The Expressive Blog

Sometimes my clients think of a 16x20 or 11x14 as a "big" print to display in their home, above the sofa or mantle, but... As we see here, 20x30 and up is actually the more appropriate size to display above a sofa or mantle. The Archival Metal Print shown above this sofa, is 20x30 inches, and is just large enough to stand out in this type of display environment.

When you invest in the artistic talent and services of a professional photographer, you should have something special to show for it, right? We are always available to assist our clients in selecting the optimal size of wall portrait for their homes. Many factors must be considered, such as number of people in the portrait, their distance from the camera, and the environment in which your portrait or wedding photo will be displayed.

When it comes to that other important question... "How much is it?", our Archival Metal Prints and Canvas Gallery Wraps rock, because no framing is required, saving you substantial $$$!

I recently completed an interesting project for long-time client, Barbara Lopez, of the Santa Cruz based jazz group, Barbara Lopez and Friends. Saxophonist, Bill St. Pierre, Barbara's friend and highly-respected band member was no longer playing regularly with the group. They needed to update their promotional group photo to include guitarist, Brian Fitzgerald, instead of Bill. Rather than schedule a photography session to reshoot the entire five-person group, it was decided that we would create a composite image by adding a new solo shot of Brian to the existing group photo. The slight catch was that Brian had to occupy the space where Bill St. Pierre had been. Oh yes, and could you please make it look like Brian had actually been in the original photo - not just pasted into it?

"No problem" I said. After all, I'm a professional right? Well, I knew it would involve work, but what surprised me was how much fun it actually was! I had the pleasure of meeting Jazz guitarist, Brian Fitzgerald, who visited my studio to be photographed. It turns out we have the common interest of backpacking, and shared wilderness stories. In the process of creating the new image, I also learned how much Bill is missed and loved by the other band members. Hopefully, he will still sit in with the group occasionally!

Here are some images from this project...

Original image: Barbara Lopez and Friends, with sax-man, Bill St. Pierre

Here is the new composite in-progress, with Brian pasted in

To get the new composite from the above state to the finished result shown below, required a bit of work in Photoshop, to match color and exposure. Using skin-tones as my benchmark, I used photoshop's "match color" command to, well, match colors. Then a few adjustment layers for lighting, and I had the image below!

The completed project: Barbara Lopez and Friends with new member, Brian Fitzgerald.

After I got the shots I needed for the composite, Brian let me do a few fun shots of him. This is one of those.

Brian Fitzgerald and his guitar