Professional photographer Erin Little has a gift for capturing the spirits of her subjects through her camera lens. She lets us in on how exactly she goes about doing that. A fascinating process.
Susan» What strikes me most about your portraits is the authentic, natural quality they emanate. Tell us about your artistic process and how you go about getting your subjects to relax and be themselves in front of the camera.
Erin» As a creative photographer, I feel that portraits should reflect the very essence of the subject. I am not looking to capture just their looks, an expression or their style, I am really searching deep within them to have my photographs reflect what makes them tick. I find people absolutely fascinating and there is beauty in everyone. Often people feel so overwhelmed when in front of a camera. Suddenly they seem to have such little faith in themselves and particularly how they appear. I don’t connect with people because of the way they are built or whether their hair is straight or curly or frizzy or if they have perfect skin. I connect with their souls.
As a photographer it is my job to get a deep sense of my subjects before photographing them. Sometimes I have only five minutes, sometimes we meet for a drink beforehand and chat to loosen up. But regardless of how much time I have to spend with my subjects before I start photographing them, there is always a feeling I get about someone upon meeting them. So I go with that. People are drawn to my portraits because they reflect the actual people. They appear natural and easygoing. And no matter who I get in front of the camera complaining that they always look awful in photographs, I’ve never had anyone dissatisfied with their portraits after a shoot. So it’s important to get to know your subjects; ask them questions, compliment them, find out what they love and what they do. That connection will really come through in the photos.
“I love contrast with light. I think it creates a terrific mood. This old mill was the perfect place for a shoot and getting creative with the large windows and dark interior,” shares Erin.
Susan» I notice that the subjects in your photos don’t look traditionally posed. Tell us more about this.
Erin» As far as directing my subjects, I rarely do it. When people feel comfortable, they tend to position themselves in a way that is natural. And I tell them this upfront before the shoot starts. I will tell them that if they don’t hear anything from me, they are doing everything perfectly. I think that helps make my portraits appear very natural.
Susan» Your approach is freeing and clearly works extremely well for you and your clients. As the subjects are positioning themselves, what kinds of things are you doing, technically speaking, to capture the magic?
Erin» My own personal technique as a photographer is to shoot from all different kinds of angles. Shooting through leaves, flowers and other objects to frame my subjects creatively is my favorite. I love shooting through grass. I use a lot of negative space in my photographs to draw the attention directly to my subjects. I avoid busy backgrounds. I often underexpose to create really deep, rich colors and shadows, but just by a little. I love shooting wide open and find that an aperture of f/1.4 if carefully focused can make for an amazing portrait. For professional portraits, I never shoot wider than f/2.8 in order to capture all the important facial features. But creative photography is all about doing things differently, so I typically don’t abide by the normal photography rules and do whatever I think would lend itself well to the subject and location.
Susan» Yes, I totally agree. I know many readers would love to know what kind of gear you use to create such artistic portraits.
Erin» I use a Canon 5D Mark III. I had been a Nikon shooter for ten years and just switched to Canon. I really love it, and although I feel good lenses are more important than a fancy camera body, I have to say I am incredibly impressed with what the Mark III can do for me. My favorite lenses are my Canon 50mm f/1.4 and my Sigma 35mm f/1.4. I also have a Canon 100mm lens I use solely for weddings and a 24mm tilt-shift lens, which I have so much fun with! I use only prime lenses and have found that even though I’ve owned zooms in the past, I never reached for them. I like to move with my subjects. For studio equipment I have some reflectors and Alien Bees lights. I rarely use them though. I prefer naturally lit subjects. For editing I switched from using Photoshop CS5 to Lightroom 4. Lightroom has been great and I love how it has helped me become better organized!
Susan» What’s your typical workflow? How many photos do you generally take per session, and what does your post-editing process look like?
Erin» Each job has a slightly different workflow depending on what it is. Weddings are different from commercial work, etc. With portraits I will typically take anywhere from 400 to 800 photos a session. I then pull them into Lightroom and rate them and discard the ones I don’t like. From there I adjust things like white balance, exposure, curves, contrast and clarity. I then will add a preset if I choose. Lastly, I export to a folder on my desktop.
To really make her subject pop against her surroundings, Erin used a wide aperture to yield a shallow DOF. She underexposed a bit to preserve the lush greens.
Erin brought the wedding couple out during sunset to play with the amazing golden light. “I wanted to shoot through the field grass to add something creative to the image,” she says.