So I thought maybe I would make this a “Thing” for Mondays, because lets face it my brain doesn’t always work fresh on Monday to come up with new ideas to talk about. Besides I thought it would be fun to revisit some old sessions and explain my thinking process. Normally I don’t really do extensive editing on my images, but sometimes you have these ideas floating around your head that would just take an image to the next level!
This was one of my favorite family sessions that my dad and I did in the studio we have in Rockport TX. This family was a Blast and were very entertaining with minimal direction from either my father or myself. They own a BBQ place in Rockport and also offer alligator watching Air Boat rides on days the BBQ place is closed. So they naturally wanted to highlight their Outdoor experience, its also something they enjoy doing together as a family. They brought with them a full Duck Blind, decoy Ducks, Shot Guns, Camouflage, and Face Paint. It took us about 45 min to re-construct their Duck Blind in the studio, making sure the angle was correct as well has having places for all 6 family members to sit and be visible. We brought in a smoke machine for a little extra ambiance. Although it didn’t really work the way we dreamed, but it gave us an idea of how the final image should look.
The father went on to explain how the Duck Blind is set up on their property in great detail, and I made sure to take notes because I was in charge of creating the final image. We set up a large dark brown cloth background to provide depth to the image without distracting from our subjects, and we began to dress the set with the provided props. We then set the family into the shot, and the family then pretended they were on an actual duck-hunt, looking into the sky at the “ducks” flying above them, squawking their duck calls, and pointing guns into the air. It really was an interesting sight to see and be a part of. Its really nice when a client lets loose and lets you capture the real family unit with all the personalities present. We took group shots, zoomed in and grabbed a couple individual images, and basically just had a really lovely time laughing and making duck noises.
With this image I actually started my editing process backwards, I started in Photoshop because I knew there were a lot of elements I wanted to bring into the image such as the water, smoke, and there were some areas of the image that needed a lot more attention then I could do in Lightroom. I first fixed the edges of the image extending the camouflage as well as the foliage in the background with a healing and clone tool. I then added water at the bottom of the image as a separate layer, the father told me that the blind would typically sit about 4-6ft above the water. Instead of having negative space in between the bottom of the blind and the water I decided to bring the water right up to the edge of the duck blind so the decoy ducks made a bit more sense in the image. I then added way more smoke into the image almost like a mist or fog off the water in the early morning. Which is when they would typically be hunting in the first place, then added the logo of their business for advertising purposes. Then exported the image into Adobe Lightroom where I played with the coloring, increased the clarity to give a little “grit” to the image, brightened their faces under those hats, and added a slight vignette to the edges of the in order to draw your eyes into the subjects.
This is far more editing I typically do for an average family session, but this particular session screamed for a little more creativity! Still one of my favorite sessions to be a part of and I’m grateful my dad invited me to help out.
