Sr. Photos/ downtown

jeffreaux2

Well, I have nearly finished my PP of the photos we took on Sunday afternoon. I have one more CF card to unload!!! I think that her Sr photo group is nearly done. She still wants a railroad track picture, and I think I talked her into taking some just laying in the grass, plus maybe a couple in the football stadium. Hopefully we will be done after that.

The shots from Sunday were taken in the vicinity of the Louisiana state capitol building. Thank you to those who responded with C&C on the headshot PP earlier this week. It is reworked here.

I have also included a handfull of the ones we took during summer at White Oak plantation.

I have purposely left some of them uncropped with the intent to crop at the time of print ordering.C&C is always welcome.

Thanks for looking!!

1


2


3


4


5


6


7


The rest are from the plantation home
8


9


10


11


12

Deadeye008

Very well done! The lighting in 4 seems to be a little off/dark or it just might be my monitor. Great color and clarity. I bet she loves them. You should be proud.

wxwax

First, it sure helps to have a beautiful model, doesn't it? Her looks alone help any shot.

The first one that catches my eye is number 5. I like the crop, the expression, the angle, and the eye treatment. The sorta-high key doesn't work, I don't think.

I also like the tension of being barefoot in a somewhat formal dress, works well. I like the compo in 8, but not the B&W. The colors in 10 work well, so I guess I'd opt for that one instead.

Very nice work, Jeff.

Elaine

She is stunning and your photos are beautiful! What a nice variety of locations and poses you have here. My personal favorites are 5, 7, 8, 10, 11. Wonderful!

jeffreaux2

Deadeye008 wrote:

Very well done! The lighting in 4 seems to be a little off/dark or it just might be my monitor. Great color and clarity. I bet she loves them. You should be proud.

That shot uses fill flash. Flash was used on 1, 2 ,4, and 7, and I think on 9 as well. I much prefer the natural light of 3 rather than 4, but may have been able to challenge that with more PP work. The flash just did not seem to balance in color well with the surroundings in this shot.

jeffreaux2

Elaine wrote:

She is stunning and your photos are beautiful! What a nice variety of locations and poses you have here. My personal favorites are 5, 7, 8, 10, 11. Wonderful!

Thank you so much!! The results of these will have a pretty good bearing on how many other kids will want me to do their SR photos. I have for absolutely sure got two boys who I am supposed to take care of, and at least one other girl. I was hoping to be able to do up to, but no more than 10 kid's Sr pics. These, of course, will be handed around in wallet size. Much better than a business card.....that is if the results are good. Hopefully I can get the rest up tommorrow evening. There are probably no more than a half dozen left of this trip to edit. I thought I was done, but had another partially filled CF card.

I really liked your wedding photos that you posted recently , and can't wait to see the entire gallery.

Seneca

wow I bet you make a lot of money on this shoot...great job. Very pretty girl. All poses look great, natural, not forced. Yeah!

jeffreaux2

Seneca wrote:

wow I bet you make a lot of money on this shoot...great job. Very pretty girl. All poses look great, natural, not forced. Yeah!

Money? Ha ha whats that? This is actually my very own daughter. So, as a matter of fact, it cost me dinner to take these photos, because we stopped at a burger joint on the way home. I guess, though, that by taking these myself I have saved a few hundred dollars. The plus is that I get to spend time with my girl. It is akin to pulling teeth to get her to do what I ask when I photograph her. She wants one thing, I want something else. Usually when we are done she likes what I wanted more than her own ideas. I tease her and tell her that the toddlers I have photographed were easier to work with!!! She is a good sport though, and usually if I can show her an example of what I want then she can see where I am trying to go with it....and will go along. Trust me, it is much easier to work with someone else children than with your own!!!

Briggie

Okay...so, she's going off to college next year??? I know someone who's gonna be a worried Dad!!! I think hearts a gonna split wide open when she gets out in the world!!

You have a stunning daughter. Your pride, love and admiration show through in how you've captured her beauty!! My faves are 3, 5, and 6... 5 & 6 especially, since you managed to showcase those incredible eyes perfectly, imho!!!

Beautiful series!! you should be proud, and then some!!

Brige

jeffreaux2

Briggie wrote:

Okay...so, she's going off to college next year??? I know someone who's gonna be a worried Dad!!! I think hearts a gonna split wide open when she gets out in the world!!

You have a stunning daughter. Your pride, love and admiration show through in how you've captured her beauty!! My faves are 3, 5, and 6... 5 & 6 especially, since you managed to showcase those incredible eyes perfectly, imho!!!

Beautiful series!! you should be proud, and then some!!

Brige

Thanks Brige,

My son will graduate from college next spring, so he has hardened my heart a bit before my daughters go off to school. I am excited for her, but know all too well that kids grow up at the speed of light.

I am VERY happy with the outcome of number 3. 4 and 5 were something entirely new for me in PP. It is a bit extreme for me compared to what I normally do, but I wanted her to be happy with them. I had noticed that many of her photos that she posts on her Myspace page get her own super high contrast photoshop treatment, and I wanted to give her somthing similar. She is pretty adept at photoshop....as well as my youngest daughter......and they are even better at HTML coding....which is beyond me. Thank you for the comments. Did you get that Tamron yet? Unfortunately none of these were with the Tammy, but ALL were with the 50mmF1.8.

DavidS

GREAT SHOTS! I like the variety of poses, the expressions you captured and the lighting.

jeffreaux2

DavidS wrote:

GREAT SHOTS! I like the variety of poses, the expressions you captured and the lighting.

Thanks for looking, and the kind words.

urbanaries

What a great series. Your daughter is gorgeous, but you have certainly outdone yourself here!!! Wow!

I am like others, partial to #3. The processing and lighting are very (for lack of a better word) hip, and seems to be what today's HS seniors are going for.

I think you are doing a fantastic job of balancing flash and ambient surroundings, judging from this series. I also love your framing, especially in #7, #8 and #10. Very pro feel to these shots, the composition and posing are top notch!!!

I am also blown away by #12. I absolutely love the lighting, the subtle balance of color, and like the serious expression. Maybe a little shift of her weight to give a pleasing compositional curve to her body, but this is VERY minor, I am really in love with this one, personally!

Along that same line, with your future subjects, maybe experiment with different conversational topics, goofy one liners to get them laugh, just to get a wider range of expressions. All but three shots here are the exact same smile. I hope that's not taken as a negative, just a helpful perspective in the future.

Well done. clap

jeffreaux2

urbanaries wrote:

What a great series. Your daughter is gorgeous, but you have certainly outdone yourself here!!! Wow!

I am like others, partial to #3. The processing and lighting are very (for lack of a better word) hip, and seems to be what today's HS seniors are going for.

I think you are doing a fantastic job of balancing flash and ambient surroundings, judging from this series. I also love your framing, especially in #7, #8 and #10. Very pro feel to these shots, the composition and posing are top notch!!!

I am also blown away by #12. I absolutely love the lighting, the subtle balance of color, and like the serious expression. Maybe a little shift of her weight to give a pleasing compositional curve to her body, but this is VERY minor, I am really in love with this one, personally!

Along that same line, with your future subjects, maybe experiment with different conversational topics, goofy one liners to get them laugh, just to get a wider range of expressions. All but three shots here are the exact same smile. I hope that's not taken as a negative, just a helpful perspective in the future.

Well done. clap

Thank you Lynne,

#3 is one of my favorites as well.

I like 7, but my daughter really liked it. The steps have the names of all the states engraved in them, and we had been trying to get the "Louisiana" in the frame with her, but without an ultrawide, and maybe a ladder it just wasn't working. I had a few other ideas, but they had been doing maintanence and had left orange traffic cones and barricade ribbon everywhere, so I wasn't able to frame up the way I would have liked. I will say this, Afternoon sun bouncing from concrete in every direction can make for some very even diffused light!!!....even if it isn't as pretty as say a park setting.

#12 was taken against a column at White Oak Plantation home. It is a huge column. These are excellent as a BG because no matter the time of day, they always have these really nice gradients across them. And, they are always nuetral.

You are on the money with the smile. It is her" someone is taking a picture" smile. She agrees that it sometimes looks fake in the pictures, and it is something that can be a struggle with teenagers. The girls put that on, and the guys don't want to smile at all. In addition to that, she has a "good" side....lol....a side that she thinks looks better than the other, so we wind up with all of these shots of the same side of her head. You are so right though about the one liners. I sometimes just ask them what their plans to change the world are. It doesn't really work so well with my own daughter....she says "Dad stop goofing around and hurry up!!!"

jeffreaux2

Sheesh CS3 is eating me alive. If I lose one single more picture after working on it, I am going back to CS. "Adobe photoshopcs3 has encountered a problem" I have read this enough!!!

Briggie

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Thanks Brige,

My son will graduate from college next spring, so he has hardened my heart a bit before my daughters go off to school. I am excited for her, but know all too well that kids grow up at the speed of light.

I am VERY happy with the outcome of number 3. 4 and 5 were something entirely new for me in PP. It is a bit extreme for me compared to what I normally do, but I wanted her to be happy with them. I had noticed that many of her photos that she posts on her Myspace page get her own super high contrast photoshop treatment, and I wanted to give her somthing similar. She is pretty adept at photoshop....as well as my youngest daughter......and they are even better at HTML coding....which is beyond me. Thank you for the comments. Did you get that Tamron yet? Unfortunately none of these were with the Tammy, but ALL were with the 50mmF1.8.

Nifty fifty, eh?? Such a great peice of glass!! Where would we be without it??... no, the Tammy will be a x-mas / birthday gift, i'm afraid. Unless i can slip it under the radar somehow! so many toys to buy...too many bills to pay!! :cry.... we've been putting money into our basement lately, but once that's all done... TAMRON HERE I COME!!! I'm sorry i won't have it for our trip to Germany next week! would have been a handy walk around lens!!

Do all your kids have the same passion for photography as you do?? what a lovely interest to instill in them!!...

B

jeffreaux2

Briggie wrote:

Nifty fifty, eh?? Such a great peice of glass!! Where would we be without it??... no, the Tammy will be a x-mas / birthday gift, i'm afraid. Unless i can slip it under the radar somehow! so many toys to buy...too many bills to pay!! :cry.... we've been putting money into our basement lately, but once that's all done... TAMRON HERE I COME!!! I'm sorry i won't have it for our trip to Germany next week! would have been a handy walk around lens!!

Do all your kids have the same passion for photography as you do?? what a lovely interest to instill in them!!...

B

I slipped an 85mm F1.8 under the radar a while back. But it was for a good cause. Hopefully I will be ready for that gym when basketball season begins!!!

They aren't really into photography as an art, but more or less just to document where they go and what they and their friends do. Snapshots mainly, but since they have to resize their photos for their websites, they have learned PS pretty well. They can both do some pretty neat work with it. My oldest gives me fits every time I update. First was when I moved from The Gimp to PS7....then when I installed PSCS she had a fit. She doesn't like CS3 at all, and is still using CS. We also have elements4, but they either don't know it is there or don't care. Kids these days are very computer savvy. They can look in the LCD on my camera and say....I like it but you need to PS ........fill in the blank.... out of the photo. Thjey can actually see the fix that needs to be done. My answer is to retake the shot. I would rather spend as little time as possible editing in ANY program.

Little T

Amazing set! and you have a very beautiful daughter. I honestly would not have thought she was only 18 more like 20 or 21.

My favorites are 3 and 5 also think the serious face in 12 makes for a nice picture as well.

I have been wanting to get some more practice in with potraits, tend to use my sister and her friends as subjects

Unfortunately none of these were with the Tammy, but ALL were with the 50mmF1.8.

All i currently have is a Tammy, but i borrowed my friends 50mm 1.8 and 85mm for my last shoot i did and simply loved using the 85mm on my rebel it worked beautifully.

I wish you best of luck and with pictures like that you are sure to get more work.

kombizz

very nice series of images

jeffreaux2

Little T wrote:

Amazing set! and you have a very beautiful daughter. I honestly would not have thought she was only 18 more like 20 or 21.

My favorites are 3 and 5 also think the serious face in 12 makes for a nice picture as well.

I have been wanting to get some more practice in with potraits, tend to use my sister and her friends as subjects



All i currently have is a Tammy, but i borrowed my friends 50mm 1.8 and 85mm for my last shoot i did and simply loved using the 85mm on my rebel it worked beautifully.

I wish you best of luck and with pictures like that you are sure to get more work.

Thanks for the feedback. I like my Tammy. Of the 50mm and 85mm I find the 50mm to be more practical in most situations. The 85mm is quite long on my camera, and I need a good bit of room to use it. The 85mm wins in sharpness and creamy BG though!!

Little T

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Thanks for the feedback. I like my Tammy. Of the 50mm and 85mm I find the 50mm to be more practical in most situations. The 85mm is quite long on my camera, and I need a good bit of room to use it. The 85mm wins in sharpness and creamy BG though!!

Oh, i completely agree on the 85mm.

If you take a look at this gallery http://jtrankler.smugmug.com/gallery/3215308#177438918

I did this whole shoot except like 2 with the 85mm. I truely do like it except i wish i had my friends 85mm L 1.2 its AWSOME, darn him !

jeffreaux2

Little T wrote:

Oh, i completely agree on the 85mm.

If you take a look at this gallery http://jtrankler.smugmug.com/gallery/3215308#177438918

I did this whole shoot except like 2 with the 85mm. I truely do like it except i wish i had my friends 85mm L 1.2 its AWSOME, darn him !

Nice work. I like the 85mm F1.8 for sports. It is the perfect focal length for a 1.6x crop camera in a high school gym. It is a very fast focuser also. I think the L lens is probably sharper, but I have not heard anything impressive about focus speed....at least as far as sports are concerned.

Little T

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Nice work. I like the 85mm F1.8 for sports. It is the perfect focal length for a 1.6x crop camera in a high school gym. It is a very fast focuser also. I think the L lens is probably sharper, but I have not heard anything impressive about focus speed....at least as far as sports are concerned.

The L focuses slower but much sharper and better background blur so more for potraits than sports.

Briggie

jeffreaux2 wrote:

My answer is to retake the shot. I would rather spend as little time as possible editing in ANY program.

I have to agree with you on that one, Jeff!! It'll take me on average an hour to do any work on Elements 4(still learning), so i'd rather just get it right in the can, as they say!!... or is that for cinematography?

jeffreaux2

Little T wrote:

The L focuses slower but much sharper and better background blur so more for potraits than sports.

Well, I have my limitations, but cannot blame it on the glass in my bag.......maybe on the loose nut that presses the shutter!! (me!!)

jeffreaux2

Briggie wrote:

I have to agree with you on that one, Jeff!! It'll take me on average an hour to do any work on Elements 4(still learning), so i'd rather just get it right in the can, as they say!!... or is that for cinematography?

Cinimatography?....nah I think it is mainly just for the lazy perfectionist who wants it perfect, but doesn't want to go nuts trying to achieve it.

IF I EVER get one perfect...to my tastes at least...straight out of the camera, I will let everyone here know it straight away. I take a LOT of snapshots that I don't PP, but it isn't neccessarily because I think they are perfect.

Seneca

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Money? Ha ha whats that? This is actually my very own daughter.

How many shot guns do you own? Wow your daughter is beautiful, the camera loves her and she's a natural.

Good work.

jeffreaux2

Seneca wrote:

How many shot guns do you own? Wow your daughter is beautiful, the camera loves her and she's a natural.

Good work.

No shotguns, she is a pretty good girl, and so far has made good choices. You are right about the camera though, she is very easy to take good photos of. I wish I could say that she gets her good looks from me, but have to admit that she more than likely gets it from my wife.