Photoshoot for friend

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dancook

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I got my new beauty dish only yesterday, and here is my first photoshoot to try it out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62198876@N02/

Off the back of this, one of Louise's friend's has asked if I would shoot her, her mum and sister whilst they are visiting (for the next 4 weeks).

They've offered to give me some money, the idea of paid work is stressful, but I feel the practice would be good for my development so I want to consider it.

I'm thinking it likely they will want photos including 1, 2 and 3 persons. Not just single person portraits.

I have the BD (with sock, grid on it's way!) with 2 600ex-rt speedlites, the st-e3-rt transmitter and a 4-in-1 reflector. I have no other studio equipment, no backdrop etc..

I can recognise when I like a pose but don't really know how to pose people to start with. The photoshoot linked above - I was googling for inspiration as well as letting Louise goof around :D

Any advice on how to tackle it? cheers
 
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FWIW, I think that one of those shots is pretty good in terms of lighting, although the light is lower than I would have had it.

But although a beauty dish can be a good tool for a young woman with good skin/features it really isn't going to work for her mum, or for groups. You'll need much softer, less directed lighting for that, and a good starting point would be to use either an umbrella or a softbox on your studio flash, high and central, with a speedlight much lower, for fill.
 
Garry Edwards said:
FWIW, I think that one of those shots is pretty good in terms of lighting, although the light is lower than I would have had it.
Click to expand...

Thanks I was experimenting during the photo-shoot with light positions.. maybe I need to google it some more.

Garry Edwards said:
But although a beauty dish can be a good tool for a young woman with good skin/features it really isn't going to work for her mum, or for groups. You'll need much softer, less directed lighting for that, and a good starting point would be to use either an umbrella or a softbox on your studio flash, high and central, with a speedlight much lower, for fill.
Click to expand...

Getting married in a september, so can't splash out - but I guess at this stage accessories an umbrella would be quite cheap. I only have the 2 speedlights to work with for now though.
 
Good luck with Mr. Google, there's an enormous amount of info on lighting out there, but most of it is useless. Your best bet is to
1. Understand the principles
2. Experiment

That shot is more or less OK, the light was in fact probably at a fairly high position, but the angle of the face means that it needed to be much higher. What you have there is a model with good bone structure that suits the effect of a beauty dish, the light needed to be higher to exaggerate her high cheekbones, and also to place the catchlight higher, to make the eyes larger, but it's a good start.

Oh, and she needed matt makeup too, beauty dishes are pretty hard on shiny street makeup.

For your group shots, a white reflective umbrella as a key light and a white shoothrough umbrella for fill can be very versatile, and cost very little.
 
Garry Edwards said:
Good luck with Mr. Google, there's an enormous amount of info on lighting out there, but most of it is useless. Your best bet is to
1. Understand the principles
2. Experiment

..snip..

For your group shots, a white reflective umbrella as a key light and a white shoothrough umbrella for fill can be very versatile, and cost very little.
Click to expand...

Thanks, great information.
 
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Do you have any reflectors ?
Very cheap, very useful, lots of uses...
 
Garry Edwards said:
FWIW, I think that one of those shots is pretty good in terms of lighting, although the light is lower than I would have had it.

But although a beauty dish can be a good tool for a young woman with good skin/features it really isn't going to work for her mum, or for groups. You'll need much softer, less directed lighting for that, and a good starting point would be to use either an umbrella or a softbox on your studio flash, high and central, with a speedlight much lower, for fill.
Click to expand...

Agree with all of the above, i also thought underneath her chin could of done with etheir a reflector to add light, or a fill light at it's lowest setting to do the same job, but from that shot and some of the others you linked to, your certainly on the right track, and with some more practice and tweeks you will crack it, as regards the Lencarta kit you linked too, all good and will certainly make a big difference.

I think when you said about Googling for inspiration, i took that as meaning for posing guides, and there are plenty of good ones about, as well as some crap ones, i have a few myself, as i'm not naturally creative, i will try and dig out a couple of links, their are also a couple of good books on Amazon :)
 
Garry Edwards said:
Good luck with Mr. Google, there's an enormous amount of info on lighting out there, but most of it is useless. Your best bet is to
1. Understand the principles
2. Experiment

That shot is more or less OK, the light was in fact probably at a fairly high position, but the angle of the face means that it needed to be much higher. What you have there is a model with good bone structure that suits the effect of a beauty dish, the light needed to be higher to exaggerate her high cheekbones, and also to place the catchlight higher, to make the eyes larger, but it's a good start.

Oh, and she needed matt makeup too, beauty dishes are pretty hard on shiny street makeup.

For your group shots, a white reflective umbrella as a key light and a white shoothrough umbrella for fill can be very versatile, and cost very little.
Click to expand...

Hi Garry, how high ?

H
 
There are no rules, but the usual starting point is to put the catchlights right at the top of they eyes. Height is of course relative to angle of face and distance to subject, so that's the only meaningful way of expressing it
 
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