Photography Tips for Moms20 Jun 2007 05:30 am

With all the sun we’ve been having, I’m wondering if any of you parents are feeling frustrated with how overexposed your photos are. You see a great shot and shoot it but for some reason it’s totally overexposed.

What do I mean by overexposed? There is to much light so you lose skin tone, detail, and have an overall washed out look.

One reason for this could be that your ISO is to high. Lots of digital SLR cameras come set on a default ISO of 400. If your photos are looking like this lately…

try going into your menu and seeing what your ISO is set at. If it’s 400, try bringing it down to 100 if your shooting Canon and 200 if your Nikon. I’ve heard that Canon and Nikon have what they call “native speeds”. This means the camera was engineered to shoot the best, most color saturated, detailed photo at it’s native speed (or ISO). Canon is 100, and Nikon’s native speed is 200. Try it out!

Brian and I will shoot 95% of the wedding at an ISO of 100 to get the best color possible. Sometimes I’ll start shooting and see that my shots are overexposed like the one above. It’s almost always because the ISO was to high.

Here is the photo at an ISO of 100. The difference is crazy!

Lots more detail! Lots more natural skin tone. Nothing is washed out. And this is a good, color balanced photo to try changing to black and white or sepia. So that it can look like this…

Recipe for this BW photo. I basically took out the saturation which makes it black and white instead of color. I up’d the contrast and brightness till I got the photo where I wanted it. You can totally do this!

Hope this helps you get some great color, saturated shots this summer. Just think ISO when it’s over exposed. And the principal applies to it being underexposed. Instead of bringing the ISO down, you can bring it up for more light on the photo.

Please tell me I haven’t made this to confusing! I did a whole chapter on ISO in DVD 2, so we could dive into to it more there. :)

A BIG thanks to the moms that sent me photos this last week from the exercises! I love seeing what you’re getting! I’m going to post some of the shots later this week, so you can all be inspired too!

Keep sending them, and put a note with the email that let’s me know if it’s okay to share your photos on the blog or not. Want to make sure! :)

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To learn more about me visit About Me Ra.

For information on Me Ra’s popular photography workshops and DVD series for parents, visit DVD series and “Documenting a Child’s Life.”

To see our day job, visit our website. :)

17 Responses to “Overexposed Photos Frustrating You?”

  1. on 20 Jun 2007 at 10:52 am Alissa

    I was JUST struggling with this YESTERDAY! You have superb timing - as usual. I will have to try again now that I know. And, I just checked… my ISO WAS at 400 just like you said! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m so lucky to have found you. I can’t wait to get my DVDs!

  2. on 20 Jun 2007 at 12:10 pm Jennifer Rashell

    Thanks so much Me Ra! I’ve definitely been having a lot of overexposed photos lately!!! This ISO tip is not confusing at all, but very helpful!!

  3. on 20 Jun 2007 at 4:06 pm Me Ra

    Yeah! I’m so glad this made sense! You know when you’re working way past bed time, and you just can’t see straight! :) That was me last night. So glad it’s helpful for you guys!

  4. on 20 Jun 2007 at 4:24 pm Ellen

    Thanks for the tip — since we’re outdoors all the time these days, it’s hard to keep the color in.

  5. on 20 Jun 2007 at 10:46 pm GiGi Ma

    Enjoying your Blog. Even I do not have a digital camera as yet, but when I do think you are the one who can give great information. Pictures are so wonderful of Pascaline and Blaze. He looks so much like your brother, Shae.
    Looking forward to your next issue.
    Love you much and hope you are stronger each day.

  6. on 21 Jun 2007 at 1:02 pm Me Ra

    Grandma! You figured out how to post a comment! You are AMAZING! How many great grandmas are on the internet posting comments on blogs! As always, you inspire and blow me away! This is the best surprise today! I love you!


  7. [...] 2. A while back I did a tips post on ISO. The lower your ISO (or what we once knew as film speed), the richer your color. We want deep, rich colors for this shot, so bring your ISO down to 100 (canon) or 200 (nikon). [...]


  8. [...] The other night while I was getting ready for bed, I was thinking of DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box. And all of a sudden this idea came to me. ‘Why not reserve one or two pages in the booklet to show off some of your photos!’ You are all such an inspiration to me in how you try the blog exercises and go for it–we should totally show off the shots you’re getting! [...]

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