Week 4 - The Major League Soccer Championship Trophy

I had a lot of fun using the trophy's reflection. What I wish is that I had brought my telephoto lens so I could have stood far enough back so I was not in the reflection, just the subjuct. But since I did not have it with me, you can see me in all the photos. So one of them is even a "self portrait".

I really like the black and white one and the reflection of Katie on the upper left (where she is in focus, but the reflection is not) and then the other one where the reflection is in focus, but Katie is not.

Week 3 -- My Friends Daughter

Week 2 -- Portraits of my sister Carrie

These are my favorites and I love putting portaits into a collage. 

This is what I did and learned.  First, I used my Nikon D40 with the 55-200mm lens that came with my camera.  We started indoors with a black backdrop.  1/125s, f4.5, ISO800

I cropped it just slightly and darkened the shadows to make the black blacker. 

Then we went outside.  Here is a shot I love SOOC -- and then edited -- it needed warming up 1/640s f5.6 ISO 400

Then Keri suggested changing my white balance to shade since the photos were looking a little blue.  Here are 2 similar shots -- one has the white balance on auto and one on shade.

1/500s f5.0 ISO400 WB auto

1/500s f 9.0 ISO 1600 WB shade

So I have mixed feelings -- it is definately warmer with the white balance -- but I think it is too warm.  As I reviewed the photo data I noticed that my ISO was at 1600.  That has me wondering if I had left it set there from a previous photo setting, and therefore this is a skewed WB shade example or if it was in Auto ISO and to accomodate the shade it upped the ISO???  I guess I'll never know, but I will definately try harder to check all my settings next time.  In the editing after it seems easier to warm up a photo, but trickier to tone it down a little.  I guess this means I need to focus on custom white balance because as you can see, it makes a huge difference, but using the presets may not always be the best route. 

Week 1

A group of my friends and I have the goal of making 1 photo outing per week and then posting what we got.
So here is the shot SOOC

Here is the shot now

I only wish I had been at her eye level -- but it was very cold, I was in many layers, and the sled just keeps moving -- so the photos I got at her eye level were not so great, (too many kids in the background, weird facial expressions, etc. . .)

What do you think? Do you like the added blur, or did you like her feet crisp?