Here is a little “city street” NYC family portrait session to inspire you. We chose to shoot just outside of Central Park because I had previously done family portraits for these guys in the park. We wanted natural portraits that were unique and captured the spirit of the city. For me, that means we need to keep moving. The more motion, the more natural and alive the images become. Of course, we did stop here and there to take more traditional portraits in our surroundings.
The one snag I felt after looking at the images when I got home had to do with the colors. My eyes need to feel everything gel…the subjects, their clothing, the background. I was struggling with the greenery of the trees and the bright yellow of the cabs mixed with the clothing my clients were wearing. Im showing you a before and after below so you can see how things looked straight from my camera (images on the bottom the grid below) and how I tweaked the colors and tones to make me happy with the colors (images at the top of the grid featured below).
In photoshop I adjusted the colors of yellow, green and cyan by toning them down and upping the magenta. It also effected the tone of the yellow street lines and lights. By doing this I feel the purple dress is complimented against the golden tones of the trees (see middle picture, leaves above models head). The portrait of the family on the bench works better in this tonal palette now. Its minor things like this, that up the level of your images. I don’t like to go crazy in post production, but things like a little color tweak can go a long way.
To see more images from the day, head to my instagram page!
