5 Ways to Turn Family Photos into an Effortless Feat
Thoughts to consider before your family portrait session to give you peace of mind.
There are lots of topics to cover when planning for a family photo shoot. What will I wear? Where will we take the photos at? What will the weather be like? What if the kids don’t cooperate? What if none of the photos turn out? A simple event that started as a sweet, innocent idea suddenly has been turned into a ball of anxiety. From a photographer’s standpoint, these thoughts can be fixed by covering some basics. Here are 5 ways to give yourself peace of mind before your family photo shoot:
1. Know the Use.
A simple base question to ask yourself when beginning the family portrait journey. What will these photographs’ use be? Will they have multiple uses? Think about if you want them for holiday cards, your home decor, or simply social media use.
Know the Use
2. Plan Your Colors.
Think about what these photos are being used for – the holidays, your home, or for your personal Facebook profile picture? If you are having family portraits done for the holidays and Christmas cards think about the feeling you want to evoke for your holiday greeting. What color theme will help you achieve this goal? The holidays are warm, welcoming, and friendly so start with looking at rich, warm colors. Also keep in mind the number of people in the portraits. If you want a rich purple and toned yellow color palette, make sure not everyone has the same colored shirt as it will mash everyone into one. Don’t be afraid to introduce patterns and have fun individualizing each outfit!
Plan Your Colors
3. Talk About Location.
You are having Christmas portraits done with rich, warm colors, but you are posed sitting in sleek stainless-steel chairs and a harsh studio setting. A nice color scheme is wasted when your family photos feel out of place, cold, and unfriendly. Location can make or break a photo shoot. A spot that may not look like much to someone may be the dream location for a photographer. Talk to the photographer about the feel of the shoot you are hoping for to confirm a spot that will work correctly to match your vision. One thing I like to do is to brainstorm places with clients that may have a significance or meaningful history with their family that may be an opportunity to capture as well.
Talk About Location
4. Let Kids Be Themselves.
Photo shoots are a strange and unfamiliar atmosphere for kids. Put yourself in their shoes - some stranger has shiny alien-looking equipment and is trying to make you smile. It may take a while for them to feel comfortable. Often the worry of the parents shows through in their expressions because they are embarrassed at the response of their children or disappointed in how they believe the portrait session is going along. When parents relax, the kids can sense this. I take a different approach to portraits and allow families to just be themselves. When individuals are thinking about how they look, it shows. When the individual is just showing what they feel with the group of people around them, that is not just seen but felt by the viewer. I allow plenty of time for kids to get comfortable with the setting and show their true selves. So take a deep breath, think about those you love around you during a session and it will be evident through your portraits.
Let Kids Be Themselves
5. Trust the Photographer.
When you invest in a professional photographer’s services, trust their skills while at the shoot. As a client, you should not be worried about how everyone is posed or what the background looks like. Leave these concerns to the photographer. With my clients, I review prior to the session any type of specific shots they may be looking for. But, I am always aware that “the shot” they are looking for may happen a half-second after they think the shot has been taken. When guards are taken down, a true masterpiece can be captured. Another important note to make is to be communicative with your photographer from the beginning. Let them know any reservations with the shoot you may have and they will be able to help you through the entire process.
Trust the Photographer
Live by faith & share through fotos.
Endure
A CrossFit photo shoot with the one and only Karli Stroud!
It has been challenging but rewarding being able to work with many sweet clients and on many personal projects during the same time period recently. I'm thankful for all of you, to be able to spend a short time together reflecting each other's passions and sharing them through portraits.
Endure is a short series portraying my cousin, Karli, a caring and humble physical therapist, CrossFit coach, and an inspiration. This series is shown as it would in a magazine spread, and quotes from Karli herself and 9:24 CrossFit coach, Pete Doan.
Thank you all who were a part of this shoot, whether in pre-production, production, or the post-production, everyone who gave feedback and simply supports these big ideas I have.
Behind the Scenes
Live by faith & share through fotos.
Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas
Portraits of my friends Lynzie & Bronson in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Since I've started living in the Los Angeles area, I've had unexpected and long awaited traveling opportunities with some of my "life goal" destinations. Not only have I been given the chance to see places around Southern California, but another spot on my list to see was Las Vegas, Nevada.
It was an amazing opportunity to meet up with my friends Lynzie and Bronson in Las Vegas. They had been planning their trip out for months, and I only a week, but I wanted to meet up with them when we were just hours away (a lot closer than being across the country!). Lynzie and I have been friends since kindergarten and they both live near where I am from in Ohio. So, in order to meet up with them, we in a way did a 'photo for travel' trade and I got to see the city in the process. Nothing like traveling with your friends and taking great photos along the way! Here are some of my favorite shots at Caesar's Palace and on our walks around downtown. (More to come in the future of my adventures traveling in Vegas and other places!)
Live by faith & share through fotos.
Internship with Kaela Speicher: Week 7
Behind the scenes of a men's fashion shoot in Ohio.
As a photographer, there are always locations I keep secret and in mind for future shoots, just waiting for the perfect concept to make itself known. Kaela did the same with this location in the boonies of Ohio for a men's fashion shoot. We had a great team to work together for the day: Kaela was the photographer of course, makeup by Hannah Donovan, hair by Colton DeLong, stylist Teera Doner, model Gabriel Hopkins, and I assisted.
The look Kaela was going for was, and I quote, "new age refined lumber jack, Mumford and Sons meets runway". I love that description, and lets all agree here that everyone's work nailed it for this shoot!
The day was a long one, mostly from the heat and the bugs, and a random torrential downpour, but oh such a fun one seeing this shoot come together! Plus, it was in my favorite state and we were out in the country, so I felt right at home. And lo and behold, a rainbow was across the sky as we crossed the Pennsylvania state line. Happy endings, am I right?
While assisting and fighting off bugs, I was able to capture some moments behind the scenes again. Here are some of my favorites from the day!
See Kaela's images of Gabriel over on her website: Kaela Speicher Photography. You can click the link, or click the image below to see Gabriel's gallery.
Live by faith & share through fotos.
Internship with Kaela Speicher: Week 1
My first week interning with Kaela Speicher, and a recently retouched image from a past shoot of mine, edited with retouching techniques taught by Kaela.
This past Monday was my last, first day of a new quarter as a photo student at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Oddly enough, I woke up bright and earlier with a huge smile on my face and excited to go to school. Which, in the rule book of a senior college student, I'm assuming that breaks all of them. Needless to say, I was more than excited to start learning one-on-one with Kaela beforehand. We met for our first official internship meeting Monday morning, covering Lightroom workflow and the beginning of retouching.
Retouching and post-production work 'makes my heart happy' if I can put it that way. I love the complete process of making a photo into another that's entirely new. I like to think that I can see the potential a photo has after I've shot it- not because it's a bad photo, but just how much more it can be elevated with post-editing. Retouching is a long process. And when I say it's a long process, I mean a while back I had to go to the chiropractor to get my wrists adjusted because I spent that much time at my computer. As some people dread the editing process, I highly enjoy having endless possibilities of altering a photo, literally at your fingertips. It can get very extensive at times, but seeing the difference from before to after is so rewarding.
Kaela sent me several photos she had shot, to practice her retouching technique. So much effort and time goes into editing, but the results aren't technically even noticeable, because the goal of retouching is to make it look like the photo wasn't touched. The file she had sent me as a reference she had edited had both before and after, and my jaw literally dropped when I saw how much work had been put into the photo. Her editing is so flawless that it's difficult to find the hours invested in such a beautiful image.
Through the week I have been working on different images, practicing the retouching technique that Kaela taught me. There is oh so much more to learn, and many more hours of practice to come. I came across a shoot from just over a year ago I had done with my sister when I first got my Alien Bee, and wanted to rework the editing and style I had previously. Below are the before and after shots- the straight out of camera image and my recently retouched image.
