This post was originally shared a while back, but we’ve recently updated it with the latest gear and tips! I hope it is helpful!

Senior (graduates) photography is just dang fun. The youngsters are full of energy and eager to express who they are, and who they are becoming. Well, most of the time. I have had one or two in the past that made me feel on par with a trip to the dentist, but normally this is not the case. This was definitely not one of those times. 

I thought it might be helpful to those photographers looking to start, or do more, senior sessions if I outlined the entire process – from concept to completion. I’ll cover the essential pieces that have been helpful for me to create successful sessions and also to ensure that I actually enjoy doing them! Yah, that’s important too, right?!

In this post, I'll cover the thought process, planning, gear I use, lighting tips, workflow outline, software and presets, how to make the fun animated GIF in Photoshop, and how I make use of plugins for cool services to automate getting images online and shareable as fast as possible.

This session was extra special because it was for my niece (Clare’s sister’s daughter), who stopped through Bend on a road trip from Washington to Vegas for a dance competition. She’s serious about her dancing and the training shows in her elegance. As we photographed her, Clare and I reminisced over the photos we took of her as a baby, sitting in the sun in diapers. 

Every session starts with a plan. Clare is a huge part of making this happen and she talked to Sierra to see what type of setting she would like: Flowering fields? Urban? Grunge? Studio? Sierra likes the urban, graffiti covered wall look, so Clare went to work finding us some locations in town. We settled on three spots around town: a downtown alley, a flowering garden, and a cool painted staircase near an outdoor mall. 

Clare then looked over Sierra’s wardrobe and helped pick the best outfits for each location, with a couple backups in case we had time. We thought about how the outfits would compliment her skin and hair tone, as well as the colors of the locations we’d be using. 

No senior session would be completely primed for success without a trip to our favorite makeup artist, Katie Tuma. A hair and makeup person can really make a significant difference in the quality of your images. Even if your senior says she knows how to do her own makeup, they almost always enjoy the professional attention of a true artist – and the results that follow. A good artist will create makeup as natural or wild as your session requires and will always ask what you’re looking for before diving in with sponges and brushes. 

As we sat in Katie’s studio, watching her work on Sierra, there was thunder, lightning, and rain going on outside. But we remained calm inside. And that’s the other key ingredient to a successful session: faith and a positive attitude. 

Clare and I have learned over the years to embrace just about anything that comes our way on photo day. If it rains, we bring umbrellas. If it’s windy, we let the hair fly, if it’s snowing, we bring snow boots and hats! If you let yourself get visibly discouraged by anything, your client will pick up on it and it will shake their own confidence. There is a great Hasidic saying, “He who has confidence in himself, gains the confidence of others.” And it’s true.

Low and behold, we left Katie’s studio under cover of an umbrella, but arrived at our first location to the tune of dry ground, soft clouds, and perfectly moldable light. 

An important ingredient for me as a location photographer is portable, simple lighting tools. I carry my camera, lenses, and lighting gear all in a single shoulder bag. I currently use a Nikon D750, with a variety of lenses. For this session I brought my 70-200mm f1.0 (just kidding, it’s f2.8), 50 mm f1.4, 85mm f1.4, and 24mm f1.4. I also always pack a Lensbaby Edge 80. For lighting, I use 2 - Nikon SB910 speedlights and Yongnuo transceivers. It’s essential to diffuse and shape the direct light from the speedlights, so my Westcott LunaGrip (*on sale NOW for only $99!) is always with me. The Westcott 5-in-1 diffuser/reflector is a must-have item for photography and the LunaGrip super-charges it even more.

For an updated list of a variety of flash and LED lights that will work with the LunaGrip, check out this post.

All of this packs nicely in my ThinkTank Urban Disguise 60 classic shoulder bag with room to spare for ND filters, Sticky Filters (colored gels) spare batteries, emergency gadgets, etc. 

When we get to our location, I scan for backgrounds and light. That’s really all that matters. Sometimes we’re in a location that may require us to exit rapidly (if you know what I mean). This is one reason I like to travel light ;-) We started in a back alley and there were occasional cars passing through, so setting up light stands and other obscenities was out of the question. Everything we use is attached to our feet. 

The alley way had a groovy brick wall, covered with public art and topped with a string of lights. It made me think of a back alley off Broadway, the perfect spot for an aspiring pro dancer to shine! The sky was still layered with clouds from the storm, creating a perfectly soft fill light. I just needed to add some shaping light to it via my speedlight and LunaGrip. 

I set my exposure so that the ambient light was about 1 f-stop under normal – providing a dramatic background and just the right amount of fill light for the main. My exposures hovered around 1/250th of a second since I was shooting close to wide open – f2.8 to f1.4. Occasionally the shutter would venture in to the higher speeds, the realm of high-speed sync, but my transceivers don’t care, they just keep triggering. 

I always bring a variable ND filter with me in case I get in a situation that requires more light at really fast shutter speeds. For example, if we were to shoot in full sun, requiring 1/2000 or 1/4000th shutter speed, high-speed sync doesn’t always give me enough power in those situations. I can get 1-2 f-stops more effective output from my flash by using an ND filter at 1/250th instead. (I’ve written other articles on this magic trick if you are interested)

Since most clients, especially seniors, view and share their images online primarily, I try to think about alternate ways to show the images beyond the printed piece. There was a cool scene against a wall where I thought it would be fun to have Sierra dance and spin her way through it, and I could make a stop-motion type animated GIF from the sequence, as in the opening image. It’s really easy to do in Photoshop. I’ll post instructions at the end of this article for those interested. 

We worked through our other locations, taking time to grab some soft, natural light photos with a near white sky as the background. For these images I over-exposed my shots by about 1.7 f-stops to compensate for the backlight and soften the overall feel of the images. Later in post-processing, I used my KevaLuscious Lightroom preset (from a soon-to-be-released collection) to create the perfect complementary color and tonal palette. 

As sunset fell upon us, we wrapped up the evening with a nice variety of images. I downloaded my images via Lightroom to the working HD. The catalog itself is kept locally on my laptop for easy, any time access. I have my GoodSync software setup to automatically back up the contents of the external working HD to my server as I work. All my LR catalogs on the laptop are also instantly backed up to my trusty Synology NAS system via a dropbox-like mirrored cloud folder.  

I convert all my RAW files to DNG upon import to simplify the file management and ensure all my adjustments are actually stored within the DNG file itself.

After culling in LR, I apply presets to get the looks I want for this particular session. I generally try to keep a consistent look throughout a session, but each session may use a different set of presets. For this one, because of the rich colors and Sierra’s beautiful red hair and creamy skin, I used Café Krema Light, Light Kreme, and KevaLuscious. They all have a similar feel to them, but some suited a certain series of images better than the other presets. These Lightroom presets are available in our PrimaPortra presets package. 

After the images were complete, I used the Facebook Publish service in LR to upload a handful of my selects to an album so that Sierra and the family could take a peek and start sharing them. 

I then used the Animoto plugin for LR to export them to my Animoto account, saving me time to getting them in to a slideshow. The plugin is very simple and automatically sizes and uploads appropriate images for you to your account – ready for customization and rendering. Animoto is an automated slide-show generating software that is simply amazing. I’ve been a fan for years and it never ceases to amaze me how easy and effective it is to have a cool slide show to be able to share. To use the plugin, you simply select the images you want, then export them using the Animoto export option. As soon as the images are prepared, your browser opens to your login page where you can jump in and start customizing the slide show style, music, text, logo, etc. 

Next, I used the StickyAlbums LR plugin to export the selects to my StickyAlbum account – again saving me some time and steps to getting a customized smart phone album made to pass on to Sierra and the family. 

Because Sierra lives in another state, we did not have a chance to show her the finished images in our studio, as we typically would, so utilizing the fun online tools was extra beneficial. 

Lastly, I uploaded the full collection of her finished images to my SmugMug account for her to browse and order from. In her gallery, I can also upload the animated GIF and the Animoto video since SmugMug hosts those types of files as well. Animoto has a simple link from their site to pass your created videos direct to your SmugMug account. Easy peasy.

As photographers, our workflow has evolved quite a bit over the past few years. It is now so much faster and easier to process jobs and get the images out there to clients and friends. As much as I love making big, beautiful prints and albums for my clients, I also have to accept that most of us (including my family) love to share and view images online in some form. We have to embrace this new paradigm and make sure we’re taking advantage of all the cool technology we have available to share the love. 

How to make an animated GIF in Photoshop via Lightroom.

1) capture your series of images either using a tripod or steadily hand-held. 

2) edit and color correct the images all identically in Lightroom.

3) export them as smaller JPG files to a unique folder. I use 1200 pixels on the long edge.

4) open Photoshop, then use File > Scripts > Load files in to stack… Set the options as shown:    

5) Each image will import as a separate layer in Photoshop. The “automatically align…” option will attempt to register the images based on the background detail. Useful if you shot the sequence hand-held.

6) you will need to re-arrange the layers so that the bottom layer is the first image of the sequence, and work your way up. Just drag them in to reverse order of the way they imported.

7) if your hand-holding skills were a bit shaky, then some of the resulting aligned images may have blank space along the edges, compared to the other images. Cropping a bit off the edges of the composite image usually solves this. 

8) go to Window > Timeline to open your timeline editor

9) in the option menu in the center of the timeline area, choose “Create Frame Animation”

10) from the pop-up menu, choose “Create frames from layers”. All your layers should then appear as individual icons on the timeline.

11) use the pop-up menu again to choose “Select all frames”

12) change the timing of the images from the timing menu under one of the icons. This will set the timing for all the selected images. You can select them individually and set different timing for certain images if you want. I set a longer timing for my middle image, when she jumped in the air.

13) set your looping options to “forever” so it will keep repeating

14) test your animation using the play button on the bottom. Re-crop or change the timing if necessary.

15) when happy, use the File > Save for web… option menu

16) choose GIF as the format, with these options. Tweak as needed. Then save the file! 

Having a successful photography business has a whole lot to do with providing top notch customer service. You can be successful as a decent photographer with amazing sales & service, but not as an amazing photographer with lousy sales & service.

Here are a few tips that have worked wonders for our photography business:

1. Appeal to all six senses to enhancing the buying experience.

• Provide something good for each: Smell, sound, touch, taste, sight, and energy

• Map & analyze every point of contact, like: entry way, candles & scents, music & sounds, wall colors & images chosen for the walls, lights, brochure paper, pens, furniture, verbiage used in your brochure, phone message language...

• If your customer feels like you pay attention to details they will view you as a professional they are willing to pay for.

2. Set the stage for success.

• Plant Sales Thoughts e.g. “Most of my clients purchase a couple of matching coffee table books”

• Give Gifts (food & drink)

• Instill purchase confidence with a Money Back Guarantee (MBG)

3. Sell top down...start at the top.

• Proudly present your best offering first…then wait. Don’t assume your customer doesn’t want or can’t afford it. Only step down if the customer clearly and verbally can’t afford or doesn’t need that much. 

4. Suggest add-on sales.

• “Would you like fries with that shake?” makes millions in additional sales for a certain company.

5. Make the most of suggestive sales.

• CONSISTENCY: clear guidelines that are used consistently with all customers and at every transaction.

• RELATIVE: make suggestions based on the customer. Offer products complementary to that which the customer has ordered.

• PRICE SENSITIVE: customers respond well to suggestions that are are less expensive than their original order. 58% of successful suggestive sell offers cost less than 20% of the original price.

• TIMELY: Attempts to suggestive sell need to be done just before, or while the customer is placing an order. Actively listen to them ensuring that they know you are more interested in them and their needs, rather than their money.

• BE SPECIFIC: In studies, when offering an additional item for the shopper to consider, 2 out of the 3 shoppers took the suggestion — when it was a smaller item and related to their purchase. Whereas shoppers who were asked “if they wanted anything else today" did not purchase any additional items.

7. You are the expert. Give expert advice and know your product line well. 

• "The person who has confidence in himself gains the confidence of others." –Hasidic Saying

• Customers appreciate your experience and artistic vision, don’t be afraid to offer it. 

8. Give them a reason to come back!

• Put special offers in every order bag. 

• Send out newsletters and mailings on new products or services.

• Schedule the next appointment before they leave! (Like your dentist or salon does)

9. Follow through. No matter how much a client loved you, they will forget you if you don’t keep in touch. Out of sight, out of mind!

• Under promise, over deliver.

• Thank you cards, Phone calls, Promotional specials, Art showings, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Holiday greetings, Destination photography opportunities. 

• “Let’s do lunch”. 

• The post-sale experience will influence the pre-sale experience of the repeat customer.

10. The all mighty referral.

• Ask for referrals, don’t just wait for them to happen!

• Consider rewarding your customers for their referrals too. At least a thank you card.

11. Go looking for trouble.

• "Problem" customers are your biggest opportunity for growth. Don’t be afraid to ask, "What could I have done better?" 

• Unhappy customers, when properly handled, can become your best customers!

12. Stay inspired and never stop learning. CreativeLive is a great resource for photographers.

• Get 50% off 50 business classes today!

• 25% off my classes with code KKUBOTA

• 20% off any class for first-time purchasers with code CLPARTNER

• Discover more great deals.

Why use a LunaGrip?

If you want a soft, flattering portrait light, then you generally want to diffuse it. Large soft boxes have always been a first choice for this, but they aren’t always easy to pack, or set up and take down – especially when you consider an ideal size for portraits is about a 40” box. I developed the LunaGrip after 20 years as a busy wedding and portrait photographer. I wanted something that would be easy to pack in my camera bag, work with my speedlights, be light and fast to setup, and give me the most beautiful portrait lighting possible. Westcott, the brilliant lighting company, partnered with me to develop the LunaGrip, a unique handle and mounting system that pairs your flash with a pop-up 5-in-1 reflector/diffuser to softly diffuse the flash, not bounce or reflect it (although it can also be used that way).  

The LunaGrip has several advantages:  

• You have a versatile tool that can be used in several different ways for various lighting needs.

• In its primary diffusion mode, it produces the beautiful light quality of a 42” softbox, but at a fraction of the cost, weight, and space.

• By adjusting your flash head zoom, you can control the amount of diffusion and look of the light.

• It can be a super flat and stable reflector holder (used with white, silver, or gold cover)

• You can bounce flash in to it for a crisper, broader coverage light.

• It adapts to multiple light sources, flash or constant. 

LED Lights

The Stella Light is an LED constant light. It uses the newer COB style LED, which is more compact, efficient, and higher output than traditional LED lights. They also tend to have smoother light output. This unit can be battery or A/C powered, is waterproof, dimmable, and claims 1000 lumens of brightness. It fits beautifully in the LunaGrip light modifier and now you have the perfect, soft and diffused constant light that will travel anywhere and fit in your camera bag! What you see is what you get. 

If you want a light with variable color temperature, take a look at the Fiilex P360EX Variable Color LED Light 

Here’s another more affordable option if you don’t need the battery option: The Godox SL-60. This 60W COB LED unit is plug-in only, but has very high color accuracy and claims 4500 lumens of brightness. If you need something much brighter, they also make 100W, 150W, and 200W versions.  

Flash systems

If you are balancing your lighting with daylight, you’ll need the power of a flash. Here are some other cool flash lighting systems that work with the LunaGrip too. The LunaGrip has an easily adjustable bracket, making it workable with most any compact light source, from speedlights, to compact flash heads, to constant lights.  

If you want something really compact and versatile, check out the Godox AD200 TTL Pocket Flash Kit. You can also get it with a wireless controller for your camera brand (highly recommended unless you already have a wireless trigger system). They are very compact and offer 200WS of output, similar to some speedlights. It comes with interchangeable heads too, a standard speedlight style (use this with your LunaGrip), and a bare bulb head (great for lighting up a whole room). This setup with your LunaGrip would be easy enough to hand-hold. 

If you need more oomph, The Godox AD600Pro Witstro is a 600WS battery powered strobe. It’s a bit bigger than a speedlight setup, but offers much more power. They are also TTL compatible with most cameras, which is cool. It would be great for use on a lightstand. They also make a 400ws version. 

B&H also makes the Bolt VB-22 Bare-Bulb Flash. This 360WS flash can be triggered by your existing wireless trigger or using their proprietary receiver setup. Bolt makes several other units if you need different options. 

Some battery power options for A/C lights

The Naztech Volt Power Station is a portable battery pack that can also power A/C plug-in gadgets up to 85w. So you could power your plug-in LED light (upto 85w) or even most laptops, for a while. 

How to mount lights to the LunaGrip.

1. If you light has a hot or cold shoe mount, you can simply attach it to the bracket/clamp that the LunaGrip comes with, bam!

2. If your light has a 1/4”-20 threaded hole on the bottom of it, you simply unscrew the cold shoe mount included with the LunaGrip, and use the retaining screw to thread in to your flash.

If your light has a lightstand mount, then you just need to use a spigot, like this:

The spigot will have a 1/4’-20 threaded hole on one end, and you detach the included cold shoe mount on your LunaGrip and use the screw to attach to the spigot instead. Then just attach your flash bracket to the spigot. All set!

Keep in mind that you can use most compact studio lights with your LunaGrip. As long as the face of the bulb is not too far forward of the mounting bracket, it should fit on the LunaGrip bracket. [show impact light and measure distance to mount]

By the way…

CRI is a scale to 100 representing how accurately a light source can reproduce color compared to standard daylight. 100 is comparable to the source, and 90-95 or higher is desirable for accurate skin tones and color work. 

TLCI is a new measure that indicates how much color correction might be necessary. It is more applicable to digital imaging. Look for lights with high ratings: 95+ for CRI or 90+ for TLCI

They say that re-entering earth’s atmosphere from space can be hard. If you come in too quickly, you burn up, like a meteor. The trick is to enter at the correct speed, matching your trajectory with the rotation of the earth — as much as possible. Even then, it’s a balancing act that could result in a ball of fire, and could hardly be described as “easy”. It is similar returning to “normality” after 2 months of living day-to-day in our RV.

Fortunately, we live in a beautiful town and have wonderful friends and family here, so re-entry was something we didn’t dread, like burning to a crisp. That still didn’t make it any easier. I think that the lessons we learned made such a meteoric impact on us that our normal way of life seemed all the more ripe for improvement.

Our trip was instigated by an invitation to teach at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. Our youngest son was also simultaneously leaving to do a semester of high school in Japan — making us temporary empty nesters. The day we sent our son off to Japan, we packed up our RV and hit the road to explore the Southwest, but not without a little cry fest at the doorway to his empty room. We figured the trip would keep our minds off missing him, and it did help quite a bit.

The trip took us through Idaho, to Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and finally to California before returning us to Oregon. We continued to work from the road, as much as feasible, despite unpredictable internet service and being distracted by beautiful national parks. As we continue to process our experience, we’ve realized a few things that are pretty poignant to us.

Our RV is not that big, and we packed as minimalist as we could. Even so, we never felt that we really lacked anything we needed. We had food, basic clothing, hiking gear, bicycles, my motorcycle, cameras, good books to read, and our dog. Our joy came from experiences each day, not from stuff. We found that having fewer choices to make — like deciding what to wear or what to make for dinner, left so much more room in our thoughts to focus on being in the moment, and truly enjoying it. Decision making causes some amount of stress, no matter how basic the decisions are. When we eliminated the clutter of extra stuff and unnecessary decision making, we experienced a profound reduction of our daily stress level.

Clare and I developed a beautiful synergy while squeezing past each other in our tiny RV kitchen. She had her tasks, and I had mine, and we performed them like a choreographed dance — her instinctively swaying her hips away from the utensil drawer while she cooked, as I’m reaching through for the silverware to set the table. No words, no collisions, just a wonderful flow of give and take.

Setting up camp, and packing to move each day, took on the same efficient flow. Like a Nascar pit crew, we each had our tasks and performed them with tuned precision – making it a simple, quick, and enjoyable process. We learned to harmonize like we never have before, and it worked really well.

We learned that the act of traveling can unlock the traveler's mindset. This is an interesting phenomenon where we are more friendly and curious — perhaps because of feeling vulnerable and out of our element. We make time to simply talk to strangers we meet, gathering insider tips or making new friends out of them. We take the time to see each person, place, or thing as new and exciting; because it is — and life becomes filled with wonder and joy. By embodying the traveler's mindset, we naturally open the door to amazing experiences, each and every day.

One of the most profound realizations, however, came to us near the end of our trip. We did not plan very much at all — instead living day-to-day, and following our intuition or the leads from random people we’d meet. We didn’t reserve campgrounds, but found places to camp on the fly, as the evening approached. Most nights were spent boondocking (free camping in remote areas) in beautiful forested spots, with trees and mountains filling our RV bedroom windows. As we reflected back on our adventure, we realized that everything worked out perfectly. We had faith that it would, and it did. We faced each day with positive affirmations and the confidence that the Universe would take care of us, and it did.

This, by far, was one of our most valuable lessons — or validations, more precisely. When we reduce stress in our lives, and live with confidence that our needs will be taken care of, and have faith that our paths will be perfectly guided — amazing things just happen.

As we slowly re-enter our hometown atmosphere, we are trying to be very mindful of keeping the lessons we’ve been given close at hand. We remember to embrace conversations with perfect strangers (and they all ARE perfect). We look at the beauty surrounding us with the wondrous eyes of a first-time visitor. And, we have faith that our spaceship will always land in the right place, the right way, each and every day.

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