A Tender Heart

Heidi May 26th, 2008

Frequently Asked Questions about My Photography…..

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What kind of camera do you use?

I use a Konica Minolta Maxxum 5D by Canon.

Picture from this blog.

My sweet husband found it used on Craigslist for a good deal and bought it for my birthday in 2007 (thank you, Love!!).

Picture from this blog.

It’s a dSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera and from the moment I first held it in my hands it was love at first click!!

Do you shoot in RAW format?

Nope. Just plain JPEG. I heard about RAW format a while back and thought about changing. Until I realized it takes up more storage space than JPEGs and since I was already filling 1-3 DVDs a month, I didn’t think that was a good idea… So I just stick with JPEG. :)

Do you use a grey card to measure lighting?

No… (I don’t actually know what that is!) :)

What ISO do you prefer to shoot at?

Oh dear, I’m not sure… I have it on automatic, so whatever that is?

Do you shoot manual or automatic?

All automatic. Completely automatic (though I have lofty dreams of knowing enough to try my hand at manual some day…).

What other equipment do you use?

Other than my camera, I also have a UV filter to protect my lens and a polarized filter to use in bright sunlight.

Oh, and I also have knee pads covered in saran wrap.

Did you teach yourself photography from a certain book or are you just learning as you go?

I am totally 100% learning as I go! I’ve tried reading some photography books (including my camera’s manual that everyone says you have to read), but they’ve all gone in one eye and out the other. So, I’ve given it up for now and just check out some photography blogs.

Do you adjust your images in photoshop or use any special actions?

Okay! Now here’s something I can bite off and chew! Yes, I do adjust my images in Macromedia Fireworks (I wish I could afford Photoshop).

I always increase the contrast and sometimes the brightness. I also crop a ton, add borders and carefully edit out things I don’t like.

I’m also a complete and total hopeless romantic. It courses through my blood and never rests. And when I see something beautiful and inspiring, my romantic radar goes off and I take a picture.

And if my picture doesn’t reveal all of the romantic potential I see there, then I edit it.

For example, here’s a straight-out-of-the-camera shot I took in February:

I loved this scene and all the romantic stories it inspired for me.

But it wasn’t until after I removed the power lines and fence posts, increased the contrast and added a black border that I really felt like I released all the romantic potential I could see there:

So, I guess that’s the only thing I know…

I don’t know two feefs about photography, but I do know I’m a hopeless romantic with a super sensitive radar.

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Frequently Asked Questions about My Movies…..

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What program do you use to make your movies?

I use two programs to make my movies.

1) I started out using Microsoft Movie Maker that came free on my computer. It is fairly easy to use and works well. It’s my favorite for making movies that only have photos in it, but I also use it for movies with video, too.

2) The other program I use is Nero Vision. My sweet husband bought me version 7 for Christmas a few years ago and I love it. It has options that Movie Maker doesn’t, but it’s less user friendly.

Unfortunately, both programs have odd, frustrating glitches that show up at the most inconvenient times. So, I’ve learned to use both to get around the glitches and utilize each one’s unique features. So I often go back and forth between them for any given project.

For example, with this movie, I used both programs. I applied the video effects from Movie Maker that I wanted, but then put it all together (text, music and video) in Nero.

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What program do you use to edit the audio tracks of your movies?

My husband found a free audio editing program called Audacity that I use to edit audio. I learned a lot about digital audio in a job I had back in college, so I used that knowledge to learn how to edit and critically analyze waveforms.

How did you learn to make movies?

I opened up Microsoft Movie Maker one day and just started using it. I’ve learned everything from trial and error, troubleshooting on google and picking my husband’s computer genius brain. The tricky part is getting all your materials (pictures, video, etc.) into a digital format, but once you do that, it’s a matter of editing it and putting it all together in a way you like it.

How do you get them on your blog?

I have a Wordpress plugin that imbeds media into posts. However, I don’t like the way that it looks when it’s imbedded, so I have a Blogger blog where I upload my movies. Then my husband taught me how to copy and paste the source code from there into my blog here.

If you have a Blogger blog, it’s really easy to imbed them into a post…..

Click: >>New Post >>”Add Video” button (looks like a reel of film) >>Browse for your movie >>Upload Video

(It often takes a really long time for it to upload and process, though, so don’t worry if it’s not done right away.)

Any tips?

Be patient! Video authoring can be extremely fun and immediately rewarding, but it can also be painstakingly arduous, time-consuming and frustrating. Don’t be afraid to table a project for a while and come back to it later or never at all.

Good luck and enjoy! :)

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