Photography by Chris Noakes
49 Lundy's Lane K7K 5G4 Kingston, ON, Canada

I little bit fashion... a little bit painterly portrait... it's a fun mashup that played into both my own and Lori's strengths. Absolutely in love with the dominant greytones against the black background!

So it's settled, this new to me style kind of rocks. I got the base built, now I need to see where I can push it. Hopefully none of you are tired of me posting photos of Jaimee yet...

Working on pushing that sort of painterly fine-art portrait vibe with the help of the always amazing to work with Lori! I am in love with the direction my work has been taking recently.

I love the idea of teaching. Always have. One of my favourite things to hear is how much knowledge people take away from their sessions with me. When I work with other creatives it almost always turns into a bit of a lesson. And I learn a lot myself in return.

Since I’m new to the Kingston area I thought I would introduce myself. I’m a headshot and fine-art portrait photographer who just moved to Kingston in August, spent some time getting settled, and now I’m hoping to begin offering my services here. I operate a home-based studio in the CFB Kingston area. I’ll include links to my website and social pages below, if you’re at all interested or if you have any questions please reach out. I’m looking forward to getting to know this new to me community. Website: https://ChrisNoakes.com Instagram: https://Instagram.com/noakes.photo Facebook: https://Facebook.com/noakes.photo

I think this is the first I've shared something like this, but, I wanted to show you what my images look like before and after retouching. My goals within my own workflow are simple: 1) Get it as close as possible in camera. 2) Keep it as natural as possible in the end.... My personal belief is that retouching is a necessary part of any portrait photographer's workflow. I believe a portrait straight out of the camera is only half-way to being complete, and that it's the retouching that takes an image from being good to being great. I believe that retouching can be taken way too far and this needs to be avoided. My goal is to bring out the best of the image while not changing the person in it. Ironically it takes a lot more finesse to make an image look pristine but still natural. I'm also anti-filters and anti-retouching apps. This is entirely personal and no slight towards the people who use them. I want my work to be 100% my own and unique to me, so it always felt weird to slap someone else's preset on top of an image I created. Or to use apps that do the work for me. This comes at the cost of time, but it's a bit of a pride piece for me, and I'm always working on pushing my own abilities as a retoucher. Image one (left) is what you see imported right out of camera. Image two (middle) is with basic RAW adjustments only. Image three (right) is after Photoshop. Work done in photoshop is focused on correcting impermanent imperfections (skin, hair, folds in clothing, etc) as well as some contouring (dodging and burning). Often it can also include adding textures to backgrounds or other creative elements. And if you want to learn how I do things, thankfully there are some amazing instructors out there. My honest recommendation; look up "The Retouching Series" by Pratik Naik.