Portrait Favorites

Below are a few favorites from some recent portrait sessions. Enjoy. ---paul

Environmental Portraits

Our bread-and-butter is "on-location" portraits. In other words, showing people in a natural, familiar environment. Jean and I have been to more homes, parks, fields, patios, lakes, beaches, forest preserves, and country clubs than we can remember. This keeps things fun and fresh for us, but it also is a challenge because every location is unique.

Preparation is the key. If we can't scout out a location in advance, we try to arrive an hour before the scheduled shoot-time to get set up. We bring enough studio equipment with us to light up the darkest room, but we try not to use it unless we have to. Backdrops are only used as a last resort. This minimalist approach suits our style and doesn't overwhelm our customers.

It's tough to beat the look of natural light, and we try to choose locations and times to maximize it both indoors and out. Many times we'll supplement natural light with flash, and sometimes we'll go 100% flash. When we do use flash, it's hard to tell because our portraits do not look "flashy."

Our portrait sessions are relaxed and free flowing. We'll have different spots picked out depending on the size of the group, the number of subgroups, ages of the kids, weather etc. Outdoor shots are the best, and we try to make it outside even during the winter. Many great shots occur when the family is having fun in between the posed groups, and we try to capture these like a photo journalist would covering a story.

Within 1-2 weeks after the session, customers receive a keepsake proof album and a link to an online photo gallery. We also try and create a documentary slideshow of the portrait session but can't guarantee this in every case. Customers can order prints using order forms included with the proof album or via the online shopping cart. And calling it a proof album doesn't do it justice. It's really a selection of finished images that have already been digitally corrected and retouched. Check out a sample 10x13 proof portfolio here.

Why do we like on-location portraits so much? Well, first of all, we don't have a studio! But besides that, we feel that we deliver better portraits when we go to the customer's location rather than asking them to come to us. Take a look at a recent family portrait session to see if you agree

Black and White Film

For the record, I like black and white film. Both the kind you can get processed at a drug store (type C41) and the traditional kind that must be processed in black and white film chemistry. Some labs still process traditional black and white film, but you are better off doing it yourself. Therein lies its biggest advantage. By developing the film myself, I have total control over the outcome.

Once the film is developed - either my me or by a c41 lab - I scan it into a computer where the film images are merged with the digital camera images I took from the same event. This is called a "digital darkroom" and it allows me to apply the latest digital enhancements to all my images. It doesn't matter whether they originally came from a film or digital camera, they get treated the same once they are on my computer.

But they don't look the same. I'm not sure why. There is a lot of film vs digital debate on the internet, but I don't want to get into that here. I use primarily digital cameras in my business, but I always try to shoot some black and white film at an event too. How much and which kind of film depends on the clients and the event. For black and white, my film images have a different look and feel than my digital images. Could be the way I process the film, could be the "handling" differences between the film and digital cameras, could be a lot of things. I like the results and I like offering it to my clients. It's something that differentiates my company from the others.

What's the downside? Time. Few activities can burn through time faster that scanning film. Ask Jean if you don't believe me. Developing and scanning film are two extra, time-consuming steps that must be done to all the film images before they even get the same point in the production as the images that came from the digital camera. These are costs that I must pass on to my clients, but I believe the results justify the added expense.