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Simple Photography Tips and Advice for Senior Portraits
Whether you’re looking to photograph your own high school senior or you’re a professional and want to add senior portrait photography to your service offerings, you’re in the right place. Read on to explore some tips and advice for senior portraits from the camera lens manufacturer experts at Tamron.
1. Choose A High-Quality Lens from Tamron
As a leading camera lens manufacturer, Tamron has several great lenses for senior portrait photography. We recommend the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD A056 mirrorless lens for Sony E-Mount cameras, or the Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 Di VC USD G2 A025 for Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras.
These f/2.8 zoom lenses include features like enhanced autofocus and complex optical design to ensure sharp images without flare and ghosting and are ideal for portrait photography projects of all types, including senior photos.
Using f/2.8 on either of these zooms will give you a creamy bokeh background that will make your subject pop in the photo. The telephoto setting combined with a close distance will give you the most out of focus background.
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Use the full range of the lens at f/2.8 and vary the distance from your subject for great image variety.
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2. Find A Unique Place to Shoot and Explore It
Parks are great. But why not explore? Alleys, buildings, parking garages, and even stopping by a unique location on the side of the road will provide you and your subject with more options to choose from.
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3. Keep It Candid
Talk with the senior you’re photographing. Keep things light-hearted. Capture photos of them not just when they’re posing, but also when they’re moving, walking, talking, and smiling. You’ll get some of your best shots this way.
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4. Let Them Express Their Personality
Seniors can bring their own clothes, props, items, and other things to help them express their unique personalities and perspectives. Make sure they bring everything they need and incorporate these things into their shots.
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5. Try for An Overcast Day or Find Shady Areas
Shooting in bright sunlight is really tough. It leads to lots of shadows on the face of your subject, so do your best to shoot on an overcast day. If that’s not possible, find a more shaded area with diffuse light that will minimize shadows. Move your subject just to the edge of the shade to take advantage of the natural light while eliminating dark image or contrast images with unattractive shadows.
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Capture Excellent Senior Photographs with These Simple Tips
We hope these tips have been helpful. And if you’re ready to shop for new Tamron lenses to prepare for a senior photo project, just head to one of your local authorized Tamron dealers to find what you need!
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