Behind the Scenes of a Full High School Senior Session

I normally only record BTS footage from one or two setups during a session, so I thought I’d try to show a look at a full session.

For the process of testing out the new Godox AD600 Pro II, I needed some test images and footage. So I took the light on a recent high school senior session. But rather than take my traditional couple of clips during the session, I decided to record a glimpse of every single setup. So that’s what you’ll find in the video. But for my readers in the group, don’t worry, because I’ll throw in some screen grabs for you to look at as well. However, you will obviously get a better idea by seeing the full BTS clip. Within the example images that use flash, I will also show some examples of what the scene looks like without flash. As for camera setup, all images are taken on the Sony a9 III with global shutter and either a 35mm or 85mm lens. 

Location One: The Art Wall

I hadn’t had a session in this area for a long while, so I just gave a general meeting location and then got there early to take a look around and gather a game plan. But because I didn't want to have them show up and then instantly move locations, I decided to use this art wall for a few images. Here, I used the AD600 Pro II as a main light paired with the Magmod XL reflector on my C10 Cheetah Stand. I made sure to feather the light away from the wall to help stop light from hitting the wall. I still had some spill that I took care of in post, so I would have been better served if I had run to my truck and simply gotten my grids.

I then stuck the light between the subject and the wall to create a spot of light on the wall behind the subject. My initial idea was for the subject to be a silhouette against the wall, but later I decided to push my dynamic range in post so that the subject was simply lit with ambient light.

Location Two: The Rock Wall 

In this location, I was drawn to the large wall with no windows or doors. I thought it would make a great texture while also giving me enough room to get some wider compositions. For this scene, I used the Godox AD600 Pro II inside a Magmod Magbox Pro 24. I also turned the light off for a few images for some natural light images. 

From here, I moved my light to the other side of a fence along the back of the wall. I set my light in a way that the fence would block part of the light. The angle of the light drew out a ton of texture from the wall, and the fence added some shadow to help draw the viewer's eye as well as add some more interest to the frame.

After this setup, I wanted a more standard look at the camera type of images. While not overly “creative,” I feel like these images are always needed. To keep with the simplicity, these images are also just done with natural light.

Setup Three: The Garage

On the backside of the building, where I found the rock wall, I noticed this garage door area. But what drew me to the location was not the garage door, but instead the fence along the side of the door. I liked how the fence had some gaps between the wood planks, so I thought I could pop my light between those to create some interesting light patterns. For modifiers, I used the Magmod XL reflector with a full CTO gel. The gel helped give me the look that the light was coming from a sunset.

Once I got done here, I simply had the senior stand against the fence. This was sort of an in-between stop since he had to walk that way for my next setup anyway, and the light was already where I’d want it.

From here, I stuck to the initial idea of popping the light through the fence, but this time it's just at a different angle and shining onto a wall instead of a garage door. In both situations, though, I made sure that the light was going across the subject's eyes.

Finishing up this location, I decided to go for some more traditional-style images. I saw a nice white door on the wall we were using, so I used that as a framing element and grabbed a handful of variations.

Location Four: The Ivy Wall

At this point, it was time for an outfit change, so while he was changing, I found this ivy wall. What I liked is that there was a giant wall of green, but the ivy was cut away around an entry gate. So I used this gate as a framing element. I later used just the all-ivy background and played around with finding things to add some foreground interest.

The other part of this location I liked was a section of this ivy wall covered in flowers. I liked the juxtaposition of a dapper guy mixed with pretty flowers. The only problem I ran into here was that for certain composition angles, I could see the clutter of the alley (power lines, parked cars, etc.). So rather than giving myself more strict angles to photograph from, I used a convex lens as a foreground element to cover up these areas when needed. This gives these images a bit more of a dreamy feel, which I enjoyed.

Location Five: The Red Wall

This is another in-between area. I had another alleyway in mind that I wanted to use, but it was a little bit of a walk. So rather than have a long walk to the new location, I used this as a halfway point to stop and add some variety to the gallery. Because it's just a quick pit stop, I simply used natural light here.

Location Six: The Alleyway

Here what I wanted to use was the brick wall and tree in a way similar to the fence at the garage location. So I set up the AD200 II with the Magmod XL reflector and a full CTO gel. I then set the light in a position to shine through the tree and onto the wall. This gives the illusion that the sun is setting and creates some interesting light and shadow. I then turned the light off and got some natural light images. Here I used the tree as a foreground element and played with my aperture to experiment with my depth of field. This lets me play with how much or how little these foreground elements are in focus.

I then went to the other wall in this alleyway and got some more basic natural light images. Here again, I used a door in the wall as a framing element.

Moving back to the tree, I wanted to use my light as a rim light while silhouetting the subject against the sky. I then used the tree to fill the frame. The backlight also helps make some of the flowers on the tree pop against the underexposed sky.

Location Seven: The Rock Wall Again

To wrap up the session, the senior wanted some images with his baseball bat, glove, and ball. So, we went back to the rock wall (it was the easiest location to where we parked to grab the baseball stuff). Here, I decided to grab my Magmod Magbox Pro 42 for a bigger and softer light. 

For the last setup, I threw a couple of Nanlite 4-foot Pavo Tubes onto some C8 Cheeta Stands and got a handful of headshot-style portraits. 

Conclusion

And that’s a quick look at an entire high school senior session! I obviously didn't share every image from the gallery, but enough to at least give a glimpse into what the results of each setup were. If you like this style of post, let me know in the comments, and I can try and do more like this.