Adding a Lost Son

I just finished a project for a family who lost their young boy.  Sadly, he passed away, and the family wanted me to create a new family portrait, and digitally add in their boy.  They brought me this photograph that was taken by a team photographer.  They got written permission from that photographer for me to use it, and I matched the lighting angle, style, and color balance, in creating a new portrait of the family.

I then carefully cut the young boy out of this photo and added him into the family’s new portrait.

Though it’s hard to see on the web, I painted in a lot of detail work like shadowing and other small details that only the mind sees on a subconscious level — these little details make it look as though the boy was photographed with the rest of the group.

Because the last portrait of their son was in a team jersey, the entire family bought matching jerseys.  It was the perfect touch for both an emotional connection as well as making the image work aesthetically.

I then converted this to a custom black and white image, and finished it as a stretched canvas gallery wrap.

I also photographed the extended family and added him to this as well, matching the lighting on this group just as before.

And this last image was one of my favorites, a family line of the entire extended family as a long portrait, with each individual family grouped together.  This was finished this as a long 40 inch b&w portrait for the grandma’s home.

It was a real joy to deliver these images and not only see how great they looked on the wall, but to see how much the family loved them.  All of the extra time that I spent in the small details really paid off.  The work was impeccable and I know that these images will be cherished for generations.

I talk a lot about portraits being heirlooms, but this job really brought that home again to me.  It’s amazing how much a portrait is worth to us all, especially when someone passes away.  It was a real honor for me to do this artistic work for this family.  It makes me feel blessed to have the talents and business that I have so that I can do this for people and do it in a fantastic way too.

If you’d like to see more family groups, feel free to check out my website at BryCox.com.