This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Let’s recap this afternoon, shall we?
I decided it was time to put the fancy new camera to good use and take a new family picture. Thomas and I have never paid to have our family picture taken. We are set-up-a-tripod-and-run-like-a -crazy-person-before-ten-seconds-are-up kind of people. It’s a hard life being cheap. Thomas is a Photoshop master and can work his magic to make our picture look great.
So back to this afternoon. After the babies woke up from naps they were snacked, washed, changed into their fancy matching(ish) outfits, shoed, rewashed, and carseated. We loaded stools and props and the tripod into the car and went hunting for a spot. We went to a neighbor’s backyard and drove around to a few different fields. I was so excited and pleased with how things were coming out. I was so fancy and even used the manual setting on my camera. I was just sure they were perfect pictures. We bribed the older two with cold hard cash and going out to dinner. The kids were great, the weather lovely, and then we came home tired and hungry to a tornado-just-came-through house.
Thomas sat down to see what things looked like on the computer and they were awful. Completely over-exposed, we are full-on glowing in most of the pictures. Things looked so good on that LCD screen!
All that work, time, and effort for nothing. And I’m out $6 in bribe money, too.
I’ve now been humbled back to Auto and will only bust Manual out on food pictures.Wouldn’t all of us in that wheat field have looked great on my wall? I’m still pretty hung up about the whole thing. My only consolation is that I have to take the kids out to dinner tomorrow; I am always true to my bribes.
PS- your food pictures are looking awesome! I’ve been meaning to tell you that for a while now! You have a real eye for staging and composing your shot. Indoor food photography is very tricky (I wish I were half as good as you)! Keep it up – the food pictures on your blog are great and they always make me hungry! 🙂
I completely understand how you feel! Getting good pictures with little kids is so tough. But I hope you enjoy your dinner out – sounds like fun.
I’m sure you already know this stuff – but maybe I can offer some unsolicited advice – I would suggest two things: 1) Perhaps you could try your Aperture Priority Setting. 2) I would go a little bit later in the evening. That may be hard with hungry, little kids – but in an open field without much shade you probably want to make sure the sun is about an hour (or less) from setting. Oh and a third suggestion just came to mind: Don’t get discouraged. I know that’s easier said than done – I get discouraged a lot when things don’t turn out the way I want. But everything takes practise!
Good luck! I’m really excited to see your next family shoot!
Perfect advice. Try manual for things that don’t matter but if it’s an important shot and you are just starting out I recomend AV all the way. At least until you’re super comfortable in manual. Also I completly agree about timing it too. I’m learning (the hard way ugh) how everything about photography really does come down to light. A naughty trick I’ve been trying lately to get my very very resistant daughter to look at the camera is to place a small candy on the top (banana runts work perfectly) and tell her to watch it until after the click and then she gets it. I try to catch a grin in anticipation. You are doing amazing btw and I’m loving following your blog!
Perfect advice. Try manual for things that don’t matter but if it’s an important shot and you are just starting out I recomend AV all the way. At least until you’re super comfortable in manual. Also I completly agree about timing it too. I’m learning (the hard way ugh) how everything about photography really does come down to light. A naughty trick I’ve been trying lately to get my very very resistant daughter to look at the camera is to place a small candy on the top (banana runts work perfectly) and tell her to watch it until after the click and then she gets it. I try to catch a grin in anticipation. You are doing amazing btw and I’m loving following your blog!