10 Reasons to get your Senior Portraits done in the Fall - Southern Utah Senior Photographer

Hey Guys!!
I'm busy getting ready for baby girl to come and I thought I would just drop a quick little note to you!

After I have my baby, I'm ready to jump back into photography full force and I have such great ideas and goals!!

So today we're talking about why you should get your Senior photos done in the Fall. I want to encourage my clients…and potential clients…to book their High School Senior Portraits either the summer before or the fall of their Senior year (Summertime won't work for me this year, but next year for sure!).    For some reason, most people have a hard time grasping that concept… so I've decided to put together a list of reasons WHY!!

8. The weather is perfect!

I know what you are thinking, "It can still be hot in August and September!" BUT, with the timing of perfect lighting, we are shooting when the temperature is just right. Not too hot, and not chilly either! And the angles of the sun are much more pleasing!

7. Colors

In the fall, you can have gorgeous greens, and luscious yellows, reds, and oranges. If you wait until the spring, colors are just barely peeking out and everything still looks kind of dead from Winter. That's one of the main reasons I love shooting in the fall!

6. Spring weather

It can be so unpredictable!! I know this past spring I had to reschedule quite a few sessions because it was raining. Also, it seems to be so much more windy in the Spring. (Just my opinion! haha even though it seems like it's ALWAYS windy!)

5. Students don't change THAT much between Fall and Spring....especially at this age. Yes, hairstyle may be a little different, clothes preferences may change, but for the most part...the students still look like themselves!

4. The student will have a tan!! I know it may seem like a little detail, but just a little "sun kissed skin" will have you feel a little more confident. I commonly get asked, "can you make me a little more tan?" LOL 

3. Most people don't think about doing senior portraits until Spring, so photographers get booked full pretty quickly! If you're set on getting a certain photographer you love, you could run the risk of not being able to get a session with them. And you wouldn't want that.

2. If you get your senior portraits in the Fall, you'll have beautiful, professional photos of yourself to use and show off all year long! Applications, auditions... Facebook... You know. If you're going to get them done anyway, why wait all those months? I have had clients tell me they were so glad they did their senior session early because they had no idea they would need the images so often throughout their senior year.

1. And drumroll....... You will be crazy busy in the Spring! April and May are busy months for Seniors and you will want to get those graduation announcements out in time! And you will want to be able to just enjoy the last month of your Senior year and have all of the pictures and announcements taken care of!

Did You Know?.........color schemes for pictures

This series of Did you know? is going to focus on color. I LOVE color! Black and white pictures can be beautiful but color can really make an image POP!
When we get pictures taken, I sometimes stress about outfits. I want us to look just right! But sometimes, I  really can't afford to go out and buy ALL of us new outfits. This article might help you in picking out clothes that coordinate from everyone's existing wardrobe.

Firstly let's start with the Primary colors:
Red, Yellow, and Blue.

Now we should know from our time in Elementary school that when we combine these colors, we can get tons of different colors. So let me introduce the color wheel.

Every color on this wheel was born from the primary colors. When we combine 2 primary colors, a secondary color is made. When we combine a secondary color with a primary color, a tertiary color is made.
And the right side of the wheel is classified as "warm" and the left side as "cool".

Now on to color combos.

1. Monochromatic

This is using variations of a single hue. So if we take Blue and have everyone wear a different kind of blue, this would be Monochromatic. This type of harmony feels clean and elegant. You can switch it up by adding tints (hues created by adding white), shades (hues created by adding black), and tones (hues created by adding Grey).
So in the image below, I have taken blue and added white making a blue tint(the top part), and added grey making a blue tone(the middle part), and added black making a blue shade(the bottom part).
 

2. Analogous
 An Analogous harmony uses colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel, a tertiary.

3. Complimentary

A complimentary harmony is when you pair two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. This harmony adds vibrancy to photos. De-saturating one of the colors can really cause the other to "pop". Using tints, shades and tones will keep this scheme from being "trite" such as a Christmas Red and Green combo. So add some interest and diversity with shades, tints, and tones!

4. Split Complimentary Triad
This is variation on the complimentary scheme. This uses a color, then takes two colors adjacent to it's complimentary.

5. Tetradic
This harmony takes 4 colors that are complimentary pairs.

There you have it! A lesson on colors that can help you pick outfits from the wardrobe you already have! Now mind you that you can deviate from all of these harmonies using shades, tints, and tones. They can add a depth or a brightness. Now go out and experiment with your wardrobe!

info for this Did you Know? was gleaned from Cardigan Empire

Did you know......Science behind a Smile

I've decided that I'm going to start doing some "Did you know?" posts. I'm putting a lot of work into learning more about photography, and I don't want to keep that all to myself! That would be so selfish of me!
The first post in our Did you know? series is the Science behind a Smile.
Now as a photographer, I can usually tell when someone isn't giving their TRUE smile. Teenage boys are usually really good at the "camera smile" but for some reason don't want their true smile to be captured. I try to approach getting the TRUE smile in 2 different ways: being super silly, or telling them that if they just give me ONE good REAL smile, then Mom will be happy and we can stop taking pictures. With teenage boys, one of those usually works.

Now on the the Science behind a smile.
A smile usually indicates happiness. Happiness is an emotion. With this emotion, only the lower part of the face and the eyes are involved. If there is something going on with the brow/forehead area, you've got another emotion going on.

The main feature of happiness is movement of the mouth. The corners of the lips are drawn back and slightly up. There are the closed smiles with no teeth showing; or a grin where the lips are open and teeth are showing; or a wide grin where lips are open and teeth are parted.

Now while a smile or grin is the most widely known indication of happiness there are also other indications. There are naso-labial folds. These are wrinkle lines running from the nose, out and down to the area beyond the corners of the mouth. These folds can indicate the intensity of the smile. Even if the lips are together, you'll be able to tell the intensity of the smile from the depth of these folds.

The eyes also play a part in an indication of happiness. Some people have crow's feet (I wish my Dad lived close so I could have grabbed a picture of his! They are my favorite part of his smile!) There are also lines that are created below the eye. And sometimes even that little "sparkle" in the eye.

Now a French neurologist Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne de Boulogne discovered a sure-fire way to tell if it's a fake smile. It involves both the zygomatic major muscle (which is the one that raises the corners of the mouth), and the orbicularis oculi muscle (which circles the eye). Not very many people can voluntarily contract the orbicularis oculi muscle so this is the real indicator of a true smile. we’re talking about the outer part of the muscle that runs all around the eye socket, and pulls down the eyebrows and the skin below the eyebrows, while pulling up the skin below the eye and raising the cheeks.

I took these pictures of Larson the other day and while you can definitely tell the real from the fake, let me point out the indicators in a real smile.


The fake smile

 The real smile

Some tricks for getting your subject to REALLY smile:
-have them throw their head back and fake laugh (usually they'll REALLY laugh at how silly it is)
-have a good joke on hand
-if you have to...do a silly dance

I think to get real smiles, you have to take a chance to really know them. Get to know them other than just "the person I'm taking pictures of". Talk with them without a camera in sight. I think pictures aren't really about how the person LOOKS, but who the person IS! As a photographer, I try and capture that by getting a REAL smile. (some people just won't give it to you no matter how hard you try, so don't get too discouraged!)

I hope you enjoyed this first segment of Did you know? Please leave a comment if there's anything I can answer for you in my next Did you know? :)

Good night!

*content of this post was acquired from photographyconcentrate.com check them out, they're awesome!