“In portraiture, it is important that I capture each client’s beauty and journey from within so I can give it back to them on display,” says Texas photographer Andrea Calvery. “It is my hope that each of my clients walk away from my studio with a greater self love than ever before…that I have peeled back a few layers and they will be a little more free than when they came in.”

With subject Amelia, Calvery was going for a direct and dramatic look because, as she says, “she has such depth for her young age—16. She is an old soul whose personality and style fall somewhere between retro and modern.”

Calvery photographed Amelia in her studio in historic downtown Ovilla, Texas, on a light grey background that she says would have “washed out Amelia’s skin, but a grid directed the light on her face, leaving the darker fall off on the background,” she explains. “A nice transition from subject to depth. I love shooting with a grid because the light goes where you tell it to go instead of spilling out everywhere.”

(Shot with a Canon 5D Mark IV and 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. Lighting included a Stella Pro 5000 light with a 2-foot Profoto Octa modifier and grid.)

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