Children's portraits in Joliet

Being a photographer in Joliet (Chicago-land area) means one thing: indoor portraits. It gets really cold out outside and there is no way to pose a kid outdoors when it's super chilly. These are a few recent indoor portraits that I took of Jason and Isabella. I wanted some dramatic images of the kids, so I used a couple of different angles and kept the lighting simple. The light is all natural with a little fill to camera right. I like using natural light with kids because I can focus more on my interaction with them instead of with lights. Here are a few of my favorite photos from this shoot:

[gallery columns="1" size="large" orderby="title"]

Set-Up

Nikon D3 - shooting in RAW

Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8

Nikon 50mm f/1.4

Photo Mechanic for culling

Adobe Lightroom 3 for editing

            

By The Way: I don't typically shoot a lot. But I changed that up a bit here since I was shooting at a really shallow depth of field. Most of the photos I took were at f/2.0. I may have shot a few at f/2.8. So in order to get enough in-focus photographs of the children I will shoot a ton.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day is tomorrow, and in a flash it will all be over. The older I get the more I see Christmas as a time to spend with my family and friends. It's really fun and cool seeing my daughter open up gifts and dress up in her "fancy dress" as she calls it. It's also fun to see her in a Santa Hat... I couldn't resist the urge to take a bunch of photos of her in that hat. But this time of year can't just be about shopping and buying stuff for the people in my life. I hope to raise my daughter in such a way that she knows that this time of year is about giving to others and about spending time with the people that she loves.

I can't believe that 2010 is just about done! Have a great Christmas everyone!

[gallery columns="1" size="large"]

Set-Up

Nikon D700 - shooting in RAW

Nikon 50mm f/1.4

Adobe Lightroom 3 for editing

            

By The Way: Christmas is also a time to make cool photos like this outdoors. Don't be afraid to step outside in the cold and make some photos.

Logan Square Children's Portraits

My approach towards children's portraits has changed this year. I'm still tempted to take really cute photos of babies and kids wearing funny/furry hats, and the like - I have done that in the past and really dig it. But kids are small adults in the making so I want to light them and photograph them in such a way. The idea has always been to clutter the scene with either a chair, a bunny rabbit, etc, in order to get the kids to laugh or smile and look cute. But with this photo shoot I wanted a totally minimalistic look, and so I photographed them on a white seamless background. I wanted the kids to be the center of attention and to stand out. I didn't want any visual distractions - just their expressions, either sad or happy, or whatever in-between expression they could give me. Plus, I really dig the timeless look that the white background gives.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from this shoot. A few have been composited for the blog:

[gallery columns="1" size="large"]

Set-Up

Nikon D700 - shooting in RAW

Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8

Nikon 50mm f/1.4

Pocket Wizards (2)

3 Alien Bee 400's

Medium Softbox and 60" Umbrella

White Seamless background, 4 pieces of 4"x8" foam board and white tileboard

Photo Mechanic for culling

Adobe Lightroom 3 for editing

            

By The Way: A lot of patience is needed when photographing kids. And patience is needed when shooting on a white seamless background. There is a lot to juggle on this type of shoot: kids, tough background, lighting, and interaction with the kids and the parents. Be ready for an exhausting time, but a fun time nonetheless.

Jason's 2nd Year Portraits

The last time I saw Jason was about 6 months prior to our shoot. Now if you have a kid, or are close to one, you know how incredibly and ridiculously fast they grow. So this was my reaction to seeing him on the day of the shoot: "WHOA, YOU ARE SOOOO BIG!" I hope I didn't freak him out, or his parents. But here he was with his cool flowing hair and a lot taller than I remembered him. Gone was also his little baby face that I was used to. You can tell by the photos that it took a while for him to warm up to me. But I had him by the end, just look at that smile on the last photo!!! I love it.

Prepping For The Shoot I wanted to give the parents a different look for Jason's 2nd year portraits. You see, up to this point I had only photographed Jason in the studio. But now that he was running around and climbing stuff I figured shooting outdoors might be a lot of fun. His parents liked the idea, so we went with it. I had with me my strobes and light modifiers, but quickly realized that I wanted to shoot with natural light. Having strobes would have slowed things down way too much and would have felt cumbersome. So I just followed him (ran around) along with a lens. You have to be quick with 2 year olds, my daughter reminds me of this fact on a daily basis!

The Set-Up - Nikon D700 - Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens - Lightroom for processing and exporting of RAW files Thanks guys & see you later! - Contact Me | Wedding Portfolio | Little Ones Portfolio | Older Ones Portfolio