Love's Labour's Lost

At the weekend I popped along to the local theater company 'Shakespeare By The Sea' to do some head shots for the Company's Director Elizabeth. I am good friends with one of the actors and shot their fundraiser back in May which was a lot of fun.

Elizabeth, originally uploaded by Fanboy30.

The shoot itself was very simple and easy but I only had an hour of Elizabeth's time as they were on lunch in between rehearsals. One advantage about photographing someone with an acting background is that they are very comfortable with the camera and usually have years of experience with portraits as its part and parcel for getting work. So I had no trouble directing her to what I wanted and she posed very naturally.

My issue came afterward when I edited. A number of shots weren't focused quite right but that is always a problem when using the 50 mm lens on a high aperture is your focal plain is very shallow. The shots taken outdoors were a little flat due to the weather but I knew I could save some with Photoshop.

I narrowed it down to a small shortlist and sent them off. A day later I get called by my friend to say she wanted to see more, in my head this meant she didn't like the ones I chose, so I sent the entire shoot over in an email.
A few hours later I received a selection back to edit, funnily enough the shot above was included in my original edit but I played dumb and sent it back with the new selection. Fingers crossed this is the one she will choose as I think it captures her warmth and personality.

There is a fine line between what is a nice portrait and being happy with your self image, I often forget this but maybe its because when I take self portraits I have all the control.