Thought I would share some thoughts about my first senior session. I was really nervous about this one, especially with the posing...but I think it went pretty well. I am going to be showing the gallery to them tomorrow, so I am a little nervous to see the reactions to the images. The session started out really bumpy when we found out that we could no longer shoot in the location we had planned on because they changed the rules (they were no longer allowing professional photographers on the grounds and we could be ticketed!- yikes!)...the mom of the senior was super upset about this...which didn't help at all :( We decided to head to a park a few miles away, but couldn't shoot there due to a fair that was going on and the parking lot was full!
At that point I was telling my husband I was done with photography (unhappy mom + another failed attempt at a location), it was not shaping up well at all.
Luckily they agreed to follow us to another location five miles away and thankfully no one was there :)
We rolled with the punches and I think we ended up with some nice images...the sun was low in the sky so we had some nice light on her hair...even some sun flare. Our senior girl was really laid back and it was sometimes hard to get her to smile and laugh...we kept asking her sister what would make her laugh while she was changing outfits ;) Her mom didn't accompany us during the shoot, which I think was a great decision on her part...because I think she would have been way more uncomfortable and self-conscious.
By the end we had her talking a lot and we showed her one of the images and she was pretty excited about it...which she told her mom about when we got back to the cars (this helped immensely with the mom's mood).
Here is an image from the session...I haven't even blogged about this or sneak peaked it yet...I will post a link for that later (if anyone is interested)- I only do that after the ordering session now :)
The one thing I wished that could have been different in this image is the way her hands are holding her arms...I wished they were arranged differently and turned more inside. Any feedback or tips would be great...I am always on a quest to get better and learn more :)
Ooh pretty!! I Love how her arms look actually. I think she looks a bit reserved and the motion in her upper body makes her criss crossed arms look natural and unplanned. I like it!! I also wish I had red hair ;) I love how you can see the curvature in the road behind her and all those sparkly trees! I want to see LOTS more! I might warm her up a bit but I can tell she was in the shade and that this is probably pretty close to what her skin naturally looked like. I really do like it very much!
ReplyDeleteOh and I should show you all a photo from my first senior session... I'd say you did AMAZING for a first and especially with all that stress!!
ReplyDeleteHey Ashley...thanks for the comments! :)
ReplyDeleteI always struggle with how warm an image should be...I hate when skin tones look orange...any suggestions??
Also, do you think the greens are too bright? I struggle with that too...sometimes I think they need to be more muted (I see that in images and I am drawn to it) but I don't know yet how to accomplish that in my own images.
That is really beautiful! I know what you mean about her arms - its not her arms that are the issue its her hands, having the whole hand flat to the camera enlarges it to our eye. You always want the side of the hands and fingers showing.
ReplyDelete(Mind you this is all nit-picky things that "judges" in print competitions tell you, in real life it only matters what the client says - LOL)
I might have told her to "hug" her body rather than grab on to her upper arms like that - but its not that big of a deal.
She looks a little blue, a little warmth would help with that. :)
FAB shot - I would LOVE to see more when you are ready to share! :)
Orange, orange ;) It's bad news but when you've got a read head the threat is minimized from what I've seen because usually their skin has a blue tone... I think her's does have blue undertones. A sweet friend and amazing photog once told me to do this for eye training with skin tone; take a RAW image you know is too cold. Open it in your RAW editor and warm it up waaay too much then back it off until you see normalcy, now back it up 100K. I did that for quite a while and went through an OVER warming phase :) HA! Too much of a good thing! I'm telling ya' if there is a thing to mess up I've found it, conquered it and tried to recover! So now I really do just try to match reality. Sometimes if I'm in a really shady area I'll purposefully warm it up more because I like to think I live in Hawaii! Another thing I have done to train my eye is to find a photog whose skin is on point; J*, Jessica Claire, Stephanie Williams any of these and I'll open their site in one screen and my photoshop in another and just edit beside one of their photos until I think that I've reached reality for my subject along the guidelines of someone who knows skin. I've used fellow photogs for a world of information and help ;) The greens I really like! I think it looks amazing with her hair! Trying to figure out your editing style, bright or understated is really hard. Don't be afraid to try several edits on one shot just for fun and practice. It will really help you decide what you want the bulk of your images to look like. I would suggest that you post images that are signature style (maybe just simple edits) while you're finding the road you'd like to take on editing. It helps people know what they will get when they hire you and will ease some of your creative stress because you'll know they're not expecting crazy or adventurous edits that you may not love.
ReplyDeleteNo...I absolutely know what you mean about the hands...this was early in the shoot and I think the nerves got in the way of my brain because I saw Jerry Ghionis at a seminar and he specifically showed us how to have the model curve the thumbs in so the fingers were just showing...I think that is why I pointed it out because I know it could have been better!
ReplyDeleteNow I am really worried about the blue or coolness of the image! I really try to get a good white balance...maybe its my monitor?
Ashley...I posted my comment before I read your last one...that advice on looking at skin tones of other photogs is a great one! I will have to try that...thanks!
ReplyDeleteok...I have a few images on the blog now...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lccoolephotography.com/
I tried to rework the image that I posted above...hopefully I warmed her up a bit better :)
Wow Lisa... I just sat in AWW of your slideshow header! I didn't even get to the post until I was done watching that :) You have really caught some great stuff! Your session looks great and her skin looks great too. Well done, again, for first senior!!
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to an article I just read about posing senior girls, lots of good tips! http://inspiremebaby.com/2011/04/04/feature-guest-blogger-12-tips-for-posing-seniors-by-amanda-holloway-photography/
ReplyDeletehere is a funny post on Senior Sessions....it was actually a April Fools joke - cute!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.iheartfaces.com/2010/04/the-hottest-trends-in-senior-portrait-photography/
I can't wait to check out the link you gave us Ashley...heading there now!