Portrait Photography
Professional Portraits
“Some of the most rewarding work that I have done has been making professional portraits of some very high-profile individuals. Professional portraits are a very important part of any professional photographer’s portfolio, and photographing famous people is The Big Time—it does not get any more exciting than this!”
-- George Criddle
Portrait Photographer
Natural Light Photography
Criddle and Company offers on-location editorial portrait photography in client’s homes and/or places of business using a portable studio (lights, backdrops, etc.). We specialize in editorial-style portraits. These professional portraits can be shot indoors using flash, or outdoors, where we prefer sets that are conducive to natural light photography.
Professional portraits make impeccable wall art. Customers may choose between framed wall art, or canvas—both of which do an excellent job of making the subject the central theme of the wall. These portraits are often passed down through generations of family members –make them truly timeless and priceless—just another reason we enjoy doing portrait photography. Photo books (we use Mpix) are also a great format for showing off portraits. During our free consultation, we will be happy to offer you multiple ideas for showcasing your portraits in a format that exudes class and elegance.
On Location Professional Portraits
If any preproduction scouting is required, the rates for on location natural light photography will be charged by the hour, otherwise, the current applicable portrait photographer (outdoor location / natural light photography) rates shall apply. The applicable rates include one hour of postproduction work: processing, retouching / editing, and printing. Prices for in house and/or lab printing are located on the client invoice, and are subject to change without notice.
Professional Portrait Tips
One of our most frequently asked questions is: “How did you do that?!?” At Criddle and Company, we do not believe in secrets, so we try to offers as much information to the client as possible—offering maximum transparency. We find that this approach actually helps our client understand how and why they are being charged for our work, postproduction in Photoshop being one of them.
Most subjects would rather see an image of themselves that does not reveal defects in their complexion, scars, broken blood vessels, etc. It is not secret that they prefer to be photographed in professional portraits that do not make these details stand out. Today’s digital cameras are able to capture a lot of information. The market pays a lot of money for all of these mega pixels, and usually that is a good thing, but with portrait photography, most of the time less is more—enter “retouching”.
The goal in professional skin retouching is simple, but achieving the proper results on a consistent basis us not. All too often, amateur photographers leave their subject’s skin features looking a lot like a mannequin in a shop window on 5th Avenue in New York City. Now, we are going to tell you why this happens, and how one can avoid this mistake by simply changing a few settings, and using some simple postproduction in Photoshop. For our clients out there wondering how much we bill for postproduction, and why, you should note that this process takes us approximately two minutes per image to complete (of course this is only one of many adjustments that may be needed, and this example is provided for informational purposes only).
Most amateur photographers do not shoot in RAW format; they set their cameras to JPEG. When a DSLR takes a photo, it records the image in a proprietary “raw” format that is the digital equivalent of a negative. In the digital world, when you take a photo in JPEG, the camera (not a photo lab in the case of film, or a person working in Photoshop in the case of a raw file) —performs some “processing” of the image. While it is true that this saves the amateur photographer a lot of time, which is a good thing for in the case of most images, it is not always a good thing for portraits. Here’s why: during the processing phase, you camera applies sharpening to the image, which brings out the defects and detail in your subject’s face, when what we are really looking for is “softness”.
So how do we fix it? Even though it sounds complex, it is actually pretty simple.
