Amy Wenzel Photography » A website featuring creative photography of kids, families and senior girls.

When it comes to utilizing beautiful natural light for your portraits there are a myriad of options…back light, tunnel light, open shade, full sun, or reflected light to name a few.  I’m sure many photographers can relate to the fact that learning to understand light and wield it to our photographic prowess is a challenging journey!  But promisingly, if you can master lighting it is an essential contributing factor to the level of professionalism and artistic merit we so long to obtain our craft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was one of my favorite sessions from last August.  It took me months to track down the sailboat, but it was so worth it.  I love to shoot near water since I find it so incredibly inspiring and iconic. However, lighting nautical images presents a few obstacles if you don’t like to shoot in full sun.  It means you’ll need to work with the sunrise or sunset unless you have an overcast day. If you back light your images with the sun rising or setting behind your model, the light is harsher, more direct and results in dramatic loss to the color and detail of the water. Because of this fact, I often prefer to light nautical images from the ‘front’ if possible to preserve the dreamy blue of the water and create a soft, glowy light on my subject’s skin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To achieve this, you need to shoot in an area where the sun is rising or setting behind a dune bluff or tree line that will act as a filter for the sunlight hitting the subject’s face, thus creating a ‘shade‘ effect. This session took place about an hour and a half before sunset. My subjects faced the sun directly as it sank behind a distant tree line creating a smooth even light on their skin. Keep in mind that shooting that late works best with slightly older children who won’t be falling apart emotionally by evening.

 

A few tips to keep in mind for lighting:

Know the look you want to achieve.  Lighting sets the mood, conveys emotion and dictates a certain aspect of your artistic style.  Does the type of light you’ve selected for the shoot mesh with the theme and feel you are aiming for?  Will it set you up for successful retouching as you finish the images in your editing software?

Have a well thought out plan in place.  Scout your location ahead of time and identify what the lighting will look like at the exact time of day and time of year where you’ll be shooting.  Lighting conditions can alter drastically from one month to the next as the equinox changes.

Estimate the time constraints.  You may only have a certain amount of time to work with before the lighting changes…i.e. the sun starts setting or disappearing behind other objects, so make sure that you can realistically carry out your whole plan before you lose the light.

I hope these tips are helpful and thanks for reading!

I love shooting seniors.  It’s so exceptionally different from shooting kids, and since I’m a detail intense person I enjoy the way that this type of glamour photography allows me to focus on all the nuances of posing and composition.  I spend a great deal of time creating a detailed, unique experience for each girl.  I’m often asked questions about my approach to senior sessions, so I thought I’d share a bit of my process here on the blog.

We always start the session with one of my professional make-up artists, and while that’s going on we review wardrobe and discuss preferences for the session. I spend about 3 hours shooting, however with outfits changes, make-up retouches, snack breaks and driving to various locations, a session can last up to 5 hours.  We incorporate 4 to 5 outfit changes, spending about 45 minutes on each outfit.  I’ve found that the session flows best if we start downtown at 4pm to capture some urban shots using the shade of the buildings, and then we drive out to a country location to catch the sunset for those dreamy back lit shots.  I like to provide my seniors with a really diverse portfolio that has as many different poses and looks as possible.  I am a careful and slow shooter.  Posing is an art form, and every detail needs to be accounted for, from the hair falling across the eye, to the necklace out of place, to relaxed hands, to the way the ankles are crossed.  I truly could teach for hours, just on posing and expression!  In the end, they will see around 60 fully retouched proofs in their online gallery.

To some photographers it may sound crazy to spend so much time on one session.  The key is to make sure that your pricing reflects it being worth your time to create such an experience and end product for your client.  Don’t be afraid to make difficult pricing decisions if it enables you to create the type of work you long to produce!  My philosophy has always been quality over quantity and I could never be satisfied with anything less.  In the end, I hope that my senior girls will feel that their senior session captures them at their very best with a style entirely unique from their peers.  Here are some favorites from one of my last senior sessions.

Anyone close to me knows I’m obsessed with all things vintage.  I can’t help but feel that a little aging adds more charm.  I collect antique furniture, retro picture books, games, puzzles, and toys.  During the holiday season Christmas tunes from the 1950s pipe through my home from the record player, and of course I’m the first to snatch up old family photographs.

In the same way, I’m completely sentimental about items from my past. The problem with my type of personality is that it doesn’t mesh with parents who like to get rid of things, so I was the kid rescuing stuffed animals from garbage bags and sneaking them back into the house.  Although I wouldn’t classify myself as a pack rat, I do see value in things others might not.  Like the frosty ornament with the worn off face that my mom wanted to throw away when I was little. Frosty lived in hiding in my underwear drawer for ten years and now adorns the most beloved spot on my Christmas tree, front and center.  I drew his eyes back on with a marker.

Unfortunately, the purging tendencies only grow worse once parents have an empty nest.  “Mom, I’d like to take that gingham apron you wore the entirety of my childhood that’s been in this drawer for 20 years. Where is it?”  I love when they play dumb like they just don’t know where things went off to.  I am a day late and a dollar short on every item in question.  The best was when I called home to see if I could take the old wooden dog house for a shoot.  My mom proudly recounted to me how she’d single-handedly chopped it up and burned it just three days prior.  Burned it, people.  I envisioned my mother chopping frantically with the axe thinking,  she’ll never rescue it out of a garbage bag now!!  (insert maniacal laugh).

I realized I’d better start snatching up anything with sentimental value before it all disappeared, or was chopped, burned or otherwise annihilated from the planet.  For now we have a standing rule that they can’t get rid of anything older than ten years without my permission.  I even asked for a heads up before they decided to get rid of their land line.  I mean, seriously.  Every best friend and boyfriend I ever had called me at that phone number during my adolescence. A girl has got to have some forewarning on these kinds of life changes.

I think it’s so cool how as photographers and artists our personalities shape our creations.  My love of vintage and childhood whimsy finds its way into almost every shoot somehow.  Some of you might recognize these little girls.  Feels like I’ve been photographing them for eons.  Their session images always end up as some of my favorite portfolio shots.  I loved doing this vintage tennis theme for them, especially seeing as they all play tennis in some capacity.  The amazing clothes are from Fleur and Dot.

Remember when you were little and you desperately wanted to be friends with that one girl in your class…she had long shining hair and the cool lunch box? That is how I felt about my recent senior, Kylie.  I totally wanted to BFF her, stick her in my pocket and force her to let me brush her long, shining hair for days on end.  I think she would probably rather go off to college than have me brush her hair, so I guess I can allow her that.  But I truly had such a great time working with her and her super cool family!  Here are some of my favorite looks from the shoot.

 

This summer I traveled to Australia to teach photography for two weeks through a really amazing workshop called Inspire Me.  I’d never been to Australia before and I absolutely loved it!  The people, the landscape, the culture were just so, so cool.  It was such a wonderful opportunity.

Four groups of attendees came through the workshop.  They spent day one learning secrets to glamor photography with Australia’s portrait photographer of the year 2011 and 2012 Sue Bryce. Then they spent day two with me focusing on creative children’s photography. Day three they photographed gorgeous models with amazing New York/London fashion photographer Lara Jade.

On several of my teaching days we were able to work with these magnificent camels for our safari theme.  The images below were my absolute favorites.  There are moments as a photographer that stick with you.  Shooting these was definitely one of those times that will influence me forever.  I’ll never forget how this little peanut of a girl took hold of the reigns, completely fearless, commanding the camels into poses while simultaneously letting her soul shine out her eyes for the camera.  No intimidation.  No self-consciousness.  And I thought, that’s how I want to be, how I want to live.  I want to know who I am, confidently take hold of the reigns of my life and let my soul shine out for all to see.