This post is the second studio portrait shoot I have done as part of my new training regime. The wonderful participants in this case were Ainé (who I work with) and Rory her brother. Whilst the last shoot was completely of my own devising and had no real need for outcome, the results below are planned as a birthday present for their mother, and as such the pressure to perform increased. Ainé also had in mind a relaxed and natural photograph of the two of them, so I opted for a semi-candid approach. I would position the two of them loosely, give them a direction to look and let them chat away (with the odd interruption for direction or positioning), the better to catch some direct emotion and reaction between them.
This I think was successful - however due to the nature of their vibrant chatter and almost unceasing mirth (I spent most of the shoot quietly giggling behind the camera), I ended up taking One THOUSAND Thirty Four, yes *1034* photos in a single hour of shooting. This edited down to around 15 I was pleased with. Not the best kill/keep ratio. However, I am happy with myself at the speed my picking and editing has now reached.
In the last shoot (with Maria) I made the error of being woefully unprepared in what poses I wanted to create, or a feeling I wanted to emulate. This made the 2 hour shoot a bit of a roller coaster ride for me, hunting to get a pose that I liked and worked. Once settled into the shoot it proved successful, but the constant creative energy required to think of each shot prevented me from focusing on the details of the photograph and on making the very most out of the model. It also was utterly exhausting!
Lesson learned, this time round
I made preparations for each general position.
Even though Ainé and Rory would be able to carry on without me to some degree, whilst I chose my angle for each shot as I wanted, I outlined in advance six poses I wanted to try, with notes as they occurred to me about each.
This was brilliant and solved my problem. I barely even glanced at my notes and I had a clear idea already formed, with enough brain space in the moment to focus on the detail and make the most from the arrangement.
As usual you also can view the set on Flickr
As always cutting criticism and comments via email (tomglendinning.photography@gmail.com) or
, are hugely helpful and welcome.
If you don't like something then please tell me - and try to articulate why, it is tremendously useful to have feedback like this.
For the geeks.
My studio set up for this shoot was:
Canon 50D
tamron 17-50 (I still reallly want a 24-70)
White sheet backdrop. Smooth paper roll will come soon.
2 Lamps with umbrellas to light backdrop
1 lamp with umbrella to light model.
Speedlite on camera with rogue flashbender modifier.
Edited with Aperture and Silver Efex Pro2.
The lighting for this shoot was more generally bright whereas before I was looking for deeper shadows for creative modelling.
I lit the backdrop with two high lamps, had the models further from the backdrop, and with one lamp facing the models from an angle to get some direction lighting and supplement the on-camera flash.
I think the colour came out better in this shoot than the last but I am still not entirely content with the result (examples below). I am putting this down to lighting to some degree and need to look into how to solve this problem.
1a
1b
2
4
5
6
7
8a
8b
9