Back Light For Magical Images

Back lighting is beautiful, mysterious and a little magical. It seems to be very popular with today's photographers. Here are a few pointers on how to get the wonderful effect with ease and by using any digital camera. ❃First of all you need to place your subject (human or still life) so that their back is facing the sun, and you are facing them and the sun. When you see a glow behind the subject through your lens then you are ready! I think the best time to do back lit shots is during the golden hours. The golden hour is an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset. Try this time for shooting all kinds of images because it is gorgeous! ❃My image of the woman's face is a bit dark. I tend to like imperfections, that is just my style, (I also like its mystery) but if you want the face to be brighter you could use a reflector that bounces some of the light back into his/her face. You may also want to try your on camera flash if you do not have a reflector. Any other time I say to turn your flash off. ❃A reflector can be bought or made! Perhaps I will write a blog that is just about reflectors in the near future. Have a friend hold the reflector so that it bounces some light up into the subjects face to add some warmth, light or both. ❃Shoot, shoot and shoot some more. You will get a winner out of the shots. You can do this using your camera on manual or auto, that is up to you. I recommend that you do some post processing for color correction, to brighten an image that is underexposed or to saturate color. Play with your new back lit images and share with others!!! Tell me how it goes and/or what you think about back lighting!

Secrets every creative photographer should know!

Want to know my snazzy secrets for creative photography?  Check out my e-book on photography.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=shalita%20comptone

Tell me what you would like to learn about photography. :)

Making Lip Gloss For Stocking Stuffers

Free Online Photo Exhibit!!!

My current students will be so proud to have their best work on display. This special and very personal exhibit will be on my personal Facebook page. Just search for me Shalita Compton on Wednesday evening, Sept. 26th at 7 p.m. I will open the exhibit to the public so everyone can view. My students have no professional training except what they have learned through the class. They have wonderful ideas that blossomed after I got to know each one individually. I assess their individual styles and help them to bring their creative genius to the top!!!

Secrets To Self Portraiture

How do I achieve thought provoking self portraits, you may ask. First of all I have a strong arm, and I know how to curl my fingers in such a way so I can hold the camera steady and hit the button with one hand. I do this while posing and being very still. That in itself took a lot of practice. I let whatever costume I am in serve as my guide for the overall color theme. In this particular self portrait I was draped in an antique white fabric. Those colors inspired me to manipulate my eyes brown (my eyes are actually hazel). I then added a textured background with flecks of coffee browns, sweet creams and antique whites. For the perfect light I took this shot while near a window. The light was coming toward me. I am a firm believer in natural light. I used PS elements to clone the background into the image. You would be amazed at the background that was there before. I can take images with the most horrific backgrounds and make them look studio quality! I also manipulated some shadowy areas in the fabric into a heart using the smudge tool and smoothed my hair. I am curious to know what you think about self portraiture. Do you think it can be as strong as normal portraiture? Do you think it is artistic? What are any other thoughts about it that you have?

Paper Trees, Easy and Cheap To Create!

Hey guys! Here is my version of the Christmas trees you may have seen around pinterest! They are all paper and tape (or glue if you prefer). They are a great temporary decorations for parties or weddings and very cheap to make. What you need: poster board (can be color poster board) the thicker the board the sturdier your trees will be. tape (I used masking tape because the backs would not be seen). scrap-

booking papers (all three papers I used were different but had similar color schemes). *Use poster board as your base. I used a black, white and gray color scheme so I chose black poster board to form all three trees. The poster board shows through on two of my trees. Keep this in mind if you want your board to be part of your creation. *Curl the first board into a cone shape and tape up the back. Use scissors to trim the bottom so your tree will sit flat. If there is any unclean edges just use tulle or other decorative element to wrap around the trees bottoms when you put them out. Use an entire board to make your biggest tree. You want one to be medium in height yet thin and one that is short and wide. Cut your other boards and roll until you have all three shapes. *Find scrap booking paper. You can find this on clearance at a variety of places. One piece I wrapped around the largest cone and let the fact that it did not cover the cone to be part of the creation. One piece I cut into circles and glued/taped onto the cone. The third cone was completely covered with scrap paper. All three are different but the colors are all similar. This gives your trees variety, which is really important in art and craft-making. *Be creative in how you tape the papers onto your trees. You will see that I polka dotted one tree, wrapped an entire sheet on one and the biggest sheet was wrapped diagonally so that the black shows from under it. *You can use bows or ornaments to dangle from the tops. I used both! Now that Christmas 2012 is over what other uses can I find for my trees?

Potpourri of Photography, Crafts and Christmas!!!

I have developed my own Power Points to teach photography to others online, now I have developed a craft/photography/Christmas gift class for all the other creatives out there looking for some penny pinching ideas! Want to know how I made those paper trees? Just leave me a comment and I will create a quick tutorial for them :) Contact me today if you are interested!!!

View Bug Image For Contest - ViewBug.com

View Bug Image For Contest - ViewBug.com

Soda Lid Photo Pendant

My hubby drinks Ale-8 like its going out of style!  Okay so if you are not a native of KY then you may not be aware of Ale-8, wow its BIG around here!!! So I found a use for all those pesky metal pop lids.  I make pendants and magnets from them!!!  Very easy, just use the lid to trace around an interesting part of some old photos. Make sure you don't mind cutting them up.  I used photos that were duplicates or that had some printing issues.  I chose a pelican (from a Florida trip), a pic of my son holding a toy, a picture of one of my paintings and a pic of some wedding flowers.  Paint your lid inside and out in a color to compliment one of the photos.  Let the lids dry.  Glue the circle photos into the corresponding lids using mod podge or E-6000 glue.  If you want to make these into magnets then all you do is buy the magnet strips and attach to backs.  For a pendant you can use some craft wire (in a coordinating color) and glue to outside of lid.  After that is dry make a loop in the wire as shown in the image and you now have a nice pendant for a necklace!!!! You can go a step further and add resin to the inside of the lids. :)

Textures As Focal Point

Don't rule out textures when you shoot.  Personally, I have a hard time keeping things simple, but this is a chance to do just that.  By using a very shallow depth of field I was able to make the peeling paint stand out and become a focal point.  Always ensure your focal point is not centered.  If you want to read more about that just Google the rule of thirds.  I titled this photo "Aging" because it is a very old fence near an old church.  It is beautiful in its own way just like the elderly are.

Playing With Light Photos

Okay so if you like photography you should broaden your horizons and do wacky things with the hobby.  Here is an idea that I thought was successful and fun.  It requires your digital camera and a couple of those solar lights (mine were the dollar ones from Wal-Mart).  I shot this after dark, and played with all kinds of camera settings until I got a picture that I liked.  I am a chimper, yes some consider it a derogatory term, but whatever.  I like to randomly take photos and when I get a winner I go with it.  I do not spend too much time on the technicalities of a camera because its boring and I am too excited about the creative part.  I can teach photography and yes I can teach the settings, f-stops, white balance blah, blah, blah but I like to focus most of my personal time on the creation of an image.  That works for me, but everyone is different and I respect the technical loving folks.  Look at the image and take what you want from it, be inspired and go shoot some for yourself!
I took the tops of the solar lights off of the base and sat them on my back porch (which is painted white) and arranged them so that the bars of light interacted with each other.  I did do some light editing in photo shop (just to clean up specks in the rays of light).
When I teach photography I am all about doing things in odd numbers.  I used two solar lights, however the fact that there are multiple rays of light makes up for the fact that there are two solar lights :)

Cheap Bathroom Make-Over

My first inspiring post, bathroom make-over, the cheap way.  So when we moved in my tiny bathroom was ugh with outdated border. So I devised a plan to quickly (and cheaply) redecorate it.  All I bought was a gallon of paint, a few zebra print accessories and a lovely clearance shower curtain from Bed Bath Beyond.
I love playing with black and white because you can add any bright color to it and have a very stylish look.  You do not have to use an animal print.  There is also a Victorian flower print that is black on white and very Avante-garde.  You can find many variations of this print in towels, rugs, wall paper, stationary and even in accessories.
So here is what I did:
Number 1 I painted all the walls and the sink counter a bright sea foam type of blue.  
Number 2 For some contrast I painted the existing mirror and stand over the toilette black (I used black spray paint).  I added some cheap black or white knobs to the counter and toilette stand.  
Number 3 I bought a yard of zebra print fabric to hang over the window, added a zebra rug, a few plastic zebra accessories to the sink and a little bundle of zebra wash towels to the toilette stand.  
Number 4 I already had a black shelf so I fastened it to the wall underneath the curtain and had a little abstract black fountain that I sat upon the shelf. 

Number 5 I hung my $7.99 shower curtain (white with silver sequins) and YAY I have a very modern and new bathroom!!!!

A bit about me!

Hello!!!  After seeing some lovely blogs I decided I wanted one too!!!  So here I am jumping on the blog bandwagon with many other creative minds.
I am a photographer, a teacher, a mother to two boys, a wife, a terrible housekeeper and I love to take self portraits (if you didn't notice). I like to mix my photography with arts and sometimes crafts.  I currently teach an online photography class, message me if you are interested in joining one. I want to use my blog to share crafty ideas (some photo related and some not) and photography right here where other creatives hang out!!!