Author, model, and actress Maria Libri-Sigle poses at the Island Bay Yacht Club on Lake Springfield in Springfield, Illinois. Even though it was a hot afternoon, she was very patient and made the whole process seem effortless from beginning to end. I think this was one of my most “professional” looking photo shoots to date. The hardest part was choosing just a few photos to represent the series. Check out her books on Amazon.
Model Chanda Crosby poses at Greenwood Cemetery in Decatur, Illinois, the only scenic location in that city. I love the color contrasts with the rich greens and reds against Chanda’s black and white dress. I’m really happy with how these turned out. Follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/ma_kleen/
Model and artist Georgia Alderson poses in a 1960s-inspired Boho V Neck Print Romper at Glacial Park Nature Preserve in McHenry County, Illinois. We braved all the inconveniences of shooting outdoors in the summer (including a mosquito infestation) to get this wonderful series.
I wanted to capture a 1960s-style look and feel, using a custom preset in Adobe Lightroom from PhotographyPla.net. I love these presets because they allow you to choose a custom look for multiple photos and speed up the editing process quite a bit. I used three slightly different presets for this batch, and included a “regular” version so you can see what the original colors looked like.
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Model Leah Hotte at Ontario Beach and Marina, Lake Ontario, in Rochester, New York. This was a beautiful day, just before the sun started to set. I’m not happy with the sunlight on the beach (once again, having an assistant with a reflector would’ve been helpful), but once a thin layer of clouds diffused the setting sun while at the marina, the lighting was perfect. We had fun with this shoot and got a lot of great shots.
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Model Leah Hotte poses in a colorful purple romper at SUNY Potsdam in Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York. This wasn’t our first choice for a location, but the brick building and birch trees provided an interesting backdrop.
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Model Luna Mae at Mount Hope Cemetery and Warner Castle in Rochester, New York. I continued to refine my use of a basic 70-300mm lens for this photo shoot.
One technique I’m experimenting with uses exposure compensation and my camera’s highlights feature to help produce a brighter exposure. With exposure compensation, you can increase or decrease the brightness of your photos (essentially by adjusting the shutter speed). With the highlights feature, the camera shows you what parts of your photo are “clipped“, or so bright the camera can’t reproduce the image (essentially pure white).
I start shooting with a high exposure compensation, and gradually decrease it until all the clipping has disappeared. This doesn’t always work because you might have a really bright sky in the background, and sometimes I forget to check the highlights, so I end up with a bunch of over-exposed photos. But generally this technique produces bright, well-exposed images. It’s easier to maintain quality when darkening areas of a photo in editing software than it is when lightening them.
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Model Leah Hotte strikes a sporty pose at SUNY Potsdam in Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, New York. It threatened to rain all morning, creating a moody backdrop.
Follow her on Instagram at www.instagram.com/leahhottemodel/
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