Portrait in Winter (4) – from the 2nd session.

I have being posting images of Jillian from the session in December. This time, I would like to share images from January session . The reason I wanted to repeat a photo-session with Jillian is that I could not complete all of my ideas in the previous session and also she is so beautiful, obviously.
I guess the mood of the session may have been different from the December session. Due to my mind set, the images are more casual and kind of candid feel to them. it may have been more relaxed; even Jillian brought up some photographic ideas. I LOVE to hear ideas from a clients. That excites me and I can keep shooting forever.

Next image, while I was processing, this image reminds me the famous poster of the musical, Les Miserable. I did not expect this happened.

On the other hand, I had an image of the next photo at the shooting and I specifically requested her to make a pose for this image. I also know I was going to make it B&W. I experimented some digital framing, and I chose the design of the film perforations to add classic feel. Do you like the framing?

Please click the images for larger sizes, and please check other Jillian’s images in previous posts.

Portraits in Winter (3) – please participate in an experiment.

I talked about how I progress creative vision through development of one photo last time. Contrarily to the previous post, I occasionally have fully concrete idea before clicking shutter. This image is one of this type of cases.  I found a nice shadow of a tree on the wall of barn while I was hunting locations for the session. I imagined graphic contrast between the dark spooky shadow and beautiful Jillian. Also her shoulder line is straight and squire but this si I wanted rather than typical feminine pose since I imagined strength from her in oppressive mood. But there was problem which was messy ground  with a patch of snow and nasty weeds.  So I got an idea to add some digital effectｓ on the bottom of the frame.

Before asking you a favor, here is my thought. What is a fear artists or even creators worry about? It must be a question, “Will my work be accepted?”. That is proven by many episodes left by novelists, artists, and musicians, like scandalous failure of the Premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 1913. Or the shortest letter by Victor Hugo.  Although spending hours or even days facing a computer monitor to process one image, there is no guarantee people will like what I have done on the photo. First of all, if client does not like the image, all efforts I made are pointless. Then nothing must be happier, as an artist, than when the image is able to communicate with many people successfully.

Now I need your favor. Please participate in an experiment. I think most of readers here are photographers, but please forget critiquing and imagine your non-photographer in following situations.

1. YOU ARE THE MODEL and my client. I phoned you and let you know your photos are ready. I presented the images below as first time.  Which photo pleases you most? Why?
2. YOU ARE VISITING THE MODEL’S HOME and found these photos hang on the wall in her dining room. Which Image would make you feel WOW? Why?

Did you pick the same photo for these different situations? Or you think your impression may be different from other viewers?

Portraits in Winter (2)

In photography, we have to take some stages for completion of an image before publishing or giving it to a client. I mean shooting is an only part of photography, and post-processing is significant part of creation of images. At least for me.

When I am shooting, I occasionally have pre-vision of how the final image looks like. I also have plans for post –processing in this case. On the other hand, I sometimes just focus on lighting and a model at shooting. And my imagination progress as taking the stages. At first, I get rough idea of the final images when I see an image just after downloading the photo from a camera to a computer. Then while I am taking hours for post-processing, my imagination slowly progresses and the image is getting close to completion…I mean a layer to another layer, a filter to another filter. I usually take many errors as well before saving the final product.

Following images are the ones I took the type of the process. I focused on lighting and poses at the shooting. Then I tried to apply processing to meet the certain mood which Jillian brought to these images. I think that is why each photo below has deferent look and taste.

Please click the images for larger sizes.

Related post: Portraits in Winter (1)