The light: golden, perfect
The subject: beautiful, photogenic, fun
The goal: senior portraits that don't look like everyone else's in her school

The result:


















While I'm really pleased with these, they're not perfect and I still want to grow! C/c welcome.

Great job on these. She is going to be happy with what you captured for her

Very nice...great lighting!

Outstanding! I like 'em all. They really seem to show her personality.

Bentley

One of the most solid senior sets I have seen in quite some time! Well done, Ryan!

(She's a stunner, for sure!)

she's gonna love them! She looks like a model!!

I can see why you're really happy with them. Great work!!

WOW! These turned out great! I love them! do you mind if I ask which Lenses you used?

Thank you for the comments, everyone! Sessions like this one remind me why I do this, and makes all those Saturdays I give up for weddings etc. worthwhile.



Sure, primary lens was the 17-55/2.8. In the first set (around the barn) I also used a 50/1.4, and for the city scenes I alternated between the 17-55 and a 70-200/2.8.

Ryan - Great job on these!

By the way, I have no idea what you are doing in your avatar, but it looks pretty cool.

Mark W.

Thanks Mark! Oh, and in my avatar I'm making shadow puppets.

these are awesome, your lighting is incredible. nice work!

Thank you -- nothing but natural light, I didn't have a flash on (or off) camera the whole time.

did you use a reflector?

Nope!

wow....very nice. The light seems to fall on her face in just the right way!

Well, that didn't happen by accident ... I did spend some time hunting for just the right light, and the right angles to shoot her from. But my philosophy is, if you can keep it simple (sorry Dane) why not?

Besides, less gear to carry is always a plus!

well I'm impressed. Great job.

And did you accomplish the goal of making these look different then all the other senior portaits the kids at her school had done?

I don't really know what a "standard" senior portrait looks like these days...

These are great! The only ones that I *don't* LOVE are the ones with her feet straight toward the camera, at zero angle. They make her legs look extremely short, and with her hands missing too, she looks like a war vet.
Overall, STUNNING!!

Wow, these are all great! The last one is my absolute favorite. I have nothing but love for your PP skills, btw. So crisp, clean and vivid. You'll have to walk us through a typical before and after sometime.

Ya know, I really don't know, but judging by what I see in people's houses around here, I think they'll be unique. (That said, I know there's some amazing work going on with seniors around the country right now, and in comparison these maybe be rather ordinary, but I think because we all see the most recent and exciting work posted by some of the world's greatest photographers here on OSP and other forums, we measure ourselves by that standard.) I think these will be fairly cutting edge compared to what her friends are having done.Thank you Carrie! I agree w. you about the ones with her feet pointed toward the camera, and I'll probably take those off my blog to be honest. (Another person not on OSP pointed that out to me as well.)

Looks like a fun shoot.

great lighting - great photos.


P

Well, here's a quick before and after. The 1st one is straight out of the camera (I could've nailed the exposure a little better). The 2nd one is after some tweaks in Lightroom, then into Photoshop. I think the post-processing was as follows:

1) selective dodging with Kubota's digital fill flash action
2) Kubota eye & teeth enhance
3) Derelict action (from TRA) dropped down to probably around 30%
4) Kubota edge burner
5) Kubota daily multivitamin
6) Kubota magicsharp

I have all those actions set up as hotkeys so I can rip through that process pretty quick. The eye & teeth enhance takes some time, but nothing too bad.

You know I think you are right. It is great that we subscribe to this wonderful forum called OSP but we forget that we are gauging ourselves against some of the very best in the world. Sometimes we strive so hard to "make" images in a style or to be compared to our mentors here that we overlook our inital goals a bit. I know I stuggle with the quality of my work on occasion because we see spectacular images day in/day out on this board. Even though photography is only part of what I do, I still feel like I can't compete (even though I'm not even in the same market).

Nonetheless Ryan, I think you have done an excellent job here with these senior portraits and hope that they satisfied the goals you set for yourself.

Golden!! Lov'em!!

Geanette

These are gorgeous! I'm sure she'll love them!

very solid man. i'm really digging them. the lighting is seriously perfect for natural light...way to harness the power of nature my friend. i haven't seen it harnessed so well since cpatian planet: episode 23, the oil spill.

really loving a lot of the poses and angles. the post processing is top notch crisp and colorful.

that last image is so spot on.

thanks for posting these.

It's a good thing, in my opinion... I'm CONSTANTLY trying to be better (and I believe I am succeeding... when I look at work I was putting out *and pleased with* a year ago, I cringe) and I'm constantly inspired. AND my standards are higher than my clients' standards, so if I'm pleased with the result, they will likely be as well.LOL!

You need to raise your prices again

i *thought* that is what you were doing! lol!

amazing photos! she is a beauty- but you really made her Beautiful!

Hi Ryan,

Great job! Great eye!
You just keep getting better and better.

Lowell

The light is perfect - what time of day was it?

These are beautiful! I love the shots from varying perspectives.

some of the best train track senior pics I have seen, usually don't like train track stuff

Love the eye shot!