Help! My first paid senior portrait shoot and I have no idea what I'm doing!!

[Cortian]

tbh I think she just chose me as a cheaper alternative to a professional. Her and her friends were complaining about how expensive they were before approaching me.
...
Not to sound too highschoolish, but she knows I have a thing for her so I feel like she sort of tried to use that to her advantage and it worked...

My man, you will probably suffer that problem until about the time you get to be an old dude. Most of us have However, the kind of girl you really want won't try to use you, which is kinda sorta sounding like what may be happening here.

So: Alternative approach: Honesty. Tell her, straight up: "I'll do it if you want, but I really don't know what I'm doing with portraiture, and people who do say, because of that, this is a bad idea. So they may come out badly. I mean really, really badly."

It may be, as somebody else suggested, that she's worked herself into a corner: It's you or nothing. (ISTM there should still be time, but I really have no idea what professionals' scheduling for this kind of thing is like.)

I can be so dumb at times!

Yeah, like you're the first guy that ever did something stupid in an attempt to win a girl's affections

 

[Braineack]

just be up front per above; not a lot of bad can come of this...

 

[zulu42]

I think she has a thing for you, too. She's using this for a reason to spend time with you. Maybe.

 

[Designer]

I think she has a thing for you, too. She's using this for a reason to spend time with you. Maybe.

No.

 

[TheLibrarian]

Always a lot of naysayers here when anybody tries to do anything. A girl wants you to take pictures of her great, she's going to pay you awesome. You're in HS she knows your skill level, she doesn't want to pay for professional photos. I'm pretty sure my yearbook photos were in front of some plastic screen with stars on it. Hey, that guy had a big contract with the school probably knows more than I'd have thought back then. I think you can meet those standards though.

So, what exactly do you need to know and what was your initial question. I'm pretty sure it wasn't should i go out on a Sunday, take some pictures and get $50? Lighting is the most important thing. Senior portraits today are pretty much modeling portfolios at least among the haves. I'm sure a good amount of kids are still just out that day, use a passport photo, or who knows what the photo submission rules are today with cell phone camera proliferation.

So lighting, what do you know about it. lots of people today are all about the natural light but that to do right is harder and requires you to meet natures conditions rather than creating good light. So you don't need a bunch of stuff but if you have it or access to it then use it. You say you have a mentor they may have some off camera flash you can use. Of course it would have been best to experiment before.

As I said they look like a bunch of modeling photos to me so you can think about your composition (if you're going to try it), scenes and maybe including her interests and personality into them (cheerleader pom poms or a lacrose stick isn't really great art). Know your submission rules, is this just a headshot are they doing full page spreads or anything like that.This is all your stylistic stuff compared to the technical details of light and such. I suppose there is plenty to get into in less than a week. I'd look up examples of senior portraits.

Plenty of info on any technical or style stuff. I'll just say you can use the hour after dawn or before dusk for usually a good light thats pretty basic knowledge. If doing it at sunset once the sun goes down it's over so consider that you'll have to be done. You can use a window during the day to i think it's diffuse light and get better light in a room. With no sun directly on the window have them pretty close to it. the light creates shadows giving depth to the picture making it seem better, crisper, and 3D much the way most of painting and drawing is shading. I feel thats one of the most important things in portraiture not that i know that much. If you had all the equipment thats what you'd be trying to create with your flashes. You can have sun coming in directly for more dramatic shadows rules to be broken. You can backlight people by hiding the sun behind them can give a bit of a glowing aura around them.

Seniors maybe get more space and color. For the little 2x3 black and white spot i remember from the cheaply printed yearbook I'm not certain much detail will even be printed. Some places are fancy though and they must be doing something with these senior portrait sessions. Sorry so long.

Edit: people are generally pleased by looking at themselves and don't know much about the technical stuff in photography. If it's exposed decently and not blurry they're usually happy. If it's really good though they'll sometimes pick up on it but often won't always think the ones you like best or that use some technique the best are their favorites. So I wouldn't worry too much about them being disappointed. Also note girls know their best side.

 

[Russs]

Always a lot of naysayers here when anybody tries to do anything. A girl wants you to take pictures of her great, she's going to pay you awesome. You're in HS she knows your skill level, she doesn't want to pay for professional photos. I'm pretty sure my yearbook photos were in front of some plastic screen with stars on it. Hey, that guy had a big contract with the school probably knows more than I'd have thought back then. I think you can meet those standards though.

So, what exactly do you need to know and what was your initial question. I'm pretty sure it wasn't should i go out on a Sunday, take some pictures and get $50? Lighting is the most important thing. Senior portraits today are pretty much modeling portfolios at least among the haves. I'm sure a good amount of kids are still just out that day, use a passport photo, or who knows what the photo submission rules are today with cell phone camera proliferation.

So lighting, what do you know about it. lots of people today are all about the natural light but that to do right is harder and requires you to meet natures conditions rather than creating good light. So you don't need a bunch of stuff but if you have it or access to it then use it. You say you have a mentor they may have some off camera flash you can use. Of course it would have been best to experiment before.

As I said they look like a bunch of modeling photos to me so you can think about your composition (if you're going to try it), scenes and maybe including her interests and personality into them (cheerleader pom poms or a lacrose stick isn't really great art). Know your submission rules, is this just a headshot are they doing full page spreads or anything like that.This is all your stylistic stuff compared to the technical details of light and such. I suppose there is plenty to get into in less than a week. I'd look up examples of senior portraits.

Plenty of info on any technical or style stuff. I'll just say you can use the hour after dawn or before dusk for usually a good light thats pretty basic knowledge. If doing it at sunset once the sun goes down it's over so consider that you'll have to be done. You can use a window during the day to i think it's diffuse light and get better light in a room. With no sun directly on the window have them pretty close to it. the light creates shadows giving depth to the picture making it seem better, crisper, and 3D much the way most of painting and drawing is shading. I feel thats one of the most important things in portraiture not that i know that much. If you had all the equipment thats what you'd be trying to create with your flashes. You can have sun coming in directly for more dramatic shadows rules to be broken. You can backlight people by hiding the sun behind them can give a bit of a glowing aura around them.

Seniors maybe get more space and color. For the little 2x3 black and white spot i remember from the cheaply printed yearbook I'm not certain much detail will even be printed. Some places are fancy though and they must be doing something with these senior portrait sessions. Sorry so long.

Edit: people are generally pleased by looking at themselves and don't know much about the technical stuff in photography. If it's exposed decently and not blurry they're usually happy. If it's really good though they'll sometimes pick up on it but often won't always think the ones you like best or that use some technique the best are their favorites. So I wouldn't worry too much about them being disappointed. Also note girls know their best side.

Thanks for the tips! Honestly, reading this gives me a bit more confidence with going through with it so if she doesn't find someone else by then I'm sure it'll go okay at best! I'll try to make an update thread to show the results if it does end up happening! I just got really conflicted with all the comments about just saying no instead of answering the original question so I was questioning myself on if I should even do it or not since it's not what I'm used to...
I assume being a bit nervous about trying new photography things is pretty normal (especially if it's your first paid thing) so I guess the comments on not doing things you aren't completely confident about may have been a little much...

 

[matthew1959]

YouTube is your friend. I am just returning to the field of weddings and portraits and can't believe how things have changed over the past decade. In the past you had to pay a fee and travel to attend a seminar. Then you tried to remember everything that inspired you, load your camera with film, take the pictures, send the film off to the lab and wait days to see the results. Now, you can attend several mini seminars online, you can even have the seminar handy as you are shooting. Instead of waiting to get your proofs back, you just look at the back of your camera. I agree with those who are telling you to be honest and upfront about your skill level. If you don't know what to do, there are plenty of online sources to help you with ideas and knowledge.

 

[Peeb]

I wasn't too interested with this until the crush thing came up.

NOW, we have something!

Carry on....

 

[Designer]

I'll try to make an update thread to show the results if it does end up happening!

Yes! Please do post the results!

If you don't want C&C, just say so with the post. Or if you do, you'll probably get C&C anyway.

Good luck!

 

[Derrel]

This could be interesting. I say shoot the set for her. Do you best, and make sure to shoot plenty of vertically-oriented shots on the closer-range stuff! There's NOTHING worse than a lot of landscape-orientation (meaning wide or horizontally-frame shots made with a 3:2 or 4:3 aspect camera) portraits done at close range, where the person is shown in the center of a frame,with two big, useless, empty, dead-space patches on either side of the head.

And yeah, it'd be nice to see a few shots posted, so we can see how things turned out.

If you watch a few videos, and really,really pay attention to them, you might do at least "okay" and maybe better than that. I dunno...we have zero idea about how well you can shoot photos!

If she's super-good in front of the camera, she might do well. I agree that, in today's world, high school girls' senior pictures tend toward "model portfolio" type stuff. And most of the girls want to look like they're 25 years old. So...try to flatter her with the camera.

Look for good lighting! Lighting,lighting,lighting. Keep the eyes ABOVE the centerline of a tall frame. Show a base for the head and neck--meaning, don't crop way too tightly in-camera! Save the cropping for later, in post!