High School Senior Portraits in NYC

Taking high school photos for this years graduate were fun, they are a wild bunch and are always up for a silly picture and also want the best for themselves and want to look their best.

How do you do it?

I think that these are the hardest age to photograph, they are self conscious of their looks and every details matters, from what i've done, I will share with you a few tips for photographing high school seniors.

1. Trust.
They must trust your work, believe in you that you can make them look good. Sound simple? uh not really.
I had a long story of how I did it, but I got other girls in the class to sell my photography and so they came to me asking for the picture that I take, and I told them "The pics are the best I can get, no complaining"

2. Making them comfortable.
There must be many ways of how you can do this, and im sure everyone does it "their" way.
I always tell them to bring a good friend so they are not on the spot, the shoot starts off as a "Im testing my lighting" - so they have no pressure and i delete the photos on the spot.
I also have the friend talk to her, saying only positive things about the way she looks, this works like a charm.
I like to think of it like this - They trust you, they are comfortable, no pressure, ready for some fun.

Once you have all of that, you own their imagination and trust. This is how you get them to laugh, I would tell them a made up "story" of something really imaginative and ridiculous, in this case it was their principal jogging down the main street of the town, for some reason they would all burst out and laugh out loud and eventually they start to complain about stomach pains from laughing so hard.

I would also add the rule "Never say smile" and tell them that its a serious photoshoot, and if you want them to give you a tiny smile you will ask them nicely.

Here are a few from the bunch that let me show their pictures.
 

Was this blog post helpful? Let me know how you used this for your work.

Till next time, keep snapping!

L

The client is always right.

Oh yes, im sure by now you guys recognize this again. 

Its the one and only, www.modebeads.com

They asked me to resize the ad yet again, and this time im feeling its abit old. If only i can come up with better lines for the photos and just make amazing designs. 

Client: "We love your style of having negative space, but we want to show them all that we do" 

Me: "How about this" (I make the photo smaller and throw in some of the green)

Client: "We really love it, but can we add text and our email, we want the logo to be prominent for branding and it should be obvious that we are an american company" (Being the ad was to be distributed in the UK) etc.

So I made the photos smaller, and added a brief description and resized about the whole thing, small tweeks.

Client: "This is our pick!" 

Me: "Why dont you Just use the 2nd one?" - Im only joking, i didnt tell them that. But I like it so im posting it for you guys to see. :)

Which one do you like from choosing either #1 or #2? 

And what would you differently? 

Im all ears.

To good days ahead!

#1 Advert

#2 Advert

Out with the Katz's at Rochester park, NY

I was wondering, what would it be like if I didn't write anything and we play a game of "I spy"

If you've been my blog for awhile you know that each photo session usually has a story and I try to type it out to you. 

If you had to imagine what happened during this one, just by looking at the images. What do you think happened this time? 

(Sorry no hints) lol 

Enjoy the rest of your week. 

Impulse - Watch photo shoot

I havent taken any watch photos in awhile so i figured why not take a photo that I find online and then use it as an outline for a final image. 

Above you see the image I found online.

And below are the few that I took.

One of the most difficult things are the reflections, I only used one light and took about 8 photos then compiled them in photoshop so I can use the highlights around the entire watch in a careful setup.

Youll notice mine isnt as smooth, the reason is because my watch is more glossy so its a much contrasty image.

iGo - Product shoot!

Here are some photos from a Product photoshoot, as you can see they are pretty boring, no emotions, no directing, no fancy edits. 

Oh wait, yes. I tried at hand modeling so you can see the real size of the product. 

What did you do today that may have felt uneventful but at the same time it needed to get done?

Yes, I know what you are all thinking. "Why Levi, would you post a picture of your messy room?"

Thats why! - Just kidding, my room is usualy tidy but we had a episode of messiness from last week and when I returned from my travels it was a horrible mess, and ever since i've yet to clean up.

So why post it? Well now I am making for myself a challenge and anyone can join. I will clean up my room and post a picture!

It will be like a before and after.

Is your room clean like you wish it to be?

Write in the comments below.

Children school photography

Children have fun in the hallway of their school

The other week I got to spend some time in one of the oldest established Jewish schools called "Yeshiva Torah Vadaath"

Ive been working on a project for the schools website, and so i wanted some fun shots of the kids playing. More from this project will be posted in the near future.

Kids having fun in school, there is no better place for children then school and might aswell let them have fun.

(Sorry this post isnt as funny as the others. )

To a good week ahead, Shalom!