Photo1Q4.34: Q4 Final Best Photograph

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My original best photo was of a model that I was shooting alongside a friend who needed some assistance for the magazine she interned for. I think this photoshoot best defined the direction I needed to head in in order to improve, and that's getting out of my comfort zone. I rarely did portraits outside of this photo, and always shot landscape and objects and such. Sure, it's possible to make a career out of it, but I never knew how much I enjoyed doing portrait photography in contrast to everything else that I'd been doing beforehand. In addition, this photograph truly tested my capabilities in terms of Lightroom, and has shaped my skills to what they are today.

Old best photo

This is why, as a renewed photographer since that moment, I feel that I've transcended into new clouds. Obviously, there will be something greater that I could do. There's a lot of different things I'd do different with this photograph, for example. There's a lot of different things I'd do with other photos too, even my new best photograph.

New best photo

I know I post from this particular photoshoot (and of this particular model) quite often when I mention my projects to anyone, but I truly believe that this photo captured all of my skills effectively. The exposure is just right, I love the depth of field with the 50mm lens that I used for this, the color palette is very nice (green shoes, green court, blue shades, etc.), and the framing is really nice as well. When I edited this, I went for a warmer temperature to compliment the sun in the background and purposefully blew out the exposure in the back using the graduated filter tool in Lightroom. The hair received a nice bit of that filter which helped to show even more with differentiating foreground and background. Finally, the model is one of my best friends since middle school. Shout out to Jasmine Chee :).

Free choice

This photo is out of focus, but that's what I like about it; it's so "raw" without so many imperfections other than the focus. It's interesting. Would've been a heavy candidate for best photo if this was in focus though.

Free choice

This photo has more sentimental value than anything. The bracelet meant a lot to me, and it's paired with some of the best music I love (as well as one of my closet hobbies, collecting CD's even though I pay for Apple Music $10 a month). I like the aesthetic of this photo. My hand just looks really weird in this.

Free choice

I also felt that this photo had one of the best 'production value' out of any photograph I made with a group. As in, if this were for a poster or for something I was commissioned for, I'd definitely be proud to submit this. A lot had gone into making this photo really nice, and Noah Maldonaldo was really great at capturing the emotion of creepy perfectly. I don't necessarily enjoy this aesthetic because it's not really my style or theme at all, but it still was a really great photograph.