My First Portrait Sessions

[Julie Kenward]

I finally took the leap into the world of family portraits this past weekend. I offered the pastors of my church and their families free photo sessions so I could get some real life experience under my belt and six of them took me up on it.

I've been editing photos for two straight days now but I have learned so much! Good thing, too, because I booked a paying gig from the free ones for the coming weekend.

Here's one of my favorite images from the weekend.

[Alfred Forns]

Great going Jules Love the feel and selected bg Would crop tighter for a more intimate look !!!

[Julie Kenward]

Thanks Al!

[Lana Hays]

Jules
The family interaction is wonderful......but I really love how the BG came out. What camera/lens are you using?

[Jim Poor]

Nicely done. I'd love to hear about your post processing.

[Julie Kenward]

I went back and recropped it and Al was right...it looks better without all the extra scenery. ;)

I had some dappled afternoon sun to deal with but it wasn't too bad. I started with an action that is called "sunshine" that brightens everything up and then used cloning set to darken +35% to pull down any bright white spots in the BG. I put an Orton action over the top of all this, lowered the opacity until the faces were in focus and then redid the levels to make sure skin tones were in the right range.

Lana, I used my Canon 40D + my 70-200mm f4L lens. I know it's not ideal for portraits but we were doing mostly "on the fly" walking around stuff and it's my only zoom that isn't wide angle. (It also has some unbelievable bokeh to it.) I'm really hoping to get my hands on a 24-105mm so I can get even more "upclose and personal" in the future. I used my 50mm on occasion for the "sit down and pose" images as well.

[Susan Griffith]

Fantastic image Julie, congratulations on the paying gig :D

-Susan

[Gus Cobos]

Much better on the cropped repost Julie...It looks good...congrats...:cool:

[Arthur Morris]

Nicely done but for similar images I would have had the woman angle to the front while you moved a bit to the right; this would result in seeing more face and less side view. Does that make any sense???

[Julie Kenward]

You're right, Artie...if I had posed them I probably would have done that. I don't pose my portraits - I let them do what they want and make the images as they happen.

I'm a "fly by the seat of your pants" kinda gal don'tcha know.

Plus, I'll give up a better angle for a spontaneous belly laugh any day. :D;):D