I was in the photography studio last weekend with Junior Miss Hobbton 2021. She wanted to commemorate her reign as a beauty pageant winner. I've photographed Sophie for years and she is also a model in one of my images on the main slideshow of my website. I hadn't seen Sophie in almost a year, and I couldn't believe how much she had grown since our last photo session. Back in 2019, Sophie portrayed Daenerys Targaryen in a Game of Thrones type photo session. My daughter collaborated with me on that image. She drew the dragons and I added texture and shadows to make the dragons realistic looking. 

When Sophie's mom described what she wanted for this session, I made the decision to keep it simple, and let her be the star on a white background. White backgrounds really make colors stand out in a photo. When I photograph a model on a white background, I make sure to not have them too close to the background. I also use a light meter to make sure the exposure is right. Some photographers blast too much light at models and the image ends up looking hazy or washed out. 

Sophie brought a few casual outfits, but she also modeled a couple dresses and finally a dance outfit. She really is great at taking direction for posing! It makes it easy when a person isn't nervous in front of the camera. As you can tell, she had no issues with having fun in a couple of the images. She sat upside down and propped her feet up on the head rest of chair. Sophie is also great at modeling and has a talent for holding a smile. Some people hold a smile and it looks like a fake smile. Every once in a while, I would joke around with her to get real smiles! 

I'll give you some insight into how I edit my portraits! I always start in Lightroom to help me do basic adjustments and pick out the images that I feel really stand out. Lightroom is great for editing many photos at one time! I usually rate the best images as 5 star photos. This helps weed out repetitive photos that might have the same expression or pose. I realized as I edited the photos, that I really did a good job getting the exposure right. I had very little editing to do for this portrait session. It really helps to get the image done correctly in-camera before editing.

I then bring the photos individually into Photoshop, where I put the final touches on them. I go over each photo and try to look for blemishes or stray hairs that might need removing. I then use a plug in program called Imagenomic to boost the overall look of the skin. Sophie's images really didn't need this, because she has great skin. However, I use that plug-in as standard editing practice that I do for everyone. I then work on the eyes to really make them twinkle. I usually give the whites of the eyes a small boost and the bottom of the irises. This step can easily be overdone, so I like to keep it subtle. I then add a little contrast and boost the color as my final step.