Another "What I learned" thread

[SwissJon]

Ok, I was going to wait until I had a few photos up, but I think I'll start now and move on later.

I hired a model on Wednesday and took her down to the local lake, intending to shoot her with the sunset. I've never had much luck with flash, so I was determined to work this out. Unfortunately the shoot through brollies and lighting stands I'd ordered three weeks ago didn't turn up, so I had to make do with some small reflective brollies and old tripods as stands.

These are the things I learned:

1. Get there early.. I was rushing there after a day at work, and the model wasan't ready when I picked her up anyway, so we arrived at the spot I'm picked just as the sun reached the horizon.

2. Don't hurry. Since I was late, I dropped everything in an attempt to get at least some photos while the sun was up.. They were hurried and poorly composed, I got 6 rubbish photos instead of one good one that I could have had if I had taken a moment to think..

3. Start with what you know, put yourself at ease. Again, because of the rush I was in, I tried to do everything at once.. The lighting was badly placed. The batteries were dead in one of the flashes, the lighting stands were missing so I had to make do with old tripods. All in all, I wasted the last few minutes of sunlight because I was desperately trying not to miss it.

OK, so I took a deep breath and said to myself "Right, calm down.. Start with what you know, do it slowly and read each photo you take to try to improve them, the sunset will do what the sunset always does, and if you rush, you'll ruin it."

So I took a photo without flash just to see what the exposure settings for the background were (The one below.) and went from there, remembering what I'd been told, aperture for the foreground, speed for the background. Adjusting the flash strength also, and learning as I went along.

What I found was that there were definitely things that worked better than others.
Dialling in speed with the aperture wide open, I got some lovely bokeh on the sunset and some guy sitting on his bike watching us. (This made the background more interesting) but then I reduced the flash to 1/8th power before it was an acceptable brightness.

With sunset work, I found the bare flash was far too white, and the CTO gels I'd bought worked well. I found that the 1/2 CTO was too orange, the 1/8th CTO wasn't orange enough, and I couldn't find the 1/4 CTO in my bag (It turned out to be hidden under a lens).. So I stuck with the 1/8th at times and 1/2 at other times.. Depending on the state of the sun.

I found that flashes don't work well if the batteries are run down, and that rechargeables are great, and the spare batteries I had were sitting on my desk at work, so I've since bought 3 sets of rechargeables for each flash I have and two bags to put them in.. one for charged, and one for discharged. However on the day, I only had one set of good batteries, so I had only one flash working, which is a shame.

I found the angle of the flash is very important.. Put it in the wrong place and it makes strong shadows, put it in the right place and it looks good.

I found that tripods and Umbrellas make good wind socks, and tend to fall over at a slight breeze.. Umbrellas tend to get damaged when they fall on the floor, lash units seem fairly robust, but I don't want to try dropping them too often. Clamps to hold your brollies and flashes to the tripod have a tendancy to get damaged also, and when they do, you have to use the flash attached to the camera. (When I have my lighting stands, I'll be able to weigh them down)

In darkness, the photos on the review screen look brighter than they really are, dial in an extra 2/3 of a stop of exposure to compensate or your photos will come out under exposed.

Don't put the flash too close to the model, they cause glare off nylon clothing.

Focusing is very difficult in dim conditions. Thanks to a recent post on here, I remembered the trick of putting a mobile phone against the models face and focussing against that. Works a real treat.

When it's dark and the models eyes have adjusted to the dark, she tends to tense up in anticipation of the flash and this ruins the shots. I asked her to close her eyes, and when I went 1.2.3 Open, open them again.. After a little practice, I got some really nice shots.

Focussing sucks in the dark, no matter whether you use the mobile photn trick or not, so try to get the flash and aperture set so you have a decent depth of field, to give yourself a fighting chance.

Models are human beings, skinny human beings.. Being outside in a thin dress in October is COLD.. Make sure she puts her coat round her between shots, if for no other reason than goosebumps ruin photos.

I learned tons of stuff on this shoot. When my lighting stands finally arrive, I'll hire the model again and try to put my lessons into practice.

I'll put some photos up on this thread when I have run them through PP.. In the meanwhile, here's one of the test shots I took to get the background settings..

[graciousness]

In the last few days, I have learned some beautiful things about you, Jon. And that is behind that good photographer (that's you, dude, and yes you are probably better than what you think you are) is one sensitive, caring, thoughtful man. Your love of forms in nature is not just limited to the landscape around you, but also in human form.

Look at that photo. How bloody beautiful is that??!!?? It's just so right. So soft. So beautiful. So thoughtful. So full of admiration of the femininity and gentleness of nature. If there was ever an image of Beauty, that is it.

Thank you for sharing. It's awe-inspiring.

Cheers and good night,

Grace



P.S. No, I'm not drunk. I wish I am.

[sk66]

Nice write-up, nice pic. I'm interested to see what all you were able to achieve with the lighting mess.

[Hill Country Hack]

As always, your work is outstanding. Very good write up on lessons learned. I'm sure there are many of us who will learn from this as you have. Be sure to share some of those shots when finished.

[metallion58]

.........................................(That's me being speechless, looking at your pic! It's so beautiful and poetic!)
Thanks for the write-up too. Great lessons to be learned there.

[zona5101]

Some really really key points in there. I'll bet you save a lot of people from similar struggles.

[mosgood]

Jon, love the "practice" photo. Had I not known that's what it was, I'd think you took your time to put this together. It's just stunning.

Lighting stands & paraphrenalia is tricky. Am looking forward to see what your shots look like. Even if they are not perfect, it's a good experience & once you get the hang of it, will go more smoothly next time.

[Tito87]

I like this shot a lot. Looking forward to the rest. One thing I'd say is, don't schedule your shoot on a day that you have to work. Choose an off day, so that you have plenty of time to be there, without worrying about having to rush the shot. Thank you for sharing.

[SwissJon]

Blimey, all this good feedback for a shot I took when my model wasn't posing! Lol.. She didn't even realise I'd taken it. I really only grabbed a moment.. She was there, I took 3 photos to get an idea of the colours and what kind of aperture/speed I'd need to get colours in the sky, ha ha.. I think I'll rename this photo "a stolen moment" Wish I'd taken a few more now!

Thanks guys.. Promise I'll get a few up ASAP.. A lot of them came out badly focussed or with movement blur because of my inexperience, but hey, that's why I did this isn't it? You can't learn unless you take the time to accept your weaknesses.

Next time (and there will be another with this model, she was Really patient with me and very friendly.) I will take a day off.. I'm owed 4 days holiday before the end of the year, so I'll use them.

[Jim Poor]

Very nicely done. It's good to try, learn & apply like that.