Creating The Scene for Adult Portrait
Lesson 21 from: Capturing Story in Portrait PhotographyKelly Brown
Creating The Scene for Adult Portrait
Lesson 21 from: Capturing Story in Portrait PhotographyKelly Brown
Lesson Info
21. Creating The Scene for Adult Portrait
Lessons
Class Introduction
14:28 2The Power of Portrait Photography
06:52 3Introduction to Newborn Portrait
08:30 4Find Inspiration for Newborn Portrait
11:09 5Create The Scene for Newborn Portrait
05:58 6Prepare & Pose Newborn for Portrait
18:03 7Shoot: Techniques for Photographing Newborn
08:58 8Newborn Image Review
08:57Introduction & Find Inspiration For Child Portrait
13:03 10Create The Scene for Child Portrait
05:17 11Prepare Set for Child Portrait
05:48 12Shoot: Capture Child Portrait
11:40 13Image Review for Child Portrait
11:45 14Introduction & Inspiration For Teenager Portrait
09:05 15Create The Scene for Teenager Portrait
06:15 16Building Set for Teenager Portrait
14:01 17Shoot: Portrait with Teenager
10:43 18Shoot: Pose Teenager for Multiple Looks
14:23 19Image Review for Teenage Portrait
08:11 20Introduction & Inspiration For Adult Portrait
11:31 21Creating The Scene for Adult Portrait
06:25 22Lighting for Adult Portrait
04:51 23Tell Your Subject's Story
04:38 24Shoot: Lighting for Double Exposure
16:22 25Introduction to Senior Portrait
08:39 26Create Storyboard & The Scene For Senior Portrait
10:26 27Connect With Client to Create Portrait
16:06 28Shoot: Lighting for Senior Portrait
08:10 29Shoot: Be Creative on Set
15:09 30Image Review for Senior Portrait
14:23 31Portrait Shoots Recap
04:08 32Global Adjustments in Camera Raw®
05:37 33Editing In Photoshop® CC: New Born Portrait
24:41 34Editing In Photoshop® CC: Child Portrait
15:35 35Editing In Photoshop® CC: Adult Portrait
11:32 36Editing In Photoshop® CC: Teenager Portrait
11:28 37Editing In Photoshop® CC: Senior Portrait
13:46 38Introduction to Entering Print Competitions
02:14 39Process of Print Competitions
06:17 40What to Consider For Print Competitions
17:00 41What Judges Look For Overview
07:14 42Image Impact
03:42 43Creativity, Style & Composition in Images
14:04 44Entering Photography Competitions Q&A
22:50 45Image Lighting
05:43 46Image Color Balance
03:56 47Technical Excellence in Images
07:56 48Photographic Technique
10:15 49Storytelling & Subject Matter
09:28Lesson Info
Creating The Scene for Adult Portrait
Creating the scene for something obviously like that image of mom like I just so happened to have that photograph. I got lucky I really did but it was literally a piece of paper so there was no budget. And that was pretty cool. But I'm gonna show you a photograph where I blew my budget. (laughs) In terms of what it was that I wanted to create. So this particular image I was contacted by the client who wanted to do a breastfeeding shoot with her baby. And I wanted to create something really, really special for her. She'd sent me a couple of photographs that she loved of mine. So I'm okay right what am I gonna do here? And I started to look at Pinterest. I started to look at different platforms for inspiration and I was incredible inspired by an artist who was a, more of a commercial artist and his you know his artwork has been seen everywhere. Don't have permission to share that here on CreativeLive but that's okay. I'm gonna show you some drawings that I did based off his artwork. So t...
o create what it was that's in the background there I started to create the frame. So it's a frame within a frame. I wanted to frame the mom and the baby within-side the frame and I thought a circular frame would be softer in terms of that connection and the way that I wanted to portray this particular set-up. And then I just started to doodle with pen to paper and then I got paints and I started to look at different contrasting tones. See you've got those beautiful rich reds and golds and then you've got those jades sort of greenie colors and that contrasting color was really beautiful. So I loved that. So once I finished painting and I'm not good at painting so don't look too closely. I photographed that and then I printed it really large on my printer. Now not everybody has the ability to print large but you can find print labs who can do it for you or like I mentioned earlier in my airplane shot I just went to a photocopy shop who printed AO size. So there are different options out there if you do want to print your own backdrops especially for something like this. Then I started to source other elements. So I picked up some fake roses and you can see there's some peach colored roses there. I bought those on sale from an outlet store and then I just painted them myself red because it was the fake flowers are quite expensive and I was starting to blow my budget. I had to kind of consider what I was doing. I had red paint I'm like I can paint those that's cheap. And then ply so I'm lucky my husband is a jack-of-all-trades and we drew up the concept and the design and we had to actually think about how I would position her inside this frame. How could I create a strong enough structure to have her positioned in there to actually do this? So you can see here on the frame that there's a split so that there that means that one panel came forward far enough that I could put a stool in here for her to sit on. So that way you know I was making a strong enough support, a structure and you'll see in a moment some more of this for her and the baby to be able to be in there so that number one safety the baby's not going to get hurt, no ones going to fall and everything's nice and secure and it's been weighted down. But those sheets of ply we've had laying around so it was we were able to use those recycle as they say and he cut the circle out and then we printed the back drop that I made to fit that size. So it was a lot of measuring a lot of planning in that process but the results really did pay off. But it took us about a week to actually create this set up. So it is a more elaborate set up. And you can see here press play again. Alright so this is installing it into the studio. (speaker and audience laughs) and you can see the backdrop being stapled like with a staple gun to the plywood. (laughs) They don't smell. Yeah so cute. So she's able to sit on a stool in there. That was just a maternity dress that I already had so I used it. I had the jacket I actually bought that from, do you have here a St. Vincents de Paul? Like a Salvation Army? So like a second hand clothing store? I got it for $3 which was an absolute bargain and able to drape that. I bought a couple of extra hair pieces and I think they were a couple of dollars each which I just pinned up underneath the back of her hair. And I knew then in post production I'd have to really tone down that dress and skirt to be able to create this. So in post there is a fair bit of work there in terms of toning down the colors but it worked out better than I had actually hoped. But that was one of those things where you've got to invest a lot of time a lot of money to create something but you do have to factor all those things in when you are creating something that's unique and special specifically for someone. So that is a beautiful art piece where I was inspired by something but because of what she'd sent me in terms of her ideas or I love these photographs that you've taken before, that's where I got these ideas from. So that's what led me down that path. Not a particular story as such but she really wanted to document this special time because her baby was almost 18 months old and wouldn't you know be breastfeeding for much longer. So to be able to create that was really kind of special and I know that it is a one off. Like if I see something like that you know in someone else's gallery I'm gonna think wow, you were really inspired. It was all about creating something and standing out from the crowd.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
user-2c88c4
Among a sea of wonderful teachers here at CL, Kelly is the cream of the crop. All of her classes are outstanding and this one is no exception. Amazing teacher. Amazing class. Amazing education. If you are hoping to stretch yourself to create deeper more meaningful stories in your images, or are feeling the pull of print competition but need some direction, this is definitely the class for you. Thank you Kelly!
Melissa Soto
Kelly Brown is a true inspiration. She has been my idol in this industry since I began. This class was amazing. I love how honest, authentic and genuine she was. But most importantly I loved her wise direction and teaching style. Kelly brown thank you for this gem. You helped light a fire in me. I’m so excited to start telling amazing stories with the skills I have learned from this class.
Marjorie Stevenson
Just loving this class! Kelly is one of my favorite instructors. She is very good at articulating her ideas and carrying them to an absolutely wonderful end product. Her images are always stunning. I love that she always puts safety first with her models. Thank you Kelly for sharing your creative visions with us.
Student Work
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