Christmas portraits for Deb {30 photoshoot speedlight challenge #11}

Meet Deb and Madeline. They asked me to take a christmas card portrait for them. I obliged and am not sure I did well.

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They had this sweet dog that I thought was perfectly adorable. Not to mention, everytime the dog sauntered up, everyone got less stiff and The smiles came more easily.

I asked them if they had any christmas decorations. They did. Then, gasp, they put a santa costume on the dog.

Put your faces close together! that is the kind of awkward direction I was giving.

Personally, I think those photos, while they seem unnatural at the time, really make a prettier photograph.

The retouching went well. I got it mostly right in camera. I didn't touch the exposure but I did pull down the clarity -13-29 and bumped up the warmth from 6000 to 6500. I just felt like it was more christmas if it were just a tad warmer.

In Summary

This shoot helped me work on my on-shoot demeanor more than anything. I learned how to direct, how to ask something how to do something, while simple, was outside of their comfort zone. This shoot reminded me a lot of the Maturity photographs I did for Sylvia. I think this family photography genre is only done well if you give the viewer an idea of what thier relationship might be like if you knew them and didn't have to assume.

The 30 Photoshoot speedlight challenge is a Self Challenge where I attempt to learn as much as I can about single source lighting before I graduate to adding a second source to my kit! The reward of course is a second speedlight. I do my best to be reflective about my experiences to make them as instructive as possible. Read more about the 30 photoshoot challenge and follow my journey by clicking on the links below.