School Picture Day!

Thursday is School Picture Day at Mat & Rory’s school!
Last night I looked at the Picture Day order form, filled it out with the kids’ info, and left all of those purchasing lines empty.

Sorry, School Portrait Person, I’m doing my own school pictures, and I’m going to order them through Mpix. You can still take my kids’ pictures and give them to the school for the yearbook, but I’ve got my own prints covered with the help of my camera, my lens, and Mpix.

I feel kinda like a wedding guest taking pictures of the pretty bride & bridesmaids next to the pro photographer, but at least I didn’t show up at school and take a picture over the photographer’s shoulder in their mobile studio, right!?

I’ve gotten some questions via email asking how I created this image, so I thought I’d share a bit more..
I don’t cook, so saying “photo recipe” gives me the heebeejeebeez, but here’s the lowdown:

I stood my kids in our front yard in front of this palm tree:

I had the “non-photographed kid” hold the reflector up with an edge against the chest of the “kid in the photo” to splash more light up onto the face. That really helped brighten their faces in the dim before-school morning light, and it helped make more eye sparkle.

I used my 5D MkII, 70-200 lens (it was what was on my camera at the time, the 24-70 would have been good, too), and 5-in-1 reflector (all can be found in “My Favorite Things“).

I set the camera to Av mode, f/2.8, with center-weighted metering (meaning I wanted the camera to ignore the edges & concentrate more on getting a good exposure on my kids’ faces in the center).

I used “one shot” focusing mode using the center auto-focus point, pressed the shutter half-way to focus on an eye ball (it’s a general rule that, unless you’re being artsy-fartsy, focus on the eyeball closest to you for pictures like this), then recomposed the picture before I pressed the shutter all the way down to take the picture.

Here’s a closeup view of one of Mat’s eyeballs. You can see the silver reflector there, reflected in his eyes.

I lightened them up a little in Lightroom, took them into Photoshop to make that 2-in-1 pic for the blog, and that was that!

~Carey

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About carey

Wife & Mother. Photographer & soccer player. Singer to standing-room-only showers.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 11:59 am and is filed under Mom Diaries, Photo Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

16 Responses to “School Picture Day!”

1. Michelle Sidles says:

   September 24, 2009 at 12:41 pm

   I totally agonize over school pics every year. I never thought of just letting them have them taken by the school guy for yearbook. I’d settled on ordering 1 8×10 to stick in their memory box. But I guess that same pic goes in their yearbooks… so why would I need an 8×10. Oh boy… this is going to cause trouble at our house. My husband already thinks I’m a little kooky about school pics. BTW, your kids look FAB!! Their eyes are amazing!
2. Christy says:

   September 24, 2009 at 12:41 pm

   What a handsome young man! Are their eyes identical? They look like it on the pictures!
3. carey says:

   September 24, 2009 at 12:44 pm

   Thanks Christy & Michelle! Their eyes are both the same color — just like dad’s. I’m SO THANKFUL that they got his eyes. They REALLY are that blue. Stick a reflector or a bright surface near them, and their eyes LIGHT UP!
4. Kelly Ridgell says:

   September 24, 2009 at 12:47 pm

   These blow the school pics away!!! They are so cute and look like twins.
5. Bridget Homer says:

   September 24, 2009 at 12:49 pm

   Love it! Those are gorgeous shots!
6. Katie Gonzalez says:

   September 24, 2009 at 12:50 pm

   Love those. So freakin cute. I am dreading whatever crazy back ground is in my son’s first school picture. I will probably do a reenactment myself. My son wants his hair spiked some days, but not on church day. LOL he is 3.5 for pete’s sake.
7. Danielle Calhoun says:

   September 24, 2009 at 1:37 pm

   Gorgeous photos!!!!! Your kids are so cute!
8. Loralyn Joyce says:

   September 24, 2009 at 2:01 pm

   Great pics! My son’s school pics are next week. Luckily, the photographer the schools are using is one of the better ones in town so I’m not worried about what they look like, unless the boy forgets to comb his hair before pics. I might have to buzz off his hockey hair before then.
9. Heather Martin says:

   September 24, 2009 at 2:46 pm

   What an excellent idea as well as your exposure….you are soo creative and inspiring. Thanks for being so much more for us all than the average pro photographer….I am grateful for your blogging.
10. Rhonda Corby says:

    September 24, 2009 at 2:50 pm

    Adorable… Great shots!!!! Their eyes are just wonderful!! I love the green buttery background…
11. Carrie Vines says:

    September 24, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    Gorgeous!!
12. Jenny says:

    September 25, 2009 at 11:35 am

    I love these images! You crack me up about the no cooking thing…
    It is always a pleasure to read about what you are up to, alway inspiring!
13. Judy says:

    September 25, 2009 at 12:44 pm

    School picture days! no offence to the school photographers either, but yikes! Why is it that the school photos always seem to be well……
    I think I will talk the kids into a quick photo session outside this weekend and redo them following your “recipe” so that we have something that we all will like. (and I won’t force them to give me their fake smile that they always end up hating)
    I love how you have captured your kids.
14. Jacki says:

    September 25, 2009 at 1:45 pm

    I love your blog!! And thank you for the school picture tips! I am going to try this tonight!
15. Jaime says:

    September 27, 2009 at 12:15 am

    Wow Carey — these look great!!! The background looks almost as though it’s painted. How far away were they from the tree? So purtyful! I’m about to do Rob’s kinder pics … so stoked!
16. Joyce says:

    October 1, 2009 at 11:36 am

    love, love, LOVE the lighting on these pics. your blog is not only a nice reprieve in the middle of the work day…i learn a ton about your photo tricks!