Submit your best senior portraits for a chance to win a free Fstoppers' tutorial.
We took a trip up to New York City last week and sat down with Peter Hurley to critique 20 high school senior portraits submitted by the community. Here are the results.
Due to the short timeline of our trip to NYC, the submission period for this episode was a little shorter than most and the images we chose to be critiqued were selected almost as soon as the deadline closed. After we filmed the video, the community continued to rate the images and the highest rated image changed. Although Lee announces the image submitted by Marcos Hernandez as the winner, his top rated spot was soon overtaken by Joe Baker's image. We've decided to reward both entrants a free tutorial. Additionally, Daniel ORourke was selected as randomly chosen winner. Congratulations to all three of you, we will be in touch via your Fstoppers' profile to claim your prize.
If you missed your chance to be part of this critique, join us for the next one. Although he wont be part of the judging process, Peter chose the next theme to be "Minimalistic."
Our next Critique the Community is now open to submissions. Submit your best high school senior portraits by Thursday at 12PM EST for your chance to win a free Fstoppers' original tutorial and be critiqued by Lee Morris and Peter Hurley.
This week we're planning on spending some time in New York City where we plan on filming with Peter Hurley. Though Peter is known for his headshots, we thought it would be fun to have him critique something a little outside the scope of his standard photo shoot. Due to the tight turn around time, we're only giving a few days to get your submissions in. To clear up any possible confusion, we announced this contest as "senior portraits." This genre is intended only to include high school senior portraits, not pictures of the elderly.
We will be selecting a total of 20 images to give feedback to. Of the selections, the highest rated image by the community will receive a free Fstoppers' original tutorial of their choice. In addition, we will be selecting one entrant at random and also give them a free tutorial.
Once you've submitted your images, be sure to go through and rate your fellow community members. Rating everyone's images can be done quickly by using the arrow keys and numpad on your computer but feel free to take the time to leave critical but helpful and considerate written comments as well.
Thu, 05/24/2018 - 12:00
This contest has ended.
Click on the thumbnails below to comment and rate each image.
Click here to learn about the Fstoppers rating system and what each star value means.
60 Comments
Funny how already a bunch of people are completely mistaking this for photos of senior citizens.... not senior portraits of students graduating from high school. LOL
That would have been much more interesting in my humble opinion.
He was definitely sleepy and could have used a nap before this video.
It's not at all surprising when you consider how US-centric this week's theme is- the UK doesn't even have graduations in what the US would call grade school, let alone proms and portraits, and neither does most of the rest of the world.
Hahaha. So true. I was about to enter a portrait of my father :-) This is US specific. My first graduation picture was taken when I graduated from University in Canada - with a PhD, so very very senior ;-)
I think "senior" seems to be a vague term right now. hahahaha
To be clear to all entrants "Senior Portraits" refers to high school seniors. I have updated the post description to note the difference but please note that we are NOT looking for portraits of the elderly. =)
Hard to watch. I stopped after a few minutes.
You should probably take out the pics you are referring too.
To be honest I was going to upload a photo of an elderly person when I saw the youtube video lol
I think outside of the USA when we think senior photos we think the elderly, thanks for clarifying and putting high school in the title.
Peter having trouble remembering the rating system is the best/funniest thing I’ve seen on these. He’s needs to be on again in a year to give him enough time to completely forget what he didn’t remember. Best guest so far.
Is college senior portraits acceptable?
It says "High School Senior Portraits"
I can understand that Peter falls asleep and is bored.
He criticised the fstoppers rating system (a thing we all do) and Lee doesn't give into it.
They renewed this "contest". So please renew the rating system! Because Peter is right "Then everything is a 2 and 3". To me, it seems that Peter has a way broader mind than Lee, who judges everything that it not a 5 as a 2 and 3.And Lee says already in the beginning that "almost everything is a 2 and a 3". So why don't we just skip the whole critique? Or make a rating system: 1 - Bad; 2 - Bad; 3 - Average; 4 - Lee Morris ; 5 - Something no human being can create.
If someone disagrees, he tries to drag him to his side. It's a pity that is less about critiquing than just convincing the other counterpart.
Btw.
Lee constantly contradicts himself:
1) "If this was a Nike advertisement (needs clean-up of the blotches)"
So, is it Senior Portrait or High-End advertisement?
2) "When I think that some parents are wanting a great looking shot for their kid."
Suddenly he justifies his decision behind a different background.
3) "I like the image but she is too hot / modelly for a senior portraits"
The image is great but he just tries to nit-pick something that she is too young or too hot for senior portraits
4) "Clients, especially young people and their parents, they don't know and wouldn't even think it's been processed"
Comparing that statement with 1) it's comparing two completely different things.
So yeah, unfortunately the rating system doesn't represent much and I would like to encourage everyone badly rated in this critique to think in general 1* better of their image than judged in those critiques.
How many pictures can one submit? Is there a limit?
Two
Good. I submitted 2 already. If I choose to remove one, can I upload another one?
Yes
It seems to me that those of us from other countries (other than USA) need some additional information/clarification. What makes a picture a "high school senior portrait"? Is it the kind/type of photography? Is the age of the person being photographed?
Guys, just because you shot a video doesn't mean you should have released it. This is painful. This is the first time I have ever bailed out in the middle of a critique the community video.
Nobody is benefiting from investing their time watching this.
In Italy this is a non-existent thing. Nobody does a high school senior portraits, there's only a group portrait
[raising hand) i got this one... http://lmgtfy.com/?q=high+school+senior+portrait :)
Thank you very much. I ended up doing my own research in order to find out what a senior portrait is. Regretably, I will not be able to participate this time. It seems that this type of portrait is unique to the USA.
Right on man! I checked out your profile and your work is great (not just a bunch of shots of your shoes) haha... Interestingly, "senior portraits" have chnaged over the decades (mostly for the good), but it's still interesting to look back at them from decades past sometimes.
Thank you very much.
Why is Lee so upset that Peter Hurley is being somewhat charitable with his critiques? Peter is trying to assume the point of view of a potential client for a senior portrait while Lee is trying to make these images into high fashion, corporate CEO headshots, movie star magazine covers. They're not on the same page.
This is a typical US custom. In our country, this doesn't happen.
who is the author of the picture they start reviewing at min 8:02?
Same in my country, Peru
We don't do these in Poland either...even though I live in the US :) It really is a US thing.
Very US related contest :) Any chance to participate for us outside your country?
"this is the worst critique ever." Truer words never spoken.
Just cheat and put a portrait of a young model :D (we are Italians we know how to bend the rules)
It's raining brick walls...
love it . funny ,honest .
I see a lot of mean people here. Out of all the submissions so far submitted, maybe 2 you can think they are snapshots (based on the fact that considering depth of field, location, pose, etc, the pictures could have been taken by a cellphone on the go ith no preparation). However, the VAST majority are definitely not Snapshots. Whether the composition, lighting, technique is good or not is a different issue, and sometimes those things could be subjective. However, based on the Fstoppers rating system, most of the pictures submitted are definitely not snapshots. People, please be honest with your ratings. I see a lot of pictures with very low ratings (and calculating these ratings, I find a lot of voters have given a 1 star to the aforementioned pictures).
Great critique, one of the funniest I've watched. Loved it!
One of the funniest critiques ever!
You beat me to it. Totally agree with you. Either some people are extremely mean or extremely demanding. I am not a professional photographer, but having my photos is few other spots on the web this is the only place where people rated them so low. I don't really care about the whole rating system, but it does make you wonder.
I think the rating system here is good, have you read through it? I like that a 4 or 5 needs to be a really special photo. 3 here seems to be "very good" and they aren't saying a 2 is rubbish, just that with some changes it could have been better, I'm definitely looking for that sort of feedback. There's probably a few judged too low but I also think there's a few I hate that are judged far too high. My photos are taking a battering but I only submitted them for the chance of having some pro advice to help me take better ones in future, really not that fussed about the stars!
I completely agree with you. I would say most pictures here are somewhere between a 2 and a 3.5. I think the rating system is good. My problem is with all the 1s. Because let´s face it and be completely honest here. A 5 or a 1 are almost impossible to get (or should be). Even a 4 is extremely difficult (and I agree). But the number of people rating these pictures as Snapshots is ridiculous. Snapshot means not thought of, could have been taken with any cellphone, no rules, no composition, nothing. And I would say most of us are either professional working photographers or hobbyists with certain (even the minimum) knowledge. Otherwise, we would not be on this page.
I'm not sure if they're mean or if it's just the whole anonymity aspect of it that leaves us wondering about the raters' intentions. My photos are doing ok. The ego in me thinks they should be rated higher, but the realistic part of me knows I still have a lot of growing to do as a photographer. I'd love to know where to grow. I agree with what another person said in regards to points not being as valuable as comments. Maybe requiring a comment when you vote would be a good idea. It's too easy to just click a star and move on with no real thought. I know I've received 1's on both of my photos from some people (early on one of my photos had a 1.7 rating. It's gone into the 2 realm since) and I'm not sure why. I wonder if it's people hoping to bring down other scores to have a better chance of winning for them and their friends? There are a few submissions on here that have some scores much higher than they really deserve. There are also some really nice photos on here from some photographers. I've caught myself thinking a few times, "I'd hire this photographer" and those photos have way lower scores that the "lower quality" photos. This is my first time submitting to one of these competitions and it might be my last. Not sure what I got out of this other than confusion.
Yeah. Someone went on my profile and rated all my photos poorly because I think they disagreed with me in the comments on a post.
That is pretty petty, but oh well... Just took a look at your profile. Really nice photos. I really enjoy the lighting on your models. If I could offer one criticism though, maybe tone down the frequency separation (assuming that's what you used). The faces look "too perfect" and detail seems to be lost in the model's faces. Really good work though! I think you're definitely better than I am at retouching.
Interesting observation. As I'm looking at some of these photos, even though in my personal opinion they deserve a solid 3, a few even a solid 4...for whatever reason people are scoring them far below that. What gives? Are users overly critical? What drives peoples opinions? Just curious.
Rated lots of them with a solid 3, some 4 and some 2. No 5, just one or two real snapshot in my opinion (1).
I feel like people are pretty critical when it comes to contests like these. I feel like my images are rated much lower here than they would be if I just posted them in my profile, and I would imagine others are the same. Maybe that's just the number of votes on the images though.
I noticed that, I tend to rate photos that I like with a four or five and ignore the others, just my way of doing it...
I'm pretty much the same. If I rate a 2, I'm going to leave a comment on why.
My feelings exactly. I would much rather see comments instead of just blindly hitting the stars. It adds nothing, if you don't know why your photo is judged so low. Help me develop as a photographer, help me get better. It's like saying your photo sucks, here deal with it. I personally think there are many really good photos here deserving a sold 4 but all they managed was a mere 2.5 stars. I look at it that if you want to be mean fine, but at least have the courtesy to say why.