Going to be doing some senior pictures pretty soon here, so any tips? I won't have any lighting control, or a backdrop. Where should I do them?
Buy a reflector. $30. Learn how to use it. Seriously a super super sound investment, here's one of my favorite shots of mine which demonstrates the extreme power of an effectively used reflector (an EFFECTOR):
Only light source in that is the sun and when paired with a reflector you get decent 2 point lighting, with the sun being the fringe light and the reflector being the fill light. Make sure you still shoot in shade or diminished light though, just find some direct light to put the reflector in in order to get the most use out of it.
But really, get two friends, take one to model and the other one to hold the reflector for you, go to a park and just practice, seeing the effects of holding the reflector at various places relative to the subject. Then when you're on your actual shoot bring a friend along to hold the light disc for you. Makes your pictures look better and it helps relax the subject and you can get more natural poses.
also I cannot emphasize enough, you really need to just have a conversation with your subject as you're shooting them. One thing I get complimented on all the time is people going "wow you really captured this person's personality so well." and that's not a way that I posed them or a certain way I asked them to smile, that's literally I gave them the most rudimentary instructions ("sit there", "lean here", "stand over there and look this way." etc.) and then I just talked to them while I shot. Make them laugh. You need to naturally elicit their specific behavior and then take -a lot- of pictures such that you get a few good ones that capture a very genuine expression, both in body language and in expression.
Take the above photo for example. This was one of my best friend's senior picture shoot, and I had another friend along doing reflector and a fourth friend just for hanging out's sake. I told him to lean up against that window sill and look out contemplatively because I liked the diffused light. He commented that it was a frosted window and I said "Yes, yes, please stare deeply through that opaque window, thinking about the meaning of life". At this point we were both cracking up, and I was taking pictures the whole time. My original pictures, of him looking "contemplatively" (i.e., boring stock pose) were stuffty. Instead I got this picture, which was a completely natural smile and pose, I couldn't have remotely planned for or repeated it, but it was there and I captured it. So, you really need to be open for situations like that and don't lock yourself down into very boring, "tried and true" posing and expressions.
