Project Mom {week7} "The Blue Pin-striped Suit!"

Its been 2 weeks again since my last project mom.. as you can imagine, things have been crazy here!

Below you will find a shot taken of my little guy on Easter Sunday after church. He was SUCH a stud in his little blue pinstripe suit complete with handkerchief and tie!

THIS image has taught me sooo much tonight as I got it ready to post. Number one (and I've said this before...) no matter how much of a rush you are in, check your ISO before shooting!! I had shot a wedding the night before and my ISO was jacked all the way up to 3200 so that I could catch what was happening on the very dark dance floor. I could have gotten such better quality with this quick candid, which turned into such an amazing shot, if I had taken just two extra seconds!! Number two, never underestimate the power of a good noiseware plug-in! I thought this shot was lost to grain before I ran noiseware... I was so thrilled with what the plug-in could do and would invest in it all over again! Number three when shooting in RAW (which is what my camera was again set to from the night before), make sure your color workspace is the same as the image in photoshop! I had the darndest time trying to figure out why my saved image was not matching what I was seeing in CS5! It took many forums to help fix the problem! agggg!

Ok enough about all that I'm learning through project mom (and my own silly mistakes!)... here is the little guy :) This picture makes me a little weepy... I just love my sweet boy!

Project Mom {week6} "To B&W or Not?"

I'm excited to say that I have made it to week 6 and have only missed posting one week of project mom! So... that would be 6 out of 7 right? Not too shabby for a full time momma working a photog business on the side!

This week, while editing, I realized that I am more hesitant to black and white an image while creating a set for a client. I'm not entirely sure why, but I usually prefer something with bold colors than a B&W.... and if we are being honest, I sometimes feel as though photogs (including myself) B&W an image to hide unfocused faces, a bad white balance, or noisy picture.... shhh don't tell!

I follow many other photogs, one of which does about 40 % of her post processing in B&W... and I absolutely adore her work! So this week, I decided to post process the same images in both color and B&W. There is something really sweet about each image and I almost feel as though the color tells a different story then the B&W. Perhaps I'll let me readers be the judge.

So if I were going to enlarge these, should I choose color or black and white???
...and of course you need to tell me why! :)

The other thing I learned? ALWAYS check ALL of your camera settings before shooting... even when dealing with squirmy babies! My ISO was set to 800 needlesly for these shots and I unfortunately had to deal with a greater amount of grain in the post processing... Guess I'll just have to dress my little guy up again and drag him down to mommy's studio for more play time to try some more guitar shots this week... surely he will grow up loving my camera! :)

Project Mom {week5} "The Littlest Sox Fan"

It is here! Baseball season is upon us!

While I have to say, we are far bigger football fanatics than baseball here in the Pudlo house, we still love a good Sox game! This week, Project Mom is a tribute to the Red Sox! Here's one of the littlest Sox fans you will meet, sporting all of the fun attire he gets to wear for the next few months. :)

All shots taken with my BEAutiful 50mm 1.4 lens... best lens on the market for portraits I'm convinced!

f1.7 1/80 sec ISO 200 natural light to the right

 f1.7 1/80 sec ISO 200 natural light to the right

 f1.7 1/250 sec ISO 200 natural light to the right (we shot this right near the glass doors, which is why we have a higher shutterspeed here... which I'm learning is so crucial when photographing little guys... they move quick!)

f1.7 1/80 sec ISO 400 shot in my living room... not as much light, thus higher ISO
light was from a window to the upper right of my little guy.