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Not Your Average High School Senior Class Portraits

What Lifetouch Would Never Do

“Pick up any major fashion magazine and you’ll see a seamless grey background in fashion magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair and in museum collections too.”

Not Your Average High School Senior Class Portraits: Lifetouch is the leading school portrait photography mega business. And lets face it. Lifetouch’s school portraits are pretty terrible. I know because we have a daughter in public school and each year she has her school portraits taken by Lifetouch Portrait Studios. Why am I being so hard on them. Well for one thing its totally grin and grip photography. They basically give each child or senior about 3 minutes in front of the camera. My session are 15 minutes and I give allot of direction. Lifetouch uses a horrible lighting strategy. They use an umbrella. Why? Its easy. Pop up an umbrella with a strobe in it and anything that’s within 10 feet to 15 feet in front of that umbrella is lit up. Nothing subtle about the lighting. Not me. I use a soft box. Its more pain staking to use it and it take more time and direction with the students but its worth every ounce of effort and and time. This results in a beautiful lighting pattern. To wit: Gorgeous catchlight in the eyes and gradual transition from highlight to shadow on the skin. Lifetouch uses and umbrella and it results in flat lighting with not transition from highlight to shadow. Another benefit of using a soft light source from a soft box is that they eye color pops in my portraits. The other thing that I don’t like about Lifetouch is that they use out of date cheesy backgrounds that look like they are from the 1980’s. Instead, my studio uses a classic grey seamless. It goes with everything. All different color hair and all different types of clothing. A grey seamless background is classic and highly fashionable and never goes out of style. Grey seamless backgrounds have been used over and over in art and advertising campaigns throughout time. Pick up any major fashion magazine and you’ll see a seamless grey background in fashion magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair and museum collections too. You’ll never see a Lifetouch backdrop in museum or any major fashion magazine publication.
Last week I had the privilege of photographing 45 seniors at an Irvine private school that I’ve been working with for the last few years. A great group of high school seniors. Polite, fun and embarking on life’s journey….picking careers and college to start of their lives with. An interesting time an milestone in their lives and their families lives. They deserve the best possible portraits to memorialize this special time in their lives. What follows are few selections from the 45 high school senior portraits photographed.

orange county senior high school portrait photographer

Him: “Can I do my Pacino photo.” Me: Of course you can. Scarface: Winning…Tigers Blood!


orange county senior high school portrait photographer

What a great look. Reminds me of a young wall street type, just starting out.


orange county senior high school portrait photographer

Nothing trumps a real smile.


orange county senior high school portrait photographer

This high school senior was super fun to work with. He came in a tie and jacket. We did some formals then I always have me guys take off their ties and jackets, roll up there sleeves and do some casual portrait just to round out their sessions.


orange county senior high school portrait photographer

This young lady has some kind of star quality. Reminds me of a young Hollywood actress that I can not yet remember or put my finger on her name.


orange county senior high school portrait photographer

Almost every senior guy that came in had their tie done without a Double Windsor. I retied each of their ties so that the knot was wide and fat and a proper dimple sat in the middle of their tie. Its little things like this that make a huge difference in their portraits.


orange county senior high school portrait photographer

Here eyes are an amazing color. And her hair is gorgeous!


orange county senior high school portrait photographer

Again an natural, real smile, gorgeous hair and beautiful brown eyes. Its the best features which I look to bring out of each person who is before my lens.


orange county senior high school portrait photographer

This senior showed up like this to his prom too! Really enjoy the fact that he LOVES scuba so much that he wanted his high school senior portrait taken in his dry suit. He told me that when he was only 12 years old he built a re-breather. Go on dude!


orange county senior high school portrait photographer

She looks to me like she jumped straight out of a Renaissance painting. Here gorgeous hair and facial features combined with the sweet lighting pattern remind me so much of art during that time period.