First Senior Portrait Session - Samples C&C Needed

MDalby

Well, we all have to start somewhere, right? Dgrin has been a wealth of great info to get me started. I REALLY wanted to do fill flash but I was just worried I was going to create more problems by having the SB-800 and a shoot through umbrella. I didn't want to screw this up too badly just getting outta the gate on Sr shots.

The only PP I did was teeth whitening and exposure adjustment in Lightroom and then through a noise reduction in Noise Ninja.

Thoughts about the shadows in some of the shots. The fill flash would have really helped in these I am guessing? I used my 70-200 2.8 wide open for all shots except for frame fillers and then I used 4.0 aperture setting I take it that if I had used fill flash, that would have helped with the splotchy shadows in shot #2? I felt I was somewhat limited in the pose flexibility due to the size of the subject. I tried to focus more on waist up shots. I wish I had used more different poses. I wish I had his hand placement better in shot #4. I was disappointed I couldn't get more eyelight and focus on the eyes. His eyes just didn't open up as much as I would have liked. I shot 150 shots and delivered 53 for the family to review. Is this an OK number of shots for a 1 1/2 hour session for the family?

I tried to have him turn his body sideways in as many shots as possible. In shot #5 I think the shot would have been better if I had him rotate his body more. Also the WB seems to be off in shot #5. What about shots #8 and 9 with the lighting in the background? Just dump them, I shouldn't have given these to the parents? What about the name carved in the tree in #10? I should have used a different angle of the tree without the name.



#1 - Head and Shoulder shot



#2



#3 - Frame Filler



#4



#5



#6



#8



#9



#10

MDalby

As a side note. I saw a guy using a Gary Fong diffuser for flash with a wedding bracket. Would this have been a decent solution for senior photos?

anonymouscuban

I think you did great. All but #2 have good lighting. The BGs are complimentary in all except maybe #6 where the tree trunk is right behind his head. It doesn't bother me but some may not like it. Posing is pretty good. I don't see any poses that are unflattering. You cut the hans off in #5, again, just a photog nit. The processing is clean and not overdone in any.

If these are representative of the other 40+ images that you delivered to the family, I think they're going to be extremely happy. I'm sure there are things that photogs are going to point out that could have been better but I don't think any of it will be issues that the customer will care about. 53 images for a 1 1/2 hour session seems more than acceptable to me.

Great job man.

wolf911

He seems to be squinting a lot and they seem a bit under exposed to me.

Qarik

anonymouscuban wrote: »

I think you did great. All but #2 have good lighting. The BGs are complimentary in all except maybe #6 where the tree trunk is right behind his head. It doesn't bother me but some may not like it. Posing is pretty good. I don't see any poses that are unflattering. You cut the hans off in #5, again, just a photog nit. The processing is clean and not overdone in any.

If these are representative of the other 40+ images that you delivered to the family, I think they're going to be extremely happy. I'm sure there are things that photogs are going to point out that could have been better but I don't think any of it will be issues that the customer will care about. 53 images for a 1 1/2 hour session seems more than acceptable to me.

Great job man.

mostly I agree. the one things that jumped out at me though..the kids has the exact same smile in every shot.

anonymouscuban

Daniel... yeah, I thought the same but I chose not to comment on it since this is something that can be tough for the photog to control. But your right, you can literally take the kids head from any of the shots and composite it to any of other photo and it would look the same.

MDalby

Qarik wrote: »

mostly I agree. the one things that jumped out at me though..the kids has the exact same smile in every shot.

I agree. I tried to get him to change his smile and I kept asking him to flash that million dollar smile and this is what I kept getting. He was really a fun personality but This was his smile. I think with experience I will be able to maybe draw this out from people more.

Qarik

it is a nice smile..but sometimes I instruct my subjects to not smile. get a "serious" shot just for variety.

Scootersbabygirl

I'm with Qarik - tell them to not smile, and he doesn't have to be looking right at you for every shot. Sometimes having them do things like that loosens them up a lot. When you have someone with a more round face, try shooting from above. Having them look up at you can make them look really good. But good job for your first try!!!

MDalby

Scootersbabygirl wrote: »

I'm with Qarik - tell them to not smile, and he doesn't have to be looking right at you for every shot. Sometimes having them do things like that loosens them up a lot. When you have someone with a more round face, try shooting from above. Having them look up at you can make them look really good. But good job for your first try!!!

Gotcha.. See, these are the tricks of the trade that experience gets you. I have a female Sr session in a week or so and it is going to be a totally different posing situation. I will have much more flexibility in what I want to try. I want to try the field grass scene, and many more posing options. Hopefully we will be able to do a better job.

Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions.

MD

sweet caroline

I use my SB-800 on a light stand for many outdoor shoots. It really helps with those shadows. I put the fong on it ( as opposed to the umbrella) when I need to be more mobile.

Froch

Good looking kid. Very nice.
#9 has this wonderful relaxed and natural feel to it.

bobcool

MD, I think you did a terrific job on these if it was your first try. I too sometimes pull out the flash for fill, but it is difficult to fill shadows without noticing that flash was used. It's a fine line. Did you have an assistant? If so, have you tried using a large reflector instead a flash?

I can tell you know how to use the sun as a backlight - now all you need to do is use a reflector to brighten up his face and torso.

Another reason for getting some shots above the subject is that it makes the subject open their eyes more when they look up, which could have worked great with this young man since he seemed to be squinting a lot.

Overall, great job!