Which of the photo's above was taken at night in a dark room without flash? Hmmm? Give up? ALL OF THEM! That's right pretties NO FLASH + DARK ROOM. This may be a tad advanced but bear with me as I spout off my tips here. I had been super frustrated because all the images I loved looked as though they were shot in oodles of beautiful natural light. Most of the photographers I followed that I appreciated their images kept saying, "Oh I only shoot in natural light..." I was dejected because I work an 8 a.m. to the cows come home shift at work and often the sun is no where near my world when I return home and have time to shoot. I could wait for the weekends but by the time the weekend rolls around I am usually comatose and the only inspiration I have is to roll up into the fetal position and wake up on Monday morn (my job is TOUGH). What's a girl that needs/wants to take photo's to do? I didn't know, I just knew I didn't want to give up that easily.
I stumbled across a post on a food blog about how she too had to take images in the dark but her photo's looked very much like they were shot in broad day light. I was thrilled and you can see for yourself her images here (I didn't want to post her photo's because she mentioned that it makes her go coo coo when people don't ask and who has that kinda time?) Well, the Smitten kitchen uses a flash that looks like a heck of a lot of goodness called a Speedlite I was two secs from giving my credit card a work out when something else shiny caught my eye, yet another food blog (btw, that's another tip if you want to improve your product shots cruise the food blogs they have the process down). I found my "natural light" nirvana via one of my fave food blogs AND food photographers Bakerella, she mentioned these lights called Lowel Ego that have changed my life. I know a secret about Bakerella that will make you giddy, you see these are some of her magnificent images:
They are gorge right? Well this is the giddy inducing part, even though Bakerella has a fancy DSLR like moi (the Canon Rebel) which you can shoot in manual mode (you know that confusing mode like adjusting shutter speed and aperture?) and all kinds of other fancy buttons, well Miss Bakerella shoots these amazing shots almost exclusively in auto mode. Wha? That's right the green box, the 'look Ma no hands' mode. I figured out why they came out so great while my auto images looked like crap, it's the light lovelies! I shot a couple of the 'merci' cards above in auto and I can't tell which is auto and which was manual, they all look pretty swank to me.
So, I hope this was helpful and you have a chance to click around some of the highlighted links and delve more into this lighting phenomena and if you do get some Lowel lights or a Speedlite (or have an alternate suggestion) I'd love to see some before and afters's. If you have any questions about this post or want me to address another photo topic next Tuesday just let me know in the comments. I have a few 'real' photographers lined up in the near future to give you some tips & tricks and it would help them with their guest posts if you let them know what you wanna learn.
I stumbled across a post on a food blog about how she too had to take images in the dark but her photo's looked very much like they were shot in broad day light. I was thrilled and you can see for yourself her images here (I didn't want to post her photo's because she mentioned that it makes her go coo coo when people don't ask and who has that kinda time?) Well, the Smitten kitchen uses a flash that looks like a heck of a lot of goodness called a Speedlite I was two secs from giving my credit card a work out when something else shiny caught my eye, yet another food blog (btw, that's another tip if you want to improve your product shots cruise the food blogs they have the process down). I found my "natural light" nirvana via one of my fave food blogs AND food photographers Bakerella, she mentioned these lights called Lowel Ego that have changed my life. I know a secret about Bakerella that will make you giddy, you see these are some of her magnificent images:
They are gorge right? Well this is the giddy inducing part, even though Bakerella has a fancy DSLR like moi (the Canon Rebel) which you can shoot in manual mode (you know that confusing mode like adjusting shutter speed and aperture?) and all kinds of other fancy buttons, well Miss Bakerella shoots these amazing shots almost exclusively in auto mode. Wha? That's right the green box, the 'look Ma no hands' mode. I figured out why they came out so great while my auto images looked like crap, it's the light lovelies! I shot a couple of the 'merci' cards above in auto and I can't tell which is auto and which was manual, they all look pretty swank to me.
So, I hope this was helpful and you have a chance to click around some of the highlighted links and delve more into this lighting phenomena and if you do get some Lowel lights or a Speedlite (or have an alternate suggestion) I'd love to see some before and afters's. If you have any questions about this post or want me to address another photo topic next Tuesday just let me know in the comments. I have a few 'real' photographers lined up in the near future to give you some tips & tricks and it would help them with their guest posts if you let them know what you wanna learn.
