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Nikon D3 Senior Pictures (C&C welcome)

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smhagger

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I haven't done many senior portraits yet in my career, but was contacted about shooting the senior below (who wasn't a fan of the idea at all--and it showed immediately when I first met with his mother yesterday). To me, the things that had me most worried about shooting the senior portraits were posing and lighting--ok, that just about covers everything! :biggrin:

My wife and I photographed him together. I wanted her to take more of the pictures, but did take over initially due to his mood. Once he loosened up a bit, she was able to take more pictures--we had two cameras going.

Here are some of the pictures from yesterday's session. I hope the boy and his mother are going to like the photos. Please let me know what you think.

















He began to lighten up--this pose was HIS idea--so we went with it...



The shots below are from my wife.



This one is one of my favorites from the shoot. My wife shot this one while he was working with me, looking at me. I like the off-angle gaze of this photo very much.



Sean
 
These look really good I would be interested in your wb settings and in camera color setting srgb or adobe also standard or neutral
 
Thanks for the positive feedback. I'm just glad things wen't so smoothly, especially given the subject's 'less than relaxed' composure at the beginning of the shoot.

These were all shot with Nikon D3's, 105 DC and 70-200 VR (mostly). White balance was courtesy of a Whibal card shot at the location of the picture and later corrected in Capture One. One SB800 on a flash bracket set to TTL-BL, -2/3 EV on the flash. All shots were at f/5.6.

The last picture (the B&W) I know was taken with the 105 DC lens. I'd have to look at the EXIF data for the others to be able to tell you which was which on those...

Sean
 
Thanks for the comments: I always shoot in sRGB. These were shot in 'Portrait' color mode (though it won't matter--see below) along with auto WB.

Since I process all my pictures in Capture One and not Nikon Capture NX, the color mode won't make a difference when post processing the files in Capture One. The WB was later corrected from a reference photo shot under the same lighting conditions (it turned out to be around 7300K to 8200K depending on where he was standing).

Hope that helps,

Sean
 
Mike,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure if you like the WB so much as the way Capture One converts colors (I may be wrong, but just trying to highlight the fact that these were not processed the same way 75+% of the pictures on this forum are so you may be 'liking' the Capture One conversion moreso than the WB settings...).

Sean
carauction said:
nikond2000 said:
These look really good I would be interested in your wb settings and
in camera color setting srgb or adobe also standard or neutral
Click to expand...
Yes. Same here, I like the WB.

mike
Click to expand...
 
I use NX to do my WB adjust prior to CS3 and seems to work well but would love to have it down better..Even though I shoot a white bal card it seem pics still come out tooo yellow at times....Tough to get on the money,.....

Lets talk about flash bracket...What type are you using and how well do you like...Could you take a picture of your D3 with the bracket in place along with flash...I have been thinking about doing this, but unsure of the results,,,,Yours look great and would like to buy this tom....Thanks
 
...all are underwhelming here. If I may be frank, every single one of these is, to varying degrees, dull. I know it's tough when you have a reluctant or recalcitrant subject, but that's just two aspects working against you (subject and posing). Location, lighting and composition are still up to the photographer, and even just being creative in post could enliven these images a good deal.

FWIW, when I have a difficult subject, I don't even both getting out the camera and lighting gear until I've found a way to connect with him/her, even if that's just an explicit acknowledgement that they'd rather not be there but that it's my job to make something good of the situation. In this case, having two photographers might not have been the way to go. Either one of you alone might have been better able to relax this kid and coax something nice from him. Having done it several years ago myself, I can attest to the fact that senior portraits, like most types of portraiture, is much harder work that it seems. But I assume you want honest feedback, so please take my criticism constructively, as it's meant to be. Don't leave your parts of the equation–location, lighting, composition–to chance, so that even if your subject isn't so great, the results will at least be something more than they could have gotten themselves with a camera on a tripod and a self-timer.
smhagger said:
I haven't done many senior portraits yet in my career, but was
contacted about shooting the senior below (who wasn't a fan of the
idea at all--and it showed immediately when I first met with his
mother yesterday). To me, the things that had me most worried about
shooting the senior portraits were posing and lighting--ok, that just
about covers everything! :biggrin:

My wife and I photographed him together. I wanted her to take more
of the pictures, but did take over initially due to his mood. Once
he loosened up a bit, she was able to take more pictures--we had two
cameras going.

Here are some of the pictures from yesterday's session. I hope the
boy and his mother are going to like the photos. Please let me know
what you think.

















He began to lighten up--this pose was HIS idea--so we went with it...



The shots below are from my wife.



This one is one of my favorites from the shoot. My wife shot this
one while he was working with me, looking at me. I like the
off-angle gaze of this photo very much.



Sean
Click to expand...
--
- -
Kabe Luna

http://www.garlandcary.com
 
Thanks for the comments Kabe--I appreciate the feedback. Just some more details: the mother had chosen the two locations (the farm and then the flower garden) so the 'overall' locations were already chosen as well--though I tried to spot out the better places at these chosen locations. The sun was out and very bright as well (cloudless sky) so I chose the shade of the trees rather than the brutal sunshine.

Posing I thought turned out 'ok' on some of the poses (the ones on the tree)--though they could be better on the others (where he is dressed up somewhat).

I did spend some time talking to him a bit prior to the beginning of the shoot--without the camera. Conversation went fairly close to what you described--this helped down the stretch for him to lighten up a bit and start to work with me.

Now, I am totally open to any useful resources you are willing to suggest to help me 'grow'--I'd very much appreciate the advice. I feel I need to grow most in posing, lighting and composition so I would be grateful for any places you can point me to (feel free to send me an email if you don't want to post here).

Thanks,

Sean
Kabe Luna said:
...all are underwhelming here. If I may be frank, every single one of
these is, to varying degrees, dull. I know it's tough when you have a
reluctant or recalcitrant subject, but that's just two aspects
working against you (subject and posing). Location, lighting and
composition are still up to the photographer, and even just being
creative in post could enliven these images a good deal.

FWIW, when I have a difficult subject, I don't even both getting out
the camera and lighting gear until I've found a way to connect with
him/her, even if that's just an explicit acknowledgement that they'd
rather not be there but that it's my job to make something good of
the situation. In this case, having two photographers might not have
been the way to go. Either one of you alone might have been better
able to relax this kid and coax something nice from him. Having done
it several years ago myself, I can attest to the fact that senior
portraits, like most types of portraiture, is much harder work that
it seems. But I assume you want honest feedback, so please take my
criticism constructively, as it's meant to be. Don't leave your parts
of the equation–location, lighting, composition–to chance, so that
even if your subject isn't so great, the results will at least be
something more than they could have gotten themselves with a camera
on a tripod and a self-timer.
Click to expand...
Kabe Luna said:
- -
Kabe Luna

http://www.garlandcary.com
Click to expand...
 
nikond2000 said:
I use NX to do my WB adjust prior to CS3 and seems to work well but
would love to have it down better..Even though I shoot a white bal
card it seem pics still come out tooo yellow at times....Tough to get
on the money,.....

Lets talk about flash bracket...What type are you using and how well
do you like...Could you take a picture of your D3 with the bracket in
place along with flash...I have been thinking about doing this, but
unsure of the results,,,,Yours look great and would like to buy this
tom....Thanks
Click to expand...
I'm using the RRS Wedding Pro Bracket ($150, plus the need for the L-Bracket, $183). Visit http://www.reallyrightstuff.com and click search under the flash brackets to find it (pictures are on the site). It works very well and folds up nice and flat.

Sean
 
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