Miss Ava is the sweetest little girl.  I got to meet her parents while she was cooking in mama’s belly (one of my fav maternity shoots).

There is something about little girls.  They don’t need to have long flowing hair to show sweet feminine grace.  It is in their eyes and the way they smile.

Mama dressed her so sweet in cute pink, soft blues and accented in the most adorable headbands.  I am not usually a fan of headbands for my own kids but these sweet headbands were amazing.  If baby number 3 turns out to be a girl I am for sure nabbing a couple of these from Babycakes Bowtique.

Just look at the cuteness for yourself.

I get a lot of questions from clients, other photographers and clickn’ moms on what software I use to edit my pictures.  For this week’s Consider This I will be addressing the different levels of editing software that I am familiar with and you can judge for yourself which is best for your skill level.

SOFTWARE I USE:

Right now I use Adobe Lightroom 2 and Adobe Photoshop CS3.  Both of these pieces of software would be considered professional level software.  Photoshop especially is a tool to be used by those who need a variety of tools and functions to manipulate their photographs.  It can also be used in graphic design although there are more specific products for that area.   Lightroom on the other hand is something a lot of professionals use but I would recommend it to non professionals as well.   Apple has a product similar to Lightroom called Aperture.

My workflow (the series of tasks to completely edit a session) consists of the following:

• Upload images to Lightroom
• Cull images (remove photos from list because of quality, posing problems, focus issues etc)
• Correct exposure, sharpness, color on culled images.
• Open Photoshop and perform touch ups on images for the following: blemishes on skin, eye sores in the back ground, and other items in the photo that might need spruced up
• Upload all images to smugmug for preview
• Blog select group of images
• Provide final product to client.

Based on the workflow I would say that I use Lightroom for 75% of my editing process.  Photoshop is really only used to “fix” items in the photo or apply actions that will give the photo unique feel.  For the most part I like my images to have a clean edit which means colors are true and not muted or changed too drastically.  Every once in a while if I feel an image would be fun in a different style I will apply some of those “fun” edits.

CLICKN’ MOMS AND DADS

I would consider you a “clickn’ mom or dad” if your soul purpose behind having a DSLR ( camera with detachable lens) is so you can take better quality photos of family and events.  You do not intend on selling your services but would like to have nice pictures to hang on the wall and make albums.  In your case there are options that range from free to around the $200 range.

pixlr.com - This is a website based editing software where you do not need to download anything to your computer.  You can create images from scratch or upload an image to edit.  The tools feature include several popular tools from Photoshop type products like crop, spot healing, dodge, burn, clone stamp, marquee, lasso, layers and brush.  If you are not familiar with these tools they are basic tools in Photoshop editing.  With any software there is a learning curve but pixlr is a powerful free tool.

Photoshop Elements (PSE) – This is a smaller version of Photoshop and one I would say A LOT of households who wish to edit pictures have.  Retail is about $120.  This software not only allows you to edit with some of the most popular tools but it comes with a way to organize your photos.  That to me is a very important tool when trying to find and edit pictures in batches.  With any popular software product, there are ample video examples and forums answering questions on how to achieve the look you want for your pictures.  Take the time to learn your tool if you are going to spend the money on it.

Another bonus for PSE products are the ability to use actions.  Actions are sold and sometimes offered for free by many photographers on the internet.  An action, when installed in your PSE software, will perform a series of tasks to create a certain effect on your photo.  For example, I run an action called Select-O-Sharp from Totally Rad Actions.  This action, when run, will create a layer over my photograph that will then allow me to use my brush tool to sharpen the portions of my image I want sharpened.  That particular set of actions is only for a Photoshop product (not PSE) but there are plenty of great options for PSE.  One option that is wonderful and free is from The Pioneer Woman, Pioneer Woman Actions.

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER

Lightroom – Retails around $150. If you are wanting to learn more about photography and maybe in the future begin to sell your services I would consider you an amateur.  Don’t go with the free products here.  For you I would recommend the PSE products mentioned above and/or Lightroom.  Lightroom is a very powerful tool to sort through images and very quickly edit images.  I love Lightroom for the fact that I can select a group of similar pictures and by moving a couple of sliders around those images then look and feel all the same.  I can achieve almost a final product just by using Lightroom.  This software I would say has a pretty big learning curve.  It was difficult at first to find a rhythm on how to edit my pictures but after watching videos and learning from others I was able to develop a routine.

With Photoshop products I mentioned the use of Actions.  Lightroom does not have the ability to perform actions but they instead have something called a preset.  It is a set of predetermined settings that you can apply to your pictures to achieve the effect you want.  You can create your own presets or buy ones made by others.  I find when editing beach images that I tend to have similar settings for all of those pictures, so I created a preset that applies those settings and it just saves those steps for me later.

Photoshop (PS) – Retails around $700.  This is probably the most powerful editing software on the market.  You are going to pay for it too.   Everything mentioned in PSE of course would apply to PS plus many more options that would be for the advanced user.  I purchased this product for the ability to run the actions I loved the most.  At the time I was able to use an Education discount. If you can find an older version or use some type of discount and you want to eventually become a professional this is the product for  you.

Here is an example from a recent session.  The SOOC means Straight Out Of Camera.  You can see it is a little dull in color.  The scenery itself was beautiful.  So I used mostly Lightroom to pop the colors and then PS to sharpen the little girl.

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We are getting so close to Baby Claire not being a baby anymore.  It has been a wonderful time taking pictures of mama’s growing belly all the way to now Claire being 9 months old.  I am in love with seeing these babies grow.

9 months is always a fun stage.  Some are starting to experiment with walking, most can stand and ALL smile a lot.  Neither of my kids had teeth until at least 10 months old so seeing Ms. Claire’s beautiful teeth were a cute reminder of how different each baby is.  She is standing somewhat on her own and in a couple weeks I bet she will be taking those first steps.  Watch out mama and dad you are in for it.  This little girl is tough.  I wonder if she will be a climber…I was.

I coordinated with mom on a location about a week before.  We had the usual spots: beach, park or house, but I found something new and was hoping she was up for it.  I told her to meet me behind a local church that they had a field I really liked.  Over the last month I have noticed these purple wild flowers and was hoping to bring my kids up there but I got seriously sick with a cough so instead I brought Baby Claire.  I am so happy I did.  It was perfect for her and I love the pictures.

This is the last family from my mini session in the Spring.   I adore the clothes they chose.  So bright and fun!  Oaks By the Bay was so beautiful that day.  It was a little windy but we made due.  Thanks to everyone that came out for my Spring Mini’s and I look forward to see some cute kids and families for my August “Back to School” mini.  If you want to know dates before everyone else make sure to sign up for my newsletter. 

This family brought along some cute props to get their kids happy and moving.  A couple of pinwheels and bubbles always make the worst picture hater a smiler.

A wonderful family session on my favorite beaches to start off the Spring Break season.   We met at St. Andrew’s State Park and really just had fun.  Two kids from mom and two kids from dad come together to make this fun and sweet family.  It was funny because at one point mom told me they didn’t really have wedding pictures so I made sure to snap a couple of romantic pics for them.  They definitively were still in that honey-moony-lovey-dovey stage.  So cute.

Any family that has fun is a great session for me.

Yay for random driftwood on the beach. 

Yesterday I spoke about one of my besties well here is another one.  Grab your tissues because I know I am already crying…darn preggers hormones.

So Kelley, she is always there during my weak moments.  I don’t know what it is about our relationship that she just happens to be there when I need her the most and I hope I have been there for her during her stressful times.

At her wedding I was her maid of honor.  We went the night before to setup her reception and there was a party going on.  She was in shock and panic knowing that setup in the morning would be impossible for her.  I said “Give me your stuff….Stephen and I will handle it in the morning.”  And we did.  Ever since that point I feel like we have shared all of our worst moments together.

It might seem insignificant but when the war in Iraq was in the first years there was a wave of soldiers having immunizations for small pox.  I have eczema and was told if someone had the vaccine for small pox I had to stay away because if I was exposed I could die!  Probably a small chance but that freaked me out.  A buddy of ours was headed to the house and I happened to hear he had the vaccine and I started to panic saying he couldn’t come over….Kelley was there.  I rarely cry in front of others and I was balling.  Feeling so stupid but nervous at the same time.  She was there.

At seven months pregnant we were all on a church trip to a local beach and all staying in a beach house.  My hubby was off giving boat rides to our friends and I was taking pictures around the beach.  I climbed up on some rocks, yes dumb of a preggers to do that, and yes I fell.  I tumbled in the water and fell on some oyster shells.  They hurt.  But I wasn’t worried about that I was worried about my camera.  I asked Kelley’s hubby to save the camera and of course she was like “Hey crazy how about you?”  Another friend drove us back to the house where Kelley helped me to the bathroom, got my soaked clothes off and started to wash my bleeding foot.  I started to cry.  Yet again she was there when I needed her most.  No one really sees me cry but her and my husband.  I guess it is our special bond.

So she was there when I had my mini session last month.  Her family is so special to me.  Her hubby and I were together in youth group where we fought like brother and sister….we are better now….really I love him to pieces.  She married said brother-like-friend only making her like a sister to me.  We don’t see each other as much as I think we would like, but it doesn’t matter because we she needs me and I am there.

I was a bridesmaid in her wedding and very pregnant at the time.  She was with me in the hospital before I was wheeled in for my c-section after 19 hours of induced labor with no pain meds and she was newly pregnant.  I returned to work when my little girl was 6 weeks and my sweet friend took care of her for a week before daycare could take over.  I kept her oldest while she went to the hospital with #2 laboring all day only to find out hers was breach.  Now she has had #3 and I am photographing her complete and loving family.

Seriously don’t know what I would do without a little Jessie in my life.  No matter how you feel she always has a complement for you.  She will listen to your rants and feel your pain when you cry.  I over share on all aspects of my life and she adores it.  I think she almost punched a hole in the wall when I left a message telling her I had a miscarriage    This is a true friend.  Being pregnant with #3 myself right now I can’t wait to call her in the wee hours of the night asking for motivation.

I love this family like they were my own.

This child is Kray-Kray with a Kardashian K.  But she is absolutely amazing. 

Big sister is becoming quite the lady.
Together they are special but now they have one more sweet sister to round out their family. And I do believe she will be just as much of a personality as the rest of them. 

The most adorable family to hit my blue room yet!!

I had my first newborn session where I felt like I had everything I needed.  The past week I made my own newborn posing bean bag chair out of faux leather vinyl, I bought several backdrops and fluffy rugs to pose babies on and created several cute and tiny headpieces.  The headpieces were absolutely fun to make and I had to make several for boys and several for girls since I didn’t know the gender of these twins.  It turned out to be one boy and one girl so I had plenty to play with.

We had some fun shooting the whole family of 8 plus just the kids and I snuck around the babies’ room for some detail shots.  Normally, I would have some lifestyle types of shots of mom, dad and kids around the house with the babies but I stuck with a more traditional posed newborn shoot for this one to practice my skills.  Plus I knew another great photographer was coming in later to try lifestyle pics.  This is one well photographed family!!

There are a lot of pictures here.  I figured since they were a family of 8 you would allow a little extra!!!

For a welcome home gift, several family friends got together while the babies were in the hospital and reorganized, redecorated and revamped the parent’s room.  What a thoughtful gift. These four will have a lot of big brother and big sister duties and I know they are ready and willing.  First up is their little prince.  I adore this pictures.  It was the very first one I took and it is just precious even down to his sweet newborn belly button. Now to the princess.  She looks stunning in her tiara. Aren’t they so cute together.  Newborn twins are so special.  They spend so much time touching in the womb that they are super comfortable all snuggled together.  It just makes my job easier. Brother on the left and sister on the right. A proud mama. Girl accessories are so cute. 

I was super blessed to have been a part of this lucky pairs first pictures.  Watching them grow up will be so much fun.

Consider This is a weekly blog post discussing FAQ’s from clients and photographers.  If you have any suggestions for topics please submit them to info@adriapeaden.com.

Pinterest.com….ya heard of it?  You probably have even if you aren’t a part of it yet.  This pinning sensation has left a lot of photographers with new hurdles in their business. #1 People are taking images from their websites and displaying them without credits.  #2 Clients are finding images that they really like and asking photographers to please take those pictures of their event.

The first issue is something I don’t really care about.  The fact is I put a couple of images on my blogs for clients to enjoy before they get their CD.  If people pin those to other sites and enjoy the same pictures I do and learn from them that is fine by me.

The second issue is something I want to address in this week’s Consider This.  It happens a lot that I get an email from a client who attaches several images they find on the internet and ask that I please take these poses or have these specific props for their session.  Here is my usual answer:

Thanks so much for providing some wonderful ideas for our shoot.  These are all great shots and I will consider them in our session.  Sometimes I can’t always achieve the exact shot you see because of location, cooperation of the people in the shot, or lighting.  What I will do is apply the Adria Peaden Photography style to these images and you will get your own unique shots and not an exact copy.

When you hire a professional photographer you usually look over the pictures on their website first and decide you like them so you contact them.  In making that decision to contact them and eventually book them you are then agreeing to allow the photographer to have control of the artistic portion of the shoot.  You have to trust that the photographer you hire is going to take the types of pictures you will love.  That is why you do the research and find the one you love.  So many of us bargain shop but with something like photography, that doesn’t always mean quality.

I do encourage clients to share a pinterest board with me or send pictures to me so I can get a sense of what they are looking for in terms of props or posing that isn’t the typical family portrait.  Again I take these to heart entering the shoot and then try to convey my interpretation of the picture so they can have a unique image.  I know I don’t want the exact same picture as another family.  Instead I want something that shows my family as they are.  That is what I provide for my clients and that is why you hire a professional.

Here are some examples of pictures I have been sent and then some images that are similar and carry the same idea.

So all of the images I took were similar is some respect.  What I did was considered my surroundings, the subject and the props we had on had and made the image unique. 100% of the time my clients were happy with the outcome.  One of my favorite client reply’s to seeing their gallery is “I love how you showed my family’s personality.  You capture exactly who they are.” That is my goal and giving me creative freedom allows this to happen.