Emily


My college roommate, Katie, had her first baby recently. She was a perfect angel to photograph! And what's more exciting than seeing an good college friend and her perfect little creation? Loved every moment of our girl time again!







Addyson (3) & Ethan (1)

I decided to take my kiddos out for a Photo shoot, in the beautiful fall colors. My little girl was such a model. My little boy on the other hand, well- he's not an ideal client that's for sure. But I sure love him! Sometimes photos end up beautiful when you capture the stubborn yet cute personality. 








How I do my Post-Processing on Newborns


Hey guy's! I decided I wanted to share with you, the steps I take when editing my photos in Photoshop: Post- Processing. This is a major thing that a lot of photographers keep hidden and secret- this always flustered me. So for anyone wanting a couple new tips, or just curious in seeing how I edit a basic photo, well here ya go!

First things first...
I always shoot in RAW.
 Always.
 [Go to your camera right now and do yourself a favor. Go into your menu: settings-image quality- NEF (RAW). There is also an option to shoot in RAW + JPEG. I shoot in this one, I don't know why. It just makes me feel safer I guess. ]

 It makes a major difference in editing- but that's for another post. 

1. Camera Raw:
I open my photo in Camera RAW. CR is my best friend when it comes to editing. It's so critical in my editing process. This is where I get my lighting levels to be even and pretty. A clean RAW photo. In this particular shoot, I had to crank my ISO to an ugly 800 due to my lack of fancy lens and lower lighting. Camera RAW allows me to get rid of the yucky "noise" that is caused by my high ISO. Under the detail tab, I slide the luminance bar to about 40, and it gives my photos a nice soft look. No more grain!

Once I like the even tone of my photo, I open it up.

2. Color
A RAW image is just that- raw. So I'm in charge of boosting color, contrast, and all that fancy stuff. So I start with duplicating my layer. I change the layer from "normal" to "soft light". I adjust my opacity to how I like it. This gives my photo a boost, so it's not so bland. Then I add a hue/saturation layer, color balance layer, and curves layer. Mess around with these until you like the color and lighting balance. I don't like a lot of contrast in my photos, I like them to look very smooth and more natural. You can adjust contrast in curves.

3. Sharpen
Once I like my color, it's time to sharpen my photo. I use an action from MCP called High Definition (because it's free, fast and awesome). Or you can use a filter: sharpen, unsharp mask, and adjust to your liking. Don't over sharpen! Or your photo will start to look grainy.
I love a little bit of sharpen on newborns (and all of my photos) because it defines those perfect little features.

4. Soften/smooth skin
I just run another action, this time from Coffeeshop Blog called "Baby Powder Room 2". This allows me to quickly soften the skin, brighten eyes (if they're open), and enhance the eyes. This is a great blog and has a ton of free actions. Make sure not to blur features like eyes, nose, and lips. I do let the hair blur a tad, but blur in the wrong spot will start to make the subject look fake.

5. The Patch Tool
This is such a cool tool! I use this to take away the blemishes. Simply create a circle around where the blemish is, drag that circle to a clear spot on the face, and the blemished area will be replaced with a clear spot.

That's it!

Ball Family [Part 2]










Ball Family (extended)











Zack-- {Newborns}

Zack is baby number 4 for my cousin-in-law. 
That's a real term, right? 
;)

He was 3 weeks old for this photo shoot, but mom and I were patient, and he eventually fell asleep...so we left him there. 
His dark, thick hair is amazing!
Thanks Alison, for letting me come photograph little Zack in your new home.




Spokane 2014 Seniors

Hey Guy's!

This great deal is for my Spokane, 2014 Seniors!

That's right! 
Stephanie Linn Photography is making a trip to Spokane very soon!

 I'm available for sessions beginning Saturday, May 25th through Saturday, June 1st. 

Here's the deal--
(Look for more details below ad)


One price and lots of inclusions.

You get me for a whole 2 hours. Start to finish.
Unlimited clothing changes.
One location of your choice.
(You could even do Riverfront Park, and then walk across the street to get downtown shots. That's one location if we're not getting in the car.)  
:)

After our session, you will receive 20 colored photos, tucked nicely away in a box to keep them safe. Along with the prints, you will get a CD with your 20 images, retouched in High Resolution format. (The CD also includes black and white images. The box does not.) They are yours to keep and print anywhere in the future if you need.
*Please allow up to 3 weeks for post-processing.

As for the gift...well, you will just have to wait until your pictures arrive in the mail...

Hurry and book now because I'm only visiting for a short time...then it's back to Utah for me!

I look forward to meeting you future Seniors!

Then and Now

I was cruising through my photos from a year and a half ago, and came across one of my favorite sessions. I love Riverfront Park in my hometown Spokane, WA. Especially in the Spring! Anyways, I wanted to share with you all, a re-edit. I've learned so much more in the last year and a half. It's fun to see the difference! Much more rich!


Introducing: Mother Day Sessions!!

Hey Guy's! 

Mother's Day is just around the corner, so I'd like to offer all my fellow mothers a sweet deal! Why not treat yourself by getting photos taken with your kids who make you a mother? Let's make sweet memories! Contact {Stephanie} now!

*Available to Tooele County and Salt Lake City surrounding areas.



White Balance-- A Lesson

Hey guy's! I'm officially starting something new today. I'm going to start posting "mini- lessons" on Photography, here on the Blog. Photography is such a widely popular hobby now-a-days, I thought it would be fun to share what I have learned. I've been doing Photography for 8 years now, whether it was learning composition from my dad, sitting in Studio Lighting classes at BYU-Idaho, or just researching on my own. No matter how long you have been in Photography, you are never done learning! So this is going to help me increase/refine my skills. All while sharing something new with you!

So my first lesson is on White Balance.

White Balance is the balance of color. Meaning, it's what determines whether your image is the same color as what you're seeing with the naked eye. Depending on which WB setting you have your camera set at, your picture will have a certain hue. The goal is to find the color that you like. Sometimes people like some yellow hue as their style. My personal style is the most exact, real life color I can get. Which is why I use a WB cap (you can buy them dirt cheap online- HERE). I'll explain more on this below, but it looks like this:
Now, to show you the different settings of WB, I took a photo and switched the WB for each. There is:
  • Custom
  • Auto
  • Cloudy
  • Daylight
  • Fluorescent & Tungsten (indoor lighting)
  • Flash, and 
  • Shade
Most of them are self explanatory.  The name is telling you which WB setting would match your scene. If you're shooting outdoors underneath a tree for instance, it recommends using the Shade setting. You get it, right? You can see their different hues below. Auto varies. It's all up to your camera. Sometimes it's perfect, sometimes it's not. My example shows it a little more blue than the SOOC (straight out of the camera) image.





Now back to the lens cap. I highly recommend getting one if you take a lot of photos. It saves me so much time in Post Editing. I don't have to fiddle as much, trying to find the perfect coloring. 

Here is how I use mine: 
  1. Switch the focus on my lens from "auto" to "manual" (this is so my camera doesn't freak out trying to focus because "something" is blocking the lens).
  2. Make sure my camera is set to Manual. Custom WB does not work in Auto.
  3. Go into my camera settings: Menu-White Balance-scroll down to Preset Manual, Measure, (it will ask    "overwrite existing preset data?" after the first time you do this), click Yes. 
  4. I set it in front of my lens/or attach it if it fits. Mine doesn't.
  5. Aim your camera either at your subject or in the direction of where you will be shooting. 
  6. Take the picture.
  7. It should say on the camera screen "Data Acquired". 

Thank guy's, for reading my first mini-lesson! It was a fun "homework" project for me. I worked on it here are there through out the week, just like homework-haha. I wanted to make sure I had all the facts perfect. I even dug out some old books and notes from college. Woo hoo!

 Any requests on my next mini-lesson? Go ahead and leave me a comment!