Senior Pics with a twist. New territory for me.

I was going up to shoot a motocross event in WY and was asked by a few of the kids to do their senior pictures. This is my first ever senior shoot. I am terrified every time I shoot this sort of thing because I am not sure of what people want or expect. Here is what I came up with. I have been pushing myself to do more shots of people and staged shoots. Instead of my usual action event stuff. Shooting action sports sort of flows. You anticipate what will happen and then try to capture what unfolds before your eyes. Luck and timing are key. But your position greatly increases chances of getting the goods. Shooting people like this is opposite. You set up the whole shot then try to capture it under much more controlled conditions. Luck has little to do with it. It is all about posing the subject not yourself. It scares the crap out of me! I would rather get sprayed with rocks.

What do you think? I think each of these could still use a little work on backgrounds. But I didn't want to get too crazy with cloning things out.

1.
http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...50693968-4.jpg

2.
http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...50694400-4.jpg

3.
http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...52429616-4.jpg

4.
http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...52942424-4.jpg

5. I may or may not clone out the trailers. They are such a part of MX racing.
http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...52951168-5.jpg

6.
http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...52953246-4.jpg

7. We did a few cool shots on the track too!
http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...52896634-4.jpg

8.
http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...52896846-4.jpg


9.http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...52944966-4.jpg

10.
http://www.theinfinitymachine.com/im...52958816-4.jpg

Very cool!

What was your lighting setup?

The posed shots are good !
2 and 5 may need a bit more attitude , stand up straight

and the track shots outstanding !! specially #8

Thanks guys!

Light setup was a combo of Einstein and Nikon flashes. I used a few different modifiers. A 60" umbrella for a few shots and a PCB 22" Silver Beauty Dish for a lot of them, either as a main light or back light/ hair light. I also had a Wescott softbox for a flash in a few shots. And a bare flash in some shots.

I feel the same way about doing these kinds of things and I'm also trying to improve since folks want to pay for them and if done well can be pretty cool.
Yours are really nice! Especially the track shots but 1, 3, 4, and 6 are great!
So is there a flash in the dirt in #7? That's really nice. What kind of sync speed do you get?

Overall great job!

By 'senior' do you mean high school seniors, pics they want to pass out to friends and family? If so, I'd think then that they want to be identifiable, so to me the riding shots don't work in that context. I'm sure they asked for them, but when they figure out nobody can see them, they may not order any of those beyond one or two keepers for home.

I don't like the background on #5, even though that's part of the scene at an event, it distracts from the subject.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wfooshee

By 'senior' do you mean high school seniors, pics they want to pass out to friends and family? If so, I'd think then that they want to be identifiable, so to me the riding shots don't work in that context. I'm sure they asked for them, but when they figure out nobody can see them, they may not order any of those beyond one or two keepers for home.

I don't like the background on #5, even though that's part of the scene at an event, it distracts from the subject.

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Not sure how to take this critique. But I guess that is your point of view on it.

I agree with you on the trailers in #5. I might clone these out of the background if she chooses to use it. I am on the fence about it context or not.

Mattb I think I used 1/200 and 1/250 in all of these. The Einsteins will sync up to 1/8000 if I use them at full power. At 1/2 power, I can only do 1/250. The duration is way too short. It is a new strategy for me shooting without HSS. I am very used to my Nikon flashes syncing at any speed. The hardest part is balancing ambient light and stopping action.

There's a few in here that I think have a lot of potential, however some look a bit too posed. I feel you're pain. I really enjoy doing candid/journalistic shoots, but fail when it comes to posing. I think some of these would really benefit from a bit of grunge being added to them. Mind if I post an edit?

Sure N8 lets see whatcha got for ideas on these.

I used Viveza to pull the saturation and crank the structure (tonal contrast), then used some graduated filter to darken the tunnel. I tweaked the saturation down a bit more once back in PS, an actually bumped the vibrancy up. Did a little masking on the guys face and upper body to lighten him back up from the ND.

I like it. It is a new look for sure. It might make it too hard for a kid for a senior pic. But none the less it is a cool look. I suck at PS. Unless I need to do lots of cloning, skin smoothing or high pass sharpening I use LR for everything. I got the new CS6 when it was on super sale and I just need to get a book on it and make myself use it. In PS6 days I was a fricken ninja with it. Now.........I just like LR I guess I have gotten lazy.

N8, I did something a little in between on 3 check out the update.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by zerodog

I like it. It is a new look for sure. It might make it too hard for a kid for a senior pic. But none the less it is a cool look. I suck at PS. Unless I need to do lots of cloning, skin smoothing or high pass sharpening I use LR for everything. I got the new CS6 when it was on super sale and I just need to get a book on it and make myself use it. In PS6 days I was a fricken ninja with it. Now.........I just like LR I guess I have gotten lazy.

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Such is the beauty of plugins ;) I'm a huge fan of the Nik stuff, and you can get to it from LR. Yours looks good.