Welcome baby Nolan!  This sweet boy joins big stores Eliana & Maeve, who showered him with hugs and kisses through our time together.  We had a nice warm evening for this session, so Baby Nolan was quite content!  I’m told he is an easygoing baby, and every time I’ve seen him, include this day, he was calm and happy!

The girls cuddled their brother and sang “Twinkle Twinkle.”

Here is a “what to wear for family portraits” example!  Great mix of textures and light, summery colors.  Mom’s dress is the perfect hint of color & pattern, and the girls are coordinated but not matching.  A+!

This family is personal friends of ours, so I have a personal connection with the girls and they have seen me many times!  Additionally, they are the same ages as Jonah & Mimi, so I knew all the right things to say and do to get great expressions from them.  They are pretty fun and relaxed kids to begin with though, so I can’t take all the credit!

I loved shooting this session outside but it certainly had its challenges (mostly bugs and heat!).  The portraits of the three kids together as well as the the family portraits were much easier outside, but the ones of baby alone were slightly more difficult than home or studio sessions.

Shooting at sunset makes it possible to do portraits in direct sunlight so that I can expose for the beautiful blue sky.  I prefer to get everything exactly how I like it in camera and avoid using editing filters, actions, or overlays, aside from my personal presets I’ve made in Lightroom that apply my favorites settings for different session types.  I have separate ones for studio, outdoor, and indoor shoots that get me to a starting point in terms of tone & color.

I do retouching as part of my editing process, especially for the newborn babes who come out with splotches, flakes, and yellow/orange skin undertones.  Fine-tuning color and skin tones is the longest part of my editing process (aside from culling, I am so bad at cutting images!).  I like to retouch skin to remove obvious imperfections like bumps or flakes, but I leave a natural texture so that it doesn’t change how the person actually looks.  This can only be accomplished by doing each touch-up individually in Photoshop (as opposed to using retouching software or filters)!  It adds time to the process, but it’s worth it.

Thanks so much and congrats to the Cellone family–I am so honored that you chose me to photograph your new baby boy!

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Missy Timko is the photographer behind Powder Blue Photography, a boutique photography studio located in Pittsburgh, PA. She specializes in newborns, maternity, families, seniors, and headshots. Missy’s style is simple, natural, and clean, a mix of slightly posed and lifestyle photography with beautiful natural backdrops, and Missy also runs a studio in the West End Village in Pittsburgh.  There are many session options, from full-length custom sessions to little sessions, inside the studio or outside in a beautiful natural or urban location in Pittsburgh.  Contact Missy for rates and availability.