A Senior Graduate Photoshoot - Utilizing a Selfie Studio

It’s been a minute y’all. It feels really good having this time to blog again.

End of school year activities are upon us and I have been busy snapping photos for the upcoming graduates of 2023!

This first photo session I’m sharing today is of my niece. It’s so surreal because it seems I just recently shared her Sweet 16 photos with you but of course that was two years ago. Here’s a photo to refresh your memory of that session…

Here we are now getting ready to see her graduate and then off to college 😟. She will always be my little niecey poo no matter how old she gets. 🤭

Have you ever heard of a Selfie Studio? Well guess what? I hadn’t either.

When my sister informed me I would be doing this photoshoot I had to remind her that we only do outside photos since we don’t have a studio or the best lighting equipment. She sent me some websites of a few selfie studios in the area. These studios are sometimes referred to as interactive selfie exhibits.

The whole concept is pretty cool. Since we’re living in a social media trend era selfies are one of the most shared thing on many popular platforms. These selfie studies have spaces setup where you can go and pick the theme you like and take photos within that installation.

This is also an upgrade (experience and look) from the traditional photo studios we grew up with where there are several back drop sheets to take pictures in front of.

At these studios there are vibrant colors everywhere! From the walls, to the lighting and down to the props you are surrounded with fun interactive displays that you can get creative with.

You can go in there with your cell phone and take selfies alone or with friends. Then there’s people like me who use their professional cameras to take the studio type shots they need. It’s pretty genius and you can’t complain about the price. We paid $20 for an hour and had access to all of the installations and props as well as a professional ring light you get to take around with you.

This was her favorite interactive scene. She had fun playing around with the phones.

My niece had a lot of fun interacting within all the sets. I think this is a really fun way to do photos for special occasions. I am really glad my sister turned me on to this so we can use this again for future sessions if needed.

Another benefit about these studios is that they help people who are generally camera shy. It gives them an idea of how to pose depending on the setup. Just being there gave me lots of ideas.

This one I took of my sister and niece is so special. When we think of the achievements made by young ones we have to stop and remember who supported them along the way and helped make their success possible. So not only is the student celebrating but so are we…the parents!!

It’s truly a team effort that deserves a high five!

The owners of this studio are a mother and daughter team which had excellent customer service. It took me awhile to get used to photographing around all the neon lights and some of the lights from the installations across from us kept interfering with our photos.

I was given permission to unplug any of the lights that I needed to in order to get the shot I wanted. I thought that was really caring of them to make sure we were satisfied with our experience there. I was able to work around the reflecting lights and edited out some of the unwanted ones.

Not all of the photos needed to have these amazing backgrounds, I think some need to be subtle and plain to focus more on the graduate. We utilized some of the side walls for the solid colored backgrounds…

I had her bring her baby photo and this idea came to me during the shoot 🤗.

I wanted to give her a few ideas/options for graduation announcements.

My husband told me this is his favorite shot out of all the photoshoots I’ve ever done. It’s definitely one of my favs. I love the way this turned out with the black background.

The photos with the solid colors were the best ones to add props or wording to. I didn’t want it to be overkill trying to add too much to the settings that already had wording or vibrant colors.

My niece has a beautiful voice and loves to sing so we were very excited about this mic setup. I borrowed one and brought it with me but it had a cord connected to it. This one really worked well for the photos.

We told her to actually sing so it would not look staged but realistic.

Behind her the wording said Milkshakes and Dreams. My sister said this photo reminded her of American Idol 😄. I’d have to agree, it does have that vibe.

Of course as always I had to convert at least one photo to b&w. I love seeing color pops! My sister really liked the way it turned out…

After the indoor session we found this outside spot nearby to take a few family photos. My sister ordered these really cute sweatshirts that shows off how proud our family is of my niece.

If you haven’t noticed yet my goal throughout these photos was to make the yellow pop because her school colors are yellow and black. I got the black as dark as I could to help the yellow stand out even more. I had fun during the editing process.

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This entire shoot was a lot of fun for me. I love vibrant colors and being playful and the selfie exhibit provided an environment with both elements. It made these photos more artful and I’m very happy with the turnout.

I would definitely recommend this type of space for photographers to use. It’s already set up and gives you a nice modern variety of options.

Next I’ll be preparing to take student, group and teacher shots for our homeschool co-op. We are slowly but surely adding to our inventory of equipment. We already have a portable adjustable photoshoot backdrop and will soon be investing in better lighting. I look forward to using these for the first time during this session next month.

I want to share one more photo we did with her baby picture. My goal was to fade her out in the background and bring more focus to her baby self. I had fun editing this one. It’s amazing how LightRoom Classic gives us the tools to make an older photo look brand new.

I was not only able to make the baby photo sharper but also more vibrant by warming the faded tones giving it more color…

Taking this shot while she was sitting on the swing really worked out well I think. It was a perfect setting for reminiscing childhood moments. Would you agree?

Thanks so much for hanging with me today and checking out this photoshoot! I hope you enjoyed the images I shared 😊. Looking forward to sharing more of my work with you ~ ❤️