Portrait photo shoots

On my recent trip to England I brought back a soft-box for flash, I have since then tried to get hold of a light stand and that is not as easy as it sounds when you live so remotely as I do. But I managed against all odds at least that is what it felt like :-)
I am so happy with my new setup, I asked one of my friends the other day if she could model for me so that I could try out my new gear. I did not only buy a soft-box I also got a new lens 50mm f1.4 and a reflector and some other bits and bobs to fill out my camera bag with.
We planed the shoot to be straight after her work so that we could get the photo shoot under way and then afterwards meet up with some other friends for dinner.
I had in my head a photo shoot plan of what kinds of shots I wanted to do. I needed a chair as a prop and since I don't have one (I know it sounds silly but I do not have a chair in my house, I have bar stools but not a normal chair) anyway my model does so I thought, great I will come to your house then. In hind sight it probably would have been better if she would have brought the chair to my house. I have more plain walls than she did...as well as her ceiling is not white! I had planned to bounce one of my flashes against the ceiling and I think it got drowned due to that the ceiling was not white but peach.... ha ha but in the end we managed to get some great shots. The chair did not play a large role in our photo shoot as I had originally planned. I wanted to make very bright portraits so that the face is almost washed away only leaving some contours. That is not what I did not in camera at least I did more of that in Photoshop afterwards. I learned a lot by looking at the images afterwards of what I would like to do different next time with the light set up. So I would like to make another photo shoot and make some changes. My model is soon going away on holiday unfortunately so either I hurry up and get this next photo shoot underway or I will have to change model. I luckily have another model coming in a few weeks time. That I can use as well. I'll keep you guys posted :-)

I have for a few weeks now been waiting for a sunset with no wind you know when the water reflects everything like a mirror. I have another shoot planned in my head that I would like to do and it would be ideal to do during those circumstances but I am thinking I might be waiting in wain it being winter soon and all and more wind in the afternoon to come. Should have done this shoot during the summer! The greatness of  hindsight again. So I might just have to try and do the shoot now and see how it goes with wind. I will let you know how I get along.

It's all about timing!

It's all about timing!

It is Street Festival time! It is great fun both for taking photographs and of course just to enjoy the entertainment in the nice outdoor temperatures.

I went last Friday at 21.00 and stayed for a few different dance shows. It starts however at 20.00 so you can go earlier than I did and if you want to take photographs that might be a good idea so that you can scout out a good vantage point for you and maybe also get up close. I had my 70-200mm L IS f2.8 on my camera so I could stand a bit further away and still get good close up shots…. I had chosen that lens for the evening because of the f2.8. Now in hindsight and already while I was there I realised that my 24-105mm IS f4 might have been a better choice due to me not being able to get a good vantage point from far enough away so I ended up feeling that I was too close to the dancers. Hence the poor belly dancer below looks like she had both her arms chopped off. I was shooting through two very tall men so its their shoulders and heads that are blocking. Those of you that know me know that I am quite tall myself so you can imagine how tall these guys were. You can however get some quite unique shots using other people as props. So don't disregard that. It is always easier using natural props in a shoot than bringing your own along. Less for you to carry as well.

I was shooting only using the stage lighting, which at times did not work so well here because the dancers were not at all times in the spot light making them very dark. The stage light did not seam to move at all with any of the dancers, which was a shame. I had brought my flashes with me but did not want to use them since using a flash on evening events like these often takes away the ambient light that the stage light are creating as well as washing away the colures and that is not very flattering for the dancers.

How to get that amazing shot!

A few steps that you can follow to help you along the way, but as always practice makes perfect!

When taking images of someone that are moving its all about timing! After you have watched the dancers a little bit you might be able to predict a little bit where they are going next and that pre planning helps you with taking a great photograph. Because its all about being in the right place at the right time. 

If you for instance start pressing the shutter when the dancer is looking at you, you will most likely every time get the back of her head. Since by the time that you have pressed the shutter she has already moved. So try to see where she is going before she does so that you can pan with her. 

Here I changed the colour of her scarf above her head to match her dress. It was a boring yellow to start with.

Make sure that your camera is set to taking images in burst mode. (several images after each-other). I also always have only one focus point which at most times is aimed at the head of the dancer. A high ISO helps you when you take images in the dark. I was using an ISO of 500 and 640 while shooting these images (I changed during the night, started with 500 then went to 640). Depending on which camera body you are using you will get different quality results. Some cameras can take very good photographs at very high ISO while the cheaper cameras can not. So check your cameras limit. This is where practice makes perfect comes in try a few different ISO settings and see how good the images are on the computer screen afterwards. Always try to learn from what setting you were using so that you know for next time. My Aperture was between 4.5 and 5f and my Shutter Speed were between 80 to 200 during this event.

If you have any further photography questions please don’t hesitate to contact me and I will try to sort it out for you.

Happy Shooting everyone.

Cheers,

Helen