Portraiture again!

Some photographs can be mildly graphic, so do not read this post further if you do not desire to view such material.

It's been a while since I have been able to do portrait photograhy! It's not really the type of photography I like to do best. In the years that I have been exploring the world of photography, I have decided that street and landscapes  are what I enjoy doing the most.

Still I cannot say no when the opportunity to experiment and take some portraits present itself. And I have my good friend and fellow amateur photographer Jeff to thank. A really good sport, Jeff has kindly agreed to pose for some boudoir shots in exchange for some tips on post processing.

Of course I have only decided to post the portraits which do not completely show Jeff's face upfront. I guess the face became slightly irrelevant during the course of processing the photographs. It became, like any other kind of photography, a homage to light. The right kind of light can transform the mood of a photograph. And, more importantly, the right kind of shading can augment a person's physical attributes.

The room where the portrait session was held had a large window covered with thin white curtains. That combined with slightly cloudy skies was like having a really huge softbox which created a beautiful white light. I like how Jeff's portrait became slightly anonymous; much of the face is shadowed except for the forehead and nose, and the light has shown the contour of Jeff's shin, leg, forearm and biceps.

Whilst most portraits try to hide facial imperfections by applying blur effects and heal brushes, sometimes doing the opposite (by increasing clarity or bringing out shadows) can create a dramatic effect. Jeff has beautiful skin, but by bringout some shadow detail and applying a high contrast blue filter, we were able to create a portrait with a serious, but nonetheless beautiful, mood. Nobody is perfect, and portraits sometimes benefit by bringout imperfections to the forefront. By doing so it is almost as if we were taking a photograph of the person's soul instead.

And of course one of the standard recipes for any boudoir photograph: the glow effect to soften the overall appearance of the image and give it that dreamy look. I was able to achieve this effect in Color Efex Pro 4 by first applying a cross processing filter to tame the blue color of Jeff's shirt. Then I applied a glow filter and finally dodged the edges with a white vignett. It couldn't be simpler!

I really had fun taking these photographs of Jeff. The post-processing was also very rewarding. I am sure with more practice (and more experimentations in lighting), I will be able to create even more stunning portraits.