Portraits

Family Groupings

Photography with Large Groups

Gest Family

I captured engagement photos of Brooke Moses and Bryan McKeown on a cool autumn afternoon. We began our shoot on a steel bridge in a small park. The shadows of the beams caused harsh shadows that made it challenging to take photographs but I still managed to capture a few. The next location I took them was next to the lake. The water and autumn trees provided depth of field that I like. I also look time to take photographs of the bride's ring on autumn leaves to represent their wedding being held next fall.

I enhanced the photos using Adobe Photoshop and edited minor details. I selected the ring and increased the clarity and white balance in the photos. I also had fun replacing the sky in some images so there are duplicates with a different sky. I used the sky replacement tool in Adobe Photoshop that made it easy to select and add a new attention-grabbing sky. If I were to do this photoshoot again I would have more poses in mind and maybe bring some props in just for fun.

Couple Portraits

Photography of Pairs

Engagement Photos

Engagement Shoot

This happy little family of three are off to a new adventure. Starting a new chapter in their lives this 9 year couple, Kevin and Nanna, got engaged and wanted some photos to capture that moment. We had our shoot in the fall when the leaves were only just beginning to change. We found one tree that had a good amount of leaves turned and used that as a setting. Their little dog Flynn added to the excitement as well. The sun was setting rather quickly and I knew we had to act fast. I brought my portable light that was helpful to create some of the lighting in the photos.

I shot these images on my Nikon Z 7II and edited using Adobe Photoshop.

Pet Portraits

Photography of Pets

Ruth Headshot

This is Ruth a purebred balinese cat. She is quite the looker and has gorgeous eyes. The images I enjoy the most are the ones when you cannot see her eyes and she is still beautiful. Gazing and looking at the sun. In these images I captures different personalities of the cat. This includes her being calm and then playful.

I shot these images on my Nikon Z 7II which I am still getting used to. I edited the photos using Lightroom and Photoshop.

Mabel Headshot

This is my bearded dragon Mabel. I took this headshot for Mabel just for fun and to practice my portrait photography. I like the contrast of her scaly rough texture to the smoothing background. I adjusted the photo in Adobe Photoshop to enhance the clarity and sharpness of Mabel. I edited the background to make it a light purple color to contrast with the yellow/orange of her skin. She is a model.

Demitri

Tortoise portraits round one! Demitri is a 8 month old Russian tortoise that was a little grumpy during this shoot. Little did I know how quick and determined this guy was! Hopefully during our next session he will be less active and not as shy. I am also going to have some fruit for comparison of size because he fits in the palm of your hand. Over the next fifty years he will grow to be about 8 inches.

I took these portraits using my studio lighting and a black sheet on the floor of the room. I created a dark contrast between him and the backdrop. I wanted to capture the texture in his shell and arms with the smooth background.

Mabel's 1st Christmas

I did a photoshoot with my pet bearded dragon named Mabel for a holiday photo competition. She was entering a Christmas themed photo competition on a Facebook reptile group called Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary. Her hat and scarf are handmade and she was not a huge fan of them but she let me capture some holiday spirit.

To create these photos I had her sit on different objects including her purple pillow pet and one of her rocks. Her hat was just balancing on her head and the scarf was buttoned around her. I decorated a small Christmas tree with purple ornaments because purple is her favorite color. I took these photos on my Nikon DSLR camera and edited the photos in Photoshop. I then sent them to the Facebook page where they were shared for the rest of the page to see and share. She did win and we received an award in the mail with a $25 gift card to That Fish Place along with stickers and bookmarks from the Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary. It was very fun to capture these photos of her and I hope to enter her in another photo competition expressing how pets do not have to be fluffy to be cute.

Portrait Headshots

Photography of One Person

Professional Self Headshots

I decided on a day I was quarantining to take professional headshots of myself. My goal was to use these for my resume and LinkedIn profile. I took these photos using my Nikon camera on a tripod and studio lighting to create no harsh shadows. I sat on a stool in front of a bare wall in my home.

There is about three main editing components I used for these portraits. The first was to edit the photo using Adobe Photoshop camera raw filter and do color corrections. Next I edited my hair flyaways. This took the longest in my editing because the background had a gradient tone to it due to the studio lighting. I edited the flyaways in a new layer by using the clone stamp with the sample at current and below. I then added a vector mask to paint some of the flyaways back for it to look natural. After that I used the filter neural filters to add skin smoothing. I especially like this new feature on the 2021 Adobe Photoshop because it made it easy to adjust the blur and smoothness and it selected the parts of the face instantly. I then erased some of the areas that were selected like my nostrils and corners of my mouth to keep those sharp. The headshots that showed my teeth I used the vibrance adjustment to change the headshot and then inverted the image to erase just the teeth. Those were some of the main components that I used to edit these photos, the camera raw filter, the clone and mask to remove flyaways, and neural filter to smooth the skin.

If I were going to do these again I would like to had more professional backgrounds that were solid white, grey or black just to make the editing part a little quicker. I am very happy how they turned out and I hope to create more of these headshots.

Sea Siren

I took this portrait of myself when I first got my studio lights. I was very excited to experiment with them because I used them when I was in college but never used them freely on my own. There are different filters I can use including a cool blue and a warm yellow. For this portrait I had the blue on with just the normal light. I immediately liked how my eyes looked in the image.

I edited this photo in Adobe Photoshop. I used the filter camera raw to enhance the image and change the original color of the background into a teal. I added more details into my hair and lips. I then created a pink tone on the lighter part of the wall to contrast with the teal. I then edited my eyes to make them more vibrant in camera raw and then created a vector mask just to select the eyes. I then used the filter neural filter to add skin smoothing to my face and shoulder. I like the way this image make my eyes seem very memorizing and the balance between them and the teal color of the background.

Color Blind

I took this self portrait on a whim on a free day and a creative flow. Being a student athlete at Albright College with a photography minor most my projects are created after lacrosse practice or on a late night where my schedule has finally cleared up. On this day I did not have practice and my schedule was open. I had this idea to take this portrait at home with the gazing late afternoon sun shining in the corner of my staircase. I made my own stain glass to be placed on top of the window by using gel filters and tape. I used my Nikon3500 on a tripod with a timer to create this photo. With the sun rapidly setting I managed to get this shot.

This photo can be viewed on the 2020 Annual Juried Art Show at Albright College. Due to the coronavirus this usually in-person exhibit is now viewed online indefinitely.

Senior Portraits

I captured some headshots of the 2019 Albright Women's Lacrosse Seniors. They thought I was capturing these photos for one of my photography classes but I was actually using these photos to use in their senior gifts. Some of the challenges when taking outdoor portraits would be the weather. Working with the seniors schedules and mine, each portrait was taken on a different day. I had to shoot on a day with sun, clouds, wind, and even rain. I enjoyed using different props in the portraits including their googles and sticks. We also played around with taking serious photos too.

I used natural lighting and my dslr camera to take these photos. I made edits using Adobe Photoshop to fix lighting, flyaways, and cropping the images. I even decided to edit one of the seniors onto the field since her photos were taken underneath the Shumo Center and did not match the other seniors for their gift. It was fun to take these portraits and make these athletes feel like models for a change.

Ms. Bass

Ms. Anderson

Ms. Warren

Portrait Techniques

In my photography II class at Albright College we learned how to take five different styles of portraits. The compositional techniques include high key, low key, indoors with natural light, outdoors in the shade with reflectors, and self-portrait. For the high and low key portraits I used colored jells to create my photos in a studio setting. For the natural light portrait I used window lighting. The reflector portrait I used the gold reflector to create a warm glow. Lastly, for my self portrait I used a spotlight to create a slight shadow.