A Scrapped Portrait
Whenever I upload photos from my camera to my computer after a day of shooting, I am always excited to sort through the photos. This is when I set up another folder so I can move the "keepers" to their own folder. If I am satisfied with the photos I consider "keepers", I consider the shoot a success.
The reasons why a photo doesn't end up in the "keepers" folder can vary greatly. Sometimes the composition isn't what I had in mind. Sometimes focus is off or there is some blurry camera shake. Sometimes the exposure is off enough that I've clipped highlights or shadows. Other times the results are just not what I was hoping for when I shot the image. It is these photos which just didn't meet my expectations that I find I need to revisit after a few days, weeks, or sometimes months. I find that if I take a break from the photos and then come back to them later, I see things differently.
I just went through the photos from Adam's senior yearbook shoot from the other night and found one image that managed to fall through the cracks. I think I had originally passed on moving this image to the "keepers" folder because the composition just didn't meet my expectations. I was envisioning one thing, but the camera captured something different. If I remember correctly, I felt I was far too close to Adam... and our ceiling is too low for me to have moved any farther away. I ended up aborting that particular pose and called it a night... and the photo was culled.
Then, I saw the original photo just a little while ago and noticed that it was not nearly as bad as I thought it was... It is just different than what I wanted to capture.
So, here is a photo that was originally scrapped... but now I'm thinking it is pretty nice!
There are definitely things I like... the tonal qualities and exposure are good... focus is good (on the eyes, as all portraits should be)... studio lighting is good... the pose is a nice masculine pose... and I like that I was able to get the embroidery on his shirt in the photo. Some kids are about a sport or athletics in general... some kids are about music... some kids are about art... some kids, unfortunately, don't have a clue who they are yet... Adam is about the Civil Air Patrol so it was important to convey this in this portrait.
I just wish I was able to pull farther away from him... higher... so I could get more of his folded arms in the frame... and I wish Adam was able to look up at the camera. I had my head pressed against the ceiling while shooting this shot and Adam was on his knees on the floor in order to get the most separation between his head and the camera. We just couldn't get far enough apart. All-in-all, however, this shot is pretty nice regardless!
The reasons why a photo doesn't end up in the "keepers" folder can vary greatly. Sometimes the composition isn't what I had in mind. Sometimes focus is off or there is some blurry camera shake. Sometimes the exposure is off enough that I've clipped highlights or shadows. Other times the results are just not what I was hoping for when I shot the image. It is these photos which just didn't meet my expectations that I find I need to revisit after a few days, weeks, or sometimes months. I find that if I take a break from the photos and then come back to them later, I see things differently.
Then, I saw the original photo just a little while ago and noticed that it was not nearly as bad as I thought it was... It is just different than what I wanted to capture.
So, here is a photo that was originally scrapped... but now I'm thinking it is pretty nice!
There are definitely things I like... the tonal qualities and exposure are good... focus is good (on the eyes, as all portraits should be)... studio lighting is good... the pose is a nice masculine pose... and I like that I was able to get the embroidery on his shirt in the photo. Some kids are about a sport or athletics in general... some kids are about music... some kids are about art... some kids, unfortunately, don't have a clue who they are yet... Adam is about the Civil Air Patrol so it was important to convey this in this portrait.
I just wish I was able to pull farther away from him... higher... so I could get more of his folded arms in the frame... and I wish Adam was able to look up at the camera. I had my head pressed against the ceiling while shooting this shot and Adam was on his knees on the floor in order to get the most separation between his head and the camera. We just couldn't get far enough apart. All-in-all, however, this shot is pretty nice regardless!
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