Senior Portraits

kdotaylor

I had planned to take Andrew's pictures outside with natural light, but it was pouring rain (which, of course, stopped just as I was driving home). We moved indoors to a garden conservatory, where lighting was difficult and I had very few options, as it was crowded and "posed" photography was forbidden. I think I got a couple of nice shots, but am wondering: they look too overdone or something. How do you people who do portraits touch up skin?
#1


#2


#3

bipock

Kate,

Being relatively new to this, I'll throw out a couple suggestions of things that hit me right off the bat, both from a photographer view and guy view. The second one looks best to me, a little dark under the eyes, but exposure looks right and he's got a good connection with the camera. The third one looks a hair over exposed as I just see the rich blue that is in the other two. I might would try and tone it down just a hair.

From a guy's POV, I really dislike the pose in number 1 (exposure looks pretty good to me, maybe slightly overexposed). The whole hand on the face thing works for ladies, but just doesn't look right when guys do it - it's got a feminine feel about it. Instead, I would have had him relax a little more with his forearm on the rail or possibly had him clasp his hand over the rail and rest on his forearms.

Take it for what it's worth. Mom will like the first one, he won't.

Hackbone

Not exactly what you mean by "touch up skin". In photoshop or similar program I would work on the blemishes, stray hairs, dark areas under eyes with the tools they provide. Would try to correct exposure and or tone down highlights.

for cc on prints....
1.Watch out for distracting bkgs. and the hand is a tad femine.

2. Watch out for distracting bkgs......green angel wings coming out of his back.

3. Watch out for distracting bkgs.....the bkg really is hot and takes away from him.

hope that helps. Keep posting and getting better and better. It's a long process.

kdotaylor

Thanks for the comments...I had no idea that that was a feminine pose, but now that you mention it........I also see what you mean about the backgrounds.