Photographers are everywhere. But even with the many choices of photographers, often their portfolios can look about the same as any other. The recipe for many photographers is to automate the process by letting the camera decide how to expose the image then picking a preset for a finished look. Since many of the presets used are the same (or similar), it makes sense that their portfolios will look very much the same.
Presets are quick and easy, but they don't generally produce results that are all that memorable. The results of a photo session should be wall portraits that you want to hang on your wall or give as a gift to a loved one.
Creating something unique and different means that your session should be treated differently than all the others.
These 2 examples show the importance of location and lighting (both natural light and studio lights on location). Each was retouched with a personal touch to take advantage of a finished look that worked for Carly and Dieter in their sessions.
For Carly, we balanced the color of her hat with the tones in the background, and of course showed off her great smile. With Dieter, we mixed a variety some shots with him out and about enjoying the day for his senior pictures. With both Carly and Dieter, sometimes we went with the smiles, and other times we went for a more serious look.
In these two examples of indoor sessions, we went with a classic look for these beautiful portraits of Tabitha and Georgette. Two different backdrops, but both featuring a great dress and images that were truly glamour inspired. Even though the retouching is similar, the lighting was different, the backgrounds were different, and the results are uniquely their own.
Aside from all these details that may seem technical, when you look at each image, it should seem different than many of the images that you scroll through while killing time on social media. And that's the point. A truly timeless portrait is much more than today's highlight on your social media feed. It is something that you will see often and you will recognize is priceless to you. Make sure you have something like that hanging on your walls. Or give that as a gift to someone you love. That's when you know you have a timeless portrait.
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