Alright, enough of my blathering. On with the photos!

And what made this

Martin family I had a blast!

P.S. One half of the Martin duo recently celebrated a birthday. Here’s wishing her a wonderful and blessed new year of life! And if you really want to make the birthday girl’s day, head on over to her Facebook page dedicated to her love of distance running, and like it! You won’t be sorry!

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Mini Sessions make great gifts. A few easy but meaningful ideas for the Mother’s in your life are to pre purchase the session and surprise Mom with it! Get the family all dolled up, or let her shine in the spotlight with a personal portrait session. I’ve designed these minis to fit a wide variety of needs. Need update photos of the kids for the Grandparents. How about a Father/Son or Father/Daughter session for Father’s day? Be creative! A $25 deposit is all you need to secure your time slot! Email info@whitneypointephotography.com for more info or if you have any other questions!

How cute are the? Seriously.

This little cutie totally gave me a run for my money. And I loved every minute of it!

I had to contain my excitement when I previewed this image. Anyone that has attempted to photograph toddlers KNOWS, they never sit still for very long and rarely do they give you eye contact. Well this little fella gave me both! Boom!

Archer family, I hope you love your images as much as I loved taking them for you!

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Can we talk about how gorgeous, mama is?

10 perfect little toes. <3 <3

Safe in Daddy’s arms

Congrats, Wright family on your newest addition!

All headbands featured by: Aly’s Band Stand

]]> http://whitneypointephotography.com/2013/04/05/welcome-miss-a-woodbridge-va-newborn-photography/feed/ 0 http://whitneypointephotography.com/2013/03/09/favorite-app-roundup-woodbridge-va-portrait-photographer/ http://whitneypointephotography.com/2013/03/09/favorite-app-roundup-woodbridge-va-portrait-photographer/#comments Sat, 09 Mar 2013 18:07:38 +0000 Whitney Pointe Photography http://whitneypointephotography.com/?p=1925 Every Friday on my Facebook page I’ve been sharing a favorite photo related app of mine. I am a self proclaimed app addict and am always on the hunt for fun new apps to process my phone photos. I love the thrill of trying new ones to expand my processing power. I rarely ever post anything without it having been edited in some way. Any given day of the week that could mean some slight brightening, all the way to blemish removal, exposure adjustment and applying final filters. The point is, I love having options and I wanted to share some that I’ve really been diggin’ lately. And since not everyone is a fan of my Facebook page (and why aren’t you??),  I thought it would be great to have them all in one spot here on the blog!

Snapseed

Right image edited with Snapseed. Words added with Phonto

I don’t remember how I stumbled on this app but I am so glad I did. Snapseed, is like Photoshop for your phone. What I love most about it, is that you can make local adjustments to portions of your photo, instead of only allowing global adjustments. But, it doesn’t stop there–you can also, crop straighten, sharpen, and easily do black and white conversions. Filters are fun, but if you’re like me sometimes all you want is a cleanly processed photo and Snapseed is the perfect app to do just that. It is available for iphone, iPad and Android devices. Oh, and the best part…its FREE!

Phonto

I know there a a million and one apps like this, but hear me out, why I love Phonto so much. Four words: Load your own fonts. ANY font you have loaded on your computer can be imported into this app! You can just imagine the possibilities that open up from having this feature. I even loaded a few dingbats (fonts that use symbols) that give the option to a fun additions like the musical notes you see below.

Edited with Phonto and Snapseed

moreBeaute2

This little app packs a big punch. For those days when you stayed up till 3 in the morning, or don’t have time for a full face of makeup, this app is like a shot of caffeine for your skin. I’ve been using it a lot on the self portraits I post to Instagram (wpointephoto). It targets the skin in your photos and allows you to brighten and smooth just those areas. Be warned if you’re heavy handed you will end up looking like a plastic person. The trick is to adjust ever so lightly so the results are subtle. This app is only available for the iPhone, but I did some digging on Google Play and “Beauty camera” looks to be a great Android app with many of the same features. If you try either of these, let me know! I’d love to see some of your before and afters! Downloal morebeaute2 in the Apple app store here.

Phoster

This neat little app allows you to turn your photos into posters…hence the name, Phoster! Included with the app are a number of stylish templates that help you effortlessly design graphics like the one below.The developers recently made an update to add landscape and square format posters in addition to portrait view. Unfortunately, this app is only available for iPad and iPhone

VSCO

Simply put, this app creates the beautiful illusion of taking film photos right from your phone! Masterminded by the authority in digital-to-film emulation, Visual Supply Co. This is a fun little app, and I’m sure not everyone’s cup of tee, but its a nice change from the typical Instagram filters, with options to add grain, adjust photo temp, and fill light. The attached image is a sample of the results you can achieve. Try it out and let me know what you think! Available for iPhone, iPad, and Andriod platforms.

PicTapGo!

From the makers of Totally Rad! Comes a new app for applying filters to your phone photos. I know you’re thinking, “Another filter app???” But hear me out. The coolest thing about PicTapGo! is that it allows you to not only apply multiple filters at varying intensities, but you can also save “recipes” or filter combinations that you love and use them over and over. Awesome right!? The interface is simple and easy to use and you can post right to Instagram from the app, which is awesome because that is where most my photos end up.

Have you tried any new apps lately? Share in the comments below! I’m always on the hunt for fun new aps!

One of my goals this year was to make it easier for clients to take their images from a disc and turn them into gorgeous artwork. I know we are all guilty of letting our memories live on a hard drive only to be shared on Facebook and then forgotten. Well, I’ve just pressed the proverbial “Easy” button and made it super simple.  I am please to now offer Organic Bloom frames. These beautiful frames are custom made and come in a wide range of sizes from 2×3 (ornament size) all the way up to 30×40!! The color palette is expansive, but just incase you don’t see the exact color you need for a project, The Organic Bloom also offers custom coloring.

Want a more dramatic look? These frames can also be “stacked”, with a smaller frame placed on top of a larger frame for a double layered look. This offers tons of opportunity to be creative with the final style. See some examples below:

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And probably the best news? You don’t have to be a client of Whitney Pointe Photography to purchase these frames.  I am offering these for sale to anyone in the DMV area! Just call 703.656.6895 or email info@whitneypointephotography.com to inquire about pricing and shipping. 8×10 Single Frame pricing starts at $58.

Once your order is placed it typically takes 10-14 days to cut, color and finish your frame, then 1-2 days for Fedex Ground Shipping. The frames arrive ready to hang. You just pop your picture in and that’s it! Super simple!

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Born a free man in Virginia in 1825, Ball was a not only an extremely successful Daguerrean/photographer but was a businessman and dabbled in politics later in his life becoming a Montana delegate to the Republican convention in 1894. His reputation spanned from his beginnings in Virginia to Cincinnati to Minneapolis to Montana to Seattle and finally to Hawaii. He produced hundreds of photographs of the white, black, and Chinese community. He was the official photographer of the 25^th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and photographed the construction of the Montana state capital.

Part of Ball’s success stemmed from his willingness to embrace new photographic technology.Daguerreotypes made portraiture accessible to those who could not afford paintings, but they were still very expensive and unique objects. The development of the carte-de-visite (visiting card) broadened the possibilities of photographic portraiture.

These photo calling cards could be produced in multiples of eight, using a special camera with four lenses. Visitors could leave them at the homes of friends. Not only did they provide a visual record of the day’s callers, but these pocket-sized images also offered studios a way to advertise their services, with the business’s name printed on the back. Carte-de-visites were small, portable and mailable, making it possible for the exchange of images between loved ones during the Civil War.

Ball took pictures of a vast variety of people famous and unknown, slaves and freemen. His sitters included Frederick Douglass, Henry H. Garnet, Jenny Lind, and Ulysses S. Grant. Even early in his career it was stated that “Ball was able to attract clients to his rented room: “The Virginians rushed in crowds to his room; all classes, white and black, bond and free sought to have their lineaments, stamped by the artist who painted with the Sun’s rays”

I hope you’ve enjoyed this months features of African-American Photographers and learned a little something about how these individuals helped shape this industry. You can view all of the “Closer Look” posts here:

Closer Look: Carrie Mae Weems

Closer Look: James Van Der Zee

Closer Look: Gordon Parks

Closer Look: Charles “Teenie” Harris

Closer Look: Deborah Willis

 Meet Carrie Mae Weems:

Carrie Mae Weems was born in Portland, OR to Myrlie and Carrie Weems. She was one of seven children. After completing high school Weems decided to move to San Francisco to study dance and late continued her pursuit of The Arts by studying at the California Institute of the Arts, in Valencia. Interestingly enough, it was politics that first drove her to pick up a camera by being active in the labor movement as a union organizer.

Her inspiration to pursue photography came after reading The Black Photographers Journal. She later became an assistant to Anthony Barboza, an inspiring American photographer in his own rite. Weems collection of work inspires viewers  and asks hard questions about gender roles , racism, and class across a wide range of mediums, including not only photography but textile, video and writing. Below are a few images from her well know Kitchen Table Series.

Weems currently resides in Brooklyn, NY. More information on her past and recent work can be found on her website http://carriemaeweems.net/

My eye is drawn to the hot spots on the left side of the skin. Those areas have been overexposed so there is was little to no detail picked up by the camera. This is one of the many reasons why I shoot all of my sessions in the camera raw format. Shooting in this format gives me the ability to recover areas that may have been overexposed or underexposed in post processing. . Since this image was sent in jpeg format I can’t really recovery the detail lost, but I can do a little Photoshop trick to improve the area so its not so distracting. Keep reading and see how!

Here’s the image pulled into Photoshop:

If you read my other posts in this series you probably know what I’m going to do first. Yup, a curves adjustment. But this time I’m darkening the tones instead of lightening to richen the colors of her hair as well as diminish the over exposed areas on the top and sides of her hair.

Since I don’t want the darkening effect applied to the whole image, use a layer mask to remove the effect from the face area. Notice on the right in the layers tab all the white shows where the curves adjustment shows through, while the black area covers the effect from being displayed.

Her facial area was still darker than I would like so I applied a second curves adjustment to lighten that area. It is the exact same concept as above, just revers. Now, have I’ve sufficiently confused you?

If you notice on the right, in the Layers tab you can compare the first curves adjustment I did to darken the hair and below a different adjustment to lighten. I covered the effect from displaying in all areas except the face area where I painted in white with a soft brush with an opacity of 41% (see top toolbar)

I couldn’t resist going in and selectively adjusting the magenta tones to brighten her lips a bit. Notice they are slightly pinker in the image below.

Ok, now lets take care of those hot spots on her cheek. In the left toolbar, grab the dropper tool. Click on an area of skin that resembles the overall tone of her whole face. If you look at the color tab in the bottom left, you’ll see the color I chose. Now with a soft brush with decrease opacity, carefully paint over those bright areas, replacing it with the color that more closely matches her skin. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look perfect. We’ll fix that in the next step.

After you’re satisfied with where you’ve color corrected the overesposed areas, in the right hand toolbar lower the opacity until it looks natural. A marked improvement, with nominal effort, right?

I typically do exposure adjustments in Lightroom, but I wanted to bump things up a bit here so I used Photoshop’s Exposure adjustment to increase the exposure +.31 for the whole image.

And that’s it folks! This was a quick one, but fun. I hope this helps guys. My goal is to show you some simple techniques that you can use on your snapshots at home. And even if you don’t have Photoshop, you can apply some of the same concepts using the open source GIMP software or Photoshop Elements.  Let me know in the comments what type of editing software you use or if you have questions. Or you can always post questions on my Facebook page.

Here’s the before and after:

Quite the looker, eh?

Charles “Teenie” Harris, born and raised Pittsburgh, PA was the  lead photographer of the influential Pittsburgh Courier. The Courier was the premier African American Newpaper of its time. As lead photographer, Harris had the opportunity to photography many celebrities like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billy Eckstine, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughan, Sam Cooke, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Charlie Parker, Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, and Dizzy Gillespie. But what he is most know for was the thousands of photos taken of the ordinary everyday lives of the people in the Pittsburgh Hill District community. This collection of photos is thought to be the most complete and expansive of minorities in the United States.

In the days of film, unlike the DSLR era, once you took a photo that was it. There was no checking to see if a photo was composed the way you wanted, or if the exposure was spot on. Along with the nickname Teenie, gained from his small stature, Charles also gained the nickname One Shot, because of his refusal to have patrons sit for retakes. For me, this speaks to his talent and level of professionalism.

Through licensing disagreements, the collection exchanged hands a few times before being purchased by the Carnegie Museum of Art. From this collection was born The Teenie Harris Archive—an effort to catalog, scan and identify the people of Harris’s some 80,000 photos. I’ve selected a few of my favorite images below.

Visit The Teenie Harris Archive for more information on the life and works of Charles “Teenie” “One Shot” Harris.