Pieces of the Picture

Today on our series, “Fifteen things you need for a great senior portrait”, we are discussing point #2, Great Expression.

As you probably know, we are featuring this series every Wednesday. With that, let’s get started!

For most photographers who work in the national portrait photography chains, expression is the #1 most important thing you need to get a great portrait. There are two main reasons for this. The first being that almost everything is already set up for them. The lights, camera settings, backgrounds are all “preset”. The photographer is trained to look through the viewfinder. They are taught basic composition and then from there they are supposed to try to get good expressions from the customers and then snap the shutter. Everything in these types of setups are normally “canned”. The lighting is the same for all customers. The f-stop as well as other camera settings are all fixed as well. The job of the photographer is to compose a nice grouping, engage the customer and get a pleasant expression from them and then finally take the photograph.

While this really hinders the photographer from really learning much about photography, it does teach them valuable lessons on the basic rules of composition and expression and interacting with people. When you are in business for yourself, you must know all aspects of the art of photography, not just knowing how to get the expression and how to compose a good grouping. You must be fluent in lighting, exposure and focus and processing and everything else. The guess work is not taken out. You have to figure that part out. But I think that’s why while these photographers are handicapped from learning all there is to know about photography, they are usually very talented at getting their subjects to smile. If you do something day in and day out, you usually become fairly adept at it.

You can't go wrong by getting a real and genuine smile from your subjects!

Expression is one thing that all good portraits as well as senior portraits need. Think about each of these types of portraits: children, families, weddings, seniors and even fashion. They all must have great expressions to be great portraits. Each varies and the methodology of getting the right expression for each varies, but each is equally important.

In senior portrait photography, this is no exception. In fact, in my opinion, one of the MOST important aspects is having a great expression; something that engages and moves the viewer. When I say expression, I don’t only mean smiles. While smiles are 90% of what makes a good portrait, sometimes the serious, sober expression can be just as strong and powerful. I heard a statistic once that said that 95% of all senior portraiture taken in America is of girls. I wouldn’t say it is that high personally but as a whole, this may be true, because our own personal percentage is pretty close to that. With senior girls, most of the time, a smile is the best option. There are times to get those serious expressions and sometimes, they truly are the best options. A sober look can be powerful sometimes. It can border on being sexual, which I personally don’t want to do in our portraits, but it doesn’t have to come across that way.

Seniors are going through a lot at their age. They are going from childhood to adulthood. A lot of responsibility is being put on them and a lot of changes are going on with them at this age. While most parents want to see their children smile, even in their older teens, the smile is not always the best expression to get. Smiles are great but so are serious looks. I certainly am not saying that all portraits should be serious, no matter how serious the child is, but it should not be ruled out either. There should almost always be some serious expressions in every senior portrait session.

A serious expression should be a part of every senior portrait session.

Most girls will know how to smile without you having to draw it out of them. Boys on the other hand sometimes need a little more coaxing and coaching. A tendency with a lot of boys is to try to look tough in all their portraits. They may not even want to smile in any of them and while this may actually work for some or even most of their portraits, the last thing you want to show mom is an unhappy boy. Most parents think about their kids as they were when they were two years old. Their little boys who used to smile and laugh all the time and now all they want to do is look tough in their portraits. Girls may want to look sexy or seductive, but my opinion is that while this to some very slight degree is acceptable, senior girls are still girls and you should try to make them look like their age, not ten years older. In my professional opinion, senior portraits should be age appropriate. While you want to make your customers look older and more mature, mom and dad still see their daughter and son as daddy’s little girl or mama’s baby boy. In fact, if you think about it, don’t you ever hear parents talking even about their adult children, saying things such as, “that’s my boy or I’m so proud of my little girl”. They are neither, they are adults, but that’s the way that parents talk and think about their children. And there is nothing wrong with that. And while we want to make their children look good, attractive, even mature; we don’t want to cross the line and make them look like “sexy grown adults”. That’s my own personal conviction. I am sure that some reading this will disagree, but I think that if you can find the line between adult and child and make them beautiful, you will have very happy parents and satisfied seniors. Now, for most girls and a good portion of the boys, smiles will usually be the best option and the easiest expression to get from them. With seniors, there isn’t a lot you often have to do to get the smiles. You can joke around with them or ask them to think about different things like their boyfriends or girlfriends. That usually will get very good smiles. Something I will get boys to smile by saying, “Say Babes,” they say babes with smiles on their faces, then I’ll say, “Say babes with money”. Just silly stupid stuff like that will get great expressions from the guys. But if you are going to be around your seniors for a while, then you can’t reasonably ask them to say things for every photo, nor could you most likely come up with all sorts things for them to say, so you have to keep the conversation going. Get on their level. Talk about what interests them. Ask them about their hobbies, sports, band, etc. If they feel you can relate to them in a good way, then you will get them comfortable with you. And what really helps is being able to be silly in front of them. If you are funny and can be silly and comical, most young people will really appreciate that and smile really good for you. Be real. There is no need to put on a show or have a stand up routine, but it just helps if you are naturally funny and engaging. Trust me, this will get the best expressions, even from teens that normally don’t like to smile, boy and girls. A lot of young people are proud of themselves and confident, but most are very self conscience. Those that seemingly have it together are normally pretty insecure as well. There are few in that age range that have it together and are comfortable with who they are. So, this being said, most seniors will need some encouragement the entire way through the session. Continually compliment and tell them how great they’re doing. Don’t be phony, but if you think it looks good, tell them! If you think a smile looks awesome, tell them! Sometimes I get so excited with what I see on the back of the camera, I seriously will jump around and do cartwheels, screaming and hooping and hollering. I will make it abundantly clear that I am extremely excited about how good they’re doing. And they feel that the photographer thinks that they’re doing great, then that will certainly give them confidence in you and in themselves and it will bring about relaxed and natural expressions, weather they be serious or happy.

Expression is something that can make or break a portrait. An engaged happy expression with please both the senior as well as the parent.

Now, sometimes, teens are self conscience about their smiles, because of crooked teeth, a crooked smile, squinting too much when they smile. While all of these are valid reasons to be self aware, you want to make sure that you explain to the senior that while you know that it is a big deal to them, it may not even be noticeable to others. And that while you will try to camouflage and not show those imperfections, you still want them to relax and give you a natural smile. If they are holding back, that will look much worse than if they gave you a genuinely happy smile with crooked teeth. Be aware and sensitive with their concerns, but do your job and assure them that they can put their trust in your expertise.

Most guys like to look tough for their senior portraits, but getting a great smile will really please mom and the guys will usually be suprised how much they like how they look when they do smile for some of them.

So, to wrap this up, in order to get truly impressive senior portraits, you must have great expressions. And if you have many exposures, the likeliness is that you will have your fair share of good expressions caught. So take lots of pictures. Have fun! And if you have so much fun that they forget the camera’s there, you will get great expressions.