In 2019 after my national youth service, I decided that I was going to do photography as a content creator and a businessman. Luckily, I've been able to manage both side-by-side. The content creator part of me helped me to hone my skills, while I sold those skills as value to prospective clients.
The photography space in Nigeria is becoming saturated. In the absence of "formal jobs", young people are seeking other career options, and it seems like everyone wants to be a photographer. As a content creator, I won't mind having millions of active photographers in the country, but as a businessman, it means I'll have to compete with them in the "client pool".
Over the years shooting portraits commercially, I realized most clients hired my services because of the way I played with colors. It didn't take for me to realize that that was my unique selling point. Since that discovery, I've been working consistently to get better at it.
In the last three sessions I had, the clients specifically mentioned that it was my style of photography that prompted them to hire my services. It's a pleasure when I hear them say stuff like that. This pleasure doesn't go alongside pride, instead, it goes with gratitude. I'm grateful that the time I invest to get good at color-grading reaps fruit.
In my recent photo session with Itunu, I was privileged to go all out with my color-grading. It was quite easy to produce top-tier photos for Itunu due to many reasons. First, it was the location choice, then the heavy sunlight, and lastly the vibrant outfit. Check out the photos;
These photos of Itunu were inspired by photos I created for Ima last month see post. If you checked out the post, you'll find the similarities I was talking about; the outfit, and the scenery. In fact, I shot them in the same location. The difference between both portraits is the poses, then the color-grading. If you compare both photos side-by-side, you'll find that Itunu's photos have more vibrant colors.
Since my last project, I've been working on vibrant colors; especially around green areas. The reception has been great so far, and I'm happy about it. Let me know in the comments section what you think of color-grading(generally).
EXIF;
