Senior Portrait - First attempt - C&C Please

Dreadnote

Well a work mate of mine asked me to help her with some photos of her son since he is graduating this year. After repeatedly telling her that I'm not a photographer but just a guy with a camera and that she should not expect to get the results she would from a professional, I agreed to take some pictures for her.

The session was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. Her son has a great personality and a big smile. C&C please as I would like to get better at this since there are a lot of opportunities for this sort of thing where I work. Also, are these decent enough to charge for? Or would that just be a crime? She stated that she had a budget of about $150-200, but this is someone I work with and I want to be fair about it.

Here are a few from the session:

1)


2)


3)


4)


5)


6)


7)


8)


9)


10)

lanaer

If she wants to pay for them, let her pay. Insisting that they be free could cause her to feel patronized, etc. Also, I don't think it'd be robbery to charge for these (particularly if she likes them), they're not too bad.

The main complaint I have is that he's squinting in almost all of the shots; try to keep him out of direct sunlight.

Dreadnote

lanaer wrote: »

If she wants to pay for them, let her pay. Insisting that they be free could cause her to feel patronized, etc. Also, I don't think it'd be robbery to charge for these (particularly if she likes them), they're not too bad.

The main complaint I have is that he's squinting in almost all of the shots; try to keep him out of direct sunlight.

Sounds good. To be honest we were never in the sunlight, maybe my lights were too hot. I think he just has a squinty smile.

lanaer

Then you've done pretty well for a "guy with a camera" :

There are a couple of shots (#6, #8, #9), where the highlights on his face are too bright, probably because the light on him was overpowering the background light so much that if you had more correctly exposed for his face, you would have lost detail in the background.

neastguy

I'm just a guy with a camera too.. not a pro... but I think they are great.... I think you could easily charge for those...

laurenornot

Perfectly lit. My favorites are 4 and 5. My only nit: try to avoid shooting upwards at people, it's never a flattering angle (3, 7).

Gorgeous scenery! To this city mouse, those backgrounds totally look like they're a green screen!

briandelion

These are very good. Definitley charge. Great choice of backgrounds.

kevingeary

Be careful of the spill on the strobes. Check the tree trunk on #4. That's the type of stuff to keep an eye on to go from "good" to "great".

Hackbone

You have some nice work here for the first time. Way to go!! Remember guys like to lean! Look how comfortable #8 looks. Watch guys at the mall or at work and you will see how they fall into natural poses. Use those for your subjects. Keep on posting.
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jonh68

I think these are good enough to charge. I also really like the last three. Whereas 1 and 3 looks like subject and backgrounds are competing, your lighting, composition, and use of backgrounds really enhance the pictures.

Ed911

Yep, very nice. My only nit is that they look a little too red. A problem Canon shooters have complained about from time to time.

Dreadnote

Thanks a million for the comments everyone. It makes me feel better about what I'm doing. I really love this forum. You guys provide great feedback. Thanks much for looking. Hopefully the next round will be better. I have to admit that I felt a bit nervous and this odd sense of mild panic knowing I had to get it right, or at least close enough, the first time given that money was involved. So I'm glad you all feel that it is headed in the right direction.

VayCayMom

hey hey hey better than some cookie cutter mall studios I have seen. Let her pay. they are worthy!

zoomer

All feel overflashed to me, if that was the look you were going for then maybe not.
5 is my favorite of the compositions.

Keep working with your flash/ambient mix and compositions. You have a good start.

Dreadnote

zoomer wrote: »

All feel overflashed to me, if that was the look you were going for then maybe not.
5 is my favorite of the compositions.

Keep working with your flash/ambient mix and compositions. You have a good start.

Yes I agree, I think they are over flashed. I was trying to darken down the bright backgrounds a bit but didn't quite get the balance right. That will take some more practice. I get the idea about exposing for the subject which will allow the background to go either lighter or darker depending on how much light you put on the subject, but I haven't quite got it figured out when the background is complicated and varies between the really bright desert in the far background and the relatively dark forest part of the background.

I think maybe I need to figure out how to dodge and burn in post...

1scrappychic

I think for your first time, they are really nice. I'd like to see a shallower dof in most of them. (especially the first ones) They do look overly flashy, but you're already aware of that. You could use levels adjustment layers to bring down some of the bright vs. dodge and burn.
My favorites are the last 3, but they definitely need some more pp work with the brightness on him and the trees/fence.
Also, his skin tones aren't consistent.
If she's offering to pay, I'd accept it. You did good Posing boys is hard...they usually don't want to be there

jonh68

Dreadnote wrote: »

Yes I agree, I think they are over flashed. I was trying to darken down the bright backgrounds a bit but didn't quite get the balance right. That will take some more practice. I get the idea about exposing for the subject which will allow the background to go either lighter or darker depending on how much light you put on the subject, but I haven't quite got it figured out when the background is complicated and varies between the really bright desert in the far background and the relatively dark forest part of the background.

I think maybe I need to figure out how to dodge and burn in post...

This is just me, but unless the shot is a close up where exposure of the skin is really important, I don't worry too much about skin exposure as much in the environmental pics. They didn't jump out to me as overexposed until it was pointed out. I liked how the overall picture worked. I'm not saying there could be better lighting, just saying don't get to worked up over it. To me what could be improved with lighting is more control of where it goes.

Dreadnote

Update:

I delivered the photos on Saturday afternoon and picked up the check. I talked to the client this afternoon and asked how she liked the prints. She said that she loved them and that her son and husband loved them too. I can hardly wait for my next opportunity to put into practice some of the things we talked about here. Thanks again!