SENIOR PORTRAIT 101 WITH RLR

It's something that everyone has to do when becoming a senior in highschool; senior portraits. They are either highly anticipated or extremely dreaded. (I have found 9/10 times they are something you are very very excited for and anxious to begin... That goes for you too boys, I know you love it!) My aim is to eliminate the dread and to reinvent the senior portrait from a modern, model-esque, pinterestworthy, standpoint.

As a photographer, one of my number one services I am requested for is senior portraits, so I have come to learn a lot about them! One of the most important choices you can make in planning this process is picking your photographer based on their previous work and style of photography. My goal as a photographer, when doing senior portraits, is to capture the individual's beauty/personality and to make the photograph look like art. For all you ladies out there, I do you hair and makeup before we shoot to make you look beautified and perfect!

There are a couple of things I aim to do during my senior portraits:

1. If you are a girl, I want to do your hair and makeup so you look like the most absolute perfect version of yourself. Keyword: looking like yourself!

2. I want you to look at that photo and think to yourself, "that is the most beautiful photo I have ever taken of myself, I cannot believe that is me!" I want you to look and feel like a model and to know that photo is THE ULTIMATE profile picture. Yup.

3. Make you feel extremely comfortable with me.

4. To get to know each one of your Juniors (soon to be seniors) individually and to understand who you are in our brief session; I would like to capture that personality and beauty so you can cherish that moment in time forever!

As Spring and Summer rolls around the corner, I am getting very excited to begin this season of senior portraits. I am looking forward to all you mothers out there who stand over my shoulder and weep as I photograph your beautiful child! And to all you grandparents out there, I look forward to you being in awe over the photo of your precious, beautiful grandchild whom you are so proud of. And to all you soon-to-be-seniors out there, in my eyes there is no other photographer who cares more about the outcome and perfection of your senior photo then yours truly. I, Rachael Lynsey Rubin, vow to make your senior portrait my life passion. 

With this said, I am beginning to book for senior portraits for the Spring and Summer. Here are some past photos to peruse through ;)

 To View Many More Senior Portraits By RLR 

PLEASE CLICK HERE: http://www.rachaellynseyrubin.com/gallery/senior-and-beauty/

For Bookings Please Email Me Directly At RachaelLynseyRubin@yahoo.com

In-Depth Behind The Scenes Look At RLR Shooting Process

I often get asked how I come up with my photo shoots and what the process is...

Where do your ideas come from? 

Who does the hair? 

How do you know how to do this? 

What did you go to school for?

How long does it take?

Who edits the photos?

I am here to clear up the questions ;) ... I am going to take you behind the scenes of not only my photo shoots but my brain for photo shoots... A step by step detailed process that you will see from start to finish! Enjoy!

STEP #1: SKETCH

The first thing I do for every single shoot that I create is analyze the models face that I will be working with and sketch my ideas out. Sometimes I will sit and sketch ideas for hours. Usually this is just a base point and often I do not follow my original idea. A lot of the time I change my mind when the model is in front of me, but this is how it starts...

Step #2: HAIR AND MAKEUP

The day of the shoot has come and its time to get down to business. The most timely part of the photo shooting process is definitely the hair and makeup (for the day of, not post)... People usually think its the photography. If the hair and makeup is not perfect than what you are photographing will not be perfect. 

 With my model Leila... her hair alone took 2 hours!!!!!!

 I had to wear gloves because the tool was getting so hot on my hands!

 Halfway there...

 Hair is done and ready for perfecting!!!... Time for makeup....

 I decide which colors to use in my palette.

 Always start my makeup process with the eyes... in this case I did a rough layer of red. 

 Eyes are being perfected, brows are now put on...

 Fake lashes... gods gift to women. 

 

Testing out the bottom lash to see if I like it... Which I do. 

 Glue glue glue glue...la la la.

 Perfecting everything getting ready for some serious gold lips.

 Practicing the look...

 

Look is complete and ready to be modeled... Now its up to Leila to relay the beauty with the makeup and hair and fashion and to give me movements to capture to create beautiful images for my fans :) 

 STEP #3: EAT A BANANA?

This is not an actual step. 

 STEP #4: BEGIN SHOOTING 

Shooting usually takes me anywhere from 1 hours to 8 hours depending on what I am shooting the nature of the shoot etc. 

STEP #5: SHOOT IS OVER TIME TO REVIEW

 After roughly 7 hours with Leila between preparation and shooting we are getting a little restless and delirious, clearly! Modeling is tedious work, this poor beauty had me poking in her eye balls and was eating glitter!!!

The next thing I do is upload all of the photos onto my computer and go through each one (can sometimes be thousands of photos) and decide which ones I like... An elimination process if you will. 

Which leads to the next step... 

STEP #6: EDITING

If you are a photographer, generally you spend most of your precious time doing this word above. EDITING. The most timely tedious and detailed oriented process in the whole game. After choosing WHICH photos to edit, then I proceed to perfect my favorite photos and add extra flair and artistic point of view. 

STEP #7: FINAL PRODUCT

 

Essentially I am a one man army and truly/passionately enjoy creating every aspect of my shoots... the hair the makeup the photography and the editing, it is my art work it is how I express the creativity that is trapped in my brain. It can be extremely tiring doing it all, but at the same time completely exhilarating and exciting for me to see what has been created through the team work of the model and I. I truly enjoyed working with Leila, if you would like more information on the model please feel free to email rachaellynseyrubin@yahoo.com

Until Next Time,