Senior 3
f/5,6, 1.200, ISO-400, 55mm, -0.3 Exp Bias, Flash
I find that every time I post another one of these senior portraits I have to stop myself from starting out by saying “This is one of my favorites…” They are ALL one of my favorites from that morning :) This was one of the last images that we got, just as the sun was starting to rise (any other photographer would probably have thought about starting around this time!)
I gave this one a lot of care in post-processing because I absolutely love her expression. Her face was a little washed out though, as I had the reflector maybe 1-2 feet too close to her. So I worked a long time and very carefully with the adjustment brush to bring some tone back into her face without making it look obviously-edited. I softened the skin again but applied much less “glow” to the warm colors so it doesn’t have quite as much Vaseline-on-the-lens look (those of you who are photographers “of a certain age” will understand that reference – I doubt it’s much in use these days).
Beautiful soft lighting. I remember the vaseline trick. Thank goodness we don’t have to do that anymore. :-)
Thank you Maralee. It was one of my more successful efforts with the flash and reflector that morning. It’s something of a testament to technology that it’s possible to achieve such a stunning result with so little experience using new equipment. I can’t wait to see the results I get as I get more practice!