Ugh! Senior Parents!!!!

WingsOfLovePhoto

I was fortunate ( or on some days unfortunate) to get on the senior portrait bandwagon but never would figure the concerns that arise. I am so used to taking babies ( and everyone loves all the baby pictures) that this is really frustrating me! :pissed Attached is a picture of a senior girl I took this week. There is a concern that her eyes are not the same size. (maybe they aren't?) There was comment that she looked too pale (she is kinda pale) so I added a warming filter to her to try to at least fix that. What are your opinions? I have taking alot of the suggestions from you all and decreased the pp and such but what else? UGH!!!!!

jeffreaux2

Uhg....I don't see the photo.......do you have external links on?

Either way, I'd warn you that a google search of your business name could possibly turn up this thread. Complaining about clients in an open forum may not be a good idea.

Just sayin'.

Andy

Greetings from down river.....

WingsOfLovePhoto

Sorry, I fixed the link problem I hope. Thanks for the advice about the search. I just don't have anybody local to critique the pictures. I made my post a little nicer Thanks andy for the grid. I wouldn't have thought to do that and only a fellow New Yorker could talk about Hudson River water that way!

jeffreaux2

Sure.....I see it now. Personally....I think her eyes...and skin tones are fine. Surely nothing to complain about.

It can be easy to become frustrated sometimes. No...the customer isn't always right....but they are always the customer. I am careful to at least try and avoid cranky folks, but still now and then one sneaks in. Last year, I had a senior who was super excited and pleased with her senior porfolio yet her step-mother was iffy about them. The photos were fabulous. My thinking was that there was more to the story than the photos. Good luck!

Nikolai

First of all: lovely headshot

Second: human faces are rarely symmetrical. Eyes are often different, and sometimes so different that photographers had to employ a whole bunch of techniques to deal with it (posing, lighting, etc.)

Dave Clee

Technically I think this shot is bang on, BUT when i first opened this thread and saw the shot, the eyes immediately dominated the photo in a not so good way.
Definitely pretty girl, but its possible that this particular angle just doesnt work.
Cheers

Dave

crmitche

I'm with Dave on this. It's almost as if she's straining to keep her eyes open and not blink. Otherwise, it looks pretty good to me.

Cheers
Craig

Qarik

the whites of the eyes are bit too white for me. The skin imo is touch too contrasted or light..the photo is very sharp though.

Matt336

crmitche wrote:

I'm with Dave on this. It's almost as if she's straining to keep her eyes open and not blink. Otherwise, it looks pretty good to me.

Cheers
Craig

I also noticed the same thing.

digismile

crmitche wrote:

I'm with Dave on this. It's almost as if she's straining to keep her eyes open and not blink. Otherwise, it looks pretty good to me.

Cheers
Craig

I see this (really large eyes) very often when people are wearing contacts. I first saw this in a picture of me when I was wearing contacts (I'm almost always in glasses). I thought I looked like a deer in the headlights! I then found a couple of photos without glasses or contacts and my eyes were much more relaxed and narrow.

So I started to look for it more when I photographed. And more often than not, the big round eyes corelated with contacts. Just watch TV and notice how common it is ...

bandgeekndb

Would it be silly then to recommend to people sitting for portraits to avoid contacts that day and wear glasses if they can? Although I can't see much without my glasses, I would think it'd be a small price to pay for getting better photos if I was sitting for a shoot.

Just a thought,
~Nick

WingsOfLovePhoto

Thank you so much for all the replies. You have been very helpful. I will take notice more about the contact thing, you might be on to something! They haven't yet picked which one she wants for the yearbook. This was just one I picked out to demonstrate. I will post the one she picks when she does! Thanks again.....:D

Tanuki

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

There is a concern that her eyes are not the same size. (maybe they aren't?)

I see it too. I suggest lightening the shadow caused by her upper eyelid (close to the nose) on her left eye. Also, the colored part of her left eye looks a tad wider than the right eye. You could probably fix this in Photoshop. I'd give it a shot myself, but I'm on my way to work.

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

There was comment that she looked too pale (she is kinda pale) so I added a warming filter to her to try to at least fix that.

Even with the warming filter, her pale skin does make her look a bit washed out. Can you bring it down a little in Photoshop? Maybe with her skin she would look look better with short lighting than broad lighting. Just a thought, anyway.

Mike

P.S. Great pose and lighting, by the way.