This past week we were in Boiling Springs, SC for senior pictures.  When the phone rings and it’s your childhood playmate who says my son is graduating, you compose yourself and say tell me when and where.  Cole Hair is on the golf team at Boiling Springs High School,  South Carolina State Champions four times in a row, and his golf course of choice for senior pictures was Woodfin Ridge Golf Club. With the camera, two assistants, and studio lighting we headed out and captured amazing senior portraits and video using natural light, and OFC (off camera flash) lighting.

Natural Lighting for Senior Portraits

When photographing outdoors natural light is beautiful.  There are several things to remember if you’re wanting to improve your portraits.

  1. Place your subject with the sun to their back.  This helps with squinting and will avoid sun spots on their face.  Be very careful to watch the tip of the nose to be sure the tip doesn’t have sun hitting it.
  2. Be sure to expose for the  persons face.  Exposing for the entire background can make the  subject to dark when your client has a bright background behind them.
  3. Watch for sun flare in your lens.  Sun flare was very popular a few years ago and I love it, however you can ruin a picture quickly with the sun coming straight into your lens.

Off Camera Lighting for Senior Pictures

OFC or Off Camera Lighting is my favorite lighting outdoors. This is when you use artificial light to balance the daylight outside.  This is how we capture beautiful skies and sunsets.  We decide the camera and lighting scenarios, so that the pictures look very different from natural light. The photograph above of Cole swinging in the bunker was photographed with flash units from Paul C. Buff, specifically the B1600.

Capturing a blend of lighting methods for senior pictures gives our clients a large variety of senior pictures to select from.  In my opinion natural light seems to give a more romantic soft feeling to the portraits, and OCF is high fashion and sports magazine style.

If your interested in learning more about lighting and would like to watch the behind the scene video of us photographing Cole, head on over to our Education Page where will post our experiences that are both fun and educational.

We would love to talk with you about senior pictures that will give you the high fashion and magazine style photographs if you’re interested.  Please contact us HERE, introduce yourself and tell us about your dream photo session. We would love to hear from you.  Holubek Photography is located in Greenwood, South Carolina, and will gladly travel throughout SC.  Several of our frequented towns for Amazing Senior Portrait Photography Sessions are Greenville, Spartanburg, Boiling Springs.  We also provide family portrait sessions, commercial work and professional head shots.