One of the joys of having photographed so many women over the years is when they come back to have me photograph their weddings and children. It’s the best compliment I could hope for to have people coming back to me year after year.

 

This is Scarlet, an absolutely adorable little girl. I photographed her not long after her birth and again a couple of years later. In this photo, she was actually curious about a couple of tiny little ants that were crawling along the rocks and one that she thought she saw on her foot. It was a beautiful candid moment and I grabbed the shot. She was in a happy playful mood. She was sitting as you see here, but there was no water, just the stucco wall of a set of stairs going up to camera left.

When I had the image opened in Photoshop I thought it would be perfect if she was sitting next to a little stream or small pond. So I added the water using an App called “Flood”. With Flood, there is no limit to the variations of water that you can add to a photograph. And!! You can adjust the reflection to the perfect angle to make it look real. This is probably one of the best examples of using it in my portfolio.

 

While the app adds the water perfectly you need to get out your Burning Tool in photoshop to create the water line on the rocks and the reflection of the rocks. With ripples in the water, you would absolutely need to show the motion on the rocks in order to make it look believable.

 

Here are the details of the shot. Canon 135mm f/2.0 L series lens, shot at f/2.5 at 1/100 sec. ISO 100. The light source was the beautiful overcast sky, which is very rare in Southern California. Taken around 3 in the afternoon.

 

I hope this was helpful in your photographic pursuits.