Your questions answered...continued

Thank you again to all of you who have sent questions to be answered. These are the last 2 questions we will be posting for awhile, we have enjoyed this and we hope you have as well. Remember to check back from time to time because although the question has been answered, other chicks may add to the answers if they do things a little differently :) So you may get a few different takes on how to do things :)

Q: "I've been looking at all the websites and blogs of you pixel chicks, and my pictures just aren't measuring up. They are lacking that pop!... that 3D effect... depth...etc. Is this something I should be looking to Photoshop to help me with, or is it the lens? or maybe the light?"

A: (From Alli Gaulin) This is a super loaded question! There are so many factors that go into getting an image to pop. The most important factors are going to be light, exposure, clarity, and color. When you are able to create an excellent image straight out of the camera (aka sooc) then you can take that image into Photoshop and enhance color and contrast to give it an extra pop. My advice would be to read "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan Peterson and work toward getting the very best images you can SOOC. Then you can begin to explore different options in Photoshop that will help those excellent images pop right off the page.

Here is an example of an image sooc and then the final image. I shot this in open shade, the light was great, there was vibrant color in the chalk on the driveway, in her clothes, and behind in the green shrubs. But the image was boring as is, it needed some extra zing.

To get that extra zing here, I increased contrast slightly then added a soft light layer. After adjusting the opacity of the SLL to my liking, I then took the saturation sponge set to about 25% and brought out the blue in the pavement and further brightened the chalk drawings. This image was relatively simple to PP, but there are many methods that are more complicated and bring out color and detail in different ways. Just keep experimenting until you get the right combination for the look you are going for. It takes lots of trial and error, and remember, every image is going to be different, requiring different techniques to create that perfect pop.

My tech info for this shot:

Canon 40D

24-70L lens @24mm

ISO 200

F/2.8

SS:1/250th sec

Manual exposure, center weighted average metering

Q-How do you deal with customers that want to see on your camera's display the pictures you are taking? I had a mom try this while I was taking pictures of her daughter. I would snap away, then look at my display to see what kind of composition, lighting, etc I was getting, and she wanted to look at them with me. I really felt uncomfortable.

A-Hi this is Hayley. I have not ran into this issue, so I may not be the one who should be answering this, but I will give it a go. I think if you try NOT to draw attention to your LCD during the session that might help you. Checking it here and there is okay but try not to stop the session and draw attention to it. If you still have issues with it, maybe politely say something like The LCD does not really do any justice to the images and you would prefer that they wait to see them when they are proofed. You may also want to add that you don't want to miss any moments you could capture by stopping to show the images on the LCD. I have found that showing kids there pics on the LCD is a great way to engage them though in a session. Kids seem to love that :) Hope that helps a little, like I said, I have not encountered this, so I am hoping another chick will pop in here!!