We went to my favorite location, the Old Mill in Dolgeville (which is right across from where Lydia cuts hair). Jan was kind enough to let us roam the facility and shoot wherever we wanted to. It was a bright sunny day and the outside shots were tough. Lydia had never worked as a ‘model’ before, but she did a fantastic job while we messed around with settings on lights, umbrellas, cameras, posing and the rest.

Then, we went inside one of the buildings and Lydia was warming up to being a model. I think the shots of her are incredible and there is no doubt about – she is one beautiful woman! What do you think?

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The Details: The one to the left is the original photo that was taken at the family Christmas Party back in December. Lighting was an off camera flash shot through an umbrella to camera left. A white reflector was on the right side pushing just a bit of light into the scene from camera right.

The image on the right, is the final painted version using Painter X. Mostly pastel brushes were used, with a camel’s hair brush for the hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc. It was output to a 17×22 piece of Hahnnemuhle Fine Art Watercolor paper and printed on an Epson 4800 printer.

The distracting detail from around Ava was removed so that all of the focus was on her, and then once all that was finished, I worked on painting in the details.

One of the things that I think is key to a good painted portrait is a descent image that you start with. Then, working on that image until it becomes a REALLY good portrait, and THEN finally working on the painted portion.

But, they were great sports about it and very adventurous! So was Deborah – dressed in high-heeled boots, she headed out into the snow. Of course, in about three seconds, she had busted it! Down in the snow she went… We kept going, got to this one spot in the middle of the park and started shooting. I turned around, and down she went again! Needless to say, I didn’t get any shots of that, or they would probably show up here :-) But, we did get some good ones of both Brandon AND Melissa, despite the added entertainment.

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It will make a great Valentine’s Day gift!

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The Details: The one on the right is the original photo that we took in our ‘Adirondack Room’. Lighting was a single 580EX off-camera flash on camera left, shooting through a Zumbrella. A simple white reflector was on the right to add some fill light. The image on the left, is the final painted version using Painter X. Mostly pastel brushes were used, with a camel’s hair brush for the hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc. It was output to a 17×22 piece of Hahnnemuhle Fine Art Watercolor paper and printed on an Epson 4800 printer.

However, the one thing it DOES let you do, is get some great pictures of everyone, so I thought I’d post just a few of my favorites. There may be more, but hey – only three parties to go! If I get some good images, I’ll add them to this post.

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A few weeks ago I got a call and this girl asked if I did senior portraits. Now, the unusual part of this was, she was calling from Colorado! I had taken a look at the caller ID and saw the 303 area code, so my response was – yes, but you’re a long way away from the Adirondacks! Well, Emily’s family has a camp in Dolgeville, so she had searched for photographers in the area. The thing that sold her on my ability to do her portrait, was my landscape work! She’s a nature girl and loved the landscape images on the site.

So, I said yes, she flew in last week to spend time with her family on the lake, and we had a great photo session on Sunday. She and her family were a lot of fun, and Jan with the Dolgeville Mill provided the first location for us to shoot in, while the Albertson’s, who own Wards Pond B&B were fantastic hosts as well. Both spots are GREAT locations for portraits of any kind! See what you think of Emily’s images from the shoot…

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In the silhouette, I was testing the North-facing lighting of a place in town that would make for great indoor portraits.  The other one, is just at a restaurant across the street where we were having lunch.  It’s called Katis, and not only do they have great soup, but the atmosphere is fantastic!  Memorabilia abounds, including Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Coca Cola, and local items.

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In this case, I did a lot of cleanup work in Photoshop;  taking out some distracting background material, cropping, etc. Then, I decided to do this portrait using pastel brushes and some chalk to smooth things out in many areas.  Here’s a closeup of the facial area.

This portrait was printed on a beautiful Fine Art Paper with a lot of surface texture and is a Christmas gift for the family.  If I may say so myself, it looks great, and when the family saw it, they agreed!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that a Happy New Year will follow!  I’m on to the next painted portrait, and I’m excited about a style that I think I have settled on for it.  I’ve finished the work in Photoshop, and the portrait looks fantastic, now to the painting part.

Of course, you are always learning new things, so this is the modified version of what we used and sent in.  I’ve learned several new techniques, and acquired some new software, so I went back in and worked on the image.  I like the newer version much more!