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KTBoom2006-E510 · February 27, 2008

If I can please have some examples of Senior Pictures that you all have taken, that would be great. In April I will be taking pictures for free for 3 Seniors, and I kind of would like to see some examples. It would be great appreciated!
:barb

jeffreaux2 · February 28, 2008

My advice:

- Get some frame filled shots. They show better in wallet size and the kids will give away a ton of these as well as mailing with invitations
- Overcast skys are great, early morning or late afternoon otherwise
- Avoid direct sunlight.....and that tempting dappled sunlight
- Let them pose themselves. Comfortable wins over contrived every time. Make small adjustments to hands or feet to polish their pose.
- Hands in pockets doesn't look good
- If they have a hobby that can be incorperated into the pics, bring it on.
- Clothing: casual, casual, casual....their mom may have something in mind and that is fine, but also get them to bring along something they would wear to just hang out with friends. Casual!!
- Location? I try to either: avoid having anything man -made in the background....or include interesting archetecture in the background.....or use a shallow DOF to blur the background. These are just a rule - of-thumb for me, but rules can be broken for sure.
- Location: If they have a favorite place...a place that means something special to them then by all means go out of your way to use that space for the portraits.

I tried to choose a variety of backdrops for you....I hope it helps!!

Good Luck!!

That last one was dumb luck. While driving around I spotted a vacant lot full of wildflowers. I had her meet me there the next day for the photos. Be on the lookout for places like this!!!

KTBoom2006-E510 · February 28, 2008

What lens do you use? Those are great by the way, and thanks for the tips

jeffreaux2 · February 28, 2008

KTBoom2006-E510 wrote:

What lens do you use? Those are great by the way, and thanks for the tips

I use a variety of lenses....all listed in my signature below.

-Canon 50mm F1.8- This was my first beyond the kit lens. I paid $78 for it. It can be finicky, but when it is good it is real good!!! I know it was used on the first example I gave you.

-Tamron 28-75 F2.8- My second purchase of glass. This is a very versitle lense. It is good for group shots as well as singles. My budding business was built on the back of this lens and the 50mm above. I recently sent this one in for calibration. I had noticed a few anomolies with it. I know that sounds bad, but it wasn't bad enough to make me not wait nearly a year to send it in due to scheduled shoots that I thought I would need it for. I haven't used it since I got it back from Tamron to see if they were able to correct the issue. It has a 6 year warranty- now theres something!!

-Canon 85mm F1.8: This is a phenominal lense, but....if you are using a DSLR with a crop sized sensor(not full frame) then you really need some real estate to be able to use it...especially on full length shots. You can pretty much forget about using it for groups of more than 3 people. It is small and light though and is great for candids. Great low light lens.

-Canon 17-55mm F2.8IS: Expensive.....but money well spent. The fast aperature plus stabilization make it a very good lense for natural light type work. It has an 8 bladed aperature (so does the Tamron and the Canon 85mm) that produces creamy out of focus backgrounds. I bought it right after New Years this year, and have used nothing else since. It is a VERY sharp lense especially considering it is a zoom. It is nearly as sharp as the prime lenses. It was used in only one of those photos....the second. I could probably sell everything else except the 85mm and never miss them since buying this lense. It is THAT good.

jeffreaux2 · February 28, 2008

One other tidbit, since you asked about gear....

- A good quality flash unit that is designed for your camera system can be indispensable for adding just a touch of fill light. This helps to get rid of thos "racoon" eyes that we often see in natural light. It will also throw a small catchlight for you. A Canon speed light...for instance..on a Canon camera can be used in high speed synch. This will allow you to use those larger aperature openings needed to blur backgrounds with lower ISO's (needed for image quality) in daylight. The pop up flash on a Canon camera will only synch up at 1/250 shutter speed.

-short of that, knowing how to use flash exposure compensation with your pop up flash....if your camera is equipped...can be of some limited help.

-Reflectors give very pleasing light and catchlights, but can be cumbersome to use unless you have a helper.

LifeandLens · March 19, 2008

More detail on lighting???
Jeff - would you be willing to share a little more detail about your fill lighting. Off camera? Diffuser? ttl? the most recent shots of Lindsey could not be beter lit. Great work! - Tom

jeffreaux2 · March 19, 2008

LifeandLens wrote:

Jeff - would you be willing to share a little more detail about your fill lighting. Off camera? Diffuser? ttl? the most recent shots of Lindsey could not be beter lit. Great work! - Tom

-In the photo below, no flash was used. THe boost in facial lighting is from a reflector held by my daughter off camera right. My reflector is a $2 piece of foam core in white.

-THis next shot uses the reflector as well as some shoe mounted ettl fill flash.

-Here is an example where it was not possible to use a reflector. I did use a bit of fill from the shoe mounted flash.

-This last one also uses no reflector, but just a touch of fill flash to lift the shadows under the eyes.

I am planning to experiment with off-camera flash this year. I like using ETTL mode, so I am not sure whether I will try using the STE2, or simply extend an off camera cord to accomplish this. I do use a diffuser sometimes, but did not use it with any of Lindsey's photos. I did use a 1/2 CT Blue LEE gel on the flash when it was used.

Probably the most important remark I could make regarding the use of fill flash is this. None of these photos required flash for the exposure. I use flash simply to try and lift the subject a bit from the BG. The existing shadows are as important as any other aspect of the photo. Using too much flash power would ruin those shadows that add so much shaping. I am constantly riding the FEC wheel on my flash. Too little flash looks better than too much.

Hope that helps.

pathfinder · March 19, 2008

jeffreaux2 wrote:

-In the photo below, no flash was used. THe boost in facial lighting is from a reflector held by my daughter off camera right. My reflector is a $2 piece of foam core in white.

-THis next shot uses the reflector as well as some shoe mounted ettl fill flash.

-Here is an example where it was not possible to use a reflector. I did use a bit of fill from the shoe mounted flash.

-This last one also uses no reflector, but just a touch of fill flash to lift the shadows under the eyes.

I am planning to experiment with off-camera flash this year. I like using ETTL mode, so I am not sure whether I will try using the STE2, or simply extend an off camera cord to accomplish this. I do use a diffuser sometimes, but did not use it with any of Lindsey's photos. I did use a 1/2 CT Blue LEE gel on the flash when it was used.

Probably the most important remark I could make regarding the use of fill flash is this. None of these photos required flash for the exposure. I use flash simply to try and lift the subject a bit from the BG. The existing shadows are as important as any other aspect of the photo. Using too much flash power would ruin those shadows that add so much shaping. I am constantly riding the FEC wheel on my flash. Too little flash looks better than too much.

Hope that helps.

Excellent post, Jeff, especially your last paragraph. Good flash use should not be apparent to the viewer at all, just like your shots. Superb set of images that are excellent demonstrations of what you are saying!

I like to think of flash, like the lighting on at a stage production. You want subtle separation between the stars of the show and the background, and that is done by lighting the stars more than the background in a theatre, or in a photo by careful use of flash.

SloYerRoll · March 19, 2008

Great work and knowledge to boot!

jeffreaux2 · March 22, 2008

SloYerRoll wrote:

Great work and knowledge to boot!

....or

A great amount of work that led to some limited knowledge....mostly from stepping on my own boots!!!

wildviper · March 23, 2008

jeffreaux2 wrote:

....or

A great amount of work that led to some limited knowledge....mostly from stepping on my own boots!!!

Jeff,

Thanx for your insights. I am trying to learn how to use Flash to add that bit of fill while not making flashy looking pictures. I am not there yet.

Anyways, I wanted to ask you how much post processing you do?? And do you use USM to sharpen the pictures or is that how they just come out of camera??

It seems I have to post process quite a bit for pictures to even look decent.

Thanx

jeffreaux2 · March 23, 2008

wildviper wrote:

Jeff,

Thanx for your insights. I am trying to learn how to use Flash to add that bit of fill while not making flashy looking pictures. I am not there yet.

Anyways, I wanted to ask you how much post processing you do?? And do you use USM to sharpen the pictures or is that how they just come out of camera??

It seems I have to post process quite a bit for pictures to even look decent.

Thanx

Practice, and experimenting with flash is the best teacher. I use gels to help tint the flash to match the lighting conditions. It helps in getting the WB for the subject to align with that of the background.

As for sharpening...

Your first step in getting a sharp image is in a stable camera. I get the shakes, so I use a monopod more often than not even if using a stabilized lens. Beyond that, watch your shutter speeds. 1/200 and faster is a really good number to look for in a shutter speed. Sure, I can hand hold down to 1/30 or so with a stabilized lens, but my subject is also moving some even if I cannot see it. I have successfully grabbed sharp images at lower speeds, but usually look for something of at least 1/100.

A few of these may have used unsharp mask. I have since abandoned that method and now use high pass sharpening. It utilizes a couple extra steps, but allows me to sharpen the image without sharpening noise. I like this method much better. Keep in mind, the examples here are in my smugmug gallery. Smugmug resized them for the web and applies their own sharpening. This is the best my web sized images have ever looked. SM does a great job with this.

Post processing?

- Many of these may look conservative as far as PP. I process my RAW files in Adobe Lightroom....adjusting WB, exposure, saturation, and contrast mostly. I also use LR's vignettes from time to time.

After LR, I export the files as jpeg, and do my final touches in PSCS3. Here I apply multiple vignettes...that are usually very subtle to help lead the eye. I also make minute adjustments in levels and saturation. If I am doing BW I do it here...as well as any cloning or touch ups. I spend a lot of time in PP, but I try to avoid fancy actions or plug-ins as I feel they can detract from the image. But hey, that's just me....no tricks up my sleeve.

Travis · April 6, 2008

Excellent post Jeff. It is on my shortlist for reference. Now I just wish I had an action to make all of my photos look like yours.

dawssvt · April 7, 2008

Very nice work. All of your posts have been a lot of help. Thanks!

jeffreaux2 · April 7, 2008

Travis wrote:

Excellent post Jeff. It is on my shortlist for reference. Now I just wish I had an action to make all of my photos look like yours.

Thanks Travis...This will all certainly be worth posting if anyone can pick up a tip or two.

As for an action?

I wish there was a one click answer as well. That rarely works in reality though as each photograph eventually should be judged, edited, finished on it's own merit. I have thought about creating an action for the vignette shapes that I use, but even that has to be shaped per the photo involved.

jeffreaux2 · April 7, 2008

dawssvt wrote:

Very nice work. All of your posts have been a lot of help. Thanks!

Thanks, I appreciate that.....I am anxiously awaiting to see the results others are getting as we near graduation time!!!

dawssvt · April 9, 2008

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Thanks, I appreciate that.....I am anxiously awaiting to see the results others are getting as we near graduation time!!!

I would love to see some pictures after it's all done

I am going to start shooting some seniors as soon as all my gear comes in, so seeing your pictures will probably help me.

jeffreaux2 · April 16, 2008

I have worked up a short....simple review of the Phoxle Flash Match Filters I have been using. These are color correction gels used for flash work, and are sold by Chris Pederson a fellow Dgrinner. The link below.

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=90882

jeffreaux2 · April 18, 2008

...adding more examples.....

super star · May 20, 2008

Great work man.. awesome in all ways.. cheers

very infromative thread... I need to learn more...

jeffreaux2 · May 21, 2008

super star wrote:

Great work man.. awesome in all ways.. cheers

very infromative thread... I need to learn more...

Thanks SS,

I can't wait for next year's crop of new seniors. These type shoots are lots of fun, and aoan excellent oppertunity to try out new ideas and methods. I have learned a ton just by my senior shoots alone.

Azurite · May 25, 2008

wildviper wrote:

Jeff,

Thanx for your insights. I am trying to learn how to use Flash to add that bit of fill while not making flashy looking pictures. I am not there yet.

Anyways, I wanted to ask you how much post processing you do?? And do you use USM to sharpen the pictures or is that how they just come out of camera??

It seems I have to post process quite a bit for pictures to even look decent.

Thanx

Thanks for asking the post-processing question! I've been to hesitant to ask it myself... And Jeff's response gave me a boost..... gosh, I wonder, how many photos come straight from the camera and need NO PP???? Is it a stage you reach in skill and experience? I'm getting real tired of Photoshop hours. I keep telling myself one day I'll get good enough to take a phenomenal shot and display it without any PP..... is that a dream?

jeffreaux2 · May 25, 2008

Azurite wrote:

Thanks for asking the post-processing question! I've been to hesitant to ask it myself... And Jeff's response gave me a boost..... gosh, I wonder, how many photos come straight from the camera and need NO PP???? Is it a stage you reach in skill and experience? I'm getting real tired of Photoshop hours. I keep telling myself one day I'll get good enough to take a phenomenal shot and display it without any PP..... is that a dream?

If I led you to believe that I don't do much post processing I apologize....as that is simply not so. I shoot RAW so EVERY file must be post processed. I only meant that my style is fairly conservative...as far as post processing goes. I tend to shy away from trendy actions or plug-ins....well except for the retro stuff. I am a big fan of 1950's and 1960's photography so I guess I have my weakness there.

It is VERY rare that I get a shot straight from the camera that needs no adjustments. Very rare indeed! IT happens....but not so often!

CookieS · June 13, 2008

So What are the going rates ( average) for senior On location Photo shoots and Average pricing for packaging. Just want to make sure im in the ballpark of the pro pricing relm.

jeffreaux2 · June 14, 2008

CookieS wrote:

So What are the going rates ( average) for senior On location Photo shoots and Average pricing for packaging. Just want to make sure im in the ballpark of the pro pricing relm.

Prices will vary from one area to another, and it also depends on what you include in the package. I only offer one package, but it has been well thought out as to what is included. Pricing wasn't the original intent of the post, and irreguardless I am hesitant to discuss it in an open forum. If you really want to know where I am on pricing, send me a PM.

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