As photographers, we know that the right light is one of the most important parts of any image we capture. This is even truer for senior portraits.
When photographing seniors (or any portraits), our goal is to capture clear, accurate, even skin tones. And this can only be achieved by finding the perfect light. We learned quickly in our photography career that properly, evenly lit skin tones can make or break a senior portrait gallery.
For this reason, I prioritize beautiful light over almost anything else. Here are three of my tips to finding the “ideal” lighting scenario and creating gorgeous skin tones for your senior client’s images.
When working with high school seniors, it can be tricky to get them to look natural in front of the camera. We see so many photos floating around on Instagram of seniors who look like they are natural-born models, but the reality is that they have most likely never been in front of a camera before. I’ve learned that the way we pose our clients doesn’t just affect the way the images look; it actually affects the way that our clients feel.
If we put our clients in front of our cameras with no posing direction or poor instruction, they are going to be left feeling frustrated, insecure and anxious about their senior experience. This is the last thing that we want! If our clients are left feeling this way, it will affect everything about their experience, including the way that they view their images. Even if they look beautiful in the final product, they will always remember the way they felt when they were in front of your camera.
Know this:
1. It is my job as the photographer to make them look good. They don’t need to have any modeling experience to do a “good job” at their session.
2. I will not leave them hanging with no idea of what to do next. I will always be giving some type of instruction, direction or praise, so I don’t want them to think they’ll have to know what to do.