Getting from good to great photos

Hello and happy Memorial Day! I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend! We got a lot done outside, went to the pool, got a nap in, played in the sprinkler, the Pup got lots of rolling-around-in-the-grass time, and we generally had a beautiful weekend. :)

First up, I need to announce the winner of the Heal My Sole giveaway! The lucky gal is Teresa at teresacline2001(at)yahoo(dot)com – Teresa be sure to email me and I’ll get you hooked up with your winnings! For everyone else, don’t forget all orders of $30 or more will get $5 off through May 31st (Tuesday) using the coupon code “maydays.”

I got my order this week and have only tried the lip balm so far but I LOVE it!

So anyhoo, I’ve been meaning to do this post for awhile cause it’s a topic I get a lot of questions about. I’ve mentioned a few photography tips in the past, but I’ve learned a lot since then.

This photo post will be a bit different than most though, because I still don’t have a clue what I’m doing. Really. :) This isn’t going to be a how-to on how to use your camera.

And you don’t need a fancy schmancy camera to get good shots. For REAL. Up till last September, I used a simple point and shoot:

So all of my pics up till that point are from that cutie. It works GREAT.

Because I enjoy photography and it’s kind of a hobby of mine, I bit the bullet and bought the Canon Rebel:

And I LOVE it. It’s fantastic. I still don’t know how to do everything (anything?)though. I know, it’s ridiculous. I’ve found plenty of great photography sites with how-to’s, and I do have that thing called the manual that has some pretty useful info in it too. ;)

But I just haven’t dedicated the time to it. Someday. I don’t keep it on the automatic setting, so I guess that’s something. All I have down is how to change the aperture setting – beyond that I’m still clueless.

There is one thing I know for SURE in the three years I’ve been blogging. You do NOT need a fancy camera to take great pictures.

You need three things in my opinion – good light (but even that can be corrected), good composition and good editing.

I use Picnik to edit all of my photos and I love it! It’s so easy to use, has some fun tools, and most of them are FREE.

I took a few pictures on a recent trip to the zoo to explain how I take pictures and how I edit them.

My biggest tip is to get. up. on. it.

Most pictures (depending on the subject) look better close up. With my point and shoot, I used the macro setting ALL the time.

Here’s a series of pictures I took far away to close up:

   

In the first one, you mostly notice the leaves in the background. In the last one, you see the flowers.

Now it’s time to make those flowers POP!

Enter Picnik. My first step is to hit Auto-fix. It brightens, sharpens, adjusts the picture to where it should be. Sometimes it doesn’t change my pics much, sometimes it makes ALL the difference.

Then I go to the Effects tab and hit Vibrance:

You can adjust how much vibrance you want – but even a little bit makes the colors go padow!

I usually do a little “Boost” action as well, which boosts (duh) the colors even more.

And after some zooming a little clicking, I go from this:

To this:

It took about 30 seconds.

I adjust almost every single picture you see on this blog. If anything, I auto-fix as many pics as I can. (Which you can usually do in the photo software that comes with your camera – you don’t need Picnik to do that.)

I used the same process with the next set of pictures:

   

The first picture is pretty, but you see the not-so-pretty structure in the background. The middle picture is better, but I’m a close up girl, so I went in even further.

This is where the composition comes in – you don’t always have to center your subject. The flower off to the left adds some interest and gives the photo some movement. (Again, in my non-professional, barely know what I’m doing opinion.)

Remember you can simply crop your photos so the subject isn’t centered – you don’t need any special photo takin’ skills to do this.

Again, this one went from this:

To this:

BOOYAH!

Love it! Isn’t that beautiful?

Sometimes the background is a good thing though – the first photo below was centered, but I noticed the little stream in the background, so I changed my position a bit to give the stream a little more presence:

With the help of Picnik, this is how it turned out:

Frame-worthy people. Frame. worthy. :)

Another example of moving in close and using the surroundings – the one on the left was from further away, but I knew it would be even better close up:

  

Now lattice behind doesn’t take away from the picture, it enhances it:

Beautiful!

I should mention another big tip – I get loooooow. :) I get down, sometimes all the way on the ground to take pics. You can see above that I was standing up for the first one, and was level with the flowers for the second one.

You can see the before and afters from some of my recent posts – my window boxes from this post:

   

Before on the left, after on the right. I like to add the “vignette” to some of my pics, which is the dark shadow around the outside. It just adds a little somethin’.

Using the editing tools just makes the colors pop and brings them to life:

And it takes no time at all! The vibrance tool I use is a “premium” tool through Picnik, but they have a TON of free tools that will help your photos immensely.

I love playing around with photos and seeing all of the possibilities. I used some Picnik options to amp up one of the photos just to show you the fun that can be had. (Each is labeled with the effect I used.):

 
(Lomo)

 

 
(Sepia)

 

 
(Sketch)

 

 
(Texture)

 

(Duotone)

 

 
(HDR)

Ack! I love them all! Which one is your favorite? (Most of these effects are FREE, by the way.)

So…that’s my secret. Picnik baby – it’s how I get great photos. :) I do try to start with some decent shots, but the editing makes all the difference! And did I mention…fareeeee? :)

(No, Picnik is not paying me to say any of this. They have no idea who I am. I just love them and love to share things that I love.)

Love, me.

**Picnik has now closed down but you can do the exact same edits and looks with PicMonkey now!

 

I have to give a BIG shout out and lots of love to all of our past, current and future service men and women and their families!

We thank you for your sacrifices!!!

A mirror over the mantel

Hey hey! How the heck are ya? I’m happy because So You Think You Can Dance started again tonight – I LOVE that show so stinkin’ much! If you haven't seen it, check it out – it’s the American Idol for dancing – but better I think. ;)

Anyhoo, in anticipation of my friend Layla’s wrap-up of our summer linkies, I wanted to change up our mantel a bit:

It’s looked like this, with a few minor changes, for YEARS. And by the way, the idea for this change was planted my Miss Layla herself.  ;)

Have I mentioned how much corner fireplaces suck? Really. And that I chose to have a corner fireplace instead of a normal, “easy” one?

I have? OK --  just wanted to be clear.  :)

It’s deep but not as wide as a normal FP. I think it’s lower too, so there’s more wall space above it. And there’s two little bitty walls instead of one large one. So large art or one big statement piece just won’t work.

I was determined to change it up this time though. Stretch a bit. Go outside of my comfort zone. Do something I never said I would. :)

When I worked in the design world years ago, a very smart designer once told me that she never used mirrors over fireplaces. She pointed out the reflection that turns into your “art” – usually the ceiling. Or a light fixture.

Not always the prettiest parts of the room.

So I’ve tried to work around using mirrors – but over the past few years I’ve seen some gorgeous ones, and they look pretty amazing above fireplaces. Beautiful colored frames, different shapes – and these mirrors also add some light to the space with their reflections.

So I decided to try it. I told you I don’t follow any rules. :)

I set out to make a mirror – and I wanted it big. I’ve had a bathroom mirror that the builder left, and was planning on using it:

(That’s a picture of the side of the mirror, if you couldn’t tell by my excellent photo skills.)

It was the perfect size, but it was SO heavy. Because I was DIYing this, I wanted something a little less substantial (lighter) so I headed out to Lowe’s.

I picked up a $24 bathroom mirror that was the same size (two by three feet), but with a pretty bevel on the edge. And it was MUCH lighter than the one I had. I made the mirror exactly like this one I made for the dining room (instructions at that link!).

You’d think I had never touched a power tool before this though – I made SO many wrong cuts. I had to fill in the spaces with slivers, because I didn’t want to buy any more trim:

But because I’m OK with less than perfect, and because it will usually be hidden, and because most normal people (read: not me) would never notice it, I made it work. Thank you spackle!

See? Don’t even see it:

On one side, I added my cutie round birdcage, a Pottery Barn clearance item I found last summer:

I saw the idea to paint a mason jar (I thought it was here but now I can’t find the post. Could be wrong!) and thought it was so pretty!

I chose a yellow spray paint I had on hand (Creme Yellow from Valspar) and just sprayed the outside of one of my jars:

I was going to paint the other one white, but I liked the clear with the yellow. (The water is cloudy because I had just added the floral powder to the jar.)

At first I had some lanterns on the other side of the mantel, but they were too short next to the tall mirror, so I went back to the candlesticks:

And I like the simplicity of them, the varied heights, the colors. I was thisclose to painting one yellow, but I thought that might get a little too matchy. :)

Because I felt like the mirror needed a little somethin’, I added our moss “S” to the front:

You can see how I made that mossy goodness here.

And I love how simple and clean it is now:

I was just a tad bit tired of those iron scrolly jobbies, so this is something different for now. I kept them though – just in case. ;)

It’s still not my dream mantel, but it’s a mantel so I’m not complaining!!

And I cannot WAIT to get that TV and stand out of the way! Forever and a day they have driven me batty there:

They are moving soon in anticipation of our new sectional. So. excited. Only six to eight weeks left! Gah. I’m sure it will fly by, right?!

I have a couple ideas in mind to change this fireplace up a bit more, but they’re going to take a bit more work.

So for now, I’m so happy with the change! It was four years of (basically) the same set up and I needed something different:

The only problem now? I have to get tricky tricky when taking pictures, or you see this:

Hello there Blogger!

And you can see the reflection of the mess in the rest of the house, so we’ll see how long this mirror lasts. ;)

This little corner has come a long way though! The before, years ago:

And now a classic look for summer:

Me likey. :)

Do you struggle when it comes to decorating your mantel? I posted a few tips a couple of years ago that may help – you can find those here!

I’m linking this up to Lay’s party over at The Lettered Cottage! Check out all of the mantel/display/vignette inspiration!

P.S. I secured the mirror up there by adding hanging hooks to the back and one to the top of the fireplace. I ran twine through them all and tied it off, so it can’t tilt or fall off.

It’s Black, It’s White

It’s BW. Yeah yeah yeah!

:) I couldn’t resist some MJ action.

I was just a tad bit obsessed with spray paint last weekend. I had a wicked case of spray paint trigger finger by Sunday evening, there was so much spraying going on.

This little project started with a lovely inspiration photo I found online and then filed right to Pinterest:

I think this kitchen is so lovely – warm wood cabinets, but still bright and airy. Perfection in my eyes. :)

I kept going back to those bright white chairs – I’m all about contrast, and I loved them against the warm wood.

Then I realized how similar they were to our island chairs, and I knew what I had to do. Spray paint action!

We’ve had black chairs at our island for a while now:

I decided to see how they looked in white, and figured if I hated it I could always go back to black. But I don’t hate them. I LOVE. :)

I started by giving the chairs a quick sanding. Let me tell you -- I hate sanding with a deep burning passion, but because these get so much wear, I figured it was necessary. It was SO quick though – it took less than five minutes per chair:

You just need enough to scuff up the finish to give the paint a little somethin’ extra to hold to.

Then I gave them all a good cleaning. There are cleaning products just to prep furniture for paint, but my Shaklee stuff worked just fine:

(Please ignore our deck in desperate need of restaining.)

After a really good wipe down, I started the priming. I used two cans total – Zinsser and basic Valspar primer:

Both worked great. The Zinsser didn’t cover quite as well as the Valspar, but it’s supposed to be a better quality primer. I’m sure they both will hold up just fine.

I primed those chairs within an inch of their lives. ;) I could barely see black through the primer when I was done, which made for an easy final coat of the white paint.

Before the white, I did some touching up. The chairs are from Garden Ridge and were a DEAL – but they aren’t the best quality. There were lots of spots that had some crackle:

I used my trusty caulk and covered all of those not-so-pretty spots. It worked GREAT.

After the caulk dried, I did one final coat of Rustoleum white spray paint:

I used a satin finish so they weren’t too shiny, but they can still be wiped down.

Then put the seats back on:

And I had fallen in luuurve. :)

I swear you notice the beadboard on the island more now:

Gleeeee!

I love how they pull in the white of the backsplash, woodwork and the pretty pitcher on the island.

And I love how they look with the green seat fabric.

Did I mention I LOVE? :)

It always kills me how a simple change like paint can completely change a space. It’s brightened our kitchen by 100 watts!

And because I have to show how far our kitchen island has come every. single. time. – the before:

Just a few short years ago!

And the after:

ACK! I big fat heart you spray paint! Hollllla! You are one of my many BFFs! :)

Do YOU believe in the power of spray paint?

P.S. If you’d like to see nearly 500 spray paint transformations, check out the spray paint party from last week!