There are no two ways about it - people are endlessly fascinating. That is why I enjoy portraiture – both people at work and people at play.
Getting a great portrait is much more challenging than you might think. It involves composition, lighting, a trained eye, the best equipment, and the ability to infuse a measure of drama.
I always deliver great photos from my camera but depending on your objectives and budget it may be worthwhile to consider the additional cost of AI and advanced post-production technology to obtain effects and enhancements that are simply not possible with the camera alone. This comes into play when clients want to make a really good photo even better. It adds time and cost to the process, but most agree it can be worth it.
Let me show you a few examples of what technology allows me to do – I think you will find it fascinating.
In portraits, I want to make the subject the hero of the image, and one way to do that is keeping them in focus while blurring the background. In the above photo, using my Nikon Z9, I lowered my aperture to reduce the depth of field. Notice the background is blurry, and the man is in focus. It draws the viewer’s eye to the subject.
Nice But Let’s Make it Better
Let’s take that idea a step further. We started out with the image below, shot just the same way as the previous example – and achieved a blurred background. But perhaps we want the subjects to pop even more – that’s where AI and technology come into play.
Below, we’ve done that. The background is more blurry, and it helps to draw the eye to the two men – a nice improvement. But wait, if you look closely, technology has thrown us a curve ball. It blurred the man’s hand to the same level as the background.
Below is a closeup in case you missed it. Yeah, not good, but I can fix it by masking out the hand and bringing it back into focus.
That results in the photo below. These enhancements would be impossible to do with my camera alone or even last year’s technology. It makes for a superior picture.
Noise distortion is unique to digital photos and is particularly common in photos taken in lower-light situations. You notice it the more you zoom into a photo. It creates a grainy or pixelated look in pictures and, in some cases, can cause spots of discoloration in an image. To compensate, I use image noise reduction or “de-noise” in post-production to remove it.
In the picture above, I zoomed in on my subject’s face and saw noise. Below using the de-noise tool, I adjusted the photo by making the skin more realistic, the eyes sharper and then blurring the background.
This results in the well balanced picture below. The enhancements described above take a good photo and make it even better.
If I showed you the original picture then asked you to pick, you would choose this one. If I asked why, you might say it looks crisper, more in focus, that he pops more, or it just looks better. Most people can’t tell me why a photo looks better, but everyone will instinctively choose the better one.
People at Play
Now we will take a look at people having fun. I took this with my iPhone 15 Pro. It is a nice shot that most would be very happy with, but I’m a professional photographer and I can’t resist making it better - and technology allows me to do it.
Blurring the background (below) makes the skier stand out and gives the photo a slightly 3D effect. It is a vast improvement as he seems to hang in the air adding a sense of drama, but let’s take it a step further.
Using the remove tool in Photoshop, I took out all the snow-making equipment and filled in all the trees - pretty cool. Compare the first photo to this one – the picture goes from good to great.
As a professional photographer, I utilize all available tools to give my clients the best pictures possible. That starts with the world’s best cameras and years of experience, but then adds in a plethora of post-production tools and technologies that allow me to take photos to a new level. Granted it adds time and cost but it allows photos that would not have been possible even a few years ago.
While I’ve described post-production capabilities in terms of portraiture I can use these tools in architectural and product photography as well. For example, I can add blur to the background behind buildings and products, just like I do for people, to lift them off the page further and take a photo to the next level.
That’s what we go for at Shupestudios – “wow” photography. If you need product photography, portraiture, or architectural photography, we would love to work with you – please call, and we will get you on the schedule. Let me help you “wow” your customers.