FAQ: Posing and Post Processing

Hello thursday! I always love thursdays because its the day before Friday. And we all know that Friday is the REAL day that the weekend starts right?? :)

Anyhow, I thought it would be such a nice idea to start answering the hoard of questions I normally get emails about, in the hopes that it helps any one of you out there. I am not attempting to be a know-it-all-guru AT ALL, but if these posts do help you in anyway, I'll be really happy :)

So, lets get on with business right? I've basically copied the latest question I've been emailed in that particular subject (since it answers all previous questions along the same lines) below :)

Posing

Q: How do you normally pose or guide your clients during a shoot? We love how you seem to know how to draw out a couple's personality and their natural smiles in the frame? What is your technique?

A: You know, funny enough, I don't really have a technique when I shoot my couples. If I had to describe the way I shoot, I would probably term it as 'casual'. I like my shoots to remain very laid back, easy going, and breezy, and liken our sessions to us hanging out together with some shooting in between :) More often than not, I give fairly general instructions to my couples and let them interpret it as they like. If it doesn't look quite right, I'll correct it, but usually I go with the flow and keep my shoots very quick, fluid and work with whatever I have. I actually enjoy and like it when my clients make mistakes in their own quirky way because...well, its THEM :) I tend to draw alot on the client's energy and their chemistry with each other, being sensitive to their personalities. I wont ever make them do anything that is uncomfortable, or that they wouldn't do normally as a couple! And on top of all that, alot of the times I get fabulous couples to shoot, who are just beautiful, fun, and themselves in the frame. I know, I am very lucky - I don't take that for granted! :)

Post Processing: Actions

Q: I just love how your photos seem to pop. How do you get your photos looking the way they do in post production?

A: I think I get at least one email a day about this :) I was going to post this video that took you step by step through one way that I get my images edited. But it ended up being about 100mb large, and whenever I uploaded it to a video site, the compression was awful and made my photos look dull and soft :( So here is the next best thing. Anyhow, I love using photoshop actions in my photos. There are some that I have created on my own, and then there are others which some seriously awesome people have created for our lovely photo creation purposes. I'll talk about the TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS today. These are by far one of the most versatile, yet simple to use photoshop actions I've had the pleasure of using in my workflow. I tend to use a combination of actions in the set together, to create my final image. Here are a few examples of mixes (and the actions I used in the TRA set) below:

Clairefy + Oh Snap! + Warm it up Kris (+ sharpening)

Clairefy + Yin/Yang + Contrast! + Warm it up Kris (+ sharpening)


And since I don't always play around with punchy colours, here is an example of the new kind of post processing that I have been playing with:

Curves adjustment + yin/yang + clairefy + cool as a cucumber (lowered opacity) + pool party
(+ sharpening)


The most important thing though (especially as you can see in the first two images) is that you have to get some kick-ass light to begin with (you can't photoshop in great light!!), which helps to make sure your SOOC (straight out of camera) shots are as close to perfect as possible.

Okay, so that wraps up FAQ #1! Let me know if you found that helpful or if you would like more of these posts! :) And remember, if you have any questions you would like answered, just drop an email to info@jennysunphotography.com with the subject line 'FAQ' with your question, and I'll be sure to add it for future posts :) It can be anything about shooting, post production/work flow, marketing/business, clients, if you are curious as to whether I find coriander offensive or not :)

Til next time! :D