Right now our world has been turned upside down in the United States. For me, this means no more photography sessions until after non-essential businesses are allowed to work in Texas. For those of you with seniors in the house, it means your senior is not able to participate in various events such as prom, senior photos, and all the other end of the year fun. This blog post is for you to help capture their senior photos to help add some normalcy to this crazy time!
Tip #1 The Best Lighting
Lighting is essential for capturing the best photos, especially with phones. The best lighting is rarely direct, harsh lighting (this includes your phone’s flash!). As a photographer, I always love to shoot in the morning or late afternoon since it offers an even lighting for photos. For example, the sun rises tomorrow at 6:57am in my area, therefore, I would want to schedule a shoot between 8am and 10am. Sunset is 8pm so I would look at shooting around 5pm or later. When I cannot shoot at the time I would like, I look for shade or cloudy days to help diffuse the light.
Tip #2 Where to Go
We are more limited on locations right now due to COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean we cannot have great photos! If your area still has parks open, you can look for trees, lakes, and creeks to take photos by. Downtown areas can have interesting aesthetics that fit your senior’s interests better as well. If you cannot go anywhere, brick walls, fences, and bushes can be backgrounds too. Try shooting from an angle like the photo below or having your senior step away from the background 3 or 4 feet.
Downtown Senior session
Try shooting at an angle or looking down!
Tip #3 Bring Their Interests
Does your senior play guitar or sports? Do they love to read or dance? Do they love their car? Interests can be shown through their photos in many ways! If they love the Harry Potter series, you can stack the books next to your senior. If they love to play guitar, have them sit down and play. Checking Pinterest for ideas may lead to some fun photos!
Tip #4 Use Your Feet as Your Zoom
Repeat after me, “I will not use the zoom on my phone. I will use my feet instead.” Zooming in on phones rarely can make a photo better. Honestly, I would rather crop a photo on my phone than ever zoom in with my phone camera. The photos become blurrier or grainer when you use the zoom function, which you may not even notice until you put it on a computer or announcement.
Tip #5 Get Your Senior Involved!
Most seniors will be able to find poses and ideas online that they will love within minutes of being asked (especially the girls). Or they may have some interests they want to include in the photos. It will make them more invested in taking the photos and it can help make it a more memorable experience! If neither of you knows where to start, search “Senior Portrait Poses” on Pinterest!
I hope these tips can help you capture great memories for your seniors during this time of social distancing! Remember to consider hiring a local photographer (maybe me if you live in DFW!) when possible to help support your local small businesses!
A Couple Tips for Parents With DSLR Cameras
#1 Shoot in aperture priority at a low number to help blur the background. Your aperture at F 5.6 or lower would be best. Not sure which one is the aperture? Look for the decimal number!
#2 Try stepping back and zooming in! Unlike phones, zooming in on your camera can actually help your images in some cases by adding compression to the photo. This does depend on the lens you have so if you don’t like the way it looks, do not feel like you have to!