I love photographing high school seniors because I’m able to be more creative. There’s a lot of variety that we can create in the studio in a short amount of time too. While teaching at Texas School recently, I photographed this beautiful model, Ashton. She was great and we got some killer images.
Because Texas School involves training photographers for a week with hands-on shoots, we bring in models so that the photographers in attendance can practice the new concepts they’re learning on real models. So while training photographers in Texas on lighting, expression, posing, and more, I’d demo specific concepts for a few moments and then let the other photographers shoot. That means that my actual shooting time is short – only segments of 5 minutes here and there. I set it up so that the photographers taking my course try things for themselves with the models.
I’m always excited to show that even in these short times with the models, I end up with images with exquisite lighting, perfect exposure and color balance, that also incorporate real and genuine expressions. So yes, even in that short amount of time I have a lot of images to choose from, all great. That means if you incorporate these techniques yourself into a full shoot, you’ll get far more variety and better images in a shorter amount of time.
Here are some of my top favorites of Ashton.
In the image above, I created a custom art piece by mixing textures with some creative editing. Those techniques mixed with her expression makes for a very captivating portrait. Then below, I did some custom color toning for another unique image.
These were part of my first quick shoot with Ashton, were I photographed her on deep blue with a variety of lighting styles. Notice that we have a mix of poses and expressions while the lighting and technical details all remain perfect.
Then before she left, I did one more quick shoot of her in a new outfit and on my fashion grey background. These images were strong individually, but I also liked them in sets of three to show movement and personality.
I love training photographers to do better, teaching creativity mixed with solid techniques. Ashton was a great model and I love the images we got. If you want more training like this, check out my online courses here, and also come to one of my in-person training events near you.
And until next time, America.