Have you ever done this? Turned your lens around to make it work like a macro lens?

I took my 50mm off and turned it around for these shots.

I’ve tried it a few times, without much success. It’s hard to hold it still while holding your lens just right, hard to hover around getting the focus right. I rarely get them sharp enough, but it’s fun to try it.

Things look very different up close.

Can you see a difference in these two photos?

Earlier today I announced on my facebook fan page I was going to shoot some photos in RAW for the first time. I’d never had Photoshop to open and edit RAW photos before, so I never tried it. Would it be as big of a deal as everyone said?

Emily gave me some great tips and reasons for using RAW, which at first glance seemed a bit too much work for me. She suggested I try the auto button to see what I should have done. Go read what she wrote for more details.

I couldn’t see much wrong with the top picture at first. After I tried clicking the auto button, I was able to see how much better the photo could be.

Will I use it every time? I’m not sure. But I am going to play with it a little more. Learning about Photoshop has been fun, but I’m glad I had the introduction to it with Elements. It’s made learning the program a lot easier.

Do you shoot in RAW?

If you ever wanted to try to capture beautiful bokeh with your camera, there isn’t a better time than right now. A Christmas tree lit with bright lights is the perfect backdrop. As a bonus, you might even get that perfect Christmas card photo.

Some of these were taken with my 50mm and some with my 85mm. I couldn’t tell much difference in how they performed in this situation.

I took this first picture Tuesday and it wasn’t long before I was completely sucked in to the bokeh behind my subject, totally losing my focus and going crazy over colored lights.

Now I make someone sit in front of the tree every day.

Here’s how to do it. Set your aperture its lowest value. Both my 50 mm and the 85 mm I used it will go to 1.8. If you have some natural light in the room to light up your subject it will really help. I opened a door, but in some photos my subject still seemed too dark.

Position your subject a few feet from the tree. Now focus on your subject and your camera will do the rest. The background will blur and those lights will sparkle.

It’s holiday magic.

You won’t want to miss it.

If you get some shots please share them with me. Either leave a comment with a link to your blog or you can post them on my fan page on Facebook. I’d love to see them.