For this week’s assignments, my goal was to show the different shades of my four-year-old’s personality. I used three different locations for the photos: inside by a south facing window, outside in shade, and outside in open shade. I also used a reflector. I found that open shade was by far my favorite. The reflector and light really made my son’s eyes pop and I got the cleanest/sharpest photos. I shot at the lowest aperture 1.4 with my Sigma 50mm. I did struggle with getting his eyes in focus in a few images as he was moving around a lot. In one of the shots where his eyes are more soft, I actually like the effect (hat photo). It reminded me of a vintage photo. I gave Oli free range to do whatever poses he wanted to so I could document his personality and style. I also enhanced his freckles in post processing because it is one of his best features. I am a huge fan of side lighting and I think some of these photos could have been more dramatic with side lighting. However, I am pleased with the lighting in general and thought it worked for this type of portrait. Typically, I don’t take posed shots so this was a bit outside of my element. Nonetheless, it was fun.
The final photo of my son and dog were not taken during the portrait session but a photo I’ve been holding on to for about a week because I’ve struggled with editing. I did not love the color in the photo so this week’s black and white assignments were an opportunity to try editing again. I actually like the end result with the soft-focus process. I used field blur and darkened the background to make the subjects stand out. I also added a small sunburst to highlight the subjects. I feel it gives it a dreamy look and makes the distracting background disappear. For improvement, I want to keep working on focus. I have a hard time getting the eyes focused with a moving child. I am aware of different focus settings to support this process so I plan to keep practicing it.