One of my favourite is Carr Mill Dam and Sankey Valley, especially with the recent regeneration that’s been going on.

Throughout St Helens there are 17 parks and open spaces ( according to the Council http://www.sthelens.gov.uk/page.htm?id=690#Parks )

• Bankes Park
• Clinkham Wood Local Nature Reserve
• Clock Face Country Park
• Downall Croft Doorstep Green
• Fosters Park (Formerly Hardshaw Park)
• Gaskell Park
• Haresfinch Park
• King George V Haydock
• Mesnes Park
• Nanny Goat Park
• Sankey Valley Country Park
• Sherdley Park
• Siding Lane Local Nature Reserve
• Sutton Park
• Taylor Park
• The Duckeries
• Victoria Park

If I’ve missed on out, please let me, and our readers know in the comments below. would be great to get some photos in here too, ideally photos of your children in the parks around St Helens – email them in to me at photo (@) creativephotoshop.co.uk or if you have some on flickr or facebook then send me the link.

Portrait tips for parks and open spaces

When your taking portraits in the park and in open spaces you need to not get too wrapped up in the place that you are in, remember, your prime objective is to take the portrait of the person, not the location. Having said that, the location is important as it :

• Provides an interesting environment and location to take photos
• Helps the kid’s relax and be “natural”
• When it’s a fun place, it will help to get the kids laughing and smiling. not always important, but happy, smiling photos of kids are great, and make you feel good!
• Provides a visual enhancement in the final image by way of colour, patterns and shapes in the background
• Fantastic natural light – you really can get better light than good, bright natural daylight.

Read more tips on light here

What’s in the background

When your taking photos (especially portraits) in the open, you need to put more thought into the background. I don’t mean just looking out for the odd tree that may appear to be poking out of someone’s head, but also look out for:

• Distracting patterns
• Random people
• Dogs
• Traffic
• Ugly stuff that doesn’t compliment the photo.
• Colours that don’t compliment the subject
• patterns that work against or distract from the person.

For this shot of Ajay, I was high above him at the top of a hill, this placed the grass on the ground behind him, I just shouted and asked him to “smile”

Have fun and happy snapping

I kept this sharp by resting my phone on the balcony

I’m going to skip the obvious one of “use a tripod”, although tripods are ideal to help get a pin sharp photo, they are not essential, and,  we don’t all have tripods. Even if we do though, we don’t always have them with us, all the time. Well, at least I don’t as Helen won’t let me

 Blurred photos are caused by either movment of the subject or movment of the camera

 

My first tip is to shoot with the fastest shutter speed possible.

If you have a “S” or “SP” mode on your camera this is the “Shutter”, or “Shutter Priority” and enables you to control the shutter speed while the camera sets the other settings automatic according to your chosen shutter speed. So by setting this to the highest number posible will help to keep your shots sharp.

My next tip is use the “Sport Mode” in-camera setting

This is probably one of the more underused settings that can help prevent blurred photos. The “sport mode” option works with all the cameras settings and optimises it ready to capture fast moving objects. this is a good mode to use for children and pets especially when they are running around.

The third tip I wan’t to give you is to “lean” on something.

to keep the sunset shot sharp in the low light of the sunset I rested my phone on the balcony. You can also use a wall, tree, rock, bench, chair… anything will do. If  you can hold your camera and rest your hands on something solid and fixed this will keep your camera much steadier than just by your hands alone.

If you have any other tips to share please leave them in the comments below 

Geoff.

From 1st of February 2011 we are pleased to introduce our pick up and drop off service for all our Film to DvD transfer services!
Call us Now on St Helens 01744 739910 or Call / text Mobile 07920091100 for collection days in your area.

If your not sure what or how much Video or Cine you have then please call us and well work it out for you

Our transfer prices are :

Video to DvD including VHS, Camcorder ( 8mm, Hi8, Mini Dv) :

Each Video tape ( VHS or Camcorder ) is priced : @ just £9.99 for the 1st hour then @ £4.99 per hour there after.

Cine film inc. 8mm, Super 8, 9mm and all other cine sizes

All transfers come in a full size “normal” DvD case with a printed and personalised cover.

Cine Film is priced : @ £35 for the first 300 feet then £25 per 300 feet there after.

Photos get damaged all the time and sadly if it happens to be the only photo you have of that someone special this can be quite upsetting.

All is not lost though. In fact, we have been repairing old and damaged photos for people all around the world since 1997!

Our process is simple and involves taking a high resolution or HD copy of your photo and digitally repairing it before making a new print.

We can repair photos, images on negative, slide, even on your facebook page! just send us the image either in the post or via email and we’ll give you a price to repair it. if your happy with the price we’ll complete the repair work and make you a new print.

You’ll get back your original print and the new one. we can also provide you with a digital file too if you need one.

Prices start from just £9.99

Call us now on : 01744 739910 or call / txt : 079200 91100

Did you know that they can be transferred to CD or MP3′s and you can enjoy them again?

This is a service we have been doing for our customers since 1998 in the studio!, but lately there has been an increase in the amount of old records and tapes we are converting to CD for people.
As we all have CD players in the car, MP3 players on our mobiles is so easy to revive that old collection and listen to it again.

We can often do a same day service for tape and record to CD conversions.

Just give us a call : 01942 725847 or 07920091100 8am-8pm any day.

With our service starting at just £5 you’ll wish you had done it long ago.

P.S. This is great gift idea too for those who have everything and remember tapes and

records…

As an example, a site like this one that you can take full control of, edit from any where in the world, even from your iPhone or blackberry would cost just £399 inc. your domain name  ( www.whateveryouwant.co.uk) and would be up and fully functional in 48 hours.

On this type of site you can display info, photos, videos…. what ever you need.

£399 is fully inclusive of your domain name, building your site and your first years hosting!

Please contact Geoff on 01744 739910 or 079200 91100 on the mobile.

Thanks for being “The Best mummy in the World”. Happy Mothers Day 2010! Music by The Killers – Human. Love from Ajay, Khi & India. xxx

]]> http://www.creativephotoshop.co.uk/the-best-mummy-in-the-world-happy-mothers-day-2010-music-by-the-killers-human/feed/ 0 http://www.creativephotoshop.co.uk/professional-photo-editing-and-retouching-for-your-photos/ http://www.creativephotoshop.co.uk/professional-photo-editing-and-retouching-for-your-photos/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:56:50 +0000 Geoff http://www.creativephotoshop.co.uk/?p=171 Give your own Photo’s the “Professional Touch” with our great service.

Have you got any Wedding Photos? Would you like them to be Professionally edited? Chances are we can get them looking just as good as a professional shot.

Maybe you took your own wedding photos? or had a friend do them for you? we’ll, with todays technology and our years of expertiese of taking professional photographs and working with other peoples photos we can give you photos the “Professional Touch”.

Professional Photographers don’t showcase their photos direct from the camera  – they do lots of little tweaks and edits to get that shot to look the way it does. take a look at the example below :

Before. This is the original image direct from the camera

With our Professional photo editing service we take that original shot and turn it into this:

After. The finished image following our professional editing service.

We charge around just £10 to do an edit of this type, including:

• Cropping
• Toning Enhancements
• Black and White Conversion
• Minor airbrushing
• Sharpening

All you need to do is just email in a wedding photo or any photo! and we’ll asses and email you with the optiona and a complete price breakdown.

If your happy with the options, we’ll complete a proof image for you to approve. once your happy with the image complete payment and we’ll email, or upload your photo to our site for you to download.

Prints are also available if you need them .

Especially when we get great photos like this of our own kids! well 3 are ours and the baby is our Nephew Oliver.

Usually I don’t like to do our own kids in the studio cos’ they just play up! as all kids do for their parents  but today was great and we got some good shots.

“What helps lot’s is being relaxed and letting them do what they want to, to a certain extent!”

If your going to get good shots of babies and children you need to be patient and sometimes VERY patient! Being Patient always pay’s off in the end and shows in the shots.
The last thing you want to do is rush the session and try to make the children smile! how we do it is to involve the parents, grandparents, uncles aunties or whoever is there at the time. Capturing the children naturally is the key to a successful session, yes big smiles are great but sometimes the natural photos are more revealing and can capture the personality and make a much more captivating portrait.

Call Geoff or Helen now and book your £49 portrait before your little ones get much bigger ……
Studio 01744 739910 – Mobile 07920091100

We’re moving out of the studio and onto the streets.

Photography is changing in many ways! not just the quality and technicle developments but in styles and tastes.
Yes you can get great photos in a studio – but if your looking for something a little different give some thought to our Urban Portraits.

We now go urban and shoot portraits on location.

This gives great scope to more natural shots and combining the natural enviroment can give some great effects.

A full Urban session will cost just £49 and that includes a framed 7×5 print!

Call Geoff or Helen today on 01744 739910 or 07920091100 to book or if you have any questions.