BEST OF TEEN AND SENIOR
PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

Seniors and teens are an age group in transition. They often have boyfriends or girlfriends and are thinking about college or career and they’re often thinking about leaving home, all of which can make for a very confusing time of life. A portrait made at this stage of their lives is a valuable heirloom because they will never look or act quite like this again.

Award winning photographer Rick Pahl sees senior-age kids as being at the pinnacle of their physical attractiveness. “On a Darwinian level,” says Rick, “seniors, especially girls, are at or are very close to their physical primes. This is when girls are the most attractive. Men are usually considered their best at around 25, but senior boys are most definitely showing signs of physical maturity.”

A “contract photographer” usually does senior portraits at the schools on picture day but that is not the type of senior portraiture that will be considered here. Many studios have taken to offering high end, very hip and upscale senior sittings that allow the kids to be photographed with their favorite things in their favorite locations. For instance, a senior’s car, a treasured possession usually, is a prime prop included in these sessions. Often senior sessions will involve the subject’s friends and favorite haunts. Or, in the case of senior girls, they will want to be photographed in a fashion, glamour pose, wearing something pretty racy—like what they see on MTV. This is all part of the process of expressing their individuality and becoming an adult and instead of resisting it, many smart photographers are now catering to it.

Deborah Lynn Ferro, a newcomer to senior portraiture, has combined her skills as a watercolor artist and her eye as a photographer to create some of the freshest senior portraits in the country. Here she has given the image a canvas-like effect in black and white.

Rick Pahl’s senior images are full of life and fun. The main reason is simple—Rick genuinely likes “his kids,” as he calls them. He says, “I really like teens! All the teens I shoot become one of ‘my kids.’ I’ve learned that full and honest respect for someone between 13 and 17 years of age is essential. I talk to them as though they are adults. I kid with them in the same way. All my kids become part of the year’s ‘Dream Team’ and a copy of their portrait hangs in a place of honor in our little town’s (Okeechobee, Florida) best art gallery.”

Rick sees the posing of seniors as relatively easy. He says, “Kat, my wife, helps greatly with the posing, and we work as a team with the models. We refer to all our clients as ‘models’ and we treat them as such. On his shooting regimen, Rick comments, “I usually don’t begin to get good shots until we’re around the 10th exposure or so. By then, smiling and posing is ‘old hat’ and we can start getting down to business. I shoot where and what the kids like—a clothes-oriented girl gets a fashion shoot. An aspiring male model gets a jeans ‘ad.’ The ‘horse’ set gets horses, and western kids get old corrals and western gear.

Rick Pahl obviously has a knack with this age group, but for those photographers who want to build their businesses through senior photography, there are a number of essentials to success. Experts say to make the photo session fun, but not in some phony way that the kids think is corny. Be yourself, but be excited and like kids of all ages, they will react positively to your enthusiasm and positive energy as long as they feel it’s genuine.

Fuzzy Duenkel, a master photographer from Wisconsin who specializes in seniors, is an expert at bringing out the feelings of his senior subjects. He forges a strong connection with the senior by working in locales familiar to the young person. Fuzzy works primarily with available light and a home-made reflector, made from building insulation material and a Mylar mirror.

You may have to be less in control in a senior setting than with younger children. Teens want to feel that they have control, particularly over their own image. You should suggest possibilities and above all, provide reassurance and reinforcement that they look great.

As with any good portrait sitting, the aim is to show the different sides of the subject’s personality. With adults, who have all sorts of armor and subterfuge that prevent people from seeing their true natures, teenagers aren’t nearly that sophisticated. But like adults they are multifaceted. Try to show their fun side as well as their serious side. If they are active or athletic, arrange to photograph them in the clothes of their sport or activity.

Clothing changes help trigger the different facets of personality as do changes in location. When you meet with the teen and his or her parents before the photo session, suggest that he or she bring along a variety of clothing changes. Include a formal outfit (like a tux or suit), a casual “kickin’ back” outfit (shorts and tee shirt), an outfit that is cool (one that they feel they look really great in), and an outfit that represents their main interest (a baseball jersey and cap or cheerleader’s outfit or letter jacket).

You can also encourage teens to bring in their favorite things, including pets. This will help reveal their personalities even more, and like little kids, the presence of their favorite things will help them feel relaxed and at home.

It pays to be sensitive to the particular concerns that teens have about acceptance among their peers. They want to feel that they fit within the mainstream of others their own age. This likely means that they are non-conformists in the adult world, but that they are part what’s happening in their own world. As an expert at photographing this age group, you need to be aware of the latest trends in clothing and hairstyles, music and art (movies and TV) and try to be sensitive to their requests for particular settings and poses. It helps if you have kids in this age group (at least you’ll know some of the bands on MTV), but if you don’t, it would be beneficial to have a working knowledge of popular teenage culture. A genuine interest won’t hurt. One very successful senior photographer, Larry Peters, says the kids that come into his studios (he has three in Ohio) are always blown away by the selection of CDs he has on hand, including rap and hip hop. Peters has all types of music available, but he also knows about the music so that when he puts on one of their CDs, the kids relax and start enjoying the experience, which is more than half the battle.

For teens, it is necessary to let them feel that they have control. While in many other types of fine portraiture, like children’s portraiture, control is of the essence, this is not true for seniors and teens. This age group knows what they want and it’s up to you to provide it.

High school seniors are extremely Internet savvy, something that is very clear to Ralph Romaguera and sons, who own three prestigious studios in the New Orleans area. Ralph, Jr., has created an attention-getting web site [www.romaguera.com/seniors.html], which in 2001 won the Senior International Web site of the Year award from Senior Photography International, a Florida-based organization that is dedicated to this market. The Romaguera site provides a range of information and a gallery of photographs that not only spotlight the quality of the studio’s services but also encourage potential clients to be involved in all phases of the planning of their portrait session. The site provides as much information as possible and asks the questions the kids themselves may not want to ask, like “What about zits?” The web site, like the Romaguera’s photography is hip and interactive and when the kids see what the studio is capable of, they are already sold.

Brian King of Cubberly Studios (there are four Cubberly studios in Ohio) has created, along with Rod and Sheila Farley [www.farleygraphix.com] a very exciting web site with streaming video and top quality audio and a printed “Session Guide,” that answers every conceivable question a potential client might have. When visiting the web site, [www.cubberly.com] and particularly the “Seniors” section, be prepared to stay for awhile and enjoy it. It is very entertaining, no matter what your age.

When a senior looks through the proofs, they expect to see a variety of poses and looks, as well as some style and sensitivity in the images. They will probably like the images in which they look themselves and the ones that reveal their true natures. This could include either the casual poses or the formal ones. If you are smart, you will have a selection of in-studio images and outdoor portraits; a selection of the young person alone and a few with his or her session companions. And if the teen took the trouble to bring along some of his or her “favorite things,” be sure to make a selection of images that includes these things.

Part of your job is to make your subjects feel good about themselves, which can take the form of reassurance or flattery, both of which should be doled out in conservative and realistic doses. It is often said that one of the ingredients of a great portrait photographer is that ability to relate to other people. With teens, a genuine interest in them as people can go a long way.

The senior photographer is in the business of providing lasting memories. These kids will, as the saying goes, “never pass this way again.” Like the bride on her wedding day, these people will never look so good, or so strong, or so vital or have that slim a waistline ever again. The role of the senior photographer is to create stylized impressions of these fleeting days.

Brian King knows exactly what seniors want to see in their portraits—they want to look themselves. King’s elegant lighting and minimal retouching and close-up viewpoints provide just the “edginess” to the compositions to make them a big hit with the studio’s senior clients.