Bella Pop Photography | Brandy and Brandon Frank

Hey everyone!  This is Brandon reporting live from the Bella Pop office with my very first blog post!  When Brandy asked if I would try writing a blog post today, I quickly busied myself paying bills and shuffling papers around my desk.  After a few minutes though I was out of busy work and now here I am, writing a blog post.

Since blogging is new and frightening to me I thought I would write about something fun…. a photo scavenger hunt!   The Oh Shoot! Digital Photo Scavenger Hunt is a facebook group that I have a lot of fun with (you’ll need to be logged into facebook for the link to work.)  A few of you out there are already members but for everyone else who wants get creative with photography this is the place to go.

Each week a new subject is announced for members to find and photograph. It’s a lot of fun to see what other members come up with and how they interpret the subject of each weeks “hunt.”  We are shooting with all types of cameras including DSLRs, SLRs and camera phones.

The first three photos below were actually taken by Brandy .  She got a kick out of my toy soldiers waging war inside of our refrigerator .  Why would we have a tiny war fought by tiny soldiers inside out fridge you might ask? Well, the subject for this weeks hunt is “In The Refrigerator.”  Since I like to have fun with the subject I grabbed my little guys and sent them to battle, of course, “in the refrigerator.”  My photo from the scavenger hunt is below titled “Food Fight.” Although I have my shot for this week I think it would be cool to always have the toy soldiers in our fridge!

Here are a few of my own photos from the scavenger hunt.

Happy Monday!! Today’s post is inspired by a question posted by my Yearbook teacher from high school. Everyone, say Hello Mrs. Fincher!
Well, Kim wanted to know how we were getting clarity in our detail shots. She’d love to photograph images of her late grandmother’s things and wanted to know the best lens/aperture/shutter speed/etc to achieve that.

To achieve great detail shots you’ll need:
1) Good light – the quality of light can make or break an image. Here, Piggy is illuminated by a nice bright window (facing the window.)
2) Shallow depth of field – using a wide open aperture will focus on the subject matter and leave the background nice and creamy.
3) Shutter speed – to achieve sharper detail images, I generally do not let my shutter speed drop below 1/80. Ideally I like to shoot at 1/100 or faster.
4) Post processing –  I try to keep post processing to a minimum.  However my favorites are a mix of Totally Rad Actions and Kubota Actions. Piggy’s images feature: Boutwell Magic Glasses 40%, Midbright 20% and Smarter Sharp.

Meet Piggy: my beloved piggy bank. Isn’t he cute??

camera: 5D Mark II
lens: 50mm 1.2 L
settings: f/2.2, 1/100, 50mm, 1000 iso

The above image of Piggy was captured with my beloved 50mm 1.2 L glass lens. L glass is top of the line, professional quality and it’s expensive.  The good news is there are three different 50mm lenses to choose from. From left to right: 50mm 1.2 L, 50mm 1.4 and 50mm 1.8.  Any one of these lenses will allow you to have a wide open aperture up that will blur the background and focus nicely on the subject.  The quality of each lens will affect the end result.

camera: 40D
lens: 50mm 1.4
settings: f/2.2, 1/100, 50mm, 1000 iso

Here you can see the difference in quality between the 50mm 1.8 and the 50mm 1.4.
Both images shot with 40D, f/2.2, 1/100, 50mm, 1000 iso

As always, feel free to send us your questions. We love to hear from you! xoxo Brandy and Brandon