Senior Pictures & Natural Light

Hayley is one of our 2013 MxB High School Senior Reps & shot her senior pictures with us a few weeks ago at our Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks location.  When Hayley arrived we quickly realized her eyes were going to be a main focal point for these senior pictures ….since they’re a vivid crystal blue.  In order to get the most out of crystal clear eyes is to use natural light.  Shooting indoors in a studio can produce beautiful shots, but very often there isn’t enough “constant” light to open up the iris of the eye & brighten it.  When your subject is outside during the day, there is usually enough light to cause the pupil to get a little smaller, opening up more of the eye color for your camera to see.  That’s definitely part of the trick to getting vivid eyes in a portrait.  Another big part is making sure your shutter speed is at the right setting to allow that sunlight to brighten the eyes.  Of course, if you’re using a simple “point & shoot” type camera, there may not be a way to control shutter speed….but that’s ok.  Point & shoots usually have very good automatic settings & will naturally set a good shutter speed for your picture.  Just take a moment to look at the eyes & make sure they’re getting enough light to brighten & open up without blinding them LOL.  One more consideration to mention when shooting in natural light is to be careful of “blowing out” your subject’s skin.  Even olive & darker skin tones can be lit too brightly causing them to photograph too pale or (as is in the case of very dark skin) to have blown out harsh shine on the skin.  If your camera has a histogram, learn how to use it (it’s pretty easy 🙂 & if you don’t have histogram, just take a test shot & see if your subject’s skin is looking more like white paper than actual skin.  Balance that with the amount of light needed to get vibrant glowing irises & you’ll end up with some gorgeous natural light pictures!

For more examples of SENIOR PICTURES visit our portfolio and our FACEBOOK page 🙂  And if you have any QUESTIONS please feel free to contact us through our contact form & we’ll be happy to help.  ….and remember, yearbook deadline comes before you know it…book your Senior Pictures with us today!