I’d like to introduce you to my official photography business website: Dolce Life Photography.

It’s finally LIVE! I’m so excited to be starting this new venture, heavily supported by my husband, family, friends and hopefully all of you. A huge thanks goes out to my dear husband who worked so tirelessly on this site. He wanted to get it ready by last Monday on my birthday but all the problems with trying to make it compatible with that security hole of a browser, IE6 (if you have it, please please upgrade it or even better, use Firefox) caused a bit of a set back. Oh, and it’s best viewed with Javascript enabled. I’ll be updating the gallery from time to time and adding a blog in the future. But, for now, it’s live! Yay!

Laura is a Vancouver portrait photographer. Visit Dolce Life Photography.

focal length: 200 mm
shutter speed: 1/200
aperture: f/5.3
ISO: 200
flash: none

Most pros say they never reveal their SOOC’s or RAW files. I think that’s what makes SOOC Saturday even more challenging. It’s like revealing something that is supposed to remain hidden and secret and that adds a bit more intrigue. I have to choose my photo carefully so as to not reveal too much, lest the mystery fades.

But, you know me and how I love to see the before and after. So here is the “before” for the daily pic I posted last Thursday. Processing can make a world of a difference in the mood and effect of an image. To get the washed out, vintage look on last thursday’s daily pic, I tweaked the temperature (warm all the way), tint, increased brightness, decreased vibrance and saturation and added an oh-so-subtle vignette. That’s pretty much it!

Laura is a Vancouver portrait photographer. Visit Dolce Life Photography.

I’ve spoken a bit about shooting in RAW vs. JPG in the past but I hadn’t written a proper article about it yet. In the photography class I’ve been teaching, we finally got around to post processing last night and I talked a bit about the pros and cons of shooting in RAW or JPG.

Basically, it’s like this. RAW is like a digital negative where all the information of the shot is retained in the file. That’s why the file size is so large. If you have a 12MP camera, then your files will be about 11 or 12MB in size. If you’re shooting in JPG, depending on the quality setting you have it on, file sizes will be much smaller. For my 12MP camera, JPG’s at the highest quality setting are about 3MB. This is because information is being thrown away when the camera compresses your RAW to JPG.

What does that mean then?

Well, since RAW files retain all the information (levels of brightness in a scene), you will have far greater flexibility when post processing. Since JPG files (processed in-camera) have lost information, you won’t be able to correct as much using software.

Let me show you.

Click to read the rest of this article »»

Laura is a Vancouver portrait photographer. Visit Dolce Life Photography.

focal length: 200 mm
shutter speed: 1/200
aperture: f/5.3
ISO: 200
flash: none

I haven’t participated in Stacy’s Theme Thursday for a while so today I was determined to join in! Even though it’s not thanksgiving here in Canada today (or next week), I don’t need a special day to remind myself to be thankful everyday. I chose this bare branch as an image of thankfulness because although it’s leaves have fallen, you can still see the life that will bud anew when the time comes. Renewed life is what I’m thankful for. There is always hope for a fresh start.

I’ve been wanting to try this type of processing but never quite got it until now. I think I’m getting close! What do you think? I don’t remember exactly what I did in Lightroom but thankfully the history is saved so I can always open it up again and see all my changes. Awesome!

Laura is a Vancouver portrait photographer. Visit Dolce Life Photography.

focal length: 105 mm
shutter speed: 1/40
aperture: f/4.5
ISO: 500
flash: none

I was running out of space on my memory card by the time I got around to these beautiful dahlia’s at the gardens in Montreal, so I had only one shot. This is one instance when the 100% magnification option I have on my camera came in handy. With one button press, I can view my image on my LCD screen at 100% to ensure that I have the focus spot on. LCD’s, as wonderful as they are, are not always the most accurate monitor with which to view your shots when the image is completely zoomed out like it usually is. It’s always good to check your focus, especially when you’ve filled up all your memory cards, so figure out if you can program a button to preview at 100%. Usually it will zoom right into the focal point.

Dahlia’s are my new favourite flower! How gorgeous is that?

Laura is a Vancouver portrait photographer. Visit Dolce Life Photography.