Jackson Kids Photography nature pictures

Morning Sun is Awesome for pictures

This is the image I was thinking of when I stated in an earlier post that "Morning sun can make even a stick look interesting" This is not a great photo by any means, but hey, it's a stick.

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By the way Hair Cut

By the way. I (Billy Jackson) got a hair cut. Just thought I'd put that out there for anyone who noticed from the pictures (or didn't notice).
We will update the profile pictures accordingly once Eddie and Jonny have received their hair cuts as well.

Jimmy Jackson getting a hair cut from his mother

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Starting out with studio work

In our studio we use artificial lighting. We have light stands with umbrellas, a backdrop, video light, boxes, and a reflector. As the lighting and equipment assistant this is the stuff Gennie is helping manage.

    As you can see were just trying to get the hang of it. We aren't too serious yet.

       "One thing about me, i don't like working with artificial lights. I prefer natural lighting, but I'm the lighting assistant so I'd better get use to it. We set our studio in our living room using the reflector to block the light coming in from the window. Once we got the lighting right we were getting some pretty nice shots



     We also tried setting up the studio outside.It didn't work too well. The backdrop blew over, the light from the sun was throwing us off, and the neighbor's dog showed up. So this Saturday we are setting up the studio inside for a Senior Portrait Session." - Gennie


We'll have more in studio photography later.







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By the way this post is written by Ellie and Gennie Jackson and we don't have a studio, just equipment to use for a studio "look"

Learning Outdoor lighting with Jonny

So today I was going to take Jonny out early in the morning to show him how awesome morning sun light can be, but... there was only cloud cover in the sky. No nice sun light :-( So later that day  I tried to show him how to find nice light (and therefor take nice pictures in that light) even when it is a cloudy day or it is mid day time.

First off for outdoor pictures morning and evening is best. I have found that morning sun can turn even a simple stick or weed into something interesting. For the rest of this post I will concentrate on portrait pictures (this is what I was showing Jonny). 

We started in the middle of a field. I took a picture of him....

...he took a picture of me....

...And those are the two pictures we got. What you can see is that on an over cast day or during mid day when the sun is high you get shadows in the eyes. In the pic of me you can see the shadow line. On the pic of Jonny his eyes are just dark.

By the way I just have to get this out there, Jonny is one of the most difficult people to take pictures of! He's either laughing uncontrollably, or he's looking like hes been abused. No in between! That and I hate to have to hand him the camera to take a picture of me. I guess this will just encourage me more to help him learn good photography

OK so we have shadows. What do we do? On a overcast day or during mid day when you are taking people pictures (portraits specifically) the best thing is to look for shade. Not deep shade, but the edge of shade. Here is our first try to get better light...



... seems better to me. You can see his eyes, though not the best. We found some pine trees that worked a little bit. The idea is to find shade where light is coming onto the face "directional" you will hear that a lot in photography "Directional light". The big thing is you don't want light coming down on top of their head or from behind them. Hence the shade.
We found a slightly different place and took one of me...





Try shooting on the edge of shade some time it will make a difference.
Also try shooting in the early morning (when the sun comes up) its an awesome time to shoot.


The best spot we found for taking pictures was just inside the door of the house. Window light (and backdoor light) is some of the best natural portrait light that you can find.

So in review.

• Morning and evening is best
• You need shade cover to make directional light during mid day and cloudy days
• You want light in the eyes (not blinding them). They are important to a portrait picture
• You don't want light coming down on top of their head (and thus shadows in the eyes)

Feel free to ask questions! I love to try to answer them.

This is what not to do ABOVE all else. 

Do not have light come from behind the person.

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