Happy New Year! At the end of the year it's always fun to look back at what you shot throughout the year. I've been seeing some awesome end of year collages and tried one myself...but I may have gotten carried away! It was so hard to narrow down the pictures!
I'm finally getting around to posting the pics from this session! My good friend Staci, from Love the O's found out she was having a boy the day before we met up to do some portraits for their Christmas cards. So we decided to incorporate an "It's a Boy!" theme into the pictures! I liked so many from this session, that I'm breaking this up into two parts! Here's the first half...
Welcome to the last Holiday Bokeh link up of the year! Sorry I'm soo late getting this up! I hope everyone had a great Christmas!
The above picture is actually from last year but I didn't get a chance to take a new version of it this year and I wanted to share it.
I thought I'd also give one last lesson on bokeh today.
Most of you know that bokeh appears in the out of focus parts of the picture. I just wanted to show that the more out of focus your camera is, the larger your holiday bokeh.
In the example below, on the left I start out pretty much in focus. On manual focus, I gradually start moving my focus ring to make my photo more out of focus. As you can see the more out of focus I get, the larger my bokeh gets. I also have a snowflake filter and a star filter on my lens. Click here to see how to do that if you don't already know.
Your apertur also affects the shape of your bokeh. To get perfect bokeh circles, you need to be as wide open as possible. The more you close down, the more your circles will turn into little octagons.
The picture on the left was taken at f/1.8, the middle shot at f/3.5, and the right shot at f/7.1. Because I'm increasing my depth of field the amount of blur is decreasing as well and so my shapes are getting smaller like in the examples above. But the circles are also starting to get edges on the them. So if you want perfect circle bokeh lights, stay as wide open as possible!
Now link up your holiday bokeh shots! After the link closes on friday, I'll post my favorites from week 3 and 4, and maybe we'll have a vote off :)
Also come back next Tuesday for the return of Photo Tip Tuesday--with a few changes in store.
Merry Christmas!! In case you're still looking for something to bake today, here's a recipe for just about the best sugar cookies I've ever had!
Soft Frosted Sugar Cookies
For the cookies:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
5 teaspoons vanilla extract
Frosting (optional)
Sprinkles (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until soft and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients mixing just until incorporated and evenly mixed. Cover and chill the dough for 1 hour.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, scoop about a quarter cup of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the ball slightly and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, spacing the cookies at least 2-3 inches apart. Bake about 10-12 minutes or just until set (do not overbake! The edges should be no more than very lightly browned if at all). Let cool on the baking sheet for several minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
When cooled, frost with frosting of your choice and drizzle with sprinkles!
I've been practicing my food photography lately and really wanted to try a Christmas themed food session. I wish I could say I made these, but in fact they are the fabulous Cranberry Bliss Bars from Starbucks, along with a few peppermint cake pops! I was really happy with these shots though, they looked so cheery to me!
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