Shoot 1

My goal with these two brothers was to get a great closeup shot of them together, something that seems pretty simple but can actually be tough to do you when you want to get one closeup image of the two brothers authentically smiling together. We started by standing in a shady part of a woodsy area, and I lit this shot by just bouncing light back at them via the white side of a large reflector. Then I had them stand far closer to each other than they naturally would. Because it felt awkward, the brother on the right smiled but had a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes. The brother on the left was more going with it but laughing about how goofy it was.

When I commented to the brother that it looked like he was slightly terrified, wildly exaggerating the face he was making as I said so, they both laughed. I loved that shot right there already. To make the portrait a bit more interesting, though, I made the small shift of changing my angle a bit, shooting a little lower and a bit off the side. They naturally turned toward me, and the angle flattered them both a bit more. Because the shift was made so quickly, we still retained those amazing smiles, and we got to our final shot.

FINAL IMAGE