THEME OF THIS SHOT:
Tad is a physical trainer as well as a football kicking coach. I wanted his portrait to clearly show how physically fit he is (of course!) And I wanted him to be on the football field in at least one of his shots to infer his coaching. His pose: By having him hold his hands up into a fist, it enabled him to flex his arms without it being too obvious or cheesy. I was kneeling down when I took the shot and by shooting below him, he appears even more physically imposing, in a good way. I have other shots of Tad smiling, but in this one I wanted a more determined look of authority, a look of "I will teach you how to take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live."
RETOUCHING DECISIONS:
BEFORE: You can see the white scrim over his head that my assistant is holding to shade him from the sun. She had to hold it that close to him to create enough shade.
AFTER SOLUTION: Obviously, I removed the scrim over his head in Photoshop
BEFORE: The drawback of using a scrim is that it casts a harsh shadow at his feet
AFTER SOLUTION: I added more shadow to the bottom edge of the photo to make it less distracting. I didn't want to remove the whole shadow because I thought it gave him more separation from the background.
BEFORE: The goal post is a little too in-line with the top of his head.
AFTER SOLUTION: I added more length to the goal post in Photoshop.
BEFORE: I was using a strong flash to compete with the harsh sunlight and it washed out his skin tone
AFTER SOLUTION: Warm up his skin coloring, as well as the overall image. Darken the exposure and add more saturation.
BEFORE: The original crop has a lot more sky above him.
AFTER SOLUTION: I wanted him to be more "up close and personal", so I cropped the photo tighter
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