A few weekends ago I went out and shot some photos of Mia with the intent of trying to obtain a short depth of field, while still maintaining a frame that would let the viewer in on the subjects surroundings. All of these photos are basically the same photo, but with different poses, backgrounds, and overall processing treatments. They were all taken with a Canon 7D, 50mm 1.4 lens at about f1.8-2.2. Some advice I would give to someone wanting to obtain this effect is simple. Shoot wide open and watch your autofocus points. Even as far back as 20-30 feet, the subject can easily fall out of focus.

While visiting relatives this weekend, I had the opportunity to break out the tripod and give HDR photography a go. With my Canon 7D and cup of coffee on hand, I used autobracketing with +/- 2 stops to take a total of three photos in quick succession. The images were put together using the obligatory Photomatix Pro by HDR Soft (it really is the best) with a bit of sharpening and whatnot back in Aperture 3. My goal was to make the scene look as close to what I could remember it being while I was there. Don’t be fooled, this stuff is really easy to get started with if you take the time to understand the process and software involved.

My daughter and the neighbor’s boy both turned 6 months recently. We commemorated the event with a few photos. Happy 1/2 birthday!

Check out my flickr stream for more photos of these two.

Out of nowhere, Apple announced Aperture 3 today. I downloaded the trial and spent a few hours editing shots this evening. I am happy to say that my $99 upgrade is on its way! Yes it has the iPhoto Faces and Places features (facial recognition and GPS locations), but I could honestly care less about that. Is there even a DSLR on the market that has GPS built in? Regardless, the fact that you can finally use non-destructive adjustment brushes and create presets is going to make my life a whole heck of a lot easier.

Coming off of a binge of only using the Lightroom 3 Beta, I can say that Aperture 3 has definitely filled in quite a few holes that Aperture 2 left wide open. For example, leaving your photo in Aperture 2 to destructively burn/dodge was a deal breaker for me.

However, these two photo management and processing software packages are starting to really come into their own. It is great to see both companies pushing each other forward. I would imagine though that Adobe has a few tricks up its sleeve for the Lightroom 3 release. In fact, I will bet we will start hearing some rumblings soon from San Jose regarding that. (No, that is not an earthquake joke.)