Springtime daffodil shoot with Erica
I wanted to get some vague "Easter" related shots in the run-up to the bank holiday weekend so decided to take the girls to Hollinsend Park, which is a ten minute walk from our house. There's always a fantastic daffodil display and I've got some great shots there in the past.
This first shot was taken in the same spot two years ago - I'd like to think I've improved a lot since then, but it's still one of my favourite shots of Alys.
It certainly wasn't the beautiful sunny day I'd hoped for but at least Erica was in a good mood, and even when I asked her if she'd mind taking her coat off she still kept a smile on her face and was happy to pose amongst the daffodils for me. The rain let off every now and then and we came out of it with plenty of decent shots, some of which I'm particularly pleased with. My number of keepers was very high! (another future blog subject: ratio of "keepers" to "non-keepers").
The weather really was horrible, and I'm so proud of Erica for putting up with my directions and smiling despite the cold! It was such a fun shoot and a great way to spend time with one of my little girls.
Technical bit:
Nikon D7100 with the Nikon 50mm 1.8D
I kept the ISO down at 100 the whole time as we had plenty of light despite the weather. I specifically wanted a shallow depth of field for this shoot so sat between f2.2 and f3.5 and rode the shutter depending on the varying light.
As I shoot RAW I don't worry about White Balance and leave it set to Auto, which on the D7100 is actually pretty good the majority of the time. It was a little off this time around for some of the shots though, resulting in a rather cold look.
I could have possibly done with a little flash just to really get those crisp details in the face and keep it sharp.
I processed mainly in Lightroom (of which I'm actually quite a newcomer to having just made the move over the Mac and needing new software) where I adjusted the white balance and added a little more colour. I also tend to pump the contrast up as well as sharpening (and a little Clarity in Lightroom - a nice new tool I'm getting used to).
I think next time I'll do a more in-depth look at the before and after/processing route as a comparison. A post on the importance of shooting RAW and post-processing is also on the cards at some point.
