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Posts Tagged ‘Photography’

How to Capture The Setting and Set The Mood

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Pheonix, North East of Mesa
Taking a wide-angle photo is a great way to establish the setting of the story you are trying to capture through photos. Emphasize the mountains towering over your subject, make the sky and clouds appear more ominous, or give your neighborhood street the nostalgic vastness that resembles the way our minds remember them from our childhoods — larger than they actually are.

It’s easy to do. But before I tell you how, let’s look at the difference it makes in terms of telling the story…

Not A Wide-Angle Shot

Pond, Jameson Missouri
This photo of my kids is not a wide-angle shot, though it’s still beautiful. Both of the above pictures show the natural surroundings, but the emphasis of each picture is different.

  • First Photo – the mountain and the clouds tower in the distance. It isn’t just a picture of my husband and me with our hands in each others’ pockets. It’s a story about the height of the mountains in the distance, and the possibilities ahead.
  • Second Photo – this shows all the lush Missouri green around the pond at my parents’ farm. But this photo is not as much about the pond as it is about my two kids pausing to look at it.

So how easy is it to get these mood-establishing shots that emphasize setting? It takes one step . . .

1) Zoom out.

That’s it! When you zoom way out, you will start to get this slight distortion, because in order to get wider coverage, your camera will curve the view.

Of course, it requires the ability to zoom out in the first place. Distances will stretch and the proportions of items will increase as you shorten the focal length — for example from 35 mm, to 28 mm, to 24 mm, etc. The wider you go, the more distortion you get.

Here are a few more examples of how I established mood, or emphasized larger-than-life surroundings with slight wide-angle shots . . .

Tubing At Canyon Lake

Canyon Lake Tubing

Hello, Tuscon!

Hello, Tuscon!

Our Park: The Morning After Rain

The Morning After Rain

A New Pond From The Rain 2

A New Pond From The Rain

Next time you’re photographing something significant outside, try zooming all the way out to get a nostalgic setting shot.

Weekly Roundup

Heads Up!

  • Paperclipping Video Tutorial – Watch for it on Monday! (This is the one I previously mentioned about a method to help you finish your minibooks.) It’ll be a Member’s Only episode. If you want to read about our membership before it releases, please go here.
  • Paperclipping Live! – This live scrapbooking show is every Tuesday at 6:30pm PST. Are you free?
  • The Paperclipping August Challenge

Summer is almost over! You’ve probably taken vacation and holiday photos. Have you documented the every day of summer time? I have, and I’m excited to share it with you as part of Monday’s video tutorial.

Best Regards,

Noell
Host, Paperclipping

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Posted in Articles | 15 Comments »

How to be the Photo-Journalist of Your Own Life or 5 Ways to Tell Your Story Through Photos

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Hi, again!

I’m sure you’re familiar with this scene: a family get-together, everyone is outside, the kids are having fun, the parents are happy just to watch and take pictures.
water_slide
While visiting my family in Kansas City this month, we set up a water slide for the kids and my sister started taking photos. After she got her round of shots, she and I left the kids playing, went inside, and looked through the pictures in her viewfinder. We flipped through all of the photos, laughing and having a great time, and then it occurred to me — we were inside enjoying the kids in her camera, instead of outside enjoying the actual kids, live and three-dimensional!

I’m not about to preach now that we should all put the camera down and enjoy life more. Is that what you’re thinking? While that may be true for some, that’s not where I’m going with my epiphany.

Here’s where I am heading: how interesting that after we got our fill of watching the kids play, my sister and I wanted to stare at the photos. We could have just gone back outside for more.

But that would have been a different experience.

There is just something about a photo. We’ve captured life in a different way. We’ve frozen a facial expression. We’ve immortalized a certain pose a loved one tends to adopt only for fractions of a second. We’ve made time stop. Pictures are life-captures and there is something so wonderful about them.

But how do you strike that delicate balance between living life and hiding behind the camera? Here’s how I do it…

  • Keep the camera easily accessible so you can grab it more often and in spontaneous moments.
  • Spend five or ten minutes taking the shots, and then put the camera away. You’ve taken enough!

Story-telling Photos

While in that 5-10 minute photo-journalist mode, you can think in terms of STORY to make sure you get those life-capturing shots. Here’s how:

  1. Setting & Mood – step back, maybe even use a wide-angle, to show the setting.
  2. Characters – Get a few group shots and some individual shots. Make sure you have a few good potential shots of each person, whether in a group or individually. Get them being themselves and doing their thing, rather than try to pose them for each shot. This will capture personality.
  3. Relationships – if you’re with a group of people you don’t get to photograph every day, try to get at least one picture of all of the different relationships. It is especially cool if you get them interacting naturally so you can capture the real essence of the relationship.
  4. Details – get in close for composition variety, and to really hone in on the details of what is happening.
  5. Action – Action is more interesting than a pose. Action shots tell what’s happening.

Here are some examples. Notice how much of the story I’ve already captured of our 4th of July, just through the pictures alone…

Setting

prepping_on_porch
yellow_smoke

Characters

sidney_on_porch
blake_aiden_green_smoke

Relationships

tel_and_erin

Details

fireworks_closeup

Action

blake_running
looking_up

Get these five shot types and then you can put that camera down and get in on the fun, knowing you’ve done your job as the family photo-journalist!

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Posted in Articles | 21 Comments »

Simplify Your Journaling Process

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Hi, again!anniversary_art
A few weeks ago I shared with you how I embed a quick journaling note into the metadata of many of my digital photos on my computer. That way when I go to scrapbook my photos, I have my initial thoughts and important information available. I can use it word-for-word, or just refer to it as a refresher.

I like to hand-write most of my journaling when I scrapbook, but the photo above is an example of how you can simplify the scrapbooking process when you add journaling into the metadata. Right now I am making a photo-heavy 6×6 mini-album about our summer life. About one-third of my pages will be like the one above: a 6×6 photo, sometimes with my journaling text right on the picture.

All you do is…

  1. Copy the journaling you typed into the photo metadata.
  2. Paste it as text onto your picture.
  3. Arrange the text into the shape, size, and font that you like.

(Note: The Our Story word art is an Ali Edwards Design).

Your Suggestions — My Response

A couple weeks ago I asked you to let me know what topics you would like to see me cover in an up-coming episode of Paperclipping. Here is a suggestion I want to respond to with an announcement…

“I’d love more design principles — topics related to each of the principles, how to approach them, examples of what not to do, examples about flow, how to get flow on a page, what would be a mistake, balance and so on.”

Design is our specialty at Paperclipping — design for any style and any story! Whether I am sharing a technique, a method for organizing stuff, or a layout idea, I love to share the principles that make it all work. When you learn a principle behind the concept instead of just the how-to, you can apply that principle to your own situation. It’s okay if your style is different than mine, if your products are different than mine, or if the way your mind works is different than mine — because you’ve got the principles, and the principles will work no matter what the details are.

Because of this, design principles are my very favorite thing to share. I share them in everything I do for Paperclipping. I share them in every episode so you can see them at work over and over again.

The announcement
I have sensed for a while that the Paperclipping audience would benefit from seeing these principles together in a more structured format. I am now working on this for Paperclipping Members. I will take the best of our design episodes and structure them into a course that will be free for members (and possibly only accessible to members).

You will continue to see me point out the design principles as they apply to the various topics I share when we release new tutorials. The archives will still be available in the regular format. But you will also be able to get a comprehensive view of the design tutorials in a structured, educational way.

I will eventually make a course or eBook like this for my Flexible Templates as well. I’m excited to start work on both of these projects. With almost 150 videos in the archives and two soon-to-come organized courses from those videos, there has never been a better time to be a Paperclipping Member!

Weekly Round-up!

The Paperclipping Festival
I can’t tell you how excited I was (and am) about the contribution from our members to the festival! I hope it helped you further grasp the design principles, techniques, and Flexible Templates that I have been sharing through our video tutorials. If you have not checked it out, please do!

You also won’t want to miss…

Don’t Forget!

Tuesday night is Paperclipping Live! and it’s going to be a blast because Liz Ness and Jackie Wood from Illustrating Stories will be the hosts while I visit family across the country. Liz and Jackie are a fun and super creative pair. Please join them at 6:30pm on Tuesday, June 29th.

I love all the participation around the different Paperclipping shows and events. Thanks for making it fun, and for contributing your own helpful tips!

Best Regards,

Noell
Host, Paperclipping

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A Photography Tip for You: See the Lines

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Hi, again!

Through years of dance classes I learned to pay attention to lines. The lines of the body in dance are key. The curving line of the back. The line of a neck. The long — or sometimes bent — line of a leg or an arm or a hand.

seeing_mushroom
Now I use things other than my own legs, arms, and torso to make visual art. Like you I use paper, photos, text, and embellishments. But lines are still a key component, not just in designing a scrapbook page, but in photography as well.

A great way to improve your photography is to identify the lines in your favorite photos, and then practice noticing lines when you’re taking photos. Let me share some examples…
chipotles
A line of people. The line of a bar. And if you’re lucky, the lines of two pursed lips that mimic the slanted line of a protective piece of glass.
playing_chess
The back-lit line of an arm leading toward the subject. The angled lines of a game board. The vertical lines, like spires, of game pieces.
slide
Repetitive vertical lines. The diagonal line of a slide and a body, both leading to the subject of the photo. The lines of a frame around that subject.

Lines lead the eye. They add structure. And if there were no other relevant purpose, it would be enough that lines can be truly beautiful in and of themselves. So when you’re done reading this week’s newsletter, why don’t you open your photo manager and make an assessment?

Are you making use of all the beautiful lines around you?

Your Suggestions — My Responses

Last week I asked you what you would like to see if you could choose the next Paperclipping Video Tutorial. I got so many great responses, and I am happy to find that most of what everybody asked for were topics I had rolling around in my head. Your responses helped me to prioritize the specifics of those topics you want to see. So first, let me say thank you for your help! I hope you like the episodes we’re planning for the coming months.

There were some questions or requests that I want to respond to. I’ll share one here today and a few more in the next two newsletters…


“I’m not sure if you work with sketches but if you do I’d love to see your process. I struggle with scrapping with a sketch and maybe you have tips and techniques we can learn from?”

While I know sketches are great tools for many scrapbookers, sketches are not good for the way I personally get creative.

  • I prefer not having visual inspiration in front of me while I am trying to create something. I feel more creative when I work from within my head.
  • I like my photos and my story to dictate the structure or design of the layout. When working with sketches in the past, I felt like I was trying to force my story into someone else’s strict structure.

I do have a system that I use, though, that is more fluid and flexible than a sketch. The system is a set of visual starting points that I call Flexible Templates.

My Flexible Templates are very loose and general foundations — ways to lay photos and lines that always work. I don’t sketch out the placement: instead I share an image that you can visualize in your head, such as Moving Panels, and show a number of examples of how you can place your photos, titles, journaling, and embellishments in and around that image. Here are two Moving Panel layouts:
moving_panel_boots
moving_panels_thanksgiving
Most of my Flexible Templates can vary from single-photo layouts to multi-photo two-page spreads. That’s how flexible they are!

The episode where I first introduced my Flexible Template concept is free for anyone to watch. You can view it, even if you’re not a member, by clicking here. Then, if you have a Paperclipping Membership, or if you choose to become a member, you can watch some of the other Flexible Templates I have shared so far…

I have more Flexible Templates that I will share in the future, so keep an eye out if you like the idea of having a jumping off point that doesn’t strap you down before you’ve taken flight.

Don’t forget!

I hope the tips and tutorials I mentioned in this newsletter give you a stronger foundation in design from which you can let your creativity spin free this week! Have fun paperclipping!

Best Regards,

Noell
Host, Paperclipping

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Paperclipping 138 – How to Pull Photos from Video Clips

Monday, March 1st, 2010
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You can watch the video by using the player above, or you can right-click here to save the video to your computer.

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December Daily Day 5 & Xmas Photos

Monday, December 21st, 2009

dd_day5a
Can you tell I’m behind on my December Daily Album? Day 5. Ouch. I’m keeping track and making notes for all my pages, though. I just need to get the photos printed. I’m loving the process of putting this album together, even if I do only have a few pages completed.

And by the way, yes, I’ve skipped Day 4 because I need to scan something.
dd_day5b

Random Xmas Photos

I decided to upload a handful of recent photos from the holiday season…
ornament

I bought a new set of ornaments this year. They remind me of pomegranates, which remind me of being a kid in my L.A. neighborhood where there was a pomegranate tree. We raided that tree all the time, smashing the round fruit on the street to break them open and expose the red ruby berries…and permanently stain our clothes.

chocolate_cookies
Izzy and I are doing lots of cooking and baking together. So far it’s mostly been cakes, but we did do a batch of amazing Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Vegan Table cookbook.

table_setting

We’ve been entertaining friends the last few evenings and having so much fun.
keim_christmas
I said, “Let’s take a picture of us with our presents in front of the trees…you know, like kids.” Larry totally got into that idea. See? He’s also super happy we gave him the Roku player he’s been dying for. But next time he decides to put on his enthusiastic face he needs to tell us so we can match it.

And by the way, my Tami-Lamb girlie and I are NOT drunk. We’re able to make those faces totally sober. Seriously. :)

aiden_gift
That’s one of my five favorite gifts right there. Love that boy.

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Paperclipping 126 – Make a Subject Pop in Photoshop Elements

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
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Download the Quicktime video here.

This week’s episode has been released for the Paperclipping Members. If you’re not a member, you can watch a trailer of the tutorial by clicking on the video above.


In this in-depth video I show you step-by-step in Photoshop Elements how to…

  1. Isolate a subject in your photo so you can give it/him/her special attention.
  2. Boost the color of your subject while making everything else black and white.
  3. Make your subject stand out more by darkening your background and boosting the highlights in your subject.
  4. Make your subject stand out by blurring the background.
  5. Smooth the edges of your isolated subject so it doesn’t have that yucky “cut-out” look.

You’ll be able to do the above with your own Halloween zombies, their bloody sores, or with cute little girls at tea parties (below)–whatever you think needs special attention above its background. Check out this Before/After example where I left Blake’s sores and tongue a subtle red and brought him forward from his background, then see the layouts below for two examples:

before_after_zombie

To see what it takes to become a Paperclipping Member so you can watch episodes like this one, please visit the Membership Information Page.

Below are the layouts I featured in the episode…

The Making Of A Zombie

the_making_of_a_zombie
Journaling to Blake reads: Your makeup is on and you have no problem getting your act together, getting into character. I love how you love playing the part.

Girly Tea Time

girly_tea_time
Journaling to Trinity reads: I had such a fun day with you at this tea party. We looked at art on the street, shopped a cute gift shop and tried hats and teas. Fun girly day.

Want to try it? Once you do it you’ll want to do it all the time. It’s fun. Enjoy!

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Paperclipping 115 – Minibooks from Authentic Items

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
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Today’s episode is for the Paperclipping Members. If you want to commemorate the culture of a place you’ve visited or plan to visit, you might want to consider the topic of this episode: create a book with an authentic item that portrays the place and culture. Below are a few pictures of my own book, which I made to showcase photos and items from Rocky Point, Mexico…

Mexico Minibook From A Punched Tin Frame

Mexico Minibook from a Punched Tin Frame
Mexico Minibook 2
Mexico Minibook 3
Mexico Minibook 4
Mexico Minibook 5
Scrapbooking supplies I used: Tim Holtz Distress Emboss Powder in Scattered Straw. Versamark Ink. Old Olive and Creamy Caramel by Stampin’ Up. Book Binding Tape by 7 Gypsies. Epoxy sticker by s.e.i. Letter stickers by Creative Memories. Eyelets by American Crafts.

Do you wish you could watch this video? Get access to this and all the others after checking out the Membership Information Page.

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Paperclipping 112 – Summer Photography Tips

Monday, July 13th, 2009
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Need some tips for the outdoor family photography you’re doing this summer? We took today’s episode outside so I could share some simple tips with you. This one is for the Paperclipping Members so if you’d like to have access to it and all the other videos in the archives, please head over to the Membership Information Page to find out what it means to be a member and how you can become one.

You can download the trailer here.

* * * * *

We’ve announced the winner of the June Paperclipping Challenge. Congratulations KristynG! See her and her page get highlighted here.

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Paperclipping 108 – How to Make a Frame with Rounded Corners in Photoshop Elements

Monday, June 15th, 2009

Paperclipping 108 - How to Make Rounded Corners in Photoshop Elements

Do you remember the collage of heritage photos I made for a layout about my dad’s crazy 1940′s baby stroller? There was a request for me to make a tutorial on how to wrap a collage of photos with a frame like I did on that layout. Today’s episode for the Paperclipping Members will walk you through it step-by-step using Photoshop Elements. The good news is it’s very easy!

Below is the one I made in today’s tutorial…
Tea Time

Not a Member? Wish you could watch this and all the other archived videos? Please click here to see why it’s so worth it to get a Membership.

Related tutorials:
Digital Word Art
Make A Grid Collage In Photoshop

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