A Unique Shot of an Athletic High School Senior

The Athlete

Vik Orenstein: This picture is of a high school senior. This guy was a total athlete. He plays soccer, football, and all kinds of sports.

He had been injured so many times that when he came in for his photo shoot he had five stitches on his eyelid. We took it out for the website because it looks kind of scary, but we left it in for the mom's shots of him that she ordered because she said, "This is him."

(click the image for a larger version) We stuck him in his soccer clothes and we sprayed him with a spray bottle so that he would look good and sweaty. I got way down on the floor and he was standing up. I've worked with him before, since the time when he was about ten, so he trusted me.

We took a little bit longer and it wasn't quite as much fun as our typical shoots are because I had to ask him to move his hands just the tiniest, tiniest amount so they'd be in the perfect place in the foreground, but he was willing to do it.

I really enjoyed the results here because of the selective focus. His face is sharp and the gloves are fuzzy. It kind of tells the story of how rough and tough he is with all the bone breaks and the stitches, and all that stuff.

Audri Lanford: Wow, beautiful. It seems like it has a tint to it as well.

Vik Orenstein: It does. This is an image that I think I did a slight cross process look on, again in the editing in Photoshop.

Back in the days of film, we used to do a technique called cross processing where we would shoot with film and process as wide, print films as wide or we'd shoot with wide film and process it like print film. It would give you just slightly off colors. I just added a little bit with this shot here.

To Conclude

The technique you use is important if you want to get great shots, but what you do with those shots after you take them can also play a role in how your photographs look. Vik got the off-color effect of this high school senior photograph using Photoshop, inspired by a film processing technique that provides a similar effect.