Mother’s Day picture idea
I’ve been doing these since Mat was in pre-school, so that’s….(counting on fingers..so much for that Math degree) 6 years now.
These are ALWAYS a HUGE hit with moms & grandmas, especially if you’re going out for Mother’s Day brunch, and mom & grandma get to display their pictures on the table. The compliments & oohs & ahhhs from other people are awesome.
Here’s what you do:
Get a 4×6 or 5×7 wooden frame & remove the glass. Let the child decorate/paint/glitter the frame until it’s a gorgeous work of art that only a kid can create. Also pick up some fake flowers with long stems and cut them so that the flower & stem are about the height of the frame you bought. Remove any leaves from the stem, too.
Take a picture of your child’s hand with the fist pointing right at the camera like this:
The shallow DOF makes the picture look really 3D.
Focus on the fist and make sure you can see the kid’s face peeking out behind the fist.
Shoot in Av mode, and try some low Av numbers. If you go really low (a big wide aperture), that may give you TOO MUCH blur. You want to be able to see the expression on the kid’s face and make out WHO it is, so too much blur may be bad. Check the pic in the back of your camera and raise that Av number if the blur is too much.
Print out the pic to fit the frame you bought.
Use an Exacto knife to slice a slit at the top & bottom of the fist, then take the fake flower and slip the stem through the picture to make the fist “hold” the flower. Put the picture & flower in the frame. The flower stem sliding behind the fist makes the hand pop out a bit, making it look really 3D.
Here are some of the first few that I made years ago (still sitting on top of my office cabinets here by my computer):
Have FUN!
~Carey
Oh man!
I just shot the kids at my son’s preschool class for a mother’s day gift they are doing for the mom’s. I wish i had read this yesterday! What a neat idea. Atleast I can do this with my own kiddies! Thank so very much!
Julie