It’s only January and most high schools have about 100 days of classes to go, but I’ve already begun receiving inquires about senior photos for members of the class of 2011 and I am in the process of signing up models from the various schools. A lot of seniors are already looking at studios to decide where to have their senior photos made and there are a lot of factors to consider. With the dearth of new studios which seem to pop up every day, it’s very important for a senior to examine their options and know what goes into creating great senior photos.
Over the next few posts, I’m going to discuss a little bit about senior photos, what to look for in a studio and what questions you might want to ask prospective photographers. Hopefully this series will be both fun and helpful and if anyone has specific questions or has an idea for an article, just leave a comment and let me know. =)
I’m going to kick off this series with an article on photo editing and retouching – two of the most important aspects of photography, especially when it comes to seniors.
There are two phrases every professional photographer hears repeated over and over again throughout his or her career.
“That camera must take great pictures!” and “I wish I had a camera like yours so I could take photos as good as you!”
I, like most of my colleagues, just smile and nod, but inside we all know the truth. When it comes to taking truly great, professional photos, the camera is one of the smallest pieces of the puzzle.
A lot of pieces go into making a great photo. Posing, lighting and locations are the three things that most people think of right off the bat. I’ll discuss all of those in a future article, but right now I want to talk about what happens after the shutter is released and the photo has been taken. Editing.
A lot of photographers don’t edit senior photos. If they do, they only edit the ones that are purchased as large prints or they charge clients for their editing services. I completely understand that, as doing editing well requires a lot of time and for the studios that photograph hundreds of seniors, “time is money”. Other photographers may lack the talent required to do professional level photo retouching, so they simply give the clients the photos unedited and “straight out of camera”.
I prefer to give show all of my clients what their photos can look like after editing and retouching, so I edit every single proof photo (which can range from 30 to 75 or so depending on the length of the shoot) and I do retouching for blemishes on a dozen or so others. I then further retouch every photo that the client gets printed, even if it’s just at a wallet-size, free of charge.
As a photographer who also considers myself an artist, I think it’s important to create a photo that looks absolutely amazing. And even though I use very high quality professional cameras, lenses and lighting equipment to create the photo, the original images – straight from the camera – lack that something special that makes a good photo great. So, I’ve worked very hard over the past two years to not only improve my skills as a photographer, but to also become a professional at image editing and retouching.
Editing includes things like adjusting contrast, color density, exposure and color temperature to make the image look its best. There are a lot of ways to do that. Many photographers use photoshop and use “actions” which can quickly edit several photos with the click of a mouse. Some actions are okay, but I’ve found that most become dated very quickly and the ones from just a couple years ago already look cheesy. While it saves a lot of time, actions typically aren’t the best option.
Below are two sample photos of an edit achieved using photoshop actions. The one on the left is perfectly acceptable and is similar to the work that most photographers deliver. The one on the right is a really popular, desaturated style that I see frequently, but I think it’s often done too sloppily and as a result gives the person in the photo zombie-like skin.
Here are two more copies of the same photo. The version on the left is how it looks straight from the camera with no editing whatsoever. The version on the right is my edited version of the photo, which is the version I gave to my client.
I don’t use photoshop for regular editing, instead editing every photo individually using digital photo developing software, which I find gives the best results for my style. It takes longer, but it’s worth it and of the four versions of the photo posted above, I like mine the best. Hopefully you do too. 
Black and white photos are increasingly popular amongst high school seniors and I personally love black and white photography. Although it sounds easy to make a black and white photo, making one that looks great takes work. Many photographers will simply convert a photo to black and white or grayscale as quickly as possible in photoshop. I prefer to create black and white photos which have much more depth, contrast and pop. Again, it works better for my style of photography and my clients love it.
Below, on the left, is a regular black and white. On the right is my edit of the photo with a custom black and white conversion.
Retouching a photo is an art form in itself. Many photographers will use a soft focus filter technique to “fix” a senior’s skin. But in reality, all that really does is blur the entire photo. Photographers spend thousands of dollars on lenses to get sharp photos, but blurring the photo destroys that. It’s much more effective to retouch every photo by hand. Again, it takes more time, but who wants their senior photos to look like they were shot through a piece of gauze? 
Especially when dealing with high school seniors, I want to make their skin look as good as possible without looking blurry and overdone. I retouch by hand and the difference definitely shows. Every senior benefits from some retouching, even those with great skin. It makes the photos look more professional and is a big part of my style of senior photography.
Below are two copies of a close up photo. Obviously the subject is very attractive and has good skin. But a bit of retouching takes the photo to the next level.
But bad retouching is almost worse than none at all. On the left is a soft focus edit, which is what a lot of photographers do because it makes the photos easy to edit quickly. The right is my edit. I think the difference is considerable.
When looking at senior photographers, be sure to ask to see sample of their editing work and how they retouch photos. Make sure what they do fits what you want and like and ask about editing fees.
Hopefully that gives everyone an idea of how choosing a photographer who is very skilled at photo editing can take good senior photos and make them great. If you choose the right senior photographer, you can be assured will receive images that you’ll love for years to come and won’t be cheesy and dated when the current fads fade away.
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