My First Senior Shoot

[wannabehorsephotographer]

I was sooo nervous about this shoot when they booked it a few months ago, but I think my photography has progress since then, and I ended up having a LOT of fun -the senior was so great! She has a gorgeous smile and was up for anything.
I would love any comments/critique on the shoot as a whole (on my Flickr). Here's a couple of my favs.

[SusieMet]

They look great. Keep up the great work.

[oldwolf]

first one is great.

i like the idea/composition of the second one but i think it makes her bigger than she really is. maybe it's the dress and how it drapes?

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Thanks for the comments. I had a really hard time not making her look bigger than she really is. She isn't super model thin, but I think it had a lot to do with her clothes - some angles just didn't work.

[shutterbug_wannabe]

Wannabe-I love them!! I looked at your flickr too, you did a great job on this shoot. I am doing senior pics now too as well as some family and kid shoots. I wish for as great a results as you got here. Keep up the good work. Did you use a 50mm on most of these?

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Thanks! I used my 50mm on all of them (Hope to get a good telephoto lens...someday). For super close face shots I just have to make sure I stay back a little and crop it close in pp or the face gets distorted.

[kimspics]

Oh my, they are great...How did you get the soft look in the first one...This is the type I want to take also. when you use your 50mm,do you manually focus? Please share your secrets!!!!

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Kimspics,
I can't remember the exact details, for the soft focus: duplicate layer up to filter>noise>median and blurred the shot quite a bit. I lowered the opacity of that layer until the detail from the original came through (probably around 20-50%). Then I erased over the eyes and mouth.
I hardly ever use the manual focus unless I need pinpoint accuracy. I have my camera set to auto focus on my center point, center the screen over my subject's eyes, push the shutter halfway and then recompose.

Oh, and thanks!

[sarahgirl777]

I enjoyed them, you did a great job, I'm sure she'll be happy (I looked at your flickr too). I have my first senior shoot coming up in a few weeks too, I'm a little nervous too. Hope they come out as good as yours.

[wannabehorsephotographer]

I'm sure you'll do great! I tried to stick to open shade as much as possible, and I took them early evening. That light is so perfect that I really didn't have to worry about the light and could concentrate on composition, interacting with the Senior, etc. I did take my strobist set up, but I only used it a few times for fill light when we were in the sun. I wish I would have had the nerve to try out some neat lighting effects, but I'm still so new at off camera lighting that I really tried sticking to good ol' mother nature
Just remember to take a deep breathe and have fun!