Help: I need some inspiration/tips for portraits

[Luke345678]

Hello there!

I am currently a High School student going into my senior year. Last year, a few members from this community and photographers I met through networking at sporting events and such inspired me to creative my own business. This has been an incredibly amazing experience and I feel like I've learned way too much about taxes as a teenager but hey, it's good to start young! ;-)

For the past year or so I've been doing a lot of work for my local papers and a few mainstream sporting networks that cover High School sports as well as operating my own little photography business. Although I started off with sports I have never wanted to limit my self. In the end, I simply love shooting people. I have done around 3ish family portraits throughout the past year and I genuinely loved doing them. I love working with the families and find I'm pretty good with younger kids.

I'm pretty active in my community and school and since I shoot ALL of my schools sports, a lot of parents know me and my business. With my Junior year coming to an end in the next 2 weeks, I have received quite a few emails asking if I will be doing senior portraits this summer and next school year. Since there was enough interest and I've grown in confidence with my ability to obtain high quality shots I decided I want to do Senior Portraits. I would also like to branch out from just sports and start doing more and more portrait sessions in general.

As I mentioned above, I'm pretty well connected with sports. Since I shoot all of my schools sports and have photos in the paper, getting my name and site out there are not very difficult things to achieve. When it comes to portraits, I'm a little lost. I've started putting together a loose portfolio from the few sessions I've done with friends and families but I'm curious what recommendations some of you that are more experienced in this field may have to offer.

How would you recommend putting together not only a neat portfolio of photos, but a portfolio of locations as well? I figured I should visit different locations I think would work and physically walk the grounds. Find places I think have good lightning, a good atmosphere, etc. I also considered emailing other photographers in the area I've connected with but I don't want to seem like I'm impeding on their business and such.

I know this was a lot of text not in the neatest order. Baseball playoffs are going on at the moment and the amount of games they play... I've been busy. Tag that along with studying for my remaining finals and a ridicolous amount of coffee, it's been a long night/morning!

I appreciate any advice, guidance and insight anyone may have to offer. Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful day! :-D

 

[tirediron]

First of all, congratulations on being so damn motivated, and by all accounts doing this properly (taxes, etc). There are a lot of people a lot older than you who think those things don't matter! It sounds like you've got a great foundation, and I assume a solid skill set. As far as portraits, I spend time checking out Google Images, Pintrest & facebook to see what is popular. Additionally, when I meet with a client, I always ask them about themselves; what they like, what their interests are, what they will do with the pictures, etc. I ask them if they have any special locations they'd like, and to check out 'sites to see if their are any poses they especially like. Sometimes there are, often it's up to me. On shoot day, if it's informal (outdoor family stuff as opposed to formal, in the studio), I ask them to show me "them", that is how they're comfortable, and I try to work with that, at least to start, tidying it up of course to make it more presentable.

With respect to your portfolio, I always recommend when starting a new portfolio that you shoot specifically for that portfolio. In other words, put the word out, and get a half-dozen friends/families and shoot them specifically for your portfolio. As far as locations, I'm always looking for those, and I always ask the clients if they have preferred locations. I've never actually assembled a 'location portfolio' but it's not a bad idea.

One thing that you will need to get into for portraiture which may not have cropped up yet is lighting. Regardless of what some may tell you, ambient lighting can only do so much, and even out doors in great light, something as simple as a reflector can make the difference between a facebook like and a $1000 print order!

 

[chuasam]

What kind of portraits are you looking to do? Yearbook photos are portraits only in the sense that a BigMac is a hamburger.
a poor mass produced bad excuse of a portrait.

 

[kdthomas]

For me ... the portraits that stand out capture the real character of the person, not try to make them look pretty. I almost never have people smile in my portraits. Look at the different lighting styles (Rembrandt, butterfly, split, etc.) One trick I've used is to have them describe what a crescent roll looks like, but they have to keep their hands six inches in front of their chest. Or I will have them close their eyes and relax all the muscles in their face, think about a single point of light a foot in front of them, then open only their eyes and find the lens, and then hit the shutter.