Behind the Scenes – Photography
As resident Petite Purls photo editor I thought I would fill you in on a bit of how things happen behind the scenes. We have seen so many comments complimenting the wonderful photography in this issue, which for me personally is very rewarding. It means I did my job well, and it also means our designers did an amazing job at having their designs photographed!
Here the photographer is down on the child's level, and has selected a nice background. A front porch or stoop can be a wonderful place to take photos.
No matter how wonderful the designs are, it all goes out the window if you are not able to capture all that fabulousness in a good photo. Waiting for photos is probably one of the most stressful parts of creating an online magazine featuring knitting patterns, at least for me personally. If the photos aren’t up to par, the design would need to be re-shot, or pulled from the current issue and pushed to a later one. We here at Petite Purls have very high standards, and I have to say, I am pretty picky. The designers usually are dealing with me directly for any photo feedback. It always makes me a bit nervous when I have to ask for a re-shoot. Mostly I wonder if I will upset the designer, because that’s most certainly the last thing I would want to do!
For this particular issue of Petite Purls, we had re-shoots for 75% of the patterns. That’s the most we have ever asked for, and it’s also, of course, the most designs we have ever had in an issue. In every single instance that the designer had a second go at taking photos, the second batch of photos came back looking fantastic! In one of our past issues a very patient and wonderful designer actually re-shot photos at least 4 times, possibly more and they came out REALLY fantastic in the end. Sometimes we need a re-shoot because we need photos of the side or back of the design (and other various angles). It’s really easy to forget to photograph something when dealing with kids. Our designers continue to impress me and they really out-do themselves.
Beautiful natural sunlight, the sun was probably behind a cloud as you can see no harsh lines on the face or dark shadows.
As far as “altering” the photos, I like to get them as raw as possible. Meaning even though someone may be able to mess with their filters and make the photo look really amazing with brightness/contrast and other affects, that photo may then not “blend” well with other photos that are not taken with as fancy cameras and don’t take as well to much altering. I mostly run an “Auto Balance” filter on all the photos, and occasionally I need to use the “clone” tool to remove a blemish, dirt or scratch from a cute little face, but beyond anything glaring I do not alter the appearance of the children at all, in fact I think I’ve only had to do it a couple of times so far out of all 3 issues. It’s important that the photos have a cohesiveness to them over all, from pattern to pattern, so keeping everything as natural looking as possible helps establish the aesthetic we strive to achieve. Classic. Simple. Natural.
A few fun tips for photographing children;
- Do not photograph in directly sunlight. Find a large shaded area on a sunny day to get the “filtered” light that will avoid any harsh shadows or overt brightness caused by direct sun on the face/skin.
- Pick a good “background”. Don’t have the child stand directly up against a background, but instead be about 20 feet in front of it. Woods, a barn, a lake, beautiful architecture, playground, or even just a wooden fence, a simple garden or pretty tree. Have the child stand 10-20 feet in front of your “background” and then get close to take the photo. Start out with chest/head shots, and work your way towards full body photo.
- Get down on their level! This is really important to getting a good photo. You need a “foreground” and good “depth of field” to have a good photo, if you shoot from above you loose both and it really degrades the quality of the photo. So when you take pictures of a child, squat or sit on the ground (when photographing my toddler girl you can often find me with one of my elbows on the ground to keep my hands steady while I shoot).
- Don’t use the flash. A flash automatically makes a photo feel “flat” and look unnatural. It’s just too much light. It is totally possible to get a good photo inside without the flash. It’s best to place yourself by a large window on a day with bright sunlight. A thin or opaque curtain will then filter the light for you, much like shooting in the shade outside. Other then that you just need a steady hand so the photo won’t blur, but you pretty much always need that with photographing kids!
On the shady side of the house on a very sunny day, and a cute prop (that blends well into the scene) to keep the toddler busy.
Having a good photograph of a design is truly essential if you want the rest of the world to see how beautiful it is. Without it, only the person wearing or holding the design will be able to see all of its quality and detail.
By missjulep, December 23, 2009 @ 7:42 am
Thanks for the informative photography tips!! LOVE all of the photos in the present & previous issues!