Caroline

[Julie Deane]

Well, I got to the portrait shoot, and the mom hadn't bought the dress yet. She asked me to go ahead and do head shots.
These are the only photos with lighting that I liked. One has a little stronger light than the other. I will take my full-length photos with the same pose and lighting. The dress will be white, and I will shoot at the same time of day, so the lighting should not be affected too much. Please let me know what you think, and whether you like photo number one or two.

[Michele Rushworth]

Beautiful subject and beautiful lighting! Her smile seems rather fake in both shots to me, though, but I'd let the mom decide which photo to use.

[Julie Deane]

Thanks!
Yes, I know what you mean - I am not super happy with the smile.
I asked the mom to look at how her daughter was smiling, while I was taking the photos, to see if it was really natural. Mom said it was okay, because she's missing a lot of front teeth and she doesn't want the very big gap to show. Her natural smile is open-mouthed. I would agree that the gap is distracting, but I wish Caroline could relax her mouth more. I took a bunch of photos, and the smile didn't vary.

[Michele Rushworth]

I understand what you mean, especially with her missing teeth. I photographed a boy a year or two ago who would/could not do a real smile, no matter what. Fifty photos of him produced the same result. In that case, I prefer a genuine relaxed expression, rather than a faked "smiling" one.

Here's what I'd do: when the actual dress comes that will be in the painting I would shoot LOTS more photos, all in the same location and lighting, and I would ask her to just relax and not try to smile. (Explain to the mom ahead of time that you feel that a real, relaxed expression is much better than a pretend smiling one.)

This will give you many more options to choose from, and you can then present half a dozen of the best ones to the Mom to pick, rather than just one or two.

An added and very important benefit of doing this is that you'll have face shots that really match the angle and lighting of the body shots, because you'll have photographed them at the exact same time and place. This will make your life far easier than trying to "match" the lighting from a different day which has great potential for driving you crazy when it comes time to doing the painting. When you're alone in your studio you'll notice all kinds of inconsisentcies between the face and body photos if shot at a different time (camera angle, angle of shoulders, temperature of the light, etc.) Make your job easy: shoot all the face and body shots at exactly the same time and place.

[Julie Deane]

Thanks, Michele -

What you are saying makes great sense. I'll plan on doing just what you suggest.

I guess I can console myself for the time spent so far by at least knowing what I'm up against and having a game plan. Plus I now have photos to show mom that help explain why I think a pleasant look is preferable to her smile.

[Michele Rushworth]

I wouldn't show her these "fake smile" photos unless you're prepared to have Mom love one of them and have to spend time doing a painting that you may not want to put in your portfolio later (and also then have to deal with cobbling together the painting from reference with different lighting and angles, as I mentioned in my last post).

Better to show only photos you'd be very happy to paint from as a great porftolio sample.

[Julie Deane]

I sure am glad for your advice. It feels like I am learning everything the hard way, so it will be nice to avoid trouble. Thanks again!