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General Photography
Portrait
Senior Portraits - the things you do when you're an Uncle
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<blockquote data-quote="BackdoorArts" data-source="post: 369395" data-attributes="member: 9240"><p>I was in Florida a couple weeks ago visiting my Mom and then driving across state to celebrate my in-laws' 50th Wedding Anniversary. I obviously brought me gear (there's another thread about how my flash triggers failed during family portraits), so I wasn't totally surprised when my nephew, who is known to take some photos, asked me if I'd "help" take some senior photos of my niece who is graduating high school this year. How is an Uncle with a bag full of gear supposed to say, "No, I don't do portraits"?</p><p></p><p>I had one day to shoot, my last one there, and thankfully the weather was gorgeous. Alas, I did not have a reflector, and my flash triggers weren't working, so this was going to be all natural light, and my niece has an amazing ability to squint in any light. So, we were shooting in the shadows. They had a couple places picked out, and some things they wanted to try, and I had looked at some of the shots my nephew had taken previously (nicely taken, but with incorrect settings on an older camera that spit ISO noise anywhere after 400), so I had something to go on. The big one was to get "a shot in a grassy field with an old chair" (which somehow I managed to have to carry the entire time), which we got, all while being stared down by a rather menacing and slowly approach bull. Unfortunately, her Mom (who was with us) decided not to jump the fence to get to the one shady spot where she wouldn't squint, and the pose has since been dubbed "unsuitable" since there's a bit too much leg and not enough wardrobe at that angle. So, while I won't be sharing it out of deference to M&D's opinion, at least I got it. </p><p></p><p>The rest? Let's just say that I'm not about to go into portrait photography any time soon, because I'm not a fan of disappointing people, and the pressure is there with every pose. I'm also way too sloppy in my shooting habits and by nature a little bit too much in a rush to finish one shot and move on. That said, I'm glad I have a decent tool kit because I'm quite pleased with the results. Workflow was pretty much the same on all of them:</p><p></p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Crop to 5x7 aspect ratio (makes it easier to generate all printable dimensions later) in Lightroom and do any spot or gradient light fixes, and send to Photoshop. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Levels adjustment layer, spot healing (she has had multiple knee surgeries) and artifact removal. Occasional application of spot Liquify to add a curve to a straight hanging sweater line or to even eye lines out. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Viveza for contrast, shadow and temperature adjustments. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">onOne Perfect Portrait only on her face - eyes, teeth, lips and <em>minor</em> skin evening. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Nik Color Efex Pro where I applied a custom preset that included (in order): Reflector Efex in Soft Gold (saved my ass - if you don't have a reflector in the field, you have one at home), Brilliance/Warmth, Classic Soft Focus set for very mild Diffusion, Glamour Glow set very mild. These were tweaked for each photo as necessary, but as I was shooting her in shadows this set of filters saved my butt. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Dodging and Burning back in Photoshop, along with mild color, light and DoF/blur adjustments using layer masks. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Final light adjustments in Lightroom, application of vignettes and facial lighting fixes as appropriate (love the Radial Filter for this) </li> </ol><p></p><p>The important thing is that she seems to really like them, and was very helpful in letting me know when I got a little heavy handed with my first pass at Perfect Portrait (to my credit, one of the photos she showed me when looking at examples of the chair shot was <em>way</em> overdone, as were a lot of the senior portraits I studied, so I figured I'd go there and pull back if she didn't like it - and she didn't). </p><p></p><p>I asked her if she'd be OK with me sharing, so here you go. I'll post a couple before/after shots below so you can see what I was working with.</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119519[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119520[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119521[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119518[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119522[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119523[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119524[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119525[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119526[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119527[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119528[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]119529[/ATTACH]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BackdoorArts, post: 369395, member: 9240"] I was in Florida a couple weeks ago visiting my Mom and then driving across state to celebrate my in-laws' 50th Wedding Anniversary. I obviously brought me gear (there's another thread about how my flash triggers failed during family portraits), so I wasn't totally surprised when my nephew, who is known to take some photos, asked me if I'd "help" take some senior photos of my niece who is graduating high school this year. How is an Uncle with a bag full of gear supposed to say, "No, I don't do portraits"? I had one day to shoot, my last one there, and thankfully the weather was gorgeous. Alas, I did not have a reflector, and my flash triggers weren't working, so this was going to be all natural light, and my niece has an amazing ability to squint in any light. So, we were shooting in the shadows. They had a couple places picked out, and some things they wanted to try, and I had looked at some of the shots my nephew had taken previously (nicely taken, but with incorrect settings on an older camera that spit ISO noise anywhere after 400), so I had something to go on. The big one was to get "a shot in a grassy field with an old chair" (which somehow I managed to have to carry the entire time), which we got, all while being stared down by a rather menacing and slowly approach bull. Unfortunately, her Mom (who was with us) decided not to jump the fence to get to the one shady spot where she wouldn't squint, and the pose has since been dubbed "unsuitable" since there's a bit too much leg and not enough wardrobe at that angle. So, while I won't be sharing it out of deference to M&D's opinion, at least I got it. The rest? Let's just say that I'm not about to go into portrait photography any time soon, because I'm not a fan of disappointing people, and the pressure is there with every pose. I'm also way too sloppy in my shooting habits and by nature a little bit too much in a rush to finish one shot and move on. That said, I'm glad I have a decent tool kit because I'm quite pleased with the results. Workflow was pretty much the same on all of them: [LIST=1] [*]Crop to 5x7 aspect ratio (makes it easier to generate all printable dimensions later) in Lightroom and do any spot or gradient light fixes, and send to Photoshop. [*]Levels adjustment layer, spot healing (she has had multiple knee surgeries) and artifact removal. Occasional application of spot Liquify to add a curve to a straight hanging sweater line or to even eye lines out. [*]Viveza for contrast, shadow and temperature adjustments. [*]onOne Perfect Portrait only on her face - eyes, teeth, lips and [I]minor[/I] skin evening. [*]Nik Color Efex Pro where I applied a custom preset that included (in order): Reflector Efex in Soft Gold (saved my ass - if you don't have a reflector in the field, you have one at home), Brilliance/Warmth, Classic Soft Focus set for very mild Diffusion, Glamour Glow set very mild. These were tweaked for each photo as necessary, but as I was shooting her in shadows this set of filters saved my butt. [*]Dodging and Burning back in Photoshop, along with mild color, light and DoF/blur adjustments using layer masks. [*]Final light adjustments in Lightroom, application of vignettes and facial lighting fixes as appropriate (love the Radial Filter for this) [/LIST] The important thing is that she seems to really like them, and was very helpful in letting me know when I got a little heavy handed with my first pass at Perfect Portrait (to my credit, one of the photos she showed me when looking at examples of the chair shot was [I]way[/I] overdone, as were a lot of the senior portraits I studied, so I figured I'd go there and pull back if she didn't like it - and she didn't). I asked her if she'd be OK with me sharing, so here you go. I'll post a couple before/after shots below so you can see what I was working with. [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119519._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119520._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119521._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119518._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119522._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119523._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119524._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119525._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119526._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119527._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119528._xfImport[/ATTACH] [ATTACH type="full" width="60%"]119529._xfImport[/ATTACH] [/QUOTE]
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Senior Portraits - the things you do when you're an Uncle
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