Ordering the nasty shots from Lifetouch would have set me back several hundred dollars. And they were really really bad. Being that the subject here is a busy socialite with a job and school and stuff, he granted me a whole 10 minutes of his precious time to get something, anything, to send out with his graduation announcements (provided he actually graduates, we're cutting it close). He wouldn't even let me wait for his hair to dry. My studio consisted of a wall, a chair and a floor lamp.

The first one is the only one I got with something of a natural smile. He was cutting up a bit and squirming and had leaned forward and while I was on continuous shooting mode. I had to crop it down but he was too low in the frame to get his head any higher. I'm using it anyway because as I said, it's the ONLY one with a natural smile. I had to erase out the earring for the ones going to his father's family.

He wants the last one to go out with the announcements. I intentionally desaturated that one. They've all been softened. Fortunately there aren't many photographers in my family, just my dad and my brother.
As I said, he gave me 10 minutes to work with. I hope someday he has a kid just like him. Sigh. Lucky me. There's four more after him.

I find that I envy you model photographers that get to work with subjects that are actually happy to be there

[JCSullivan]

Send-out the last one Mel.

[ftpaddict]

The last one has lots of character. Pity they look a bit out of focus.

[mel]

Send-out the last one Mel.

My sister voted for that one to go into the yearbook (bummer, too late) because that's how they all feel by the time they graduate high school.

[mel]

The last one has lots of character. Pity they look a bit out of focus.

I did diffuse a bit to compensate for the current "teenager" state of skin at the moment but it's weird. I pulled up the file on my harddrive that I uploaded and compared it to the image that showed up here in the thread and the original one (mine) is much sharper than the one that is here and it's from the same file.

I don't have the greatest monitor but there seems to be a fairly substantial difference between what I'm seeing in terms of the original and the uploaded versions, on the same monitor. Hmmmm.

[LaRee]

The last shot is perfect. My middle son is graduating high school this year and I am know he feels the same way as this third shot.

[mel]

The last shot is perfect. My middle son is graduating high school this year and I am know he feels the same way as this third shot.

Actually that pose is pretty indicative of how I feel getting this kid through high school. He goes to a school with a specialty program in fine and performing arts and his specialty is Theatre. He truly is a drama king.

I'm surprised I still have some hair left in my head. Good luck with yours.

[LaRee]

Actually that pose is pretty indicative of how I feel getting this kid through high school. He goes to a school with a specialty program in fine and performing arts and his specialty is Theatre. He truly is a drama king.

I'm surprised I still have some hair left in my head. Good luck with yours.

Oh yes I can totally relate! I have had to drag my middle son through school. I thought I'd never see him graduate. He also found his place in drama, he really excels. From what I know of his drama troupe, most of them are highly intelligent but are marching to a different drummer, so school is not their *thing*. I'm glad he found drama in high school or I really don't think he would be graduating. Such a contrast from his older brother who will be graduating college this year. He knew when he was in kindergarten that he'd be going to college. Time will tell what my 8 year old will do in the future. Wish us luck!

[ftpaddict]

It has something to do with compression - the site compresses the JPEG file and artifacts make the image appear blurred . If you have an image hosting account (smugmug, photobucket, etc.), upload the image there and then copy/paste the link code between tags (without the spaces). That ought to do it.