I'm in a difficult place right now as a portrait photographer. Unfortunately, I don't currently have droves of people coming to me, asking me to take their pictures. Instead, when I find someone I want to photograph (often a well-dressed, unsuspecting friend), I have to beg them to let me take their picture. I guess it's not always like that, but that's definitely how it was with this one. [Read More...]
Casey's one of those girls who would rather be working behind the scenes than on stage, and so it took quite a bit of negotiating to get her to cooperate. One of her final offers was that she would be allowed to take some pictures of me when I was done with her. I agreed, and then deleted them later. (Actually, I deleted them because they came out completely out of focus.)
One thing that has been a challenge for me to learn is how to pose people in a shot. It's natural for a non-model model to just stand straight on toward the camera because that's how we take all of our vacation shots, but nothing about that pose is flattering. One of the easiest and most effective quick-pose set ups that I use is to tell them to stand a little angled toward the camera and to put all their weight on one leg. And that last part's the most important, I think: putting all the weight on one leg instantly communicates the message of being relaxed and the picture comes out a million times better.
I'm actually color blind, so that makes post processing sunset pictures a little difficult for me. As soon as I thought I was done editing this picture and showed it to my mom-in-law, she informed me the grass was neon orange or something, so she had to stand there with me as I desaturated the reds out of the grass and tell me when it looked good because I couldn't see any change myself.
1 comment:
I think posing is important. When I go to a professional photographer (not Sears, but like with my senior or wedding pictures), I expect the photographer to see me through the lens and help me to appear at my most flattering angles. That is something that rarely happens when a friend is taking a picture and definitely sets apart the professionals from the amateurs.
I wish you the best while trying to earn money at this endeavor. My dad was a photography major in college and earned a little money on the side for taking portraits of people. It was really cool to go to a church in Ohio and see a picture on the minister’s desk of his wife that my dad took before they married. Another cousin of mine actually has a studio and does formal photos. He has a gorgeous piece of land and a series of backdrops built (the inside of barns and such) where senior portraits can be made. It was fun to explore as a kid. Anyway, I hope you can have fun with this!
Andrea
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