Click here to see more from Leslie and Justin’s maternity session.

On the third Tuesday of every month, I lead a free camera club at our church (Mt. Pleasant Church, Beaver County). We learn fun photography tips and occasionally shoot sessions at my homestead (35 acres, woods, trails and many great shooting locations). Anyone and everyone is welcome, let me know if you’d like to be added to our Facebook group for updates on events. heather@flourish.academy

Often times I create new presets when editing. For this session, I created a preset that slightly desaturates the image and lowers the contrast it to give the images a softer look.

 

Maternity Session

Nikon D700
70-200mm f/2.8 lens @145mm
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO 2000
f/2.8

Shooting mode: aperture priority with +1/3 exposure compensation
Metering mode: evaluative
Focus points: single
Focus mode: one-shot

This photo was taken on July 14th at 8:09pm. It had POURED down rain (see below) just prior to this photo, therefore, my classification of this type of light: extremely difficult with too much contrast. I don’t think there strong enough words to describe this lighting, and it was fairly dark.

I choose ISO 2000 because it was actually pretty dark and I wanted to have a shutter speed that I felt comfortable would result in a sharp photograph. Remember the general rule of thumb is that your minimum shutter speed should be 1/focal length. Because my focal length was 145mm, my shutter speed should be at least 1/145 seconds. I am not afraid of using a high ISO, watch this video to learn more.

I selected f/2.8 because I love shallow depth of field. The background is completely out of focus because it was 75-100 yards away.

Using a single focus point, I focused on her left eye.

Below is the original and edited versions. Color and light adjustments were accomplished in Lightroom, skin softening in Photoshop. I used the targeted adjustment tool (TAT) to remove the blue cast from Justin’s shirt as well as the offensive, super-saturated green from the foliage.

Click here for my Photoshop Retouch action. My entire Lightroom workshop is available online: click here for more info.[image-comparator left=”https://weddingsbyheather.com/blogsite/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/17-5558-post/HJL_4068-2.jpg” right=”https://weddingsbyheather.com/blogsite/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/17-5558-post/HJL_4068-3.jpg” width=”600px” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]

My friend Soozie took this photo of me, and I’m thinking… holy moly, it is pouring down rain, I have 30 photographers at my house and I’m trying to teach maternity posing and lighting (camera club is always free). YIKES!!

Camera Club Maternity Session

These ladies were such troopers, and the conditions were extremely challenging. Sessions like this help with your confidence because it is actually quite amazing what we were able to produce and deliver in spite of the weather and light. Once you shoot a session like this and you’re please with the results, you will feel like you can shoot in any conditions!Camera Club

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