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Creating The Scene for Adult Portrait

Lesson 21 from: Capturing Story in Portrait Photography

Kelly Brown

Creating The Scene for Adult Portrait

Lesson 21 from: Capturing Story in Portrait Photography

Kelly Brown

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Lesson Info

21. Creating The Scene for Adult Portrait

Go behind the scenes for an elaborate prop set-up for an adult breastfeeding portrait. See how Kelly turned the idea into a custom prop set.

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

14:28
2

The Power of Portrait Photography

06:52
3

Introduction to Newborn Portrait

08:30
4

Find Inspiration for Newborn Portrait

11:09
5

Create The Scene for Newborn Portrait

05:58
6

Prepare & Pose Newborn for Portrait

18:03
7

Shoot: Techniques for Photographing Newborn

08:58
8

Newborn Image Review

08:57
9

Introduction & Find Inspiration For Child Portrait

13:03
10

Create The Scene for Child Portrait

05:17
11

Prepare Set for Child Portrait

05:48
12

Shoot: Capture Child Portrait

11:40
13

Image Review for Child Portrait

11:45
14

Introduction & Inspiration For Teenager Portrait

09:05
15

Create The Scene for Teenager Portrait

06:15
16

Building Set for Teenager Portrait

14:01
17

Shoot: Portrait with Teenager

10:43
18

Shoot: Pose Teenager for Multiple Looks

14:23
19

Image Review for Teenage Portrait

08:11
20

Introduction & Inspiration For Adult Portrait

11:31
21

Creating The Scene for Adult Portrait

06:25
22

Lighting for Adult Portrait

04:51
23

Tell Your Subject's Story

04:38
24

Shoot: Lighting for Double Exposure

16:22
25

Introduction to Senior Portrait

08:39
26

Create Storyboard & The Scene For Senior Portrait

10:26
27

Connect With Client to Create Portrait

16:06
28

Shoot: Lighting for Senior Portrait

08:10
29

Shoot: Be Creative on Set

15:09
30

Image Review for Senior Portrait

14:23
31

Portrait Shoots Recap

04:08
32

Global Adjustments in Camera Raw®

05:37
33

Editing In Photoshop® CC: New Born Portrait

24:41
34

Editing In Photoshop® CC: Child Portrait

15:35
35

Editing In Photoshop® CC: Adult Portrait

11:32
36

Editing In Photoshop® CC: Teenager Portrait

11:28
37

Editing In Photoshop® CC: Senior Portrait

13:46
38

Introduction to Entering Print Competitions

02:14
39

Process of Print Competitions

06:17
40

What to Consider For Print Competitions

17:00
41

What Judges Look For Overview

07:14
42

Image Impact

03:42
43

Creativity, Style & Composition in Images

14:04
44

Entering Photography Competitions Q&A

22:50
45

Image Lighting

05:43
46

Image Color Balance

03:56
47

Technical Excellence in Images

07:56
48

Photographic Technique

10:15
49

Storytelling & Subject Matter

09:28

Lesson 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

Mind Map & Prep Guide

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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