Tag Archive for 'portraiture'

Spotlight interview with Kerry Singh of Faerytale Photography

Published
by
Tommy
on January 2, 2009
in Spotlight Interviews, advice on photography, babies and children
. 1 Comment
The creativity and beauty of Kerry's children's photography

The creativity and beauty of Kerry's children's photography

Sometimes, and actually quite frequently you run across someone’s work that really inspires you and for very specific reasons. Today’s guest is one of those people for me. She is Kerry Singh and like many of the wonderful photographers featured here on Pieces of the Picture, I found her on flickr. Her work is amazing. She is fairly new at all of this, but she is already doing amazing work.

What drew me into her work was two things. The simplicity of her portraits. The fact that they were portraits. Many today try to evoke emotion through their post production abilities and while Kerry’s got that, she does it through her lighting abilities, her composition and her manner of getting rid of the distractions. Her work is powerful. It is simple. It is emotive. It’s a breath of fresh air. And that is why she is here today to talk about her work and she has much to share with us. I hope you enjoy the interview and feel free to check out her photostream if you haven’t yet. But read this interview first!

Artful, emotive, fresh, stunning, inspirational. These are all words used to describe Kerry's work... and with good reason.

Artful, emotive, fresh, stunning, inspirational. These are all words used to describe Kerry's work. And with good reason!

P.O.T.P.: First of all Kerry, I am unbelievably excited about having you here today. You are an inspiration to me. I am sure you inspire others with your work as well. I just love your portraits so much and feel that we can all learn something from you today. So, tell us a little about yourself and how you got started in photography.

Kerry

Kerry

Kerry: I got my first digital SLR when my youngest daughter was born. She is four now. A friend had organized for a local photographer to come take some newborn pics of Imogen and when i saw the black and white photos, I thought, “Hey, I want to do this!”. My first photos were snapshots obviously and i had a real hard time understanding the concept of shutter speed and aperture and ISO and how they all related to each other. It has been a long journey. I can work the camera like I drive a car now, without thinking…but i have become quite lazy in terms of being creative. Its my new year resolution… well, one of… to be more creative!

More creative?! Wow, the rest of us have some catching up to do!

More creative?! Wow, the rest of us have some catching up to do!

P.O.T.P.: That’s amazing, you’re attitude about being creative. I think your work is so creative! Where are you from? Where do you live?

Kerry: I am originally British and used to be a high school teacher there. I taught English and Drama to 11-18 year olds for seven years before I started dating my husband who i had originally met at UNI ten years previously. Long story but when we fell in love I decided to move back to his country, Malaysia, where I have been for eight years now. I live in Kuala Lumpur presently, but we have plans to move to Adelaide in Australia within the next five years. I cant wait to get out and about in Adelaide, specifically the beaches and the countryside, to get some really cool location shots!!

P.O.T.P.: So, how long have you been a photographer?

Kerry: I would say I have been “professional” for about a year now.

P.O.T.P.: Okay, let’s talk about your work a little. You have some great processing and textures in your photography. Tell me about your thoughts and ideas behind the look you’re trying to achieve.

Kerry: Thoughts and processes behind the looks I am trying to achieve?!! Hmmm. A lot of it is just playing around. I do use a lot of actions, but not all actions work on all images. There is a lot of trial and error and if nothing works, I end up just editing from scratch myself. I find actions easy to use and don’t want to pretend I DON’T use them. I love using textures…they can really transform an image. I preferred unadulterated images when I first joined flickr, but have since been desensitized and seem only to be happy with images that are super bright or brighter than life. It’s not a very natural look but rather more attention grabbing!! I prefer to play with my own images a bit now too. But I don’t spend HOURS editing an image. Perhaps I should. I will…this year. I don’t have a conscious LOOK I strive for. But I guess there must be some kind of look/style in the images. It’s a difficult thing to talk about really - it would be like trying to describe how other people see you. What I see in my images is probably totally different from how others see them! I tend to think of my own photographs as being quite boring.

When i am doing portraits, though, I just obsess about getting the eyes in focus. As crystal as I can. I like faces too. I like to get quite close. Probably not close enough though. A lot of clients prefer to see the whole head in an image so I tend to be quite boring with my crops now. I like to shoot quite wide open too. I am pretty much mostly shooting indoors, so really need that low f stop anyway! I think that goes some way to the look my images have.

P.O.T.P.: Your small series of images where the girl is dancing in that large room where the light is shining through is very beautiful and you can almost hear music coming from the photograph is so amazing. talk about that session and what you were trying to achieve there.

Kerry: The series of images of the girl dancing were taken on the top floor of our home which is quite an empty area. The sun was setting and streaming through the window and so I grabbed my then five year old and told her to spin and spin. She was getting a bit fed up but I bribed her with something or other (probably chocolate)!! I just knew I wanted some kind of silhouette kind of shot with sunlight and I don’t get much chance to shoot outdoors here…Then when I uploaded the images I decided to play with some textures, probably mostly from Ghostbones and voila! I was quite happy with those images. It was around that time that I changed my flickr name to Lightsongs too. The name was inspired by those images!! I do have an obsession with sunsets…and evening light which is why i wanted to get those shots. In fact as I speak, there is the most amazing evening light again…where is my camera??

P.O.T.P.: Who is your typical client?

Kerry: My typical clients are kids. Or rather, kid’s mothers! I am not a full time photographer so i do not advertise, but rely on word of mouth. Some weeks are quiet and some are busy. I like it that way. I would most likely get bored and overwhelmed if it was a 6 day a week thing. I do have to be careful though as I can be a bit obsessive with the whole thing. The most important thing to me is my two girls, and there was a time when I was doing nothing but photographing and editing, and I was neglecting them a bit!! But yeah, 99% of my photos are of kids!! The product stuff is probably a couple of handbag shots. I like bags. But I don’t shoot them professionally!

Kerry has an amazing ability to make her subjects look natural, relaxed and gorgeous!

Kerry has an amazing ability to make her subjects look natural, relaxed and gorgeous!

P.O.T.P.: Do you prefer shooting indoors or outdoors?

Kerry: I would LOVE to be able to do more outdoor photography! I live in the tropics right now and there are a lot of mosquitoes plus its super humid. The outdoor sessions I have done have been murderous and you have to work super fast as the kids get fed up really quickly and end up with rivers of sweat running down their faces. Thus I tend to do most of my sessions indoors but it can become really really boring. I just spent a fortune on a puff stool to sit families and siblings on as I am so sick of seeing the same things in my photos. That is why I need to get more creative this year and also why I tend to try to focus on faces. I would LOVE to do location shoots more and incorporate the environment into the images but cant right now…Shooting indoors can be challenging regarding light. Mostly I am battling too much light or too little. I have a room with two huge windows at 90 degrees to each other - they provide a nice flat light which is good for the type of editing I do. If I want a more moody image, or have older kids/teens, I move to a side light area, for example, one window so there is some shadow to add depth. I try to keep my aperture around 2.8 or smaller as I have problems sometimes with focus issues! A two year old kid being photographed using a shutter speed of 125 and an aperture of 2.0 is a difficult subject to capture well!! It took me a long time to lighten up on myself. I would be so disheartened with how many out of focus shots I had! They were not out of focus, just had the focus in the wrong place!!! I am a lot more relaxed about the whole process now! I guess I am getting a bit more experienced right?!

P.O.T.P.: Yeah, I think all of that stuff comes with time for sure. Okay, what photographers inspire you?

Kerry: There are so so many photographers that inspire me. Annie Leibowitz is my absolute favorite famous photographer. But most of my inspiration comes from flickr photographers! Nichole Van was my first inspiration and I use a lot of her actions for my client work. Gosh, where to begin…I am inspired by so many. Tamara B, Mistybliss, Vaneska Thomz , Proverbs, you featured her a couple of weeks ago, ianton, oladios You seriously have to check out this girl’s work. Unbelievable. Beth Jansen, jinky (barbara uil). The list goes on. I need to discover some more varied artists. Most of my contacts seem to be children portrait photographers!!

P.O.T.P.: Well, I’m the same way! I love others who love what I love. My flickr contacts are the same way! What inspires you?

Kerry: My kids inspire me. And light. I wish I could get out into the light more. When we move to Australia my photography will change. There will more light. Color inspires me too though I never seem to get it quite right!!

P.O.T.P.: Where do you want to go from here in terms of your photographic abilities?

Kerry: I would definitely like to improve my photography a lot. I know I have a long long way to go. In fact I am rather surprised you have asked me to do this interview as I do not consider myself to be a good photographer at all. Not in the least. In fact, the more I learn, the more I realize I have left TO learn. I would like to do a lot more “fine art” type photography. When my kids are a bit older. There is plenty of time. All in time…

P.O.T.P.: That’s really interesting. Which leads me to my next question. Your images of your young subjects really seem to capture them in their natural moods, not necessarily happy. there are some sober expressions. how do you find is the easiest way of guiding your subjects?

Her young subjects may be serious, but they look natural and amazing!

Her young subjects may be serious, but they look natural and amazing!

Kerry: I don’t really guide my subjects. I just talk to them. I have conversations. And I blow raspberries a lot. The more somber images are probably of Olivia, my oldest. She is my muse!! She is a happy, silly child but for some reason when I turn the camera in her direction, she starts to pull these crazy serious faces that come across all moody! Its good as it makes for an interesting image in my mind. Her grandparents don’t like those kinds of pictures though. They prefer happy smiling ones!

P.O.T.P.: Any quick photography tips you’d like to share?

Kerry: Tips? I really don’t feel qualified to give tips! Seriously!! Oh I know. Always take LOTS of shots. I used to take an average of 600 per session. Now I try to keep it around 400. Unless the kids are particularly difficult in which case I will definitely take more!! You just never know! Another tip…for portrait photographers, always over expose a bit. Its easier to edit. Also, the LCD is not a useful indicator of what you get in RAW. I always always shoot raw. Oh, another tip!! It took a while for me to really understand the importance of this. I used to think it was a snobbery thing. But I would NEVER shoot in jpeg now. Never. Even though my exposures tend to be pretty much spot on 99% of the time, I just really like to know I have the info for every single pixel!! Anyway, as I was saying, the LCD shows the images in jpeg, I think, and thus is not a useful indicator of how your image will look once you have downloaded it and opened the file. Thus, wherever possible, i always over expose by a half to a stop.

Even her baby portraits are serious, however, it isn't hard to see that she can make them look amazing as well.

Even her baby portraits are serious, however, it isn't difficult to see how she can make them look amazing as well!

P.O.T.P.: Your dream photography assignment.

Kerry: My dream photography assignment would be to quite simply accompany Annie Leibowitz on any of HER assignments!

P.O.T.P.: Photographic rule you find yourself breaking most often.

Kerry: Not sure about rules I BREAK, there are not many. Perhaps the one about not hand holding the camera below certain shutter speeds. I have taken shots at ridiculously slow shutter speeds, though always make sure I take a lot of pics. I know i DO stick to certain rules though. Like rule of thirds and stuff like that. I also like to keep things simple. I like uncluttered backgrounds. I like to focus on faces and try to make the eyes draw the viewer in.

P.O.T.P.: I think that’s about it for today. Wow, I have learned so much and am excited about my photography again just talking to you. Thank you for the time you’ve taken with us and we wish you all the best and we’ll be looking for big things from you in the future!

Once again folks, thank you for checking us out and supporting us with your visits! We look forward to bringing more interviews with fantastic photographers to you on a weekly basis here on Pieces of the Picture. Got a suggestion? Drop us an email or here in the comments section.

Fifteen things you need for a great senior portrait - #7 - Location - Part 1

Published
by
Tommy
on December 31, 2008
in Fifteen Things You Need For a Great Senior Portrat, advice on photography, seniors and series wednesdays
. 0 Comments
This post will discuss in some good detail how important location is to your senior's portrait.

This post will discuss in some good detail how important location is to your senior's portrait.

In an earlier post, in this same series, I mentioned the scenario where you have a portrait of a senior leaning against a tree. Boring. Right? Yeah, it’s boring and it’s been done too many times. In this post, I will mainly discuss location portraiture. The topic is a nice scene. The location you pick for your senior should be interesting, dynamic and beautiful. It should be colorful or drab, both could work for your subject, but more often than not a colorful scene is better. The scene should really enhance your subject and bring them out. The scene should make you look at the picture and be blown away. It should be that great! The interesting thing about what I am saying, is that you don’t have to have the most beautiful location in the world. You can use many locations, as long as you know how to use them and use them to the best of your ability to bring out the best of that location which in turn brings out the best in your subjects.

The first thing I would like to discuss is location scouting. This topic could easily in itself be a blog post itself or even a series. There is so much to know and think about when picking locations and how you go about scouting locations. The truth is you could probably even write a book about the subject matter. But here we will discuss it briefly and bring out some good points.

My first suggestion is to keep a log of great locations. Don’t just drive by a cool location and say, hey that’s neat, I’ll have to remember that. Record it. Write it down. My suggestion, is take a picture of it. Put it on your laptop in a location folder, give good details about it and your own ideas for what it could be used for. Take several shots of the location and if possible at different times of the day. Then record in your folder, what time of day each shot was taken. Heck, even different times of the year might work well for some locations. This will give you a great catalog of places to go to when thinking of places to take your seniors. I would even suggest to go location scouting. Make a point to take trips solely for that purpose. Go down back roads, alleyways, country roads, etc. That way you won’t waste time when photographing your subjects. The other day, we were photographing a wedding and I had a great place in mind. Fortunately, I knew exactly where it was and was able to go straight there and get shots of the bride and groom without having to waste time trying to be clever and come up with a spot. I was prepared. And being prepared, is what you have to be if you are going to be a professional. Think about how much more prepared you’ll be to do a great job with locations and places to photograph if you already have places in mind to photograph.

Another great thing is whenever a client asks you to photograph at a new location that you’ve never photographed before. This happened to me recently when an engaged couple requested we photograph in a bell tower on the KU campus. (GO HAWKS!!!) They booked it for the fall and they said it’s absolutely beautiful that time of the year from that vantage point. They did the leg work for me, but trust me, I’m making note of it! It was gorgeous and the scene was incredible.

Some places are really cool, but you can’t just use these locations because they are on private property. You can’t just go onto their land and use their barn, for example. Actually, a while back, I did that and the owner drove by and asked me what the heck I was doing?! I was quite embarrassed and my client looked at me strangely as they assumed that I had gotten permission to use this beautiful location. Nope. I was kind of dumb, but I did get the shot.

As I learned the hard way, while this is a beautiful location, make sure you get permission first from owners to use their property!

As I learned the hard way, while this is a beautiful location, make sure you get permission first from owners to use their property!

If I ever want to go back there, I will definitely ask permission however. I think if the session is profitable, it wouldn’t even hurt to offer monetary compensation for using the location either. Though, I’ve never had to do that yet. I am sure that it will happen eventually however. So basically, when it comes to scouting location, go out and do it. Record what you find. Record details of the location, not just pictures. Get permission where necessary. Take suggestions from your customers.

One last thing. Make sure you get all types of locations. I have locations that range from rural barns and beautiful hillsides and luscious parks to urban scenes such as back alleys, church architecture and even run down buildings. Rusty warehouses work wonderful as well. You’d be surprised at what you’ll find, if you just look for it.

The second subject I would like to discuss about locations is safety. This may not seem obvious at first or occur to you, but if you find a really interesting location that you feel you just have to shoot at, consider the safety of your customer and yourself. Think ahead and be honest with yourself if a certain location will be safe for you after the sun goes down. Sometimes the coolest locations can be the most unsafe. There is some truth to the idea that certain areas of town are not necessarily the safest. Sometimes, even in the middle of the day, some parts of town may not be safe. The truth is, no matter how cool a location is, there is never an excuse for putting your subjects in danger.

Also consider a location like a open field. Caution should be exercised there as well. I once photographed in a field and the grass was very high and there were weeds everywhere. I didn’t consider it at the time, but there could easily have been a snake in the grass. It was a very wild area and I probably should have considered that before taking my clients out into the middle of it. Reasonable security should be taken when taking your client anywhere.

Also I would not suggest asking them to pose on things or near things where they may get hurt with the subject matter in the scene. I know this really cool old set of metal drums and ladders all on top of each other and it would make a great setting, but it is so rusty that it would probably be unsafe to pose anyone on it. I think that’s the way you get hepatitis C, right?! Okay, I just made that up, but be careful whatever you do and try using some common sense.

The next thing to consider is color. Make sure that your location, as cool as it is, matches your subject’s color. Meaning, make sure that it matches what he or she is wearing. You can color match or you can color complimenting. I’ll give you two examples.

The first was how I used color to color match. I was photographing Kendra for her senior portraits. One of her outfits, she was wearing a green sweater. I had an idea to go into the woods where she could match her surroundings. I used the green canopy of trees as well as the tall wild grass that was beneath her. The grass stood about knee length and vignetted her perfectly. It matched the St. Patrick’s Day standard green sweater that she was wearing. This was perfect color matching and if she had green eyes, I believe this would have been the only thing that could have improved this shot, color wise. So look for opportunities to match the color of your subjects with that of the scene. It’s a great way to improve any shot!

You can see how matching color, can make a dynamic affect on the portrait.

You can see how matching color, can make a dynamic affect on the portrait.

The next example is color complimenting. This means using colors that are opposite yet compliment each other. For example, red and green are complimentary colors. So an example of this would be to put Kendra who is wearing the green sweater and stick her in front of a red brick building. Or perhaps putting her in front of the green scene we just discussed if she were wearing a red sweater and a red hat. This would color compliment. It’s different from the color coordinating but can be just as powerful and interesting, if not more interesting. Below is a list of complimentary colors. Think of all the ways in which you could compliment your subjects wardrobe choice with a background of complimenting colors.

Red compliments Green
Orange compliments Blue
Yellow  compliments Purple
Yellow Green  compliments Red Purple
Blue Green  compliments Orange Red
Blue Purple  compliments Yellow Orange

Below is a helpful chart to help you get the idea.

The interesting thing about color is that it really doesn’t even have to be either of these, matching or complimenting but it can even be other colors as long as they match a theme. For example, if you had red, orange red, yellow, orange and pink shirts in a family, this could be considered to be a matching theme. While the colors themselves don’t match identically, they do match a theme. If you had all these colors and threw in a hunter green shirt into the group, this would not match. It would stand out like a sore thumb. The same can be said with colors in a senior portrait. You don’t have to color match or compliment, but you should strive to keep colors within a color scheme.

I’ll give you an example. A couple years ago on a senior shoot. Allison was wearing a darker blue blouse, blue jeans and she looked nice but casual. So my idea was to take her somewhere where I could match her color scheme. She had brown hair, so I thought, blue clothes, brown hair, so I’ll match her to a brown, rusty, red and black background. The scene was a back alley and not very appealing in itself, but in the senior portrait it was amazing. And color wise, it was perfect!

Subdued colors like blues and browns go great together and this was the perfect location for Allison's blouse.

Subdued colors like blues and browns go great together and this was the perfect location for Allison's blouse!

So you have three options, color matching, color complimenting and color scheme matching. These are your three best options for getting beautiful photos that will really have something beautiful about them. If you try something not in these directions, you will most likely not get as powerful an image as you’d like. You do have an option to convert to black and white, but if you go that route, you still need to consider your tonal values your clothing has. I would still however try my hardest to use color intentionally and strongly for the senior’s portraits.

Believe it or not, as long as this post has been, I am only half way done. I am going to stop here and continue this post next Wednesday as I do not want to overwhelm you in one post. The next post will continue to be part of the series on “Fifteen things you need for a great senior portrait.” So, be back next week for Color, part 2. If you are enjoying this series, please comment in the comments section and let us know! We took a break for a couple weeks to give you a short recess from the series but now we’re back and the plan is to cover the next five aspects before we take another short break and then return to finish it up.

15 things you need for a great senior portrait – #6 - Simplicity

Published
by
Tommy
on December 10, 2008
in Fifteen Things You Need For a Great Senior Portrat, advice on photography, seniors and series wednesdays
. 0 Comments

I spend the majority of my time photographing children rather than seniors, but I think the illustration I will use with children will work better to make my point rather than using seniors, though we are discussing photographing older teens.

Imagine a photograph with a young baby on a while backdrop and sitting on a white rug. Beautiful simple lighting. Beautiful simple clothing. Beautiful simple posing. Beautiful simple everything. Now picture the same beautiful child laying in a huge pile of assorted colorful, mismatched stuffed animals. Which one just from the explanation appeals to you more? Probably the simple one. The reason for this is using too much in a portrait to excite the senses actually has a reverse effect if not done appropriately. Instead of being so colorful that the viewer looks with bright eyes, they instead are confused and not amused. The goal of any image is to extract the correct emotions from the viewer. If the emotion desirous to be extracted is one of excitement and happiness, but all they see is clutter and confusion, regardless of how colorful the image is, they will not feel excited. They will feel frustrated.

The same criteria goes for senior portraits. In order for a senior portrait to really blow away the viewer, it has to be simple. This doesn’t mean that it can’t be complex. It only means it should be simple and not cluttered and unorganized. In a senior portrait, the main focus is the senior, not the things around the senior. For example, using instruments or sports gear is fine, as long as it compliments the senior, not overtakes and rules supreme and makes the senior a secondary figure. The senior without question should be the main focus of the image. If that senior has to compete at all for attention, then something is seriously wrong. Simple, clean, well constructed and composed images are what make great senior portrait photography stand out from the competition. Be loose or careless with composition and details and you will have a substandard image.

The idea is to create an image that is simple and to the point. If things in the image clutter and confuse it and distract from the main subject, the senior in this case, then it is crucial that you rearrange things, recompose or if need be remove it. The idea is to simplify until you have the strongest image possible. Distractions only weaken an image.

One last thing to consider. Have you ever cooked a steak on the grill? If you have a really great steak, all you really need for flavoring is a few spices. Maybe salt, pepper and garlic. A really great steak doesn’t need all 86 spices that are located on your spinning spice rack. I use to think that to make a really great steak, I needed to throw everything on it. But what I found is that the best steaks I have ever had were simple and to the point. Throwing everything else on it didn’t make it better, it actually ruined it. The best steak houses in America don’t throw tons of spices on a steak. They just get a great steak and give it the slight boost it needs. That’s it. The same is to be said of great senior portrait photography. There need not be chaotic complexity. There need only be good simple quality.

Thank you for your continued reading in our series “15 things you need for a great senior portrait“. Join us every Wednesday for a post in this series.

How to photograph an infant on their belly

Published
by
Tommy
on December 8, 2008
in advice on photography, babies and children
. 3 Comments

When it comes to infants, what you can do with them in regards to portariture is limited due to their lack of muscle strenth and their ability to perform normal functions such as holding their heads up. Sure you can prop them in mommy or daddy’s arms. Or perhaps you can have them hanging in a cheesecloth. And there are other inventive ways to photograph a young child in ways that will “ooh and ahh” your clients, however, these are not always options. Often times, your only real option is to pose the child by themselves in the portrait. One standard piece of equipment every portrait photographer should own, if they photograph infants and very young children, is a boppy pillow.

You can find these infant feeding pillows at Wal-Mart, Babies-R-Us or any store that has baby supplies.

You can find these infant feeding pillows at Wal-Mart, Babies-R-Us or any store that has baby supplies.

To explain exactly what a Boppy Pillow is before I continue, for those out there who may be unfamiliar, it is a pillow that wraps around the waist of the nursing mother and gives the feeding baby something to lay on and be propped up closer to the mother while they nurse.

I was unfamiliar with Boppy Pillows until we had our son Moses. My wife assumed everyone knew what a Boppy pillow was, but I never heard of them. However, after years of photographing infants on their bellies, I used everything I could think of to prop babies up a bit without hurting their tender tummies. It never occured to me to use a device such as this. However, after trying it out on an infant, I was hooked and never knew that photographing infants on their bellies could be this easy.

Of course, you’ll want to cover the pillow with material that will match the background or even use the background material if it’s something like a muslin.

As I’ve already stated, this may not be the trendiest thing to do as some photographers are really venturing out into very contemporary forms of infant photography such as Kelley Ryden, Carrie Sandoval and Jilly Kay, using all forms of textures and props and objects to put infants into. However, what I am teaching you today is for the basics of posing infants on their bellies. This is where to begin.

I am sure that if you were to look through any of their studios, you’d find that they too have a Boppy Pillow.

I will discuss in greater detail later about posing young babies, however this post is intended to instruct on the very basics of posing a baby on it’s belly.

Well, thank you for reading this post and if you found it helpful, please comment in the comments section.

Fifteen things you need for a great senior portrait - #5 - Good Clothing

Published
by
Tommy
on December 3, 2008
in Fifteen Things You Need For a Great Senior Portrat, advice on photography, seniors and series wednesdays
. 0 Comments

What I see in today’s dress usually falls within two camps. The first being very concerned with their looks that ranges from concerned to ultra vain. The second is the teen that doesn’t care a thing about the way they look. Often these kids dress completely messy and disorderly. These kids often times do actually care about their looks, they just try to portray themselves as not give a rip. It’s a form of rebellion towards the establishment and what society calls normal. They don’t want to fit into that, so they want to fit into and be accepted by others who are just the same way they are.

Choice of clothing is a very important aspect of senior portraits. Much thought goes into this by the senior. We as portrait photographers are there to help guide them in making good decisions.

Choice of clothing is a very important aspect of senior portraits. Much thought goes into this by the senior. We as portrait photographers are there to help guide them in making good decisions.

But another key for making a good portrait is that your subject wear the right warddrobe. This is in no way saying that we should seek to change their style but we should try to bring out the best in each subject and this means that we should have the right clothes for each image. We should match the clothing to the right mood of each individual portrait. I’m also not saying that you should dress every guy in a tuxedo and every girl in a prom dress but in order to get a truly great senior portrait, it is important to have the best possible clothing you can for each given situation. The clothing selection doesn’t have to be expensive, but it needs to be nice. Even when the photos will be more casual or grungy, even then the clothing should be prepared to look their best. Good clothing means whatever is chosen, it should be clean, ironed and repaired if need be. If clothing needs to be repaired, chances are it would be better if it were not used. By repaired, I mean cutting strings, or patching holes, or even add buttons where need be. This is usually not a problem as most teens will even buy new outfits for their senior portraits. But sometimes, some teens, especially some guys will want to wear the same t-shirt they’ve worn from junior high. They may think it’s cool but trust me, normally that’s the last thing mom and dad want to see in their son’s senior portrait. If they insist, keep the photo of the t-shirt to a minimum. Promise to do some in the clothing they choose but make sure that you photograph them in clothing that you know they will like as well as mom.

You don't even have to show all of the outfit to make a statement. Sometimes just a small part of the clothing needs to show in order to help set the mood of the photograph.

You don't always have to show the entire outfit. Sometimes just showing part of the clothing can help set the mood you are trying to get from your subject.

In order to get the best clothing choices, I would suggest having a clothing consultation with the senior before the session. Have them pick out three to five outfits for their session and ensure that it matches the scenes that you will be photographing. For example, if you are shooting casual studio portraits, attempt to match their clothing to the background. You might consider having them bring all white clothing in order to take a high key portrait of them in the studio. Or if you are taking urban portraits of them in a urban setting, consider having them bring their designer jeans and a rock concert t-shirt or whatever they would consider hip and trendy and casual. Make sure that whatever they wear matches the scene you are putting them in. Not only in terms of appropriateness, as far as how it matches the scene in mood, feel and casual or formal level, but also in terms of color. Make sure that their clothing matches the scene in terms of color scheme. You could color match or your could color compliment. Color matching is what I personally like to do. This means, the senior wears browns and reds and you place them in a scene with brown and red backgrounds, props and even lighting sometimes. Color complimenting is something that my wife prefers to do. Green and red are complimentary colors so while the senior may be wearing a green outfit, you might pose them in a red scene. This would be called color complimenting. Either way, keep the clothing simple. Don’t wear clothing that is too much busy or has too many patterns. Also clothing that is too trendy will date the photos quickly. Classic clothing like turtlenecks and sports jackets don’t age quickly and they will look great years later down the line. Also I would suggest not wearing clothing that shows too much skin. We want to emphasize what’s important in a portrait, the subject’s expression, eyes and smile, not their body. While you will show their body, we don’t want to still the show with the body, rather we want the subject’s smile to be the star of the show.

There are ways to portray your subject in a flattering manner without using sex to sell their portraits.

There are ways to portray your subject in a flattering manner without using sex to sell their portraits.

An interesting thing I heard a photographer say one time on the subject of senior girls trying to look too sexy is that a lot of girls want to come in and have the sexy shoes, the sexy skirt, the sexy top, the sexy pose, the sexy expression, you get the idea. She doesn’t want to be known for that type of photography, so if she sees the girl is just set on it and dying to wear these things, she lets them chose one, but she won’t use them all. She incorporates it into the entire look, not makes it the whole look. There is room for compromise, but when it comes to running a business, ultimately, you have to make the decision what sort of image you want to portray to public. After all, your name will be on that photograph and do you really want the general public thinking you take that sort of photography? There is a very well known portrait photographer in our area who is recognized year after year for his exceptional work with seniors. However, he has a reputation for photographing seniors way too sexy, even the boys. He actually has a reputation. To the point, that he addresses it on his website. If you want to go that route, that’s your choice, however my heartfelt suggestion is to not photograph seniors that way. After all, they are still children. There are ways to make seniors look cool and with the times; not cheesy and old fashioned, without using sex to sell your portraits.

The clothing choice made by the senior and yourself should be one that helps emphasize the senior and not draw attention to itself. The main purpose of the senior portrait is to show off their expression which in turn appropriately should show off their personality.

The clothing choice made by the senior and yourself should be one that helps emphasize the senior and not draw attention to itself. The main purpose of the senior portrait is to show off their expression which in turn appropriately should show off their personality.

We’ve discussed dressing nice for the portraits. I’d like to quickly discuss senior portraits that use grungy clothing. This look is very popular with many youths of our culture today. Grungy, emo or punk rock looks are staple in you culture, so we should definitely at least mention it in an article like this. You may think that if they clothing is grungy, that we don’t need to discuss how to make it look it’s best. You may think, “but it’s messy. It’s disorderly”. In a sense, this is true, but just like with everything else, it’s important that we try to make our subjects look their best. So if they are dressed in these types of clothing, makes sure you look at the small details and keep everything in the right places. Also when your subjects dress in such a way, make sure that your lighting and pose and scene and expression all match the wardrobe.

So, what makes a great portrait? Many things, but the right clothing certainly can make or break the portrait.

Join us every Wednesday for our series “Fifteen things you need for a great senior portrait“. Next week, we’ll simplicity in a senior portrait.

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