Melissa Jill Photography

Jayne - Hi Melissa. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions and to share your knowledge. I see you photographed this image at F2.8, and I know you shoot at wide apertures often. I love a shallow depth of field, but when I zoom in to 100% in post production to view details such as eyes, I don't see the crystal-clear sharpness that I see when I zoom in on an image shot at 7.1. Shouldn't a small portion of the image be tack sharp? I would appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks so much for your willingness to help!

lena - more please!!!

Annie - Wow! Someone directed me to your blog this morning. I've been checking out several of your BTI posts and LOVE them! Thank you so much for sharing!

Melissa - Thanks for this post, Melissa! I appreciate each one, and I hope you keep them coming :)

MarcoG - To Lauren - Kevin X-Process Combo is part of the Artistic Tools V.1 pack.

Audrey - Wow, thank you for sharing your info. It's very helpful. I'm a newbie (working with a Canon Powershot C5IS). I know my cam can't do nearly what yours can do, but getting knowledge is really important to me right now. Thanks again for sharing. The image is gorgeous.

Lauren - I love this shot! Your work is always amazingI have been searching for the Kubota X- process combo and cannot find it? Can you tell me which artistic pack it's in? Thank you :)

MarcoG - Mandi, in the picture above, Melissa wanted to obtain a saturated sky color, even if it was a little too early and the sky still too bright. To do this, she had to underexpose the picture by two stops. As she wanted to keep the aperture at the maximum for that lens (f/2.8, probably to nicely blur part of the foreground), the only option she had without touching the ISO was to increase the shutter speed from 1/1.5 (from the camera meter) to 1/6. These desired settings are immediate to obtain with your camera set to manual mode, but much trickier if you are using one of the semi-automatic modes (aperture or shutter priority) and almost impossible if you are using the fully automatic modes (P or Auto). In other non-technical words, professional photographers use Manual mode because this gives them full control over the camera and therefore plenty of room for creativity. I know, you had asked Melissa... :-P

Cynthia Rust - Thanks so much for sharing the technical stuff for us newbies! Your photographic work is stunning. And your writings are inspiring! I too have a niece with autism so I especially love your articles about your nephews. Thanks again

Gekko0108 - I should have thought to cool down more of those ISO 1600 shots in photoshop. Nice effect! Is the expensive tool you mentioned that critical?

Alice - First off... beautiful! This is such a great image to include in your wedding coverage, as it really expands the viewers perception to a much larger scale. Also love that you share your before and afters, and tips as well. Would love it if you could elaborate on how you tweak the percentage of an action to 18%.

Mandi - Beautiful shot! Forgive me if you've already answered this (and I'll go check F.A.Q. archives) but I would love for a professional photog to tell me why they shoot in manual. What the benefits are to that. Why it's the way to go.

Melissa Jill :) - Hey Peter -- If you just google “sunset times” there are a few websites that will help you to figure out what time sunset is in a certain town on any given date.

Anna Sawin - These amazing tips and many many many many more at the fantastic MJ TWO DAY workshop--don't miss it! I loved it and use something from it every day.

Michelle sidles - Yay! I *love* when you do these behind the image posts. :) Makes me want to run outside and try it. Except it's 20 degrees outside & too far past sunset. Oh well... maybe tomorrow! :) Thanks Melissa.

Peter Davis - Do you use a particular website to find out what time sunset will be so that you know when to go outside? I guess that might be a dumb question but I seem to remember reading about a cool site that listed times for sunsets/sunrises and things like that. thanks!

Shannon Schwabe - Thank you so much for sharing this! Love the idea of resting your camera on your shoe. Brilliant!

Melissa Jill :) - Hey Dennis -- ya, bringing a tripod all the way to Hawaii just for one shot is a bit much :). I have just customized the X-process action to 18% opacity because that's how I like it and the only way I use it. So I just re-recorded the action with my tweak.

Dennis Bullock - Great post Melissa! I was waiting for you to say tri-pod but like the use of what is there :) When you say customized..when talking about the X-Process action does that mean you adjusted the out of the box action? If so what did you do? Again these posts are so great!