PRELIMINARY PHOTO REFERENCE SHOOT FOR THE VIKING FAMILY PORTRAIT PAINTING.

Last week I asked the Soderholm family to meet me at City Park for a preliminary photo shoot. The historic costumes won't be ready until mid July, so they came dressed in their own clothes. I did ask Brita and her daughter to wear a dress since they would be wearing a historic dress in the final photo shoot.
       I took a little over a hundred shots of the family and individuals to get the body language as close to the script as I could. Two of the children did not feel well, but they were troopers through the quick session.
      I initially took photos with the lake in the background. The light sky and glare off the lake proved to be too challenging for my skills. I then begin shooting the photos with the lake and open sky to my right with that light defining the models' left side. I also placed the models in the shadow of the park's tree cover. The light was quite beautiful as you can see.
       In the next day I used photo shop to adjust the composition, combine shots of the models, and add a Norwegian fjord, an Icelandic sheep dog, a Viking ship and shore line. I am very happy with what I learned about the figures, light definition and composition from this preliminary photo shoot. I will continue to work with the composition elements and let this composition guide me during the final photo shoot with the historical costumes later this month. 

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