The theme this week is "Portrait."

      Finally convinced the boyfriend to be my muse for a submission! We shot this last night with minimal setup. We draped a blackdrop across a bookshelf and placed a chair infront of it for him to sit. We used one umbrella light and reflector for lighting. The light was pointed towards the right side of his face, while the reflector was directly below his waistline. Within the first 50 frames, we had our shot. 

       This frame was then edited in Lightroom to add a bit more depth to the overall image. I added some clarity and exposure around the eyes and blurred some parts of the hair. Thereafter, I softened the areas around the cheek and jawline. I desaturated the yellow tones, and played around the red and blue curves to get a softer color tone for his skin. Finally, I enhanced the blacks and slightly shifted the RGB curve to make the blacks less contrasty. 

       I chose this shot over the others because there was something very endearing about it. The focus is just perfect on the eyes. The frame itself suggests that he is in deep thought or contemplative. As always, I browsed a few portrait quotes and came across this,

"I leave you my portrait so that you will have my presence all the days that I am away from you." 

It seemed to be the most fitting for this photo, since whenever we're apart, this is precisely how I'd imagine him.

        Here's a before and after comparison of  the original and edited frames.

Here are some takes with the kitties! These were edited to be more film-like.