UPDATE 12.10: The final prints have been made and hung in the clients home. I’ll add a photo below of the main print, which ended up being a 70in framed heirloom canvas. The two other scenes were both made as 36in heirloom canvas for other areas of the house.
What a great looking family. And they did a great job as this was no easy task. I just had the privilege of making a portrait of all forty two of them. I won’t say it was easy, but I good a hearty challenge. The planning started well in advance, meeting with Mr & Mrs Chamberlain and then visiting their farm various times to layout and plan the portraits. I even chatted with a few of my mentor photo elders before photo day, discussing options and getting ideas. When the time came, I didn’t even have an assistant, but planning ahead made things come together almost perfectly.
I love a sunset portrait, but this is not a sunset and I still love it. Much of the family was coming from out of town for the weekend and due to schedules sunset simply didn’t happen. We planned for the light we expected to have and made it work using appropriate fill light in the foreground to balance the scene. After processing, the result was this beautiful portrait made round 9:30AM, followed by a few smaller ones to complement it.
I thrilled and thankful to God for the results. Mr & Mrs Chamberlain were in today to make these final choices and I’ve started the printing and framing process, preparing these for their wall. I’m eager (as I’m sure they are) to get these on finished and hung. You can click any image for a larger view. Enjoy… Gav
Thanks for sharing your process (via the podcast) and your results. These truly are beautiful family portraits that I’m sure the family will cherish. I can see that your planning paid off. The composition looks really nice… formal and structured but still more interesting than a line up, and well balanced. From a lighting perspective it looks extremely natural with just the right amount of fill to overcome the sun but not so much it looks artificial. Great work and thanks for sharing! I learned a lot from hearing and seeing.
Chris
Thanks much Chris.