Portrait help

WILCOX2005 · Jun 24, 2015

I have a senior photo shoot in July (for a family member), family shoot in July (family friends), and a new born in august I will also by years end have an engagement shooting to do.

I have a nikon 5300 with 18/55mm, 70/300mm, 85mm

At some point i want to get a 35mm and 55mm.

What are some good choices to get for these that are already planned? I do portrait and flowers/bugs mostly

Designer · Jun 24, 2015

Got flash?

Dao · Jun 24, 2015

And maybe remote trigger for the flash? Also stuff that allow you to diffuse the light (i.e. shoot through white umbrella, softbox or a diffusion panel)

WILCOX2005 · Jun 24, 2015

I have 2 flashes one with a movable flash head and a defuser and the other not movable. I have a remotes (1 for a flash and 1 for camera) and tripod

chuasam · Jun 24, 2015

get some classes and practice. That's a good thing to get.

tirediron · Jun 27, 2015

chuasam said:
get some classes and practice. That's a good thing to get.

^^ This ^^ You're asking for an explanation about a topic which normally fills books! Your best bet would be to search YouTube for "one light portrait" and "speedlight portrait" and similar terms.

Derrel · Jun 27, 2015

tirediron said:
chuasam said:

get some classes and practice. That's a good thing to get.

Click to expand...

^^ This ^^ You're asking for an explanation about a topic which normally fills books! Your best bet would be to search YouTube for "one light portrait" and "speedlight portrait" and similar terms.

The cool thing is you have a d-slr, so if you are doing things right, or wrong, you KNOW about it right during the shoot! The 70-300mm lens and the 85mm lens ought to be of very good use to you for portraiture outdoors. There are a lot of videos and tutorials on the web. So,so many. Keep a few things in mind, like keeping the ISO levels up high enough so that your shutter speed is not dangerously slow. Seek out some tutorials on working in open shade, and on using ON-camera flash at low power as a mild,weak fill light source. I wrote on-camera fill deliberately. As Tirediron said, these areas are topics about which entire books have been written.

If you can, do a couple of practice sessions before the shoots begin. Try some things, see how they work out for you.