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Baby Rabies

pregnancy & parenting

  • Start Here
    • About Baby Rabies
    • Baby Registry Top Picks
    • Favorite Pregnancy Apps
  • The Book
  • Pregnancy
    • Birth Stories
    • Perinatal Mood Disorders
  • Parenthood
    • Babies
    • Toddlers
    • School Age Kids
    • Parenting LOLZ
  • Photography
    • Photography

      6 Stunning Photos You Would Never Guess Were…

      February 11, 2019

      Photography

      Simple Tips For Editing Snow Photos On Your…

      December 13, 2018

      Photography

      I Wrote A Photography eBook And This Is…

      December 6, 2018

      Photography

      Creative Lighting Ideas To Help You Take Great…

      November 27, 2018

      Photography

      Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On…

      November 19, 2018

  • Reviews
    • Reviews

      The Answer To Last Minute Holiday Gifting For…

      December 19, 2018

      Reviews

      I Was Never A Barbie Girl Until Now

      October 1, 2018

      Reviews

      Finally! Jeans For My Jean-Averse Kids!

      August 22, 2018

      Reviews

      If Your Kid Loves Dump Trucks & Garbage…

      August 13, 2018

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mobile photography

Creative Lighting Ideas To Help You Take Great Photos Even When It’s Dark Outside
Photography

Creative Lighting Ideas To Help You Take Great Photos Even When It’s Dark Outside

by Jill November 27, 2018
written by Jill

Today I’m sharing an excerpt from my new eBook, Picture Play, coming out November 30th and available for pre-sale at $5 off the regular price. Order your copy at ShopBabyRabies.com. Since it’s the time of year where the days are getting shorter and darker, I wanted to help you find creative light sources in your home! Enjoy!

So, it’s not daylight outside, or you can’t get much sunlight to stream into the room you’re in. Now what? There’s nothing wrong with using other light sources to light your photos. This is a great time to get creative with what those light sources can be.

A well-placed lamp that illuminates your subject can make a beautiful, moody photo. Imagine if I’d turned on the overhead lights for this too. This photo would feel less dramatic and it would have less depth and interest than it does with this single, focused light source.

Just like sunlight, creative lighting is all about where the light comes from in relation to your subject. In this photo, you can see how the lamp is directly behind my head making my face dark, my hair too bright (notice the complete loss of detail in those bright white parts of my hair), and the overall feel of the photo very messy and grainy.

By simply repositioning my phone so that the light source was off to the right side of the frame instead of directly behind me, I was able to light my face properly and even capture some catchlights in my eyes. The shadows and highlights fall naturally across my face and the top of my baby’s head.

With a little editing, I can brighten the photo a bit more.

Here’s a great example of using a lamp to create a silhouette of subjects—very excited subjects who were listening to a hockey game way past bedtime when their favorite team won. The mood and the motion are more important than the subjects’ faces here.

Tip: Your light sources don’t have to be traditional lamps. Consider a TV, a lava lamp, an iPad, or a computer screen.

Sometimes all you need is an open door and lights on in the room next to you. This photo of my daughter and husband at bedtime is lit by an adjacent bathroom with the lights on.

You can still get well-lit photos with incandescent, fluorescent, or LED overhead lighting. A common issue when relying on interior lighting is that your white balance may be off. Do you see how the white bed in this photo is taking on a yellow tint?

That’s a white balance issue. When you have proper white balance, the whites of your photos will appear, well, white. There’s a proper balance of temperature and tint: warm yellows and magentas and cool greens and blues. When this is not balanced, your photo can look more yellow, magenta, blue, or green than the real scene appears to the eye.

There are simple fixes for this we’ll get into later on in the apps section, so don’t stress too much over it now.

Tip: One easy way to deal with white balance AND low light? Convert the photo to black and white. (We’ll get into black and white conversions more in the eBook.)

Many of the indoor photos you take without natural light can still look awesome with just a little brightness and contrast added.

I hope you found these tips helpful! Be sure to pre-order your copy of Picture Play before November 30th so you can save $5 off the regular price! Head over to ShopBabyRabies.com to get your order in today.

November 27, 2018 1 comment
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Baby Rabies Picture Play eBook | Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On Your Phone Like A Boss
Photography

Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On Your Phone Like A Pro

by Jill November 19, 2018
written by Jill

When I was pregnant with my 2nd baby in 2010, I was desperate for a “fancy camera”, not just a point and shoot that would give me blurry photos.

I felt I NEEDED a $600+ DSLR, plus a $150+ prime lens. Honestly, back in 2010, that really was one of the best options for capturing beautiful photos of my soon-to-be-born baby girl and toddler son.

Using my PHONE to capture photos I would cherish forever, print, and frame? Ha! That never crossed my mind, and if someone suggested that I’d have laughed.

Baby Photo Ideas

Fast forward 8 years, I’ve invested thousands of dollars in pro-level photography gear and photo editing programs. I’ve taken classes and spent countless hours teaching myself how to master my DSLR camera and complicated programs like Photoshop and Lightroom.

And I’m here to tell you that some of my very favorite pictures of my kids were taken on my iPhone, and edited with free or inexpensive apps.

Honestly.

Baby Photo Ideas

As a full-time parenting and travel blogger, there is a place for my fancy camera and advanced editing programs.

But as a parent, thanks to rapid advances in camera quality and intuitive and accessible apps, many times my phone is all I need to beautifully capture my kids in the moment.

And so, I’ve written an eBook to help you get the same satisfaction of snapping the best photos possible using just your phone and some super accessible apps!

Baby Rabies Picture Play eBook | Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On Your Phone Like A Boss

Pre-order the Picture Play eBook today and save $5

Who is this book for?

  • If you are totally clueless about how to take pictures that you will love with your phone, this book is for you.
  • If you are good with taking pictures, but have no idea how to make them pop and look beautiful or you tend to over-filter your photos, this book is for you.
  • If you carry your fancy camera everywhere with you, but would love the freedom of getting great shots from your phone, this book is for you.
  • If you want to up your Instagram game, this book is for you.
  • If you just want to take better pictures that you have no intention of sharing online, this book is for you.
  • If you own an iPhone, this book is for you.
  • *If you own an Android, this book is for you.

Baby Rabies Picture Play eBook | Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On Your Phone Like A Boss

Click here to order now >>

BONUS!

When you purchase Picture Play, you are invited to join the exclusive Picture Play Facebook group where you can learn even more! I’ll be demonstrating more advanced photo edits weekly in the group and I’ll be available to coach you through editing some of your own photos as well!

*While I personally speak from my own experience with using an iPhone (currently a 7+, not even the newest model), most of the techniques I’m sharing will work on any type of phone, and all apps are available for both iPhone and Android. I will not get into the basics on how to operate the camera function on any phone. This book assumes you know how to access the camera on the phone you own and how to take a photo with it.

Pre-order the Picture Play eBook today and save $5

November 19, 2018 1 comment
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How I Edited This Pic On My Phone
BabiesPhotography

How I Edited This Pic On My Phone

by Jill March 17, 2017
written by Jill

I’ve been doing a bit of this lately over on Instagram now that they’ve introduced “albums.” I take a fully edited pic and break down the steps and apps I used to get from straight out of (phone) camera to the final image.

I thought I’d do one here today, showing you how I documented Wallace’s newest milestone- the airplane baby phase, since quite a few people asked how I got this shot.

To start, I had to rest the phone on my boobs, and set the timer. It took a few test shots to figure out proper placement…

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

And I had to switch from the 3-second timer to the 10-second timer because I needed more time to get Wallace’s attention.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Once I got a shot I was happy with (after about 4 tries), I took it into a new app I just downloaded called TouchRetouch (also available in Google Play) because I wanted to get rid of that ugly vent.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

I selected “Object Removal” in the bottom left corner, then I used the brush, painted over the vent, and pressed “go.”

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Voila! Bye bye, vent.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Next, I opened A Color Story app (also in Google Play), and used my very favorite tool- curves, to pull up the shadows a bit and brighten up his face.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

I decided to turn this black and white, so I went into the B&W set of filters, and chose Audrey. This is my go-to B&W filter for this app because it brightens the skin tone up, and gives a good amount of contrast and clarity. I kept this at full strength.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

So then I took it over to Instagram. Now, technically, IG only has a few true B&W filters, but if your image is already B&W to begin with, all the filters play into that.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

I liked what Ludwig had going on here, but took it down to about half strength.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

And that’s how I took this picture from eh, pretty cool…

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

To OMG best picture of a 2.5 month old!

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Mobile Phone Edit Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Like I mentioned, I’ve shared a few other photo editing tutorials on my @BabyRabies Instagram account. You can find them with the #BabyRabiesPicturePlay hashtag. Here are a couple! Be sure to click through to see all the steps.

Time for another picture play! This time with only #acolorstory app. This pic I took of the @magnolia silos today wasn’t bad, but I gave it a pop and some sun flare for extra sparkle. ? I started with the Deep filter “true” not quite at 100. ? Then I went to the Curves tool and pulled the shadows up brightened by pulling the top dot down and left and the bottom dot straight up just a bit. ? Added a little warmth with the white balance tool. ? Went to the flares effects, and chose #7. ? Moved the flare up to the top right corner (where there was already a natural bright spot) and decreased the effect a bit. ? That’s it! #babyrabiespictureplay

A post shared by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on Mar 8, 2017 at 9:18pm PST

I didn’t have time to share one of my fav mobile photo editing tricks in my FB live #babyrabiesplaygroup today so I’m sharing here now. ? How to remove blemishes? Wallace is always scratching his face (no matter how much I cut his nails) in his unending quest to suck his thumb. ??Snapseed is a free app that has a “healing tool” Once you select it the tool, zoom in a bit on the area you want to heal. This takes some practice. Sometimes it will just heal a big streak instead of zooming in. Reverse it and try again. ??Heal blemishes by simply tapping on them. A red dot will appear, and then it will clone out that spot. Sometimes it will put something weird in its place like a nostril hole. Don’t fret. Reverse. Try again. Maybe zoom in a bit more and retry. (This also works for healing your own zits. Take my word for it.) ??Now that everything is healed, I’ll take you through the rest of my edits. First, I open in A Color Story app. ?? I go to tools, then curves. Then I pull the middle of the curve up just a bit to brighten the skin. ?? My go-to filter here is “Everyday” under Essentials. Note that I’m not using it at 100. ?? Once I take it to IG, I like to use the Clarendon filter but scaled wayyyy back, to maybe 20ish. I just like the little bit of cool and blue it adds. ???????????? I loved talking about mobile phone photography and editing today! If you missed it, the episode will stay up on my FB pg- Facebook.com/babyrabiesblog Catch me tomorrow over on @bebeaulait! I’m doing an IG takeover for them. #babyrabiespictureplay

A post shared by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on Feb 28, 2017 at 11:07am PST

March 17, 2017 0 comment
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PhotographyReviews

When 2 Awesome Things Really Love Each Other… (A Blurb/Instagram Giveaway)

by Jill September 23, 2011
written by Jill

They make more awesome things.

Like this.

That little nugget of niftiness is a Blurb photo book, made entirely from my Spring/Summer 2011 Instagram pictures, taken on my iPhone.

Do you Instagram? If you have an iPhone, you should. It’s so easy to take fun shots of your day with your phone and edit them with really cool filters. Plus, it’s FREE! (I think it’s only an iPhone thing, though. Corrected! It’s an iPhone AND iPod Touch thing.)

Blurb has partnered with Instagram to make it *super* simple to link up to your Instagram account and create a book that will take all your Instagram pictures off your phone and put them on paper. It seriously took me about 40 minutes to put the whole thing together. Momma likes!

Books are printed in 7×7 format, and prices for a soft-cover, 20 page book start at just $10.95! (Though mine, shown here, was valued closer to $40 since it’s hard-cover and more pages.)

I loved putting the pictures I took throughout spring and summer in it, but you know what I was thinking would be even cooler? Remember our Ordinary Day In The Life Photo Challenge? How great would it be to take Instagrams throughout your ordinary day, and then print them in a Blurb book?! I think I’m going to have to do that sometime.

Now for the fun! Of course, I’m giving one away to one of you (hard-cover, up to 60 pages). There are NO location restrictions on this one! And all you have to do to enter is:

1. Leave a comment telling me you want this! (Remember, you’ll need to have an iPhone or iPod Touch with the Instagram app in order to make one of these books.)

If you want a few other entries to increase your chances you can:

2. Follow me on Twitter
3. Like me on Facebook
4. Sign up for my newsletter

If you have multiple entries, please leave a separate comment for each one and allow time for moderation. I’ll choose a winner with Random.org Friday, September 30th.

**Disclosure- Blurb provided the book for me and for the giveaway at no charge. All opinions are my own. I was not compensated in any other way for this post. 

Entries are closed. Congrats to Erin, commenter #148, as chosen by Random.org.

September 23, 2011 207 comments
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