I already have an FAQ page for my clients (and prospective clients), but I get lots of questions from other photographers as well. Hence, this blog post!
Alright, let’s dig in. The most frequently asked question from other photographers is:
Which lens(es) do you use?
I have a half-dozen great lenses, but I tend to always grab the same ones during a session.
For outdoor photos, the Canon 200mm f/2L rarely leaves my camera.
What I love about it:
- Sharp focus
- Creamy, painterly-like bokeh
- Extremely shallow depth-of-field means the subject(s) are separated from the backdrop
- On the other hand, the long lens means the background appears closer than it actually is, making everything look more lush.
What I don’t love:
- It’s a beast. The lens plus the camera body together equal about 10 lbs. I sometimes get tennis elbow from slinging it up and down.
- At 200mm and a minimum focus distance of 6 feet, I have to stay far from my subjects to get the photos. That means I’m often giving (yelling) direction from dozens of feet away. It takes away a little of the intimacy you get with a wide-angle lens, but that’s why I keep the wide angle on hand, too!
Newborn portraits and shots I take where I’m standing over my subjects are usually taken with my Canon 35mm f/1.4Lii.
What I love:
- Lightweight
- Sharp focus
- Versatile
But:
- I don’t like the distortion at the corners and on the sides.
- The bokeh is just okay.
- When I’m shooting with the vertical plank backdrops in my studio, the backdrop becomes too far away, making the boards look thinner than they are, and creating lots of extra photoshop work. In that case I grab….
My Sigma Art 50mm f/1.4 lens.
I never thought I’d prefer a Sigma lens over my Canon 50mm f/1.2L, but I set that one aside when I purchased this much-lauded beauty last year. As you can imagine, the two are almost identical, but I find the auto-focus more reliable with the Sigma.
And I could never survive as a newborn photographer without a macro! The close ups of the hands, feet, and lips wouldn’t be possible without my Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro.
I have two other lenses I use only rarely: a Canon 70-300m f4/5.6L, when I need the flexibility of a zoom lens. I will pack this only for outdoor sessions when I’m not sure if I’ll have enough space to fully use my 200mm. And finally, a Canon 28mm f/1.8. I use that one for landscape photography, but I don’t really enjoy landscape photography, so this one mostly gathers dust.
Where do you take your photos?
95% percent of my sessions are done in my neighborhood, Willowsford. BUT I only do my sessions here because 1. It’s convenient, and 2. I’m familiar with the territory. I go hiking around my neighborhood all the time, at different times of day, at different times of year, and in various combinations of cloudiness. This research allows me to direct my clients to the best spots for their photos regardless of when they’ll be doing them.
If I lived in a different neighborhood, I’d do my sessions there, where I could also get to know my surroundings like the back of my hand. There’s beauty to be found everywhere, whether in a city, a small town, or a farming community. Some of my favorite sessions were done in my clients’ back yards!
Because some photographers were impeding our farmers, crushing flowers, and leaving behind glitter and other signs of their sessions, my neighborhood created a photography policy, which I helped the HOA fine-tune, to ensure that our conservancy and farmers are treated with respect by photographers and their clients. Should you wish to do your photo sessions here, please obtain your photography permit from the Willowsford HOA and abide by the policy. Thank you for helping our natural scapes stay beautiful! It’s in our best interest to keep them as gorgeous as we found them.
How do you edit your photos?
I edit using both Photoshop and Lightroom. First, I upload them into Lightroom and keyword them with my clients’ names, location, and any other details to help me remember the session. Then, I cull my favorites into a gallery of 40 images (25 for maternity, couples, and high school seniors), and adjust exposure and color. The fine-tuning all happens in Photoshop – skin retouching, eye enhancement, curves adjustments, etc. I finish the photos back in Lightroom with one final preset that I’ve cooked up over the years, but I’m always tweaking it since photo editing is subjective and styles change!
Check out my other blog posts written for photographers to watch some of my photo editing videos and learn a few other tricks!
What’s in your bag (besides lenses)?
- Lollipops
- Baby wipes
- Lens wipes
- Bug wipes
- A bubble gun (for younger kid sessions)
- Extra batteries
- Extra memory cards
Do you teach/mentor? Can I be your assistant?
Sorry, I don’t offer any mentorships or training. I tried using an assistant a couple times for outdoor sessions but didn’t like how it changed the dynamics of the session. It’s harder for me to connect with my subjects with someone else hovering around. I know that’s just a “me” thing, though, and plenty of other photographers prefer assistants. I ONLY use assistants when doing twin newborn sessions.
However, I’m happy to answer your questions! Send me a message, and I’ll try to reply within a couple days. Overall, you should know that when other photographers ask me questions about my work, I consider it one of the highest compliments. So, thank you for your frequently asked questions! Keep ’em coming!
