Senior picture practice

joshhuntnm

I found a willing soul to practice some Senior picture type shots. Here are a few. . . more coming tomorrow. CC Welcome. I tried to get her to go for serious, but she is just a smiley kind of gal.



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NateWagner

Well, first off, she is a very pretty girl, and I love the background you chose.

Question, are they all from the same pose just different camera angles?

#1 I would crop out the little portion of her jeans at the bottom right. The photo is good, though to me the smile looks strained
#2, In my opinion the angle kind of awkward because I wouldn't expect her to be coming in to the frame like that.
#3 is my favorite as far as the angle is concerned. Although it is pretty standard, you did have a nice low perspective which is interesting to look at. However, I again think that her smile looks strained (I may be wrong and it may be genuine I'm just not feeling the happiness.
#4 is cute, I think I may like it better if her head was tilted up slightly more

I want to iterate that my opinions on angles and stuff are definitely not agreed upon by all (or nearly all).

The other thing I think would have helped this shoot is if she was wearing something other than a T-shirt.

(by the way I do like your lighting.)

Nate

Scott_Quier

Hey Josh,

I'm liking this set and your photography is really coming along quite nicely (gee, I sound almost as if I know what I'm talking about:D), but it's true!

As a practice session, this is a wonderful idea - take the same pose and work it from all sorts of different angle so you can discover what works best for you! Great idea.

As for the photos, I' think I like the angle of the last one the best though I think you lost something in the light. The light just doesn't look quite as sweet as it does in the others.

Oh, and watch your focus. Three of these are nice and sharp, but the first one looks a little soft to me, like the focus wasn't quite on her eye.

Agnieszka

Wonderful!!! You did a great job, Josh!!

If anything, I would generally recommend to as her to not put the hair behind the ears (she might appreciate it later) :smooch

#1 I think should have more space between her head and the top border
#3 give her more space between her shoes and the right border
#4 I would even do a tighter crop - wow, those eyes!!!

But those are just tiney remarks, I really love the set!

Swartzy

Hey Josh, coming right along! The light is IMHO fair....meaning that it is technically correct but now something needs to happen with it. It's a bit "the same" if you know what I mean...which is ok but these can be taken to a new level. The color balance creates an issue with everything.....they are yellow. Once you have the color balance corrected then one can play all day with different looks, light and processing techniques. Sometimes yellow is ok but generally it is accompanied by some other forms of processing.

Learn to clean up the skin, blemishes a bit. They don't need Barbie treatment, but the patch and healing tool will go a long ways.

joshhuntnm

Swartzy wrote:

Hey Josh, coming right along! The light is IMHO fair....meaning that it is technically correct but now something needs to happen with it. It's a bit "the same" if you know what I mean...which is ok but these can be taken to a new level. The color balance creates an issue with everything.....they are yellow. Once you have the color balance corrected then one can play all day with different looks, light and processing techniques. Sometimes yellow is ok but generally it is accompanied by some other forms of processing.

Learn to clean up the skin, blemishes a bit. They don't need Barbie treatment, but the patch and healing tool will go a long ways.

by the way, this is just the last few shots I take. I will post some more today tha will have some variety as to where they were taken and the light. I took about 150 and Dawson, my son, took probably 350. He is out of town for a week so will likely post some next week.

I asked her about the blemishes and she said she wanted to keep them in. "They are HER." I am curious. Do you normally ask? She did have a couple of pimples that I took off. When we had our Senior pics done at a studio they asked exactly what we wanted and didn't want removed.

I have a bad habit of liking warm light too much. I have some that were shot with a gold reflector that are quite warm. I toned them down some.

Scott_Quier

joshhuntnm wrote:

I asked her about the blemishes and she said she wanted to keep them in. "They are HER." I am curious. Do you normally ask? She did have a couple of pimples that I took off. When we had our Senior pics done at a studio they asked exactly what we wanted and didn't want removed.

When in doubt (which usually the case with me) I ask.

I had one lady I photographed that had surgery on her lip when she was a child and the resulting scar always shows up in photos. When I asked if she would like it toned down a bit, she responded with something like, "Wow, you can do that? Sure, that would be wonderful. Thank yo so much!"

On the other hand, my son has a huge scar on his forehead from a childhood accident. He never wants that removed.

One client I photographed works too much so she had some pretty good dark circles under her eyes. At her request, those went away. But that brought up the whole topic of retouching, editing, and skin softening - I asked how much of that she wanted - "Just a couple of years - make it me, but better!" So, I left most of her laugh lines and wrinkles intact, but muted them a touch. Both she and her husband loved the results.

Bottom line - ask in a very straight-forward fashion, but with tact and sensitivity.

joshhuntnm

Scott_Quier wrote:

On the other hand, my son has a huge scar on his forehead from a childhood accident. He never wants that removed.

You had to ask if a guy wanted a scar removed??????? Never!

Dizzle

I like them Josh! #4 being my favorite, but I agree with maybe a closer crop.

I am starting to go out and do practice shoots myself, they sure are helpful when the time comes for the real deal and knowing which poses work, what areas have that beautiful natural lighting and just being comfortable.

Good luck and have fun!