For those of you who messaged me about this... here are some photos that should answer your questions.
Am I concerned about the highlight on the top of the head and shoulders? No. If this were a commercial job where you simply want white BEHIND the product, I wouldn't use this lighting set-up. It'd light the white seamless directly to avoid spill onto the product. But for people photography I don't mind the spillover... as long as that light isn't too far forward that it reaches the nose.
This is our youngest son, Owen. He looks so calm, patient and... stationary. Well, those of you who know him, know that is NOT Owen! Shirley would drop him in place, quickly get out of the way, I'd shoot, he'd run, then we'd start the sequence all over again.
Anyway, this is the result of a high key lighting technique for white seamless paper I learned in the 1980s from THE best lighting teacher ever... Dean Collins, but hadn't done it until recently (OK, I learn slow...ly).
Thanks Owen for holding still for the 1/125 second it took to get this shot. (Ain't he CUTE?) Yeah, the pose is a bit traditional, but for a studio portrait I like that look. I do plenty of casual, candid, real stuff outside of the camera room.
I bought about $5000 in new lighting gear in December. This is the result of a fifth of that purchase. LED light panel on his face, and two gelled Canon 580s on the curved glass block window behind him.
High school seniors next year are going to get some great new stuff from me! Keep pushing!
We bought her Mustang in 2004. Ever since then, Shirley wanted a portrait of her with it. Finally last year we finished with our busy season, and squeezed insome time to do the session. We got some great images, and this is one of my favorites.
And now I finally finished with our sessions from this year (whew!) and made time to work them up for a wall portrait.
(She's still not too hard on the eyes at age 58.)
Digital photography has given us many new tools to work with. One of them is the ability to go back to the original film images and "remaster" them. Such was the case with this painting. I created the original back in 2000. Since then, the print began to let loose from the backing, plus the background was too dark by today's standard of quality. So I decided to rebuild the painting.
I didn't want to repaint Aly, since this was the look the client had grown accustomed to these past 11 years. Painting is a VERY fluid and evolving process. I would never be able to reproduce the same look twice. So I photographed Aly in small sections for the absolute best in quality and detail, then stitched them together to make her entire body.
The dark background was a limitation of the film medium back then. So, I rephotographed the same canvas background and flower arrangement, both of which I still have. With a new, fresh image, I can make them as light or dark as I want. I combined those two items and dropped them behind the image of Aly. I could have had even more detail in the background, and in fact on the first version I did. But the client came over to appove the result before going to printing, and wanted it a little deeper. It's important to produce a compromise between what is possible, and what the client is accustomed to and likes. While I like to have a free hand to prduce the look I enjoy, in this case the client is boss.
The whole process took about four full days of work. Cost to the client? Zero.
We want our work to always be a representation of the kind of quality our clients expects from us... whether it was created today, or a decade ago.
The Original...
Remastered version...
That's right... I'll use every light available.
This was done with a studio-type strobe with a portable power supply, and big softbox. You just can't beat the beauty of a big light in close, but a bit to the side for drama.
A little Photoshop tweaking on the colors, and voila... magic happens!
Thanks Aarika for making me look good! (and her mom, Kelly, for blowing her hair!)
John Hartman is a well known photographer from Steven's Point Wisconsin, and I'm privileged to know him. He's a very dedicated photographer and, like me, he's always pushing himself to be better... so that we'll always have a place in the priorities of those interested in having a portrait done.
This was something he had done, and I just copied the idea. He's cool with that. We all learn from each other. I bought the same lights (about a $1500 investment) so I could do this shot.
I look forward to other sports for our high school seniors that would lend themselves to this technique and other fun stuff that requires a flash with... lots 'o' power! How about pole vaulting? Or diving? or hurdles?
