Morgan – Austin, Texas

As I wind down my coverage of Morgan from my recent studio event, I wanted to highlight a mistake that I made. And, I’m sure I made others that I’m not aware of since portraiture is not my specialty. However, I do enjoy taking pictures of people, particularly models who already know how to pose. Out of instinct or training, models are preset with looks that they know make them look good.

Three days ago, I featured Morgan in a living room setting that I really liked. I prefer these environments to a traditional studio backdrop. I made a bunch of pictures, and luckily I shifted around so that I changed the scene behind the subject. But, many of them have this white vase in the background that, I later discovered, is really distracting. Unfortunately, it detracts from the subject both in color and black and white.

This image is better than most because the vase not directly behind Morgan’s head. I had better poses and expressions, but those images were diminished by this bright shape behind her. In the actual setting, the wall unit and decorations look great. But, in photographs, unexpected things become distracting. I suppose if I were a more discerning or experienced environmental photographer, I would have noticed these things before or during the shoot. I’ll try to remember these points for the next portrait event.

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