"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter," Oscar Wilde
Portraits always seemed so simple to me. Place your subject in good or interesting light and go! If you're working with an extra wiggly subject go quickly! But portraits rarely are that simple are they? I've found that the portraits that draw me in and leave me in awe tend to be the portraits that are filled with personality and emotion. And I don't know that there is anything simple about people or their feelings lol!
I hope these featured portraits make you feel something. Whether its joy, nostalgia or just plain admiration for a well done timeless portrait. Congratulations to all of you for an amazing month of portraits.
Gear: Nikon d750 24-120mm
Settings: ISO 1600 f/4.0 1/250 sec
The Shot: This boy loves his trains, saw the sun hitting his head, he was in his own world so just started shooting.
Post Processing: Edit in LR, warmed it up, used a preset a like, darkened the background and brought it into PS to warm the sun flare.
Gear: Fuji XT3 and lensbaby sol45
Settings: ISO 3200, 1/125, f3.5.
The Shot: I wanted to take a self portrait of me just being at home having a lovely cup of tea. Unfortunately there were no biscuits to dunk.
Post Processing: Edited in LR using Elena Blair indoor preset, increasing the warmth of the overall image, increase texture and put a slight vignette on.
Gear: Nikon D750, 85mm 1.8 lens.
Settings - ISO 400, f5, 1/250.
The Shot: This was shot at a 45 degree angle to my bedroom window (and close to it), I had my cream / yellow backdrop up on my backdrop stand, had a white desk in front which I laid the eggs in two piles. I had my daughter duck behind the desk then pop up and pretend to steal the eggs.
Post Processing: Editing wise, I just brought back the colour (deepened blacks, added vibrance), added small eye adjustments to darken her eyelashes, lifted the shadows, changed the tint slightly to warm it up and make it less green, then added a very light vignette.
Gear: Nikon D750 + 35mm sigma art
Settings: ISO 640, 1/3200, f / 2.8
The Shot: I had my son lay on the ground under a wicker bench. I had been admiring the shadow for months and was so excited when he agreed. The shadow hit just right, framing his eyes.
Post Processing: Edited in Lightroom and used brushes to increase texture brighten his eyes and eyelashes and a few highlight brushes
Gear: Nikon D750, 24-70 lens set to 70mm
Settings: ISO: 320, SS: 250 and Aperture: 7.1
The Shot: This was a Senior Session so we hit the roof top on a dreary day
Post Processing: In LR: lowered highlights just a tad and upped the shadows. Pulled a little orange out and added a little clarity. Pulled into PS and cloned out a car and the lines in the ground. Added a sky and then reduced its opacity a lot.
Gear: Nikon D810 Nikkor 105mm
Settings: ISO 160 f5.0 1/250s
The Shot: in our living room against a white wall, natural light
Post Processing: Lowered shadows, blacks & contrast to fit with the phone image skin tone and increased whites.
Gear: Sony a6400 + Sony 50mm lens
Settings: 1/100sec, f/1.8, ISO 160
The Shot: A winter afternoon with a crazy friend. We had in mind to do some shot with bubblegum but we hadn't one, and so... we put pink glitter inside to a Christmas ornament.... and the fun got started!
Post Processing: [LR] I started with a Preset of FixThePhoto. Increased highlights and warmed up the temperature. Cropped as I like.
Gear: Nikon D750 and Sigma Art 24mm F/1.4 lens
Settings: F/3.2, ISO 200 and 1/1000
The Shot: I took this at the bottom of our street that overlooks the valley and river below as the sun was starting to set. I still find directing a nearly 4 year old difficult so I snapped and hoped for the best.
Post Processing: Edited with Unblemished 01, tweaked the exposure, contrast, clarity, and orange and red tones. I cropped and straightened the photo and added extra warm light using a paint on brush and directional light actions.
Gear: Nikon D7500, Tamron 18-270 mm
Settings: ISO 125, f/4.8, 1/320 sec.
The Shot: We were by the waterfall Glanni and all my sisters were taking a selfie and I waited for a nice moment.
Post Processing: I used the Sunshine sparkle from TBO presets, removed grain and cropped.