A Quick Portrait Practice

I went outside on Friday evening to try and take photos of the birds we get in our backyard. However, the kids decided to come out and play as well. I decided that I would be better off taking pictures of them instead of the birds they would be scaring away. :D

I would like to eventually do some outdoor portraits of the kids, but I have never tried it.  So I decided since the lighting was just about right with the sun about to set, I'd get some practice in.  As you can see, our little girl's hair was messy (and you can also see she took a pair of scissors to her bangs a few weeks ago) and she needed to be cleaned up some if it were a real "photo session", but she was very accommodating. 

I use Adobe Lightroom 3 for my photo organizing and editing.  Found a really good deal on it a few months back and it is great.  Anyway, I had to use it to really clean up her face (she had just eaten a snack and still had some on her), adjust the white balance some, contrast, sharpening, exposure, and brought out her eyes.  I used my 50mm f/1.4 prime lens at an aperture f/2.8.

It was a good learning experience and I think I caught some fun ones.

The kids were also having a good time running in the backyard, so I tried a little panning practice as well. Maybe that will help me get a good bird in flight photo one day. :)

Hope you enjoyed them, and thanks for looking!