Photographing Younger Teenage Girls - Help!

[Ginger Pixie]

Hoping someone could offer me some advice.

My daughter is almost 14, and whilst she has been great practice for me in taking portraits, she's quite a poser and wants to wear make up etc for the shoot.

I'm worried that she will appear too old...

Is this a common minefield? How can I take photos of her that she likes, that aren't too old looking? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here is an example of a photo I am not sure about...

[idcrewdawg]

In that photo she looks to me to be somewhere between 14 and 17. I find the youth is in the eyes. I don't know that she looks too old.

I would venture to say even if you weren't having this issue with the photo's you might be having it anyways. The strive by young people to appear older than they are, and more grown up therefore they must be more responsible and independent.

[oldwolf]

Sorry to say but she looks pretty young in that picture hehe. I would have guessed 13-15 with her pushing 15 in that picture.

There's another photographer my wife and I know that takes fashion photos. He had to shoot a model once that was 14 or 15 and the pictures made her look about 21. That's the look they were going for though. They had a great support team though, MUA, hair and wardrobe stylist. She's signed with an agency so power to her and her parents. *shrug*

Like id says, kids are always going to want to seem older and I think your daughter's make up is pretty tame at this point. Wait a couple more years and it will get worse hehe.

Oh as a side note, my niece is getting into her teenage years. If I had my way, I'd lock her up in a convent until she was about 40 but that's just me being the over protective uncle.

[private]

its funny - when we are young we want to look older, but when we are older we do everything in our power to look younger.

And its really hard for a mother to see any of those changes. And make-up, if applied properly will make a person look like themselves not like someone they are not. BTW, what a beautiful Darling Daughter you have there. Andno, she doe snot look older than she is - at least not to my eyes.

[Ginger Pixie]

Thanks guys, that has helped to put my mind at rest.

It's hard to be objective sometimes when it's your own! Since I'm very careful about what she does on the internet, I thought I should think about what I was doing too!

She'll always be my little girl in my mind!

[Swisstony10]

I don't think she looks any older than she is in that shot - she just looks beautiful.

High-key lighting is good for accentuating youth, or giving a picture a fun youthful feel. Whenever I go to the big mall just outside Bristol there's always a local photo studio with a display touting for business. They have lots of contemporary-style shots of children/teenagers with a bright white background and very high-key lighting - sometimes they just look like some dismebodied facial features floating in a big white space with some hair above them. Personally, I think they look utterly awful, but they do seem to be quite popular...

Russ.

[Ginger Pixie]

Originally Posted by Swisstony10

I don't think she looks any older than she is in that shot - she just looks beautiful.

High-key lighting is good for accentuating youth, or giving a picture a fun youthful feel. Whenever I go to the big mall just outside Bristol there's always a local photo studio with a display touting for business. They have lots of contemporary-style shots of children/teenagers with a bright white background and very high-key lighting - sometimes they just look like some dismebodied facial features floating in a big white space with some hair above them. Personally, I think they look utterly awful, but they do seem to be quite popular...

Russ.

Thanks!

That's given me something to think about, I will go and have a look on flickr for some ideas. If anyone has any flickr favourites they would like to share as examples, I'd love to see them.

Cheers