Atelier, is a french word meaning an artist’s workroom. For Nicole Klingler of True Atelier Photography, her artist’s workroom is full of her beautiful images she captures with her camera in Idaho.
Nicole’s work is beautiful and as you can see from the photos below, light is a major factor in making her photos unique. She does a beautiful job of finding the lovely light and using it to her advantage in her photo shoots.
For this shoot, her client wanted something editorial so they decided on a concept/theme and utilized the season to bring this theme to life. By incorporating fall colors and props that included baskets and bowls of colorful vegetables, this theme came to life.
Read below to find out more about Nicole and this photo shoot she shared with Seniorologie. Be sure to check out her other work here. Thanks Nicole!!
What was your inspiration for the photo shoot?
~ The season was the inspiration for the 2nd part to Tricia’s senior shoot. We live in Eastern Idaho and it’s easy to get in a funk in the winter time when everything is dead and dried out. But some things I love about the dead, dried out foliage in the winter are the warm tones that exist in everything and the fabulous textures that can add to an image. Since that is what we had to work with at the time, I decided to go with kind of a harvest/ Thanksgiving theme.
Where did this photo shoot take place?
~ We live in rural Idaho, and this shoot took place on the outskirts of town in the yard of a neigbor. The fabulous thing about this particular location is the variety in one place (that is what I look for in most of my locations.) Their yard has a rustic barn and chicken coop, some cute fences, a tree farm, a beautifully manicured yard close to their home, mature flowering trees and shrubs, a cute little dirt road, and much more! So many great places to shoot… LOVELY LIGHT!
Did you collaborate with this senior to come up with the clothing and/or concept for this shoot?
~ Yes! I sent her some inspirational photos to give her an idea of the look I was thinking of. She then brought clothing pieces that would work and that she loved. Also, I work closely with a local clothing boutique and like to pick up a few wardrobe items from them before hand so we have more to work with. We ended up mixing and matching pieces from the boutique with pieces that this senior brought.
What camera, lens and equipment were used for this shoot?
~ I used a Nikon D700 to photograph this session with Tricia. The majority of images were shot with the 85mm 1.8, but a few were also shot with the 24-70 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8. My “go to” lens for most portraits would probably have to be the 85mm though… I have a bit of a love affair with it! 🙂
What time of day were these taken?
~ We went out about 3 hours before sunset, and shot for 2 hours until it got too cold.
Can you share any post-processing techniques used when editing this session?
~ Would LOVE to!!!
- To begin with: I always shoot in RAW. So when I pull my images in and choose the ones I would like to edit, I pull them into Adobe Camera RAW. For these particular images I adjusted the recovery slider a bit, added a bit of clarity, and a hint of fill light.
- I then pull my images into photo shop where I first create an adjustment layer, and in a curves adjustment, create an ‘S’ curve to give my image a boost in contrast.
- From there I use another adjustment layer, and in a brightness/ contrast adjustment, brought the contrast up 100%. This will look pretty crazy on your image, but I added a black layer mask and just painted the contrast at around 40% opacity on my background to make the colors rich and naturally vibrant (without saturating).
- From there I touch up the skin using the spot healing tool and the clone tool. Thankfully her skin didn’t need too much attention.
- I ran a free action from Coffee Shop (powder room) and smooth skin at 25% opacity ONLY on the areas of her skin that need it, staying away from detail areas.
- I love to add sparkle to eyes, but after a couple years of trying many different things, have recently settled on lowering the midtones in the iris are of the eye. You can do this a couple of ways. You can create a layer copy and then dodge the midtones at like 5%, or you can do a levels adjustment layer, bring up the midtones, add a black layers mask and paint it in on the eyes around 30%. This is what I do as I have it recorded as an action and it saves time. This technique works very well on subjects with brown eyes… as it seems like it is harder to get that sparkle!!! 🙂
- Finally I sharpened using an un-sharp mask, and saved.
What is your favorite thing about this session?
~ This session is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons. First, I ended up LOVING the tones and color in the images. And 2nd, Tricia’s lovely porcelein skin and warm hair color… as well as her easy going manner, made the whole feel of the shoot come full circle for me.
What do you want this session to convey about this senior and about your senior photography style?
~ I wanted this to portray Tricia’s easy going, and yet eclectic style. She had fun, vibrant red hair, and I thought the warm tones of the season would showcase that as well. As far as my senior style in general… this shoot helps portray my editorial style. Most seniors that come to me, choose me for that reason. But I always try to take into account all that my senior clients express in their consult… what they are desiring from their session, the feel, vibe, style, etc.
What is one tip you can share with other photographers regarding photographing seniors?
~ Show them how beautiful (haha, or handsome) they are! Your teen years can be really telling, and generally teens need the reassurance that who they REALLY are is wonderful and beautiful! They don’t need to be someone else to fit in! Who they truly are is GORGEOUS! I love being able to show a senior a few images on the back of my camera and have their eyes light up! I love to laugh with them, compliment them ,and overall just have fun with them as we are out on our shoot together. Because I like to shoot with a more editorial style.. it is the perfect time to focus on a story or concept… something that they feel connected to or perhaps just something that will be very visually striking with them as the center piece! Seeing their confidence soar when they realize they are every bit as beautiful as a cover model, AND THEN SOME, is what I am ultimately striving for!
Senior Inspiration – {True Atelier Photography}
heck, yes i do!
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I love how well her outfits go with the background! They have such a unique feel to them. Gorgeous work! 🙂
Nicole, your images are absolutely beautiful. You are truly an inspiration. Thank you for sharing and congratulations on the feature!!!
Thanks so much ladies! This was such a fun shoot, and I’m so grateful to SENIORONLOGIE for posting!!!!! 🙂
NICOLE! This is a WONDERFUL FEATURE!!! I too love the location of this shoot, it’s so beautiful in every way. And you, my friend, are simply AMAZING! LOVES!!