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New Hampshire Shoot

I recently got back from speaking on the East Coast in New Hampshire. While teaching, I demonstrated some various techniques on making women look great in photographs. Here are some of the images I created that day.

These images don’t have any finishing touches on them yet, and that’s because I was showing that they should look great right out of the camera. Any final enhancements later should only be slight as the images should be ready to print without them if you did everything correctly.

Some people think that great images come from having a good camera. That’s like saying  good songs are only written on good guitars when the truth is it’s the artist using the camera or guitar. Any good musician can write a great song on any guitar, and any great photographer can create great images on any camera.

Another misnomer is that that great images come from having beautiful models. This is also incorrect. A great photographer understands exactly how to make everyone look better and an average photographer will make even the prettiest person look worse.

I love teaching workshops because I really like helping photographers do better, plus it helps to raise the level of quality in the industry.

 

In New Hampshire, I was teaching how to create great images with any camera, and how to make all women look better using specific lighting and posing.

Here are two portraits of the same pretty girl in the same beautiful location. I shot her two different ways to show that a camera in the right hands will make her look better, and in the wrong hands she will look worse. Look at the two images and see if you can see all the differences.

In the first image, I used custom lighting and posed her specifically in a way that would be more flattering for her and her outfit. I took control of all aspects of the exposure which means her skin tones have great color right out of the camera. I separated her from the background and sculpted her using directional light at particular angles. Everything was set up and shot manually, nothing left to chance or to Auto functions.

Then I did another image of her the way most photographers would, with no specific poses, no control of light, and shooting the camera on Auto.

Notice how flat this second image looks. Her skin tones are green, the light on her face is coming from the sky rather than from any controllable or directional source, her eyes are dark, the background is too light, and the wrong camera angle and lack of posing and lighting make her look thicker. Again, NO woman wants to look thicker or heavier, and fixing it later on the computer isn’t the same as shooting it right.

This is why most photographers shoot so many images – they hope that with the law of averages they’ll get something decent that they can then spend tons of time on the computer fixing and covering with various effects.

This is why you need to hire a really good photographer with credentials – and why photographers need to get continual hands-on training from Master photographers.

So with a change of clothes, I continued to teach and shoot this model, walking around the town, making sure that each pose and lighting set up made her look great.

We ended up at this cool bridge which gave me some cool leading lines.

Well, if you’d like some great portraits, I know just how to make you look great, plus now is the perfect time if you like the fall leaves. Give me a call and book your appointment at 801-728-3317 and lets create something amazing for your wall.

Molly’s Outdoor Fashion Portraits

I love doing fashion work because I get to be more edgy in my creative approach, and I get to make women look great which is what portraits are all about.

For this shoot, I had a very fun and beautiful model named Molly with very pretty eyes. We set up multiple lights and other equipment to create some really unique looks quickly on our outdoor location. I especially love the balance of this first one, with her to the far right side, lit from a strong angle, thoughtful expression, and hair blowing back into the image.

Another one of her with hair blowing. I love her eyes in this image, and the toned b&w treatment.

I love this next one of her smiling. Though many of my favorites (as you can see here) were serious expressions, she really had an infectious and genuine smile, and this image shows that.

Here’s one of my favorite mid-lenths of her, a fantastic and sassy image with Molly framed by the trees.

And this close-up of her was in the same group of trees. I love the lighting on this, as it really accentuates her expression and her hair softly falling across one eye. All of these images also are finished with my new line of custom edges that I have created and sell to photographers all over the country giving images a unique finished look.

All around this was just a great shoot that produced some great images. If you’d like some great images of you or someone in your family, now is the time to book an appointment and come in. Give me a call at 801-728-3317 and let’s talk about your dream portrait.