off the water, it tends to confuse the camera sensor.  So you have to manually manipulate it.

I overexpose a lot of my images that are taken in broad daylight in order to lessen some of the shadows that can come with such harsh lighting.  Then you can boost contrast a bit to less the "blown out" portions of the photo.  Of course, sometimes I like the blown out look.  But everyone's different!

There could be some much fancier ways to meter photos in broad daylight, but this technique seems to work for me! :-)


Anyone have any other tips to shooting in  harsh, broad daylight????  'Cause I'm all ears!  Always eager to learn!


For the record, Robert wasn't technically fishing like this.  His rod was caught and was trying to get it uncaught.  If that's a word.  BUT, this is something that he would do.  :-)