Senior Portraits

Greensquared

Headshots for brother & sister senior portraits. C&C greatly appreciated!

#1


#2


#3


#4

Greensquared

Okay, so I know there's nothing original here, but are there any noticeable screw-ups? Do they work as good head shots?

Malte

I really like No. 2, has an honest, lovely smile. Cool hat too!

No. 1 is a bit cramped for space in front of the face.

Last one is a bit tight on the face.

Malte

heatherfeather

A very pretty girl! Love those curls. #1 is my favorite.

One of the main things I see is that her hair is changing color from frame to frame... is she a redhead or isn't she? Color consistancy could be adjusted in post a bit more. And to echo about the tightness of the frames.... you are going to have a hard time making an 8 x 10 or wallet out of any of these. Step back just a few feet when you are shooting and it should take care of that.

zoomer

Number 2 is a cute shot.
As mentioned the framing is pretty tight, all could use a levels adjustment to make them pop.

D'Buggs

Hey, I'm in the 'playing' mood......... I lifted and did a quick levels adj, tweaked the teeth and and applied a bit of sharpening. The shot holds great potential, me thinks.

**In no way is this considered a finished prod.**
Just a quickie.





I'll rip it down once I know you've seen it.

I also played with the crop; while I do believe that there's room for other versions, I think this to be best. My biggest nit is that the near eye seems to be OOF. Hard to tell at this size.

Greensquared

Thanks for all of the input, guys! I agree that color consistency is an issue, but I'm not sure if there's an easy way to work with that. I took these into PS one at a time and just eyeballed them. Does LR work better to be able to see all of your images at once and get them all in the same ballparK?

I actually came in closer on my crops because I think that's just a tendency of mine to want to really close in on the subject, but I can see how this will be an issue for print cropping.

I like the adjustments, you made, D'Buggs. Leave it up please - may be helpful to others. I did try pushing the curves further, but it takes away a bit of the softness, and adds in the reddish hues to the face. Maybe a compromise?

jeffreaux2

Greensquared wrote:

. Does LR work better to be able to see all of your images at once and get them all in the same ballparK?

Yes.....even in the same seat...in the same ballbark.

adbsgicom

+1 on LR.
Ease of applying the same settings across multiple images is another big plus.

Foques

I hate the smiles in 1 and 2.. But it is not the camera work or photog's work that causes that..
That is how american kids area taught to smile, it appears

Greensquared

Foques wrote:

I hate the smiles in 1 and 2.. But it is not the camera work or photog's work that causes that..
That is how american kids area taught to smile, it appears

Actually #2 was a totally genuine laugh. In fact she was tearing up and blushing as we were talkin' about boys.

Greensquared

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Yes.....even in the same seat...in the same ballbark.

So is workflow typically do as much as poss in LR and only take into PS for fine tweaking?

jeffreaux2

Greensquared wrote:

So is workflow typically do as much as poss in LR and only take into PS for fine tweaking?

Yes...and in many cases....nothing in photoshop.

The trick is that in LR you can adjust for white balance, contrast, sharpness, noise reduction and to some degree exposure in batches. For on location shots like you have here I usually do smaller batches of the shots taken for a particular pose or setting.....breaking the entire shoot into those smaller batches.

In any event, the sharpening and noise control will apply to every shot for a given ISO.......

It's a much faster and consistant workflow....for RAW shooters.

I use photoshop for skin work (cloning etc) and special treatments that I cant achieve with LR.....but not nearly as much as I did a few years ago.

DeuceFour

Greensquared wrote:

So is workflow typically do as much as poss in LR and only take into PS for fine tweaking?

In LR if you have 100 pictures of relatively the same thing, e.g. your pictures of the girl... All you have to do is edit one the way you want it... then select the one you edited first, then hold shift or command or control for windows(boo) select the rest, and hit the sync button. Sync button is found in both the develop and library modules.. You hit that sync button and POW!!! It asks which settings from the first image you would like to sync, so probably everything except maybe for crop.. and your done!! Amazing stuff and a huge time saver!! :ivar


For an awesome video of a professional photog ( Zack Arias) going through his entire workflow check this.. Click Here
its long.. but soooo worth it!!

Greensquared

DeuceFour wrote:

In LR if you have 100 pictures ...Amazing stuff and a huge time saver!! :ivar

Thanks SO much! I am totally printing this and using it at the earliest opportunity!

Caspian

Emily,
What is the tech info on the shots? I like them overall. In 1 & 3 you might open the lens up a little more to put the background out of focus. A cheap reflector our piece of white poster board would help bounce a little light in her eyes in the hat shot. I would apply sharpening to all the shots and adjust the levels to deepen the blacks and lighten the whites. I usually shoot a little looser on the crop to leave room for all print sizes.

Do you have a gallery in SmugMug? I would be interested in sharing ideas and samples with other people who are taking senior and family pictures.

Thanks,
David

zoomer

+1 on Lightroom.
Is it SO much faster and EASIER than photoshop.

Then there is the whole 1 click presets thing to play around with.

I really like the photo of her in the hat, lots of personality.

Greensquared

Caspian wrote:

Emily,
What is the tech info on the shots? I like them overall. In 1 & 3 you might open the lens up a little more to put the background out of focus. A cheap reflector our piece of white poster board would help bounce a little light in her eyes in the hat shot. I would apply sharpening to all the shots and adjust the levels to deepen the blacks and lighten the whites. I usually shoot a little looser on the crop to leave room for all print sizes.

Do you have a gallery in SmugMug? I would be interested in sharing ideas and samples with other people who are taking senior and family pictures.

Thanks,
David

Hi David,
Here's the gallery link: http://www.greensquaredimages.com/People/Veitch-Seniors/11675519_uPJu3#823729636_669cw. I was pretty wide open on all of them. Also, I did use a gold reflector in virtually all of them. I also had already done the pp you suggested, but obviously I didn't push it far enough. I think monitor calibration is in order.

Thanks for the comments!

Greensquared

zoomer wrote:

+1 on Lightroom.
Is it SO much faster and EASIER than photoshop.

Then there is the whole 1 click presets thing to play around with.

I really like the photo of her in the hat, lots of personality.

Thanks zoomer!

Caspian

Emily,
It may also be that something was lost in the upload to DGrin. You have some very nice shots in the gallery. I need to post some of mine here too. My site is davidmcpherson.smugmug.com. I also welcome and appreciate your comments.
Thanks,
David