Portraiture

It's been so long since I've updated!! I have tons of shoots, tons of photos, and so many things to share with everyone.

Firstly, I would love to share the latest shoot I've done for a fellow artist and life long friend, Heather Trese at See Heather Write.

I am always eternally impressed with her dedication to her craft. Although both of us choose different avenues to express ourselves, we're both artists. She'll stay up late, sleepless nights editing her work in progress- risking carpal tunnel and eye strain, letting rest be the casualty of her craft. Currently she is working on a young adult novel before she runs off to her master's program in Vermont.




Knowing her personally made it a breeze to photograph her. It's always important to keep in mind that you're photographing the type of person, as well as the physical image of a person. A good portrait photographer is always thinking of two things: the flattering angles that will work best with the subject's body type, and what the subject's overall demeanor is. Is your client fun to be around? Are they willing to get their clothes dirty? Is he or she more serious? More reserved? I cheated a little at this, considering I've had 12 years to get to know Heather. Most of my clients I have to use a mash-up of in depth observation and direct conversation which easily gets the job done.

Time flew by, and I captured some amazing photographs that I am hoping will be on the inside cover of her novels one day soon!

For Heather I used a wide variety of depth of field, creamy natural light as well as some portable, external lighting equipment to create texture, interest, and emotion.



Using the environment around me, I decided to pump up the atmosphere with one external light about 8 feet away, (on a dramatic angle) from the subject, set at 1/4th to 1/2 of it's power. I under-exposed my shots to get the dark, rich shadows. For more formal looks I flattened out the light to act as fill, and let the background react to existing natural light as well as the external light being projected and bounced from the subject.



Heather is naturally blessed with great skin that works well with a variety of lights and shadows. Post processing these will be a dream!!

After this I have 2 wedding clients to show you from October but I am not ready to unveil them as of yet! The next two posts are Kristin and Allen's wedding, then Jon and Kelly's!! Can't wait to show you guys the amazing shots I got from both.

Questions, comments? Interested in learning more? Leave a comment here or email me directly at elle@elleiscreative.com