Vivian Killin Photography

Colorado Couples & Family Photography

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Hayward Family Session

Families, Outdoor November 14, 2018

I’m going to start reflecting on my sessions so that I can keep getting better at taking pictures, posing, and editing.

I did a sunset family session with J & T’s family in Hayward last Sunday! We originally weren’t going to take pictures because of the smoke from the Camp Fire, but the smoke lifted a bit, and heartbreakingly made a beautiful sunset.

I learned a ton from taking photos during this session and editing. I’m learning what aperture to be at for group pictures to make sure everyone’s eyes are in focus. I LOVE shallow depth of field though so I’m still trying to play around with how low I can go before people get out of focus. I had my ISO too high at the beginning when the sun will still somewhat high, so I googled how to make photos less grainy without making the subject look too softly focused. I do like the soft focused look though because film photos tend to not be the sharpest. It gives a dreamy, timeless look. I also had to get some green sun flares out, and that was tricky! I didn’t do it for some pictures because I liked the effect. I ALSO learned that I need to make sure my flux (my blue light filter) on my computer is not on because otherwise my screen is very yellow! I had to fix a bunch of pictures because they were bluer than they should’ve been. I’ve also never photographed a sunset and sky as orange and tinted as this so it made editing fun! I’m slowly figuring out what style and tones I like — I re-edited some pictures 6 times trying to get the white balance and tint and tones how I wanted them. Some pictures have more of a pink tint but the sunset cast an orange/pink glow, so I tried to balance that. Some pictures where there wasn’t a natural bright reflector (like pictures in the grass) were harder to edit, so I’m going to keep working on that!

Style preference right now: (I’m curious to see how this evolves over time) I like showing the highlights (important for a day where the sky was super beautiful), lightening the shadows, and not over-exposing too much and not increasing contrast a ton. I like warmer white balance but am trying to stay as true to color as possible.

I made my workflow slightly more efficient by figuring out a good way for myself to cull and edit, and I learned to export at a slightly higher file size and make sure the PPI is bigger in care people want to make prints.

Posing-wise, I’m learning what actually looks natural and what doesn’t. They were so easy-going though so I feel like I got tons of good poses without even asking them! It also helps that Austin was behind me pretending to be a dog playing fetch with himself.

We got to recreate a picture of the kids from 6 years ago (and one of them didn’t know it was coming so the reaction is real!), and we also intentionally took some super tacky photos. You always need some of those!

If you made it through, I’m impressed. This is a journal for myself to see how I’ve grown! Keep going to see just a few pictures of this beautiful family! Check out another family session I did here after you get through this post!

For some of those last few I struggled with white balance a lot but I like how they turned out. It’s tricky to balance when the sky is orange!

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  1. San Jose In-Home Family Session | Vivian Killin Photography says:
    December 19, 2020 at 2:07 PM

    […] LOVE photographing families! Check out another blog post from a different family session […]

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Part 2 of 2: Maddi and I went to the lake and this Part 2 of 2: Maddi and I went to the lake and this is my photo dump before I delete Instagram again 😉

2021 is the year of trying to be more creative and evoking more mood. 🆒

*note that I’ll still take all the normal pictures too for your couples/family/wedding shots, but sometimes I’ll throw in experimental ones 🙌
Part 1 of 2: Maddi and I went to the lake. So so Part 1 of 2: Maddi and I went to the lake.

So so sooooo so thankful for Maddi for many reasons, but today I’m grateful for friends that stand in the cold wind with me. 

The second to last photo is tswift lover-esque and the last photo is like hunger games Star Wars-esque 🤪 WE CAN DO IT ALL!
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I deleted Instagram and am trying to stay off social media (I check my messages on desktop though because I love the grumpy Bernie memes my friends send me), so here’s a whole bunch of my favorites since I’m going to delete the app again 😂

There are even more in my stories and on my blog (link in bio 👆)!!! I couldn’t help myself. With two locations there were too many to choose from!
Goodbye 2020! May 2021 be full of health and grati Goodbye 2020! May 2021 be full of health and gratitude for the things you still have. 

My 2020 year in review blog is up (link in bio)! I’ve posted the majority of my 2020 blogs in the last 2 weeks 🙃 so the content may not seem too new, but I love recaps and reviewing what I did/learned. Also if you missed all those blogs you can just read this one 🤣

Spoiler: I did a LOT of photo education on nights and weekends this year. 

I have some 2021 photo goals (some vague ones) in my blog that I hope to achieve/pick away at next year 🤓. I try to keep most of my goals creative rather than financial because I’m trying to keep this fun for myself!

📣 And sign up for my email list!!
More of being inside because that’s what 2020 wa More of being inside because that’s what 2020 was 🏠. Trapped inside but make it fun

Look out for my 2020 in review post tomorrow and dont forget to sign up for my email list at the bottom of my website 🤓. 

Happy almost end of 2020!
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