Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Pull Back for Recent Family Photos

A few of my friends have asked how I set up the recent photos I took of my family, three of which make  up my blog header.  It may not be the best or the easiest way, but these are the steps I took.

First, let me say I am blessed to have a covered front porch that faces north.  This is FANTASIC for natural light shots.  Living in Florida is another plus, well at least in the winter.  We don't have to deal with the overcast, gray skies (ideas dealing with that HERE), but it does make it more difficult to shoot at sunset.  Anyways, I digress.

Items used:
  • 9 ft. X 9 ft. piece of White Muslin fabric
  • Quilt with white backing
  • Tripod
  • Nikon D90
  • Nikon Remote (if you don't have one, click the link below and get one....NOW...seriously.  If you want to be in photos with your family, without the headache, it will be $18 well spent.  I PROMISE)



Here is my covered front porch.

I used thumb tacs to secure my muslin fabric.  The fabric can be very wrinkly, but I've learned if you are photographing in natural light the wrinkles are much less noticeable.


I, then, placed the white side of the quilt on the ground with the muslin fabric on top.  This made the background appear seamless.

I placed my camera and tripod about 9-10 feet from my porch.  I positioned Sam and Bennett in the frame.  Checked my settings and onto the porch I went.

Viola!!  Use your remote to click away.  I would go and check to make sure we were all in the frame and that the settings were correct after a few exposures, correcting as needed.

Sometimes, you get this
or this
or this
but most of the time...you'll get this
**I am entering the above photo in Simplicity's Happiness Challenge and over at My 3 Boybarians.
Ok, not most of the time.  
It always helps when daddy is near by making him laugh/entertaining him.
Now, for a few you have not seen.




Let me know if you try it with your family.  If you have any questions, post them in a comment, making sure that I have a way to contact you.
 PhotobucketSweet Shot Day

19 comments:

deb duty said...

These are fantastic! I love your beautiful porch, too! Thanks for sharing the pull back. I do have a question for you. I used my remote to take family pictures outside for Christmas last year and I ended up just letting the camera choose the focus. Did you use auto focus? I guess with the white background you could have a narrower aperture and it wouldn't matter as much, but I wanted a fairly wide aperture to blur the trees in the background. I got some good ones, but the focus wasn't as sharp as it would've been if I had been focusing on someone's face like I normally do. I think you can reply to me, but if not it's debduty3 at gmail dot com. Thanks!

Unknown said...

Amber these are GORGEOUS! I love your family photos and the one with your husband playing with your son is my favorite! Great job!

Blessings,
Jill

Scott and Fiona said...

Great job Amber!! They are awesome!! Look like something out of a magazine!

Scott and Fiona said...

Great job Amber!! They are awesome!! Look like something out of a magazine!

Discovery School at First Baptist Heath said...

Great pull back and instructions.. and can I say your house is adorable!!!!

Nikon remotes on ebay are usually less than $7.00..

Teamarcia said...

Gorgeous!
You are so talented and are blessed with beautiful subjects!

Unknown said...

Those just turned out precious! And great memories of capturing them too I bet.
Stopped by via the Happiness Project.

Jessica said...

OMG, what a cute little boy!!!! I love your shots, they are great!!!!

Jessica said...

OMG, what a cute little boy!!!! I love your shots, they are great!!!!

Erika Olsen said...

Amber - Loved the step by step! So neat and with great results. You're inspiring me to start shooting more again just for fun... I love your blog and enjoy watching your family grow. We love you guys. Blessings! - Erika

Ashley Sisk said...

Seriously - I love your set up - and I'm so jealous of that covered front porch...so jealous. Can we switch houses? Not sure what I have to offer...um...4 bedrooms? Thanks so much again for sharing this. :)

SarahinSC said...

I love the pullbacks like this! This inspires me to finally just get that remote and set up something to take some family photos. My favorite is of your son and husband playing. Cute!

Susan Anderson said...

I never even knew what a pullback was!

Looks great!

=)

Anonymous said...

These are so cute!! Great photos.

Gina Kleinworth said...

What a GREAT post- I can't thank you enough for that one! Now I just have to convince my husband that my 1 month old camera is now no good because I need to have one with a remote feature :) HA!

The Thomas' said...

You are so talented :) I'm amazed every time I see one of your pictures at what you've learned!

The Thomas' said...

BTW - I would love to know the answer to Deb's question too! I can never get the focus just right!

Photography said...

These are brilliant!! Such a great family collection. And I LOVE YOU Veranda (porch) :-)

leigh hewett said...

So creative and smart. I love the candid shot of Daddy with the car...so sweet!