Recent Projects - Photographing Joely Rae

April 29, 2014 in Recent Projects, Children, Photography

Recently I had the opportunity to photograph Joely Rae who is about to turn one in May. Joely is a sweet little girl who did an excellent job during our photoshoot! I always enjoy photographing children because you never know what is going to happen. Children also keep you on your toes. Sometimes you get amazingly funny faces and other times you get tears. Regardless of what happens, I'm there to capture moments from our time together and I enjoy every minute of it.

Here are a few tips I find useful to keep in mind when photographing children.

Go with the flow! With children being unpredictable at times, you never know what will happen. Have a plan, but be ready to change directions at any moment.
Use a fast shutter speed. You want to be sure to freeze the moment. Some children are quite fast, so make sure you use a faster shutter speed. Bump up you ISO if you need to.
Focus on the eyes! Yes, the eyes say it all. When photographing people make sure the eyes are tack sharp
Talk and work with the parents. Set expectations so the parents know what you are thinking and how you plan to capture the images. Ask the parents if they had any particular props they want to use or if they have seen photos somewhere else that they like.
Have fun!

Images shot with Canon 60D using the Canon 17mm - 55mm F2.8 USM and the Canon 50mm F1.4 USM — Images shot with Canon 60D using the Canon 17mm - 55mm F2.8 USM and the Canon 50mm F1.4 USM

Here is some technical information about this shoot for those who are interested:

All of the images were taken with the Canon 60D using both the Canon 17mm - 55mm F2.8 USM and the Canon 50mm F1.4 USM.
Images were taken around 3:00 pm using available light. There was a pretty good cloud cover with the sun only shining through occasionally.
Images were brought into and developed in Adobe Lightroom.
The composite image above was created in Adobe Photoshop CC.

Getting Started in Lightroom 5

April 28, 2014 in Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom 5 Logo

Getting started in Adobe Lightroom can be a little intimidating. When I first got started using Adobe Lightroom I remember thinking 'how am I going to figure all this out?' I literally spent days researching, learning and sorting through all the information I could find to help me understand the program and how to use it. Little by little I learned the program, how to use it, how to set it up and how to take advantage of the tools that are available to me. By sharing my experience and knowledge of Adobe Lightroom, my hope is to help others just as I have been helped along the way.

In my experience, there are no great 'secrets' to all of this stuff - its really just techniques, settings, styles, creativity, interpretations etc. that you may not have thought of or may not have learned yet. I love to learn and I learn something new every day. All the information that I plan to provide is the way I use Lightroom and what works for me. I'm not saying this is the only way to do things, it's just what I found to work for me. So, lets get started!

Adobe Lightroom 5 - File Locations

First Things First

I'm assuming that you have already installed Lightroom on your computer and are ready to go. I use a Mac, so my setup will be based on the Mac system. There are a few things you should know as you get started using Adobe Lightroom (Lightroom).

Lightroom is a program that allows you to import, organize, manage, develop/process and export images. It is a database for all of your images.
The more information you input about your images through metadata, ratings, keywords, etc. the better you will be able to search for specific images later on.
The Lightroom catalog houses all of the information related to your images - file locations, organizational structural, develop settings, ratings, keywords, etc.
Image files are separate from the Lightroom catalog and can be stored in a different location than the Lightroom catalog file.
Lightroom provides non-destructive editing of photos.

With these few things in mind, we can get started on setting up Lightroom. First, you want to think about where you would like to store your Lightroom catalog and where you would like to store your images.

The Lightroom Catalog (.lrcat)

What I do and would recommend is to place the Lightroom catalog file (.lrcat file extension) on your local hard drive. This will allow your computer to have the fastest access to the catalog. Each time you load your catalog in Lightroom, all of the information contained in the catalog must be called up. The quicker the computer can access the catalog file, the quicker Lightroom will be up and running. I store my Lightroom catalog on my hard drive under Pictures>Lightroom>Focus Photography & Design>Learning Catalog_LR5.lrcat. You can name your catalog anything you would like. In this case, this will be the catalog I use for various tutorials, learning and teaching to help keep the program moving efficiently.

Image File Location

Next, think about where you want to store your image files. If you will not have a lot of images or if you have a large internal hard drive, it might make sense to save the images on your internal hard drive. I use an external hard drive to store my images. I use a Drobo that contains 4 bays of hard drives. The Drobo has been a great system for me that offers tons of storage and I would recommend them if you need a large external hard drive system.

On my external hard drive I created a folder called 'Lightroom'. Inside the 'Lightroom' folder, I created another folder called 'Photos Go Here'. This will be the main location for all of the images. It is important to keep all of your images inside one main (or parent) folder. This method of storing your files will be helpful later on should you decide to move all of your image files within Lightroom.

From this point forward, it is best to create your organizational system/file structure directly in Lightroom. As you import your images into Lightroom, the Lightroom catalog creates a link to your images within the catalog. The image files are not stored physically inside the catalog file, rather the catalog remembers where they are by saving a linked to them. You never want to move the image files around in Finder or Windows Explorer because the link to the image in the Lightroom catalog will be 'broken'. You will then need to 'relink' the file (you will see a little question mark in the top corner of the image preview letting you know that Lightroom can't find the file). The best way to move and/or organize your images is directly in Lightroom. By moving items in Lightroom, the Lightroom catalog will automatically update the links for the new image file location.

Inside your 'Photos Go Here' folder (or whatever the name you choose), you can then create any kind of organizational structure you'd like. Below are the top level folders that I have created to organize my images:

I currently have my images broken down by year, then 7 primary categories. Inside those 7 primary categories I have additional folders with specific events, places, etc. I have a separate directory for iPad and iPhone images as well as a separate directory for all business/work related photography. Inside the work folder, I further break it down into clients, projects, etc.

This is the system that works for me, but it might not be the best for you. Think about what you need and what you think will work for you. I do find my organizational structure evolving over time, however with the setup I have, it is easy to move images and folders directly within Lightroom. Keep in mind, the more images you have, the longer it will take to move them all around if you decide to change your organizational structure.

I hope these basics help when getting started in Lightroom. If you have any questions about the file locations and setting up a directory I'd be happy to help you further. Please leave me a comment below.

Before/After Image Processing - Train Car

April 24, 2014 in Before/After Images

Post Processing

Canon 60D:  1/250th @ F5.0, ISO 800                            Out of Camera Raw File — Canon 60D: 1/250th @ F5.0, ISO 800 Out of Camera Raw File

Many images can benefit from some general retouching and color enhancing. When shooting in RAW format, it is always necessary for some level of post processing. Above is an example of a photograph I shot in the winter of 2012. The image was shot with my Canon 60D with an 18-135 Kit lens. On the left you see the original RAW file as it came out of the camera. To the right, you see the same photograph processed in Adobe Lightroom. Modifications made in Lightroom include adjusting contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, a touch more vibrance and lens corrections.

After making some global adjustments in Lightroom, I used Cmd+E on the Mac to take the image over to Adobe Photoshop for some retouching. In this case, I removed the people, the car and evergreen tree from the photograph. I also had to reconstruct the train rail where the people were removed. I wanted the focus of the photograph to be the old rustic train car and I felt the items I removed were distractions to my overall vision for this image. The tools of choice in Photoshop were the clone tool, healing brush, layer masks and adjustment layers. With the retouching work in Photoshop complete, I saved and closed the file, which brings it back into Lightroom.

Now that I essentially had the image I wanted, it is time for some finishing touches. I have been using onOne Software's Perfect Effects 8 and I have found it to be a great tool. To bring the image from Lightroom into Perfect Effects, in Lightroom go to File > Plug-in Extras > Perfect Effects 8. I then added some dynamic contrast, color enhancers, and sharpening. Once I was happy with the final product, I applied the settings and sent the image back to Lightroom. Below is the final image after all of the processing is complete. Many times the image I see in my mind when I press the shutter button is not what comes straight out of the camera. With the help of some great tools, the image in my mind becomes a reality.

Final image after being processed through onOne's Perfect Effects 8.

What is this blog all about anyway?

April 24, 2014 in General

Welcome to the Blog!

Who am I and what is this all about?

My name is Jason Yadlovski. I am a husband, father, photographer and landscape architect. I’m driven by the need to help others by providing honest, quality photography and landscape design services and information. Seeing the smile on a persons face when they receive their photographs or design is priceless. I also love to learn new things and share the knowledge I have with others.

My goals are two fold – First, I want to be able to share information I know about photography and landscape architecture though this blog. Everything from how I do various tasks and the tools I use to what I'm currently working on. Second I want to be able to provide great quality photography and landscape architectural services for anyone who has a need for either service. Photography is my passion and I truly enjoy making images that capture emotion, beauty, and the world around me. For more information about me and my background, take a look at my About Me page. You can also see samples of my work using the links on the left side of this page.

This is my first post as I get this blog going. I'm looking forward to being able to share things I'm working on as well as my knowledge in Photography, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, Landscape Architecture and more through tips, techniques, and the way in which I complete tasks. Thank you for stopping in! I hope you check back soon for updates!