CC on Senior Photos (male, college)

hey guys, a buddy of mine contacted me regarding some senior photos he wanted taken prior to the college graduation, this was my first time trying to use my muslins i had, and I am not one bit happy with them... i think im just going to sell them and get some white and black 8ft paper rolls, the blue backdrop worked much better I thought and was much easier to handle.

I wasnt overly happy with the shoot in general but did salvage some shots that I liked.

Any input would be greatly appreciated,

thanks guys:

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I like them. I would have liked him to be looking at the camera in a couple of those shots.
The uneven background in 1 & 3 put me off a bit.
The ground shadows in 3 & 5 do as well, although 3 is a very nice shot if he would be looking towards the camera.
2 would be shaweet if he was looking at the camera.
If you could take the pose of 1 and put it in 3 that picture would rock also.

He looks like he's a really fun kind of guy but it looks suppressed in the pictures a bit.

The tassel should be turned around for the class year emblem to show and it should be on the other side, to show that he already graduated. Some people might disagree on that point, but if he hasn't graduated, why take photos? Just sayin'.

I love the PP in 1 & 3, I'm not digging the selective coloring in 4, something is going on by the base of the globe in 6?

All in all I think these are some really fun Senior Photos, outside of the 'norm' (leaning on a tree, by a fence, 'chillin on a train track'/ type senior pics I've seen) I really like seeing Senior Portraits back in the Studio Great Job!

The 1st 3 looks way to staged,the color is alright though in them...the 4th one mm i don't know about that one,the 5th one might be my favorite...hate the pose in 6,and the last one looks like he has no arms.

I think the first is my favorite; the post processing and eye-contact make a big difference. I might try to clean up the top right corner a little, as it is somewhat distracting, but a nice image for sure. The second, to me, looks a little too posed, as if he were asked to hold that for a little too long. I do like the blue bg, but if you use images like 3, you'll want to be sure to clone out the foot prints on the seamless.
I agree with Lore about the selective coloring; it doesn't do much for me, and I think the lens you've used is a little too wide and distorts him a bit too much.

What weren't you happy with for the shoot?

Thanks for the input guys. I actually wasn't happy with exactly what you guys mentioned. Starting with the lens.. here is the problem.. i had to use my 17-40 because my buddy has my 50mm lens and i didnt know he was leaving to washington for the weekend, so the only other option i had was the 85mm lens..which even on my 5dii is still tooo long to get a full body shot in my garage. So I had to resort to the 17-40 and even at the longer ranges, the lens doesnt do too well with people, its a killer lens for my car shots.

as far as everything else, it was the first time using the muslin backdrop, and Im not sure how i feel about it, mainly b/c its a temporary set up and i cant iron out all of the kinks in it for every shoot and then fold it up, so i had to burn the backdrop out in cs3, or overexpose it and use 2 different raw exposure pics combined, which im not a big fan of. It did look ok for a close-up shot with the gown:

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Lighting looks a little flat in most. You see a lot of reflection off his forehead. MIght try a different lighting ratio up front between key and fill. Next, with a white background, try using a 1-2 stop hotter setup for the background vice the key/fill measured together...might save you a lot of pp. Nice ideas for the shots...now try a little variation in execution. Good luck.