Hey, everyone! Finally, I am back with a modelling photography post. Eek!! I am so excited to share these pictures with you. I have not really been able to do any shoots like these, mainly because of Covid, I do not really have any opportunity to do so; the only model available being my sister. Even then, she has been busy with college and work, so there has not really been any free time to plan and take the pictures. Until now of course :)
The shoot came about because she dyed her hair this lovely blue colour and I offered to snap some pictures to show it off. We then headed off to the garden to begin shooting, and that is how these pictures were produced. I am going to be discussing various things, including how I shot them and how I edited them. So, enjoy!
(I am also not sure if I may need my glasses on now when I take my pictures. As when I edit on my laptop with my glasses on after uploading my pictures, I have noticed some to be blurry. Maybe something for me to consider for next time!)
Notes:
For reference: The camera I own is the Canon 1300d and I shot these pictures with the Canon 70-300mm Lens. I edit on Lightroom.
With all three images, I used three steps to try and achieve the best pictures. Firstly, zoom! That is so important as it aids in producing a clearer picture. Secondly, aperture of course, which I discuss below, this helps with having the focus on a close subject, making them stand out compared to the background. Thirdly, bringing the subject far away from the background and closer to you, will help achieve that blurry background as the further they are away, the more you can just focus on them and the background merely becomes something that is just behind your subject and not a focus.
I have placed all words that are camera settings/editing tools in Italics, just to make it easier to distinguish when I am discussing certain topics.
First Image:
1.Unedited.
2.Edited.
How I shot this image:
For this picture, I selected one of the manual modes on my camera and to make a certain part of the image more in focus, I selected the auto focus point button and adjusted it. This allows me to manually selected the point in the image I want focused, and it just generally gives more sharpness in one specific area. Sometimes, when just shooting and allowing the camera to do it itself, it can focus mainly on the middle of the image and that can be a disadvantage when your subject is not in that position. I was using the rule of thirds of this picture, which means you position your subject either to the left or right of the image. It produces a more visually appealing image and can draw the viewers attention more. This is usually done when you are shooting a subject, and not something like a landscape. That is why I chose the far left point to be the main focus, as I wanted the sharpness to be on my sister and the flowers, not the greenery behind.
I wanted to have my sister next to the roses, because I intended on blurring the background so she was the main focus, something which I did achieve and really like. Blurring the background, especially with a portrait, makes your image again, I feel, more visually appealing. This is because your focus is not some random thing in the background, it is your subject, and you want eyes solely on that. It gives no distractions and draws your viewers attention to what is important.
How I edited - side by side comparison:
Because I shot my images raw and not JPEG, when I edit them, they automatically change slightly before I have even done anything. This is because it picks up on the settings I chose on my camera and then by that, makes subtle changes. You can easily remove these and edit yourself, but for this image I liked how the changes complimented the colours of the image. I always review the original image first and then the edited one, just to see which I prefer. In this case, the edited one had much better saturation, and also a blue tint, which suited the style and also matched with my sister's hair. I found the orangeness of the original, to be slightly too much and contrasting to the softness that I desired for the overall look. Another bonus was it gave more sharpness to the image which is something I do anyway and altered the colour noise reduction setting. I am not entirely sure what that does, so the app doing it itself, is actually beneficial as I never would of changed that myself but obviously it needed it!
My Edits:
I lowered the exposure only slightly because it was just a little too bright for me, as well as lowering the saturation because I could see the image still had a more of an orange colour and that did not match the vibe I wanted. Instead, having a less saturated image, dulled the colours in the image that I wanted removed.
Along with that, I lowered the contrast to add more of a softness. I really like how the image is not on the bright side , because it gives a more toned down look and provides a more minimal appearance.
Finally, I lowered the dehaze option only a small amount because taking away too much, can distort the image which I do not want. What that did do, was add more softness and also mute the brighter colours. Once again, giving me the look I desired.
That is my final image and I actually love it! Feedback is welcomed as always :)
Second Image
1.Unedited.
2.Edited.
How I shot this image:
I do have to say, this is for sure my favourite out of the three. I really love how the roses are a prominent feature and how their colours are so bright and a contrast to my sister's hair.
This was taken at the same time as the one above, just with some slight differences in position and the colouring. I used the same focus point on the left, which is how the roses are sharper and I also stood a lot closer on this one because I wanted to achieve a different angle with her looking down next to the flowers. I lowered the f-stop on all of the images to give a shallower depth of field, as when shooting a closeup you need a smaller focus area, compared to something like a landscape where you would require a deeper depth of field, and a higher f-stop. However, I mentioned it here because I felt like it made the most difference, because of how close I am compared to the other two. It really made my sister and the roses stand out more, with the background all blurry, something which happens whenever you shoot with a sdof.
With this image, I made sure I was far enough away so that my zoom lens worked to the best of its capability. Zoom lenses are the best for closeups but you have to ensure you are at the right distance. Framing is something I had to pay attention to more with this image because of how my sister was positioned, it was harder to get both the flowers and her in focus. That is why I had to take my time and adjust my focus more than once, plus taking a few images of the same thing to see which was the better one. That is why changing the focus point is so good, as it helps with this issue.
How I edited - side by side comparison.
I was not really fond of the changes the app did themselves. This is because compared to the others, I wanted more of a different style when it came to editing. I basically started fresh, just keeping the blue tint as I wanted all three to have less saturation to keep the blueness as the overall theme.
My Edits:
A small change was made in the contrast, which helped to lighten the background, making it blend in more; averting viewers eyes more to my sister than what was behind.
Lowering the shadows really helped me to achieve the different look I was going for, bringing the style away from complete softness, and making my sister and flowers less muted. Doing this also made the blue of my sisters hair and makeup brighter and caused the colours of the roses to be more vibrant.
I added a little clarity also because it helped smooth my sisters complexion and avoided it looking too harsh.
The healing tool was required with this image because for some unknown reason, my sister decided to cut her fringe before we started, causing loose hairs to fall over her face. I used the healing tool brush with a small circle, to remove them.
Finally, I made a slight change to the dehaze setting to pull back a small amount of softness that the shadow took away. Mainly because it made the background more prominent and that is where I wanted the softness to be this time, and not on the left. Lowering it slightly helped me to do so.
Perfect! This is my completed second image, I hope you like what I have done :)
Third Image
1.Unedited.
2.Edited.
How I shot this image:
This was a complete different image that I captured compared to the first two. In this image, I used the branch of holly as the sole focus, with my sister being blurred behind, which I found extenuated the colours of her hair/makeup. Even though they are not the main focus area like in the first image, their boldness is still visible; muted but present.
I did use similar settings all the way through the shoot, just adjusting small things here and there. I chose to shoot in a manual mode again, this giving me more freedom over settings like the ISO, aperture and shutter speed etc.
The weather started to turn at this point so the lighting became duller and less vibrant, something I noticed after taking a few snaps. I always ensure to check my images when I change my subjects position or framing, because it allows me to notice if something in the image isn't right, therefore avoiding me finishing and discovering after that I should of adjusted a setting to produce a nicer photo. I hate that feeling when you become dissatisfied with your final product; doing it this way, avoids that and in this instance, I noticed I was the wrong side of the sun and the image of my sister was dark and the parts I wanted as the main focus, did not stand out like I was aiming for. This then allowed me to move my subject (as well as changing the ISO) to the other side of the tree, giving me this photo that was bright and each aspect was how I intended.
I also wish I used the composition technique: leading lines. This can provide a more visual appealing photo, where the lines lead to or from your subject. Unfortunately, I did not think of this when shooting and of course, I still love the end result but it is something to think about next time.
How I edited - side by side comparison:
Again, like the other images, the app edits some parts for you because of how I shoot in raw. In the first image, I discussed how I liked basically all of the changes as they complimented the overall look. Whereas, the second one I removed some of what had been changed. With this image it lowered and upped basically all of the same things which I think is because of how similar they are with the colours and style when I captured them, the app automatically does what it thinks is best to improve the image. In my case, just like with the first image, it was a benefit, but in others, like my second one, I can see why it may be a hinderance, especially when your looking for a certain style and the app does random changes that are not to your liking. However, it is easy to change and revert to the original but like I said, for me it was mostly a plus. I will not go into detail with the changes the app did as I talked about that earlier in the post.
My Edits:
I focused a lot of my editing in the light section. To bring the colours out more, I lowered the exposure slightly, just to avoid everything being too bright.
I played with the contrast as I could not decide whether I liked it higher or lower, as both gave a different vibe. Because I lowered the exposure, it does change other aspects of the image, particularly when it comes to the softness. Upping the contrast slightly, gets partly rid of that as I am not looking for too much of it. It adds in a bit more vibrancy with the blue and just produces a photo that is nicer to look at (in my opinion).
I upped the blacks in the image quite a bit, because to achieve the perfect balance between softness and vibrancy you have to adjust each setting accordingly. In order to bring back some of the softness after changing the contrast, upping this tool removes some of the black that was too visible and brings more of the focus back on my subject. I did not want all of the colours blending in with the blue of my sisters hair, so doing this made that just as I wanted.
There! Quite simple, but each tiny adjustment can make such a difference to the end result :)
Woooo! A long one and you have made it to the end. I hope you all enjoyed, I certainly enjoyed taking the pictures and showing you all the process. I may do another, who knows! I have said that about most of my posts and have done another, so if I go by that, you can expect one :)
Stay safe and well, Lucy xoxoxoxo
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