'Kaia,' Studio Portrait

The father only had the sepia copy, which he wanted colorized. The only thing he could remember was her dress was white 'with purple details.'

I took the purple note and used it for the base of the palette for the photo. I chose a bolder purple to contrast with the softer beige of the wicker chair and a cooler tone for the background to bring out the warmth of her skin.

Babies can be difficult to colorize; the lips and cheeks can easily be over-done to where it looks like they're wearing makeup. But one of the trickier things was softening the hairline to make it look natural, without losing the depth of the skin tone.

The mischievous glint in her eyes made this photo a joy to work on.