Portrait of a piano teacher

The longer I practice photography, the more I appreciate good lighting. I don't even bother to take my camera out of the bag in certain conditions. A talented photographer, however, can adapt to whatever the conditions are and make something interesting out of them. It's good to have goals.

My wife's dear friend Emily is a piano teacher and she asked me to take some head shots to help promote her business. The lighting conditions for this shoot were tricky -- overcast skies are great when you are outdoors, but they can be too dim inside, especially when evening is coming on. There were also windows on three sides of the room, making it difficult to avoid heavy back light from most angles. I've shot in more challenging environments, but something about this set-up was just draining my inspiration. I didn't have a good feeling about what I captured at the end of the night.

Do you know what saved the project? Shooting in RAW format and putting in a lot of work in Photoshop. The results still look a little stretched and strained to me, but that may only because I saw behind the curtain.

Here are my favorites from the set: