I have often heard of the importance of professional makeup for seniors from many senior portrait photographers. I have to agree with them! It makes a big difference! And Kim Ortiz of Kim Ortiz Photography realizes that changing her business strategy to include professional hair and makeup, allows her seniors to feel pampered before her senior photo session.
Kim shares her first shoot after including hair and makeup in her session below and shares with us the behind the scenes information about this shoot! Thanks for sharing Kim!!
What was your inspiration for the photo shoot? My inspiration for this session was the senior herself. She has been in pageants and modeling so I knew she would be a natural in front of the camera. Not only is she beautiful, but she is so sweet and easy to work with. She was a natural in front of the lens. I knew she wanted her photos to be less like a model fashion shoot and more like a senior photo session, so I made sure to have her be herself and allow her beautiful personality to come out. She has this amazing natural smile and I wanted to capture that sweetness in her portraits.
Where did this photo shoot take place? The session was done at an urban shopping location and a natural creek location in the back of a church in Plano, Texas. She wanted to include an urban feel but also wanted a natural environment.
Did you collaborate with this senior to come up with the clothing and/or concept for this shoot? This senior has great fashion style. She came up with her outfits and she has amazing tastes. I provided her some ideas on what outfits to bring. We went through the 4-5 outfits she brought and decided which would work at each location.
What camera, lens and equipment were used for this shoot? I use a Canon 5D Mark II with the Canon 85mm 1.2L II and the Canon 70-200mm 2.8L II lens. I also used the Canon 580EX II flash and a 42″ silver reflector.
What time of day were these taken? This was taken at 3pm in the afternoon. Because of the sun, I found open shade and used a round silver reflector to bounce light to her face.
Can you share any post-processing techniques used when editing this session? I do basic color and contrast editing in Lightroom 3 and then I edit the skin in Photoshop CS5 using Portraiture. I like to keep my editing simple and natural as I want the senior to look like she does in real life.
What is your favorite thing about this session? I really love how comfortable the senior was in front of the camera. She has such great fashion sense and also was very natural. I love her beautiful smile and she was so fun and easy to photograph.
What do you want this session to convey about this senior and about your senior photography style? I want people to look at this session and see how much fun the senior had and how natural my style of photography is. I like to have some posed shots but overall, I like the photos to reflect the senior’s natural personality and beautiful smiles. I know moms love their daughters smiling and not so much serious posed photos.
What is one tip you can share with other photographers regarding photographing seniors? Talk to them about what they like to do, their interests, and current tv shows, etc. Keep a conversation going while you are photographing them so they feel relax and comfortable. Have an assistant come along to help hold the reflector or lighting equipment.
Gorgeous. I love the orange outfit and the white dress.
Awesome work Kim!