This month we are enjoying a Natural Light Photography Series from Jean Smith Photography.  This is the second installment on secrets for shooting in challenging natural light conditions.  You can read last week’s tutorial here:

• So You Wanna Backlight?

All right, we’ve learned the basics of backlighting, let’s take it a step further and add haze into our images. In past years, images with sun flare or haze may have been considered mistakes, but many photographers are now are trying to achieve this effect in their photos.

What?

“Capturing haze” is simply allowing the sun to enter the lens and hit the camera’s sensor. The result is a backlit image with a beautiful, hazy glow (warm in evenings and cooler in mornings).

Why?

Because, really, who doesn’t love a soft, dreamy image of your subject, wrapped in a warm, delicious glow? And again, any type of lighting you can master and add to your bag of tricks makes you a better photographer.

How?

Our camera lenses are brilliant devices that are designed to minimize or eliminate sun flare and sun haze. So, we have to use techniques to go against the natural workings of our lenses to allow that sun to flare and haze. Each of the following can be altered according to preference and style, but these are my basic tips for capturing haze:

Haze basics.

I have four basic “musts” when trying to achieve a hazy image.

• One, your camera must be facing toward the sun.
• Two, you must shoot very early in the morning or late in the day (Within the hour before sunset or after sunrise is most ideal). This may seem obvious, but I know many photographers (myself included) who couldn’t figure out why in the world they couldn’t get a hazy image at 2 pm.
• Three, flip that camera to manual mode if you haven’t done so. Save yourself a lot of headache from trying to backlight in auto modes. You need full control of this situation.
• Four, I prefer spot metering in most backlit situations. However, when I am purposely allowing a lot of light to spill into my lens, I can’t always rely on metering. I will often rely on my highlight indicator on my display. The highlight indicator on your display (commonly referred to as “blinkies”) tells you if parts of your image is overexposed. I always expose for my subject’s skin, and I am about a stop below from overexposing their skin.

Sun placement and focus.

I will frame my image so that the sun is in the top corner of my frame, or partially hidden behind my subject or other object (like a building or tree). Your camera/lens has to be able to see the sun or you won’t get any haze. For example, if your subject’s back is to the sun, and the sun is completely hidden behind your subject or a tree, then YES, your subject will have a lovely backlit rim around them, but there will be no haze in your image because there is no sun light seen by your camera and lens. Once my sun is in the right place, I will raise my hand in front of me and block the sun while I get a focus on my subject, and then drop my hand to let the light back in and press the shutter button down.

Lens Hood? Ditch it.

We’re trying to let IN the light, not block it out, as that is what hoods are designed for.

Aperture.

The wider your aperture, the more hazy your image will be.

Focal length.

Longer focal lengths will result in better haze. Test it out…try to capture haze with a 24mm focal length and then try again at 85mm. Night and day.

With just a few simple rules, you are on your way to hazy, beautiful images!

Jean Smith is a portrait, wedding, and commercial photographer in New Hudson, Michigan. She has a super rad husband (also a photographer) and four awesome little boys who keep life fun and VERY busy! To see more of her photography, visit her website, blog or follow her on Facebook.  Our community will also have the opportunity to learn from Jean at our upcoming Photography Conference for Women in October where she will be one of our featured speakers!

With Father’s Day this weekend, we thought we would help you out with some last minute gift and photo ideas! We’ve rounded up some of our favorite posts to help you make Dad’s day a little more special. Enjoy!

Of course we LOVE these adorable FREE Father’s Day Photo Templates the The Album Cafe made just for I Heart Faces readers. Hurry and grab them while they are still available.

Don’t miss out on prime photo opportunities with dad or grandpa! We have rounded up some great Father’s Day photos and posing ideas for  you here.

Photo by Susan Keller Photography.

Co-Founder of I Heart Faces, Amy Locurto, designed some cute Free Printable Father’s Day Tags and Easy Dessert in a Jar treats you might enjoy!

Amy also rounded up 50 Amazing Father’s Day Gift Ideas with Free Printables! You have to check these out. Such cute ideas!!

We hope this helps you out for Father’s Day!! Have a great weekend and get a LOT of great photos with Dad!

Are you on Instagram?

Follow us on Instagram to join us for June’s 1 Photo – 30 Days Photo Challenge! Find out more details here.

This month’s “In The Distance” photo challenge theme made for some stunning entries! We loved seeing the creative way each photographer interpreted the theme.

We invited one of our amazing Creative Team members, Amandalynn Jones Photography, to be our featured Guest Photographer Judge this month. Many of you have had the chance to interact with her in our I Heart Faces Photography Community and we enjoyed learning even more about her in her photography interview.  We are also excited that Amandalynn will be joining us as one of the speakers at our upcoming I Heart Faces Photography Conference for Women!  {Registration for this event is open and a payment plan option is available.}

Special thanks to The Album Cafe for sponsoring our June “In The Distance” Photo Challenge!

First Place: See Sarah Shoot

Amandalynn wrote: Over and over again I kept coming back to this image. The soft misty glow pairs perfectly with the magic of the rippling water and the sweetness of the child standing in front of the waves. I also enjoy that “in the distance” can be read in this image several different ways. I love it more every time I look at it. 

Second Place: Pamela Chow

It was so hard to make this image second because I wanted it to be first also! The silhouette and the beautiful rays of sunlight create such a fantastic mood. This is the kind of image I would hang on my wall.

Third Place: Tami Jackson

The reflections are wonderful, what a great sky shot! This image has and air of tranquility that I really love.

Fourth Place: {jjm} photography

This shot is beautifully done, it makes me feel nostalgic for late summer evenings by the water… I feel like I want to take a vacation to this beautiful place and stand on the end of that dock with my own child.

Fifth Place: Jeune Girl

Again the fantastic sky drew me to this image, but the crackling ground adds a really great texture and sense of environment. I also like this composition a great deal, the movement of the sky almost mirrors the arc of the ground and makes it feel very balanced without having to be squared and centered.

Sixth Place: Sheila Spencer

I love that this is almost a monotone image, but it still has a certain vibrance to it. The composition lends a great sense of openness and distance that I find really lovely.

Seventh Place: Christine Marks Photography

This is a great “out of the box” entry. The vertical perspective sets it apart from other images and the colors and composition are really stunning.

Eighth Place: Rural Canyon

I’m a sucker for a great black and white, and this one is fantastic. The separation between the layers of background and the composition with the couple on the right is fabulous.

Ninth Place: blossom-n-bloom photography

This is a great perspective and expression, it draws me in.

Tenth Place: Sunny Keri

Such a fun action shot! I like the hint of yellow and green in the wave highlights the surfer while the surrounding blue frames them.

Congratulations to each photographer who placed in the Top Ten! Your image was amazing and you are such an inspiration to us!

I Heart Faces Photography News

Special thanks to The Album Cafe for sponsoring our May Photo Challenge!

Grand Prize

We will be announcing the Grand Prize Winner of the Pro Templates Collection from The Album Cafe on our blog tomorrow when we also showcase our “Angie & Amy Favorites”. Be sure to check back to see if you were the lucky winner of this valued prize!

{1 Photo – 30 Days} Challenge

We are loving the gorgeous entries in our summer {1 Photo} challenge. If you’d like to participate on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google+, read more details here:  {1 Photo} Challenge

Share your images on our Facebook Wall or via Instagram and Twitter using hashtag #iHeartFaces!

We are pleased to showcase another photo editing tutorial by Mandy Blake here on I Heart Faces today.  She is teaching how easy it is to create our own textures in Photoshop.

Adding texture overlays to images has become a trend in photography in the last couple of years, with many designers, graphic artists and photographers creating and offering textures for photographers to purchase. There are some amazing textures out there to buy from really talented design artists, but you don’t have to spend the extra money if you have a camera and a little bit of Photoshop knowledge!

Photograph the Texture

Before you begin, you will need to take a little photo walk to capture some images of textures. Look for stone walls, rusty garbage cans, frosted windows, or anything else a little grungy and texturized to photograph. Make sure that you photograph the texture sample as straight-on as possible, avoiding tilts or angles that will be noticeable once overlayed on the image. I am using an image of one of the cement blocks that make the walls of my garage!

Now, you could just overlay your texture image directly onto another image and change the blending mode to get a neat effect, but this tutorial is going to take it one step further by adding a color and vignette layer to add depth and warmth to the finished product.

Create Texture File

1. First, open your texture image.

Leave it open and then start a new document using Ctrl/Cmnd + N. I typically make this document 6”W X 4”H and 300 dpi. Using Shift + F5 or Edit > Fill, fill the new document with a Color of your choice. I tend to choose warmer, yellow and orange based colors, which work well with skin tones in portraits.

2. Select the Color for the Vignette

Once you have it filled, choose your brush tool and double click on the foreground color to select a brush color. You are going to brush a “vignette” around the edges, so select a darker color so that it will be easily seen once applied. A quick way to choose a complimentary dark color based on your fill color is to select the “Color Libraries” option and choose the darkest shade in the palette.

3. Paint on the Vignette

With your brush set at around 30-50% opacity and a soft edge, brush on a “vignette” around the image border, with the color fading lighter toward the center of the image. 

4. Arrange Documents

Now you should have your texture image and the color overlay image that you just created both open in Photoshop. Click on Window > Arrange > 2-up Vertical to have both image documents open side-by-side.

5. Drag Overlay onto the Texture Photo

Using your move tool, click and drag the color overlay onto the texture photo. Next, right click on the newly added overlay (which will have handles active) and select “Scale”. Use the handles to size the overlay to fit your texture image perfectly. Hit Enter to confirm your placement. Once the overlay is placed, you can go back to Windows > Arrange > Consolidate All to Tabs to keep your workspace from getting too confusing!

6. Change Blending Mode and Save

Making sure your color overlay is the selected layer, change the layer blending mode from “Normal” to “Overlay”. Once you have completed this step, flatten the image and Save as a JPG to use on your images!

Applying Your Texture to a Photo

Now that you have created your texture, it is time to use it! Open the image you want to “texturize” as well as the texture overlay. Repeat the same process as Steps 4 & 5 above to place the texture over your image, making sure you “Scale” the texture to fit the image exactly.

Try changing your blending mode to Soft Light to see how the texture will look on your image, adjusting the texture layer opacity as desired. I usually set mine between 30-55% for a more subtle effect. The last thing to do, if you have texture over undesired areas such as the subject’s face in a portrait, is to choose a color similar to the main color of the texture and using your brush, paint directly on the texture layer to “neutralize” the texture in those target areas.

Here’s a comparison so you can see the beautiful difference our texture made:

Now you have your own texture that you can apply to any image you wish! Keep an eye out for different textures when you have your camera at the ready and you can build your own personal collection of textures!

Mandy Blake, owner of Mandy Blake Photography and Flow for Photographers, is a natural light family and children’s photographer, as well as a Photoshop Action designer, Photoshop mentor and Photo Editor. She is the mother of two sassy, stubborn girls, wife to an amazingly supportive husband, and slobber-covered-ball thrower for her faithful Lab-Hound mix. You can also find her on Facebook.