this is me (with make up)

About Krissy Allori Photography


Hi. This is me. Except, I promise I will not look like this when you meet me. It is a rare occasion to see me all dolled up like this, but its the most recent photo of me that I have.

I am an on location custom photographer specializing in families, high school seniors, engagements, and weddings. I am based in Portland, OR, but I make frequent trips to Orange County, CA, as well as Seattle, WA.

Enjoy your visit through my blog and head on over to my website when you are done to learn more. I would love the opportunity to take your photos so be sure to contact me.

Archive: ‘Uncategorized’



Holiday Mini Sessions! | Portland Family Photographer

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Has it been awhile since you’ve had a beautiful family photo?

Do you enjoy the beauty of a beautiful Oregon fall day?

Not sure what holiday gifts to give the grandparents?

Are your kids growing up way too quickly?

Do you like ice cream?

If you answered YES to any of the questions above, then you need to book a mini session with me.

Portland Family Photographer

Here’s the scoop: The mini sessions will book up FAST. If you’re interested, email me to hold your spot and/or leave a comment on my blog and I will email you back. To secure your session, the Mini Collection must be paid for in advance. After your session, you will be able to view a minimum of 10 images in your own private online viewing gallery. After viewing your images, you may choose to upgrade to the Full Collection. The disk will be sent to you with plenty of time to prepare for the holidays.

Mini sessions are the best way to get the same quality and experience as a full session at a fraction of the cost.

Thanks!!!

Before and After | Portland Custom Photographer

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

I truly love looking at before and after comparisons. Anything from trashy tabloid cover stories about before-and-after plastic surgery disasters, to before-and-after car restoration photos. I especially love looking at unedited and nicely edited portraits. I am continually inspired by other photographers. There are a few who definitely stand out as real inspirations to me. On of them is Lisa Holloway. She’s a stunning portrait photographer in Kingman, AZ. When I first became obsessed with photography, I joined a popular photography forum, and Lisa was like a rock star over there. She always posted her before and after shots as well as her processing steps. At the time, I knew very little about photoshop and her generous knowledge sharing made all the difference in the world to my learning. She continues to inspire me. She posts before and after shots on her Facebook page and I am always in awe of her talent.

I wanted to share some of my own before and after shots with you guys. If you’ve ever watched me in action with my camera, you know that I’m constantly paying attention to every detail. I know what I want the shot to look like before I even tell you where and how to stand. I have that same focus and attention to detail throughout the entire editing process as I do during the actual photoshoot. I’ve learned to see color – this was a term that totally didn’t make sense to me when I first started out. I’ve learned to read light. I know how to make certain colors pop, others fade, others multiply. This is the second half of the custom photography experience. Knowing how to properly use tools like Photoshop and Lightroom is necessary, but no matter how good you are, you can’t make an image that is out of focus, not properly composed, or not well set up look amazing in post production. Its vital to get things right in the camera, and then put on the finishing touches in post production.

Since I began really understanding photography, I tried to explain that using photoshop on an image is like putting on make up… If you don’t know what you’re doing, you can make something beautiful look awful. If you do know what you’re doing, you can transform something that is already beautiful into something spectacular.

This has always been one of my favorite shots. First of all, this family made me so giddy when they pulled out not one, but two sets of clothes that coordinated beautifully. I always take a gazillion walking shots because I want to be able to pick out the very best one of the bunch. Besides my usual processing (I’ll explain further below), I added a very slight radial blur to this photo. Just enough to give it a dreaminess. They had me print this up big – a 24×36″ canvas and it was gorgeous.
Portland Custom Photographer

I love baby on black shots. I wrote a tutorial for one of my online photography forums and I still get comments from people that it helped. For this shot, I got my white balance right in camera and didn’t have to make any adjustments. I did have to bring the exposure down a bit and even out the shadows some by making the bright side not so bright and the dark side a bit brighter. To make the black velvet completely black, I select it, do a levels layer and move the left slider over to the right until it almost entirely goes black. I mask back around the edge of the skin and paint in black on any other areas that need it. I also increased the canvas on top because I liked the negative space above the sweet little baby.
Portland Custom Photographer

Its pretty obvious to see what I did with this photo. I thought all the stuff in the background was way too distracting so I fixed that with some cloning.
Portland Custom Photographer

This was a family photo of my husband’s family. A friend took the shots (I think about 30 total) on a tripod. My fingers were crossed for one perfect photo where all 25 of us, babies included, were all looking at the camera and smiling. It didn’t happen. I ended up doing 11 head swaps on this. Some whole bodies, some just face. I also got rid of a lot of the dappled light. It was super hard finding a good spot for a group this large right around noon on a hot summer day in July. I also wrote a tutorial for my photography board on headswapping and tons of people loved seeing how to do it step by step. Its been a couple years since I processed this one and I still think its a bit too cool. I supposed I should have warmed it up a bit for this post. I’m always so critical of my work. :)
Portland Custom Photographer

I’m not a big fan of vignettes, but this photo really needed one. This is the same spot they will be married, and I wanted it to feel like they had a big spotlight on them.
Portland Custom Photographer

This is another old favorite of mine. I think it was the first time I used a radial blur and I just fell in love with the effect. I thought it really helped lead the eye to her in addition to the leading lines from the edge of the road and the telephone lines. I also made the colors much deeper and really increased the blue in the sky.
Portland Custom Photographer

This is my sister and her family. It was really bright outside and I sat them right down on a bright neon patch of grass. Can you see the green color cast on their skin? They are as bad as if I was holding a neon green balloon under their face and the light was reflecting right off of it. I used a color cast removal tutorial from another photographer friend whom I have great admiration, David Rosen. Among the MANY valuable tips and tricks I’ve learned from David (including how I make my black & whites), he has also given me the most valuable critique on my work and my website and for that I am extremely grateful. So for the photo below, I removed the casts best I could from each of them and tried to restore a nice healthy glow. My sister was also showing a bit too much boob so I liquefied her shirt to make her more decent. :)
Portland Custom Photographer

When my clients order the digitals of their photos (all of my wedding couples get ALL the digitals from their engagement session and wedding), I always give them in both color and black & white so they can choose which they like best. I almost always have a preference of either color or black & white for a particular photo. I knew when I was taking the shot below, I wanted it to be in black & white. I didn’t have a tripod. I just handheld my camera with a low shutter speed and had my couple stand still while everyone else was dancing. I didn’t see as much movement as I would have liked in the photo, so I added a bit of motion blur to the scene and masked my couple back in. Then I cropped in a bit tighter (I’m a big fan of the rule of thirds if you haven’t noticed) and converted it to black & white.
Portland Custom Photographer

For this next one I want you to look at the after photo first. Looks like a big happy family enjoying a nice walk on a desolate beach, right? That’s what I was hoping for. Only, the problem was, this was Big Corona in Newport Beach on a warm gorgeous day, and those people wouldn’t leave the beach no matter how much I wanted them out of my shot. :) So, I used photoshop to eliminate the background noise. I feel like its that kind of work that is necessary to turn a snapshot into a portrait. I cropped the final version into a 10×20 aspect ratio.
Portland Custom Photographer

I really adore this photo. I just feel it. I found the windows and the spotlight in the background so distracting, so I took them out. We took this photo after the sun had set and I had slightly underexposed it. In post, I brought up the exposure, warmed it up a bit, and added a gradual multiply vignette to really enhance the colors and put a spotlight feel on the couple. Did I mention how much I love this shot?
Portland Custom Photographer

I put this sort of attention and detail into every photo I process. Want to see what I can do with yours?

2010 | Portland Custom Photographer

Friday, December 31st, 2010

Thank you all for such a FABULOUS 2010! I had the pleasure of meeting, photographing, and getting to know so many amazing families, seniors, and couples. It was a true honor and pleasure. Here’s to an even more fabulouser (I know that’s not a real word but I like the sound of it) 2011!!!

portland family, senior & wedding photographer

the BIG Wedding Promo!!! | Portland, Oregon Wedding & Engagement Photographer

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

It’s finally here! The BIG Wedding Promo. Now is your chance to help decide which of these fabulous lucky couples will win their wedding photography for FREE!

Each couple has already had their engagement session with me and I feel like I’ve really gotten to know them already. I am so unbelievably excited to shoot their weddings. Each venue sounds as amazing and unique as each of these gorgeous couples are. For the contest, I asked each of them to send me a photo of themselves. I also asked them to tell me, in 2000 characters or less, about them as a couple, some details about the wedding, and where they see themselves ten years from now. At the bottom I posted a teeny tiny sneak peek of their engagement session. You’ll have to stay tuned in order to see more. I’ll be posting them gradually throughout the winter. Sooooo super mean of me, right?

Okay, here’s how the voting works:
- You may vote only twice, once on the blog and once on Facebook. Any additional votes by the same person will NOT be counted. You may only vote for one couple. If you vote for more than one couple, all of your votes will NOT be counted.
- To vote on the blog, comment on this post with the name of the couple. ONLY comments with the couples names and nothing else will be counted as a vote.
Note: please feel free to leave additional comments if you’d like to say anything about the photography, the promo, or something about the couples (I always love reading every single one of my blog comments and I know my clients do as well), but these additional comments will not count as votes. Please post one of the following as your comment:
o Laura & John
o Ashley L. & Nick
o Shallee & Gabe
o Ashley J. & Danny
o Nicole & Todd

- To vote on Facebook, click on this LINK to be directed to my Facebook fan page. I’ve created a photo album with each of the couple’s photos as you see them below. To vote, comment on the couple’s photo. You can say anything you’d like. Each comment will count as one vote. Please only vote for one couple. If you comment on multiple couples, your vote will not count. Note: you will only be able to comment if you’re a fan or have clicked the “Like” button at the top of the page.
- Voting will remain open for exactly two weeks and will close at 2pm PST on Tuesday, December 7th. I will announce the couple with the most votes after I’ve tallied them.

I put all five couples names in a hat and drew them at random to determine the order in which I posted them.

Who will you help make their dreams come true? Let the voting begin!!!

portland wedding and engagement photographer

portland wedding and engagement photographer

portland wedding and engagement photographer

portland wedding and engagement photographer

portland wedding and engagement photographer

My Sister | Portland Family Photographer

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

I can’t believe it has taken me this long to give my sister an actual photo session. Sure, I’m her birthday party photographer and take a few snaps here and there, but we’ve never actually set up a date and time way ahead in the future to actually go out and do a full on session. I am so glad we finally did.

Both of my sister’s sons have autism. You might be wondering if that’s a bit challenging for a photographer. Well, according to my sister – one of her sons is a camera whore (her exact words, but perfectly accurate) and he willingly smiles and looks at the camera. The only challenge is getting him to hold still long enough. That never happens so I count on plenty of light which allows me to shoot with a really fast shutter speed to freeze his constant never-slowing motion. She describes her other son as a Rock Star – he’s too awesome for the paparazzi so eye contact is almost always out of the question. In fact, my sister has about five photos of him looking at the camera in the past few years and those have all been lucky snaps taken by yours truly.

Challenging? Yes. Impossible? Take a look at the photos below and you be the judge.

To be honest, the boys made me pull out all my tricks, but the hardest part about the session was the light! The sun was so intense. It was the middle of October in Portland – that’s not supposed to happen. Anyway, it’s a good thing I know how to edit out a green color cast because that intense light reflecting off the neon grass made them look like they had a bright green balloon under their faces. I usually like to post a couple in black & white but this will be the last fall session I’m posting this year and I wanted to savor all the intense color.

This is my most MOST most favorite of them all. If you know my sister and her family, you know that this photograph, this one single shot, tells the story of their lives. I adore everything about it.
portland family photographer

Photo on the left – Rock Star caught in a rare connection with my lens. Photo on the right – Camera Whore (my sister’s words, mind you).
portland family photographer

These are awesome. Photo on the left – I was telling my brother-in-law not to look creepy. He has a hard time not looking creepy in front of the camera, I found. Oh, c’mon. I’m joking. Sort of. Photo on the right – she was fixing his hair. I noted how it looked remarkably similar to the orangutans I just saw at the zoo.
portland family photographer

Technically speaking, this is a horrible photo. Forehead chop, chin chop, blown areas from the light on his cheek. However… eye contact, tack sharp focus, and you can see where his two little baby teeth used to be as well as his wicked eyebrows he inherited from my sister – PERFECT.
portland family photographer

Autism or not, you ask two happy little boys to run and you’re gonna get a good picture.
portland family photographer

Smiles, eye contact, connection – win.
portland family photographer

Love.
portland family photographer

Super cute, isn’t it?
portland family photographer

Love it. This was one of maybe…. 25 in that pose? But we got it. :)
portland family photographer

Ah, dear Sister. Seems like just yesterday when you used to lock us outside barefoot babysit us.
portland family photographer

Slightly different processing on this one. I gave it the slightest retro color and a little photoshop magic to swap a couple heads from different photos. I sure love the digital age.
portland family photographer

I know that had I not been a photographer, there’s no way my sister would have ever thought about having a custom photography session. First of all, it’s a huge investment and I’m sure there’s a ton of anxiety that goes along with knowing you’re going to spend a ton of money and not knowing that you’d get even one decent photo. When you have kids with autism, you never know what to expect.

If you have kid(s) with autism and don’t think you could ever get good photos – you’re wrong.  It is possible. And because of my nephews I offer families with autism both a 25% discount as well as the ability to reschedule if we start shooting and it just isn’t working out. My goal is to get you photos that you love.

tease | Portland Engagement and Wedding Photographer

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

In the mood for a little tease? I can only tease you with one of the photos from this engagement session. “Why?” you ask. “I want to see more,” you beg. Well, unfortunately, this is as much as I can show. In fact, I can’t even show you the beautiful couple’s faces because they are part of my BIG Wedding Promo and to be fair to all five couples, I can’t post any of their engagement photos until I have all five of my couples booked.

portland engagement and wedding photographer

I have three booked on April 3rd, August 20th and Sept 10th and am looking for two additional couples who are getting married in 2011 in Portland (preferred), Seattle, San Francisco or Southern CA.

Are you, or do you know anyone who is, engaged? With the promo, all five couples get half off their wedding photography. Yup. HALF. And here’s the bonus – one of those five will win their wedding photography for FREE!

My wedding prices and collections can be seen HERE. If you aren’t familiar with my photography, an example of a wedding I shot can be seen HERE. Email Me today if you’re interested.

portland wedding and engagement photographer

Holiday Mini Sessions are here! | Portland Family Photographer

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Announcing Holiday Mini Sessions! Take advantage of the spectacular Fall color that Oregon has to offer. Use this opportunity to update your family photos without making your husband do a full blown session (I base this generalization completely on my husband’s unwillingness to have our family photos taken for 1-2 hours). Enjoy a 15-20min session, at least 10 images to choose from in a private online viewing gallery, two affordable packages to choose from, and you get the high resolution digital images to use however you wish. How easy is that?

I am only having a very limited number of sessions this year so don’t delay – if you’re interested contact me asap to get your name in my calendar. A retainer of $250 is required to hold your spot. This will cover the Mini Collection, but you always have the option to upgrade to the Full Collection (see below) after you view your photos.

portland family photographer

The BIG Wedding Promo!!! | Portland Wedding Photographer

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

It’s here! The BIG Wedding Promo. Are you, or do you know anyone who is, engaged? Only five couples will get to take advantage of this awesome deal – half off their wedding photography. Yup. HALF. And here’s the catch – one of those five will win their wedding photography for FREE!

I’ll be making my decisions as to which couples will be one of the lucky five as interest comes in, so don’t wait one minute if you’re interested. Your spot might be gone before you know it!

My wedding prices and collections can be seen HERE. If you aren’t familiar with my photography, an example of a wedding I shot can be seen HERE. Email Me today if you’re interested.

portland wedding and engagement photographer

Mailing List | Portland Custom Photographer

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Guess what? I’m going to start sending out occasional newsletters letting you know about upcoming specials, give-aways, mini sessions, casting calls, etc. I promise I won’t fill up your inbox with a ton of spam. I’ll only email out when I have something new and exciting to share that I think you’d be interested in. If you’re on my distribution list, you’ll be the first to hear about all the good stuff – waaay before everyone else will hear about it from my blog or facebook.

Just to give you a hint, because hints are fun… in the coming months I plan to do more casting calls for HS Seniors, an awesome deal for all inclusive wedding photography with very limited number of dates available (keep your eyes open for this one if you or someone you know will be getting married in the next year), holiday mini sessions (short sessions at a great price with digital files and holiday cards included), and the occasional free give away or discount just because I feel like it.

To sign up for my newsletter, click HERE and fill out your name, email, city and state. Don’t wait… there might be a goodie in store for the first people on the mailing list!!!

The results are in… | Portland Custom Photographer

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

What a great contest! All the photos were just what I was looking for to officially kick off Spring. Voting ended last night at midnight. Thanks to everyone who submitted a photo as well as every who took the time to vote! It was a very competitive contest indeed!

Here’s what I promised:
1st Place: $500 credit
2nd Place: $250 credit
3rd Place: $100 credit

My intentions were to only give away three prizes. Here’s what I’ll give instead. The results for first were so close between Britney and Shelly. The results between Kathleen and Christine were really close too. So… here are the prizes:

1st Place: $500 credit Britney Edwards and Shelly Didway
2nd Place: $250 credit to Kate Ryan and Christine Savage
3rd Place: $100 credit to Lisa Neumann, Amy Van Riessen, Kim Fritz, Jennie Perry, & Heather Kendall

I couldn’t help myself. :)

 

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