Portraits

My friend Mitzi and her family were gracious enough to let me take some shots of them this past weekend, and I've got SO many that I love, I have to share more than just a few with you.

"Scouters". 10/17/10, 10:06 am. Lorenzo, Idaho. f/5.3. 1/250 sec. - Nikon D60. Tripod. Original with no edits.

I loved this shot because the dogs were looking at me, but Mitzi's and Kyle's faces were a bit off . . .

"Scouters 2". 10/17/10, 10:06 am. Lorenzo, Idaho. f/5.3. 1/250 sec. - Nikon D60. Tripod. Original with no edits.

So I selected Mitzi's and Kyle's faces off of this shot where the dogs aren't looking at me . . .

. . . and pasted them onto a new layer to create this image. When putting in Kyle's new head I also had to clone out his left ear so I made a copy of the background and colored over the left side of his head with some of the woodsy background.

"Wrigley". 10/17/10, 9:51 am. Lorenzo, Idaho. f/4. 1/320 sec. - Nikon D60. Original with no edits.

My friend Mitzi wanted some portraits of her new puppies too, so here is the original of Wrigley. His eyes are pretty dark, so I wanted to lighten them up a bit.

So in camera RAW I raised the overall exposure, blacks, brightness, and contrast. Then with an adjustment brush I raised the exposure on his eyes and ear a little more. Then in Photoshop I did some color dodging with a paintbrush in his eyes to bring in some more color.

"Kyle Salute Original". 10/17/10, 10:14 am. Lorenzo, Idaho. f/4.8. 1/250 sec. - Nikon D60. Original with no edits.

I thought that taking some pictures of the scouts saluting would be fun, but I didn't notice (until after the fact) that his patch was turned backwards . . .

"Patch". 10/17/10, 10:10 am. Lorenzo, Idaho. f/5.3. 1/250 sec. - Nikon D60. Original with no edits.

So I used the patch from this image . . .

. . . and added a layer on the original image with the patch turned the right way, then transformed it to lay over the backward patch. I also used an adjustment brush in RAW to raise the exposure on his eyes, and then in Photoshop color dodged his eyes a bit more and added some "specular highlights" in his eyes.

"Dot". 10/17/10, 9:53 am. Lorenzo, Idaho. f/4. 1/200 sec. - Nikon D60. Original with no edits.

Such a pretty little poser, but her eyes are too dark as well.

So first off in RAW I raised the exposure, brightness, and contrast, and then used an adjustment brush on her eyes and the colored "butterfly shaped" section that make up her ears and cheeks. In Photoshop I used a color dodge paintbrush to add some color to the eyes and lighten paintbrush to add highlights.

"The Whole Fam Damily". 10/17/10, 9:47 am. Lorenzo, Idaho. f/4.2. 1/100 sec. - Nikon D60. Tripod. Original with no edits.

Love. This. Shot.

Environmental Portrait

For my environmental portrait I used my husband as the subject. He's got a Linear Algebra math test this afternoon. He's kind of a procrastinator so every time a test comes up he spends multiple days beforehand catching up on his homework in the MC. He works there because he likes the natural lighting and he can watch the construction workers when he's trying to think out a problem.

"Impatience". 10/18/10, 9:59 am. Manwaring Center, BYU-Idaho Campus, Rexburg, Idaho. f/6.3. 1/40 sec. - Nikon D60. Original with no edits.

I was trying to figure out which white balance would be the best for the location, so in trying to get it right I took this shot, which I like the best, but the sky is blown out and the color is very cold. I like it especially because he's giving me a "areyoufreakingkiddingme--stoptakingpicturesofme" look and his hand is blurred because he's impatiently waiting to get back to work.

So in RAW I changed the white balance to "shade" and then raised recovery, blacks, brightness, and the contrast. I then used an adjustment brush to raise the exposure, brightness, contrast, clarity, and saturation on him and the rest of the foreground. I like this because it really sets him apart from the background and makes the blur more intense in the background. Last, I painted in some blue sky with another adjustment brush so that it had some more color. Perhaps I may be becoming more of a Type Four photographer after all.