(almost) senior portraits C&C

[redtippmann]

Me and a friend of mine (were both Juniors in HS) went out to a garden the other day for some portraits. I just wanted to get some practice in before I am asked to do some Senior portrait stuff.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

Very tasteful,imo. Love the colors..the framing...good job!

 

[shmne]

Just curious as I never shoot senior portraits nor do I care to look them up, but:

Is the whole glowing / high contrast / high saturation / magenta skin tone thing in? I notice this comes up a lot on the forum when someone posts senior shots.

I know myself before I understood a lot about image processing these used to be very tasteful, so I could see how it is desirable to clients.

 

[Geaux]

I think they look great. The only one that I have an issue with, is the #2. The pp on the face looks a bit over the top, making her look doll-like. The other facial pp was done nicely. ( I said ... facial pp)

 

[Rosshole]

What kind of lighting did you use?

 

[Raizels]

Just curious as I never shoot senior portraits nor do I care to look them up, but:

Is the whole glowing / high contrast / high saturation / magenta skin tone thing in? I notice this comes up a lot on the forum when someone posts senior shots.

I know myself before I understood a lot about image processing these used to be very tasteful, so I could see how it is desirable to clients.

I agree - she's hazy and glowing. Kinda unrealistic IMO.

 

[Derrel]

James,
Good work mostly. I think we ought to look at photos 1 and 5, the first and last shots, and ask, "Why are you framing these as horizontals??" it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to frame those shots as horizontal compositions.

Shot number three,however, is a justifiable, good use of a horizontal composition: she is seated on the ground. The background is a lovely park setting. Her body is positioned in a way such that she is wider than she is tall...and the background is actually interesting.

In the first shot, we have a black space on the left hand side of the frame....and the girl has the top of her head clipped off because the camera was horizontal....and basically the entire left hand side is nothing but BLACK background. In the last photo, her head crowds the top of the frame,and 75% of the entire compositional space is devoted to a blackish background.

Contrast those two shots with shots #2 and #4, your two verticals...in those the girl is actually shown. We can see her arms, hands, bust,and torso...we actually SEE the GIRL. In this set, you are showing us 40 percent verticals and 60 percent horizontals, and two of the three horizontal photos are bad decisions, straight up. (I actually know James via PM's spanning months, and I don't want to appear to be harsh on him--I like the kid and think he's progressing very wonderfully and rapidly.) These shots have pretty good lighting and processing, and in fact,look as good as senior shots I was browsing last night from a studio on Facebook. A studio I should mention that BOUGHT the name of a well-known departed local photographer and one of my personal mentors. I looked through their 2009 and 2010 senior galleries, and saw the same type of processing as this,and also noted an over reliance on horizontal framing when verticals would have boosted the shots to another level entirely.

I guess what I want to drive home is--look at shot #3--that is a justified horizontal composition!!! It has a reason for being horizontal! But shots #1 and #5 do not.

 

[tirediron]

C&C per req:

1. Good pose, exposure and expression, however there's almost a third of the image that is wasted here; the large black area does nothing, and you've got the subject crowded all the way to the right. as well, I would suggest a little more open space above her head.

2. Very nice. I'm a little puzzled by the skin tone on her face, as mentioned it has a distinct reddish cast.

3. As per #1, the subject is crowded too far to the right, and it lloks like you may cropped her finger tips. A little further left would have been ideal.

4. Very nice.

5. Nice, but again, the subject is pushed too far to the right. It almost looks like you were going out of your way to ensure that the subject wasn't centered.

Overall, very nice. I've seen paid senior images that wouldn't measure up to these practice shots. I would suggest though, ease up a bit on the PP on the skin; it's coming through as overly pink and plasticy, and keep an eye out for things like the blue nail polish - it really clashes with the rest of the image.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

 

[redtippmann]

Thanks a ton guys (and girls)! I do see what you ment when you said they should be vertical. But I wanted to mix it up and get different shots. Mainly b/c I shot 90 frames and I only liked 10 because the rest were looking all the same. So I need to find a way to get different shots without needing to lug all the equipment to a different spot.

But yes I do see that there is too much PP on some of those (that's what editing at 1:30am gets me)

and I will post a pic of how I set the shots up later. I would now but I am on my iPod(thats why many words are spelled wrong)and can't upload them.

 

[redtippmann]

Here is the setup for #5 and it went like this for the whole shoot.

 

[lyonsroar]

The first thing I saw was the blue nail polish... does that make me gay?


Anyway, I agree. Most of these are A+ work. A little bit too much PP "softness" but definately comparable to paid professional work.:thumbup:

 

[redtippmann]

One more thing: someone else that goes to my school looked at these and wants to pay me for a shoot. So my question is, what woul you charge for these? It was a 2 hour shoot and I got 10 good frames. So....?

 

[Derrel]

$225. At least.

 

[redtippmann]

$225! Thats not bad money! It would take me about 7 days of work to get that!

 

[Geaux]

225 bucks and only get 10 good shots out of it? IMO, that doesn't seem reasonable, especially as a beginner lol. I've been asked to do some portrait work after they've seen my engagement shots (first time) and I couldn't see asking for more than 100 for an hours worth of shots, but I'd definitely get more than 10 frames. Out of the 2 and half hour engagement shot, I got about 50-60 good shots (out of 200) and they aren't paying anything. Just marking it up as experience.