we are at 100......

So yesterday the post was on the handy I phone. I was away from my computer all day so I didn't have a chance to look at all the fun stats that I like to keep up with. Long story short WE HAVE WRITTEN 100 BLOGS AS OF YESTERDAY. So today is 101. We want to celebrate by giving a free 8x10 for the first 10 people to comment on this blog post.

Here is the tip o the day.

Tip o' the Day: 3 Ways to Attain Shallow Depth of Field (part 1) I'm going to teach you how to be shallow today.  :)  The GOOD kind of shallow.  At every Shoot Your Kids workshop I do, the number 1 question I get is: "how do I get a blurry background in my photos?" Today, I have your answer!  Well, part of it.  I'm going to explain a LOT in this email, and tomorrow I'm going to share the two other (EASIER) ways to get a shallow depth of field (or blurry background). Lenses have apertures, or a mechanism that adjusts in diameter to allow light to pass through to your camera.  The size of the opening refers to an f/stop, and have common numbers such as f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11 (notice they're either whole numbers or decimals - that's important to remember, especially when we're going to go over shutter speeds down the road!).  Okay, all that might be mumbo-jumbo, so let me clarify! As a photographer, we get to adjust the aperture to regulate how much light goes through.  We do this by changing the f/stop.  Easy enough.  We set our camera's f/stop (check your manual, all cameras models are different) to a certain number, which affects depth of field.  Okay, did you get that? "Okay, so... what f/stop do I need for a shallow depth of field?" Answer: the lower the f/stop NUMBER, the shallower your depth of field! Some lenses (the ones we use, and that I include links to below for your convenience!) have really LOW number f/stops, so we can get super shallow depths of field!  The image above, for example, was shot at a f/1.8.  (Meredith used the 50mm 1.2L lens on that shot) On a side note, if you want a LOT in focus, you're going to set your aperture to f/11ish.  See how that works?  Low for shallow, high for deep (just think of it in terms of water if it helps. Deep water is high.  Shallow water is low.  MAN I'M GOOD!  hahaha!) For portraits, I'm always shooting at f/2 or below, and a lot of the time I'm shooting at 1.2!  Sometimes it's so shallow that noses are out of focus when the eyes are in focus (so I shoot a LOT and bracket focus).  Got it?  Good! Now, let's all go be shallow photographers! talk to you soon, Wade