Lee Jeffries

There is a style of portrait photography that I've really wanted to try out and while it does involve quite a bit of post-processing, I feel that it severely adds more depth to the initial shot, which is a base for the final photograph. I've seen people doing this style before, but I was to yet find out who.

Today while going back to see if I could find out more, I came across Lee Jeffries who is a British Photographer that makes amazing use of this technique. By adjusting contrasts in his images, he brings out so much clarity, which greatly enhances detail and is further boosted by sharpening. This appeals to me because I love capturing detail with photography. I think his work is beautiful and it reflects the subject matter incredibly well, emphasizing the harsh reality of homeless life.

These are a few examples from his "Portraits of the Homeless" series. I really want to try something similar and I think it will be quite fun trying to replicate his style.

Regarding the technique: It appears that he is making use of natural lighting and maybe one or two additional soft lights. I can't tell if he uses a digital or film camera for this but it's certain digital editing is done afterwards. It might be a good idea to try both and see which yields better results. Definitely one for the Sketchbook!

Further pieces of his work can be found at http://500px.com/LeeJeffries