Elizabeth Halford Photography » Award Winning Photographer. Children. Families. Studio. Available Light.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Home

Hello and welcome to my blog I mean my website I mean my blog! I heard that old fashioned gallery websites were a thing of the past and, you know, I’m all about being trendy.

We’ve got loads of great readers here at ElizabethHalford.com (ooh I feel so important!) who get a daily dose in their inbox of:

Before & After Monday
How I did it Tuesday (A step by step tutorial for how I did Monday’s B&A)
Reader question Wednesday (send me any photography questions and I’ll answer ‘em!)
Freebie Thursday (I troll the WWW to find you the greatest swag for your photographic pleasure)
Reader Photo Friday (you send me your snaps and I take time editing them!)

So have fun and subscribe to stay in the loop. All the cool kids are doin’ it.

Posted in Family, Kids, Teens

5 comments

add a comment

link to this post

email a friend

Alison - February 5, 2010 - 9:39 am

Hi Elizabeth, I just wanted to let you know your amazing. Your so talented and its so great that your willing & able to share your knowledge & talents with people you dont even know. I absolutely love your site. I get so excited every morning to wake up and check what new posts are on your blog for the day.
Thank you for all that you do & keep up the good work!!!

elizabethhalford - February 5, 2010 - 6:34 am

@Adena: Oh wow you sure did dive into the deep end! Lucky you with an absolutely amazing camera (love the D90) and, yes CS4 is an amazingly capable piece of software. Photoshop was developed with graphics in mind and, naturally, extended to photography easily. However, photographers have what we call a ‘workflow’ whereby we load images into our computer and put them through our own conveyor belt of customisations. In my workflow, I apply general edits in Lightroom, fix colours, apply presets, heal blemishes, alter contrast, etc and then in PS, I edit a few selected images which I want to texturise or do other special things to. Every photographer’s workflow is different. If you plan on taking a lot of photos (I would imagine so with such a beautiful camera in your hand!) then PS will be time consuming because you have to deal with each photo individually. When you have a set of images in LR, you can apply the same changes to every shot with one button rather than open > edit > save you’d have to do in PS. The list of things you ‘need’ in photography never seems to end :) Stick around I’d love to see what you come up with! Are you on Flickr?

Adena - February 4, 2010 - 11:40 pm

I just found your site via digital photography school and I LOVE it!! So much wonderful information and I am just a sponge. I started my interest in photography about 8 yrs ago due to scrapbooking. But it has only recently become more of a passion that I really want to pursue. I just bought a Nikon D90 and my order for Photoshop CS4 Extended is being delivered tomorrow. My question is that after I thought I researched this thoroughly and that CS4 is everything I would need, it now seem I need Lightroom also? Won’t PS CS4 do all of the image editing that I need to do? Especially interested in good skin tones/removing blemishes, etc for portraits. Thanks.

elizabethhalford - January 13, 2010 - 1:27 pm

Oh thank you so SO much for your reply. We just had Grace’s first multiple disciplinary assessment today and I am sooo relieved to get that ball rolling. They’re sending Grace so many amazing pieces of equipment for standing, sitting, bathing, etc. What a huge relief. Where in the country do you live? As I get more entrenched in this world and feel that I ‘understand’ these girls a bit better I would love to do days to photograph them for their families. That would be dreamy.

Catherine Sim - January 13, 2010 - 6:48 am

Hi Elizabeth, I was forwarded your post about shoot to live by my friend Rachael we both have a daughter with Rett Syndrome and have become life long friends as a result of our daughters intorducing us to each other via school.
I so enjoyed your post and also have one of those photo’s of my daughter Georgina, she was bum shuffling her way out of the toilet ( her favourite hang out at that time :-) and I called her name she looked straight at me and smiled and its about the last time she looked at me as if she knew who I was its one of my first saves in the event of a fire, after the family. Georgina is now 14 and I have just received her school photo and for the first time ever the photographer bothered to take the time allow Georgina to relax and I have another precious photo to add to my list.
As we have another snow day here in England, we are so rubbish when it snows a bit in this country I think i will scan them into the computer so my friends can share my joy in old and new pictures on facebook.

Keep well and I hope someone nice comes and does your dishes every now and then :-)

Monday, February 8, 2010

All you need to know about shooting people

Posted in Editing & Tutorials

Ok so maybe ’shooting’ isn’t a good word :)

Y’all probably know that I write for DPS. DPS is the most amazing, astounding photography knowledge resource on the planet and it’s all FREE. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first started trolling the web for ways to learn about photography for free. I was instantly hooked and bleary eyed from night after night of cramming my every brain cell with information about the ‘exposure triangle’, ‘aperture’, etc etc.

Now, DPS has released their first e-book all about taking fabulous portraits called “The Essential Guide to Portrait Photography: Our Best Tips and Tricks from Digital Photography School“. It’s a one-stop-shop for all you need to know about 25 topics including:

How to bypass portrait mode on your digital camera and get great portraits
Photographing Children
Travel Portrait Photography
Environmental Portraits
Posing Tips
What to Wear in Portraits
Introduction to Portrait Lighting
Plus much more!

Check it out – it could be the best thing you invest in this year (after your camera, of course:)

P.S. Oh and incase you didn’t catch it, this is an e-book which means you don’t have to wait to start learning right this very instant.

Posted in Editing & Tutorials

no comments

add a comment

link to this post

email a friend

Monday, February 8, 2010

Welcome to the Family, 7D!

Posted in Personal

I’d like to announce a new addition to the Halford family! It’s a brand-spanking-new, yet-to-be-named Canon 7D and boy, oh boy, is it a hunk of cameraness.

It’s my first pro cam – until now, I’ve been squeezing every last ounce out of my 450D and 500D and very quickly outgrew them.

Why the 7D? Well, I was going to go for a 5D until I learned a few things. Most importantly, I learned that the full-frame sensor on the 5D is a whole new ball game. Interestingly, when researching about full-frame sensors, I came to learn that the aren’t all that when producing impressive DOF (depth of field) which means it might be counterproductive to me as a people person. Landscapes? Perfect. People? Not really necessary.

Want to know my first impression upon releasing this beauty from it’s nest of cozy bubble wrap? “I’m gonna need to hit the gym.” This bad boy is HEAVY and much bigger than my other cameras. By the end of the year, I’ll have arms like Popeye (to go with my Olive Oyl legs).

This is a review I found helpful when considering the 7D

Posted in Personal

7 comments

add a comment

link to this post

email a friend

elizabethhalford - February 8, 2010 - 10:33 pm

@Jeremy: Love the D300. It was the first camera that I used professionally when I borrowed it from a friend. If I didn’t already have a ton of lenses, speedlites, etc etc I would’ve gone Nikon in the beginning. But I think this 7D is gonna sway me once and for all.

elizabethhalford - February 8, 2010 - 10:32 pm

@Elli: Oh that’s interesting! Yeah, I loooove it. First shoot with it and the studio lights tomorrow I’ll let you know. Some amazing features I’ve discovered so far are: the raw/jpg button to switch to take one RAW image if you’ve got it set to JPG or vice versa. Another is different drive speeds for continuous shooting going up to 8fps. Like I read in the review which I posted above, it ‘purrs’ at 8fps. And I know this is a completely frivolous, but the shutter feels and sounds gorgeous. Because you know that’s the most important feature on a camera. :) Elli, what are you using at the moment?

Elli - February 8, 2010 - 10:14 pm

This is great info – the post and the comments. I’ve been trying to decide between a 5d and a 7d since the 7d came out. I might be able to afford the 7d sooner, so I’d love to hear what you think of all of its bells and whistles.

Jeremy - February 8, 2010 - 10:06 pm

I’m a Nikon shooter, but I still shoot crop (D300s) because I’m not a huge wide angle fan, and cheaper lenses get me more reach with a crop sensor. I think the depth of field is already shallow enough for my needs (6″ at 6ft with a 50mm lens) so I can’t yet justify the cost of going FX.

elizabethhalford - February 8, 2010 - 9:35 pm

Aaaach! Sorry, you’re right – I switched that around (d’oh!) but I did read that the full frame sensor was LESS desirable for portraits and, surprisingly, that was from a ‘reliable’ source although I’ve just scoured my history to find it to show you and simply can not find it. I had already decided on the 7D at the point t.b.h. What do you guys use?

Jeremy - February 8, 2010 - 9:26 pm

Adam’s correct; larger sensors produce shallower depth of field given the same composition, something which is generally desirable for portraits.

Given the same *focal length*, a larger sensor will produce a deeper depth of field, but taking into account crop factor and making the necessary adjustments to focal length to get the same composition (e.g., 50mm on a 7D being approximately 80mm on a 5D) on both cameras, you’ll have a shallower depth of field on the full frame camera.

Adam - February 8, 2010 - 9:13 pm

I was under the impression that a shallow depth of field is desirable for portraits, and a deep depth of field is desirable for landscape, and that a larger sensor results in a shallower depth of field for an equivalent composition.
By which I mean, I would have thought you’d be keen on the full frame camera.