Shooting tips??

Eyetattoo · Sep 21, 2009

I have been asked to take some pictures for a newspaper ad for my fiances Salon. The shot will be indoors with florescent lighting and there will be roughly 10-15 girls. Im looking for some baselines to start with so Im not shooting blind. This will be shot with my D3000 on a tripod and the kit lens listed in my sig. Thanks for any tips!

fiveoboy01 · Sep 22, 2009

Do you have any off-camera flash? Speedlight/strobe/softbox/umbrella? Reflector(s)?

Canosonic · Sep 22, 2009

Bills question? If no, check a local store that specializes in Cameras (not high street) as usually they have gear for RENT. Also check for lenses for rent. Get a pro telephoto and/or a pro standard zoom (here in germany for one day it's like 20$).
Tips ( I don't shoot much models , so it's the least I know)
Set your camera to Aperture priority (A) mode, set the AF to focus on the center spot. Set the metering mode on Centre-weighted average (usually the thing between) and focus always on the closest eye.
As soon I go to an event I shoot with these techniques and everything works fine.
I hope I helped

bigtwinky · Sep 22, 2009

What type of info are you looking for? Tips on shooting settings, tips on posing, tips on equipment...?

The tripod might not do much in low light if you have people in the image.

As said, look into renting a faster lens, one that opens to 2.8 or a 1.4 or 1.8 prime.

Think about using the chairs, mirrors and other things they use on a daily basis for props in the images.

Eyetattoo · Sep 22, 2009

No strobes or lights and no place around here to rent gear so I'm limited the the equipment I have. I'm looking for camera settings to start as a baseline and for tips on the group photo. I've got a idea of how I want the individual photos to look like but with 10-15 in one shot is new to me. Should I focus on the closest girl or use multiple focus points?

fiveoboy01 · Sep 22, 2009

If these pictures are going to be ads for your fiance's business, and he wants them to be the type of quality that an ad picture should be, then he should hire someone to do it. You simply don't have the equipment to do it properly... You can get pictures yes, but with nothing but an onboard flash(which in my opinion is worthless for anything except outdoor fill or triggering remote speedlights), the results won't be ideal. JMO.

Plato · Sep 22, 2009

fiveoboy01 said:
If these pictures are going to be ads for your fiance's business, and he wants them to be the type of quality that an ad picture should be, then he should hire someone to do it. You simply don't have the equipment to do it properly... You can get pictures yes, but with nothing but an onboard flash(which in my opinion is worthless for anything except outdoor fill or triggering remote speedlights), the results won't be ideal. JMO.

Yeah, what he said!

Eyetattoo · Sep 23, 2009

fiveoboy01 said:
If these pictures are going to be ads for your fiance's business, and he wants them to be the type of quality that an ad picture should be, then he should hire someone to do it. You simply don't have the equipment to do it properly... You can get pictures yes, but with nothing but an onboard flash(which in my opinion is worthless for anything except outdoor fill or triggering remote speedlights), the results won't be ideal. JMO.

I didnt ask if my equipment was adequate or not I asked for some baseline settings to start off with. Did you not read the whole thread?

Anyways, the shoot went well and I was able to get a few pictures that the shop owner really liked. The shoot gave me a great opportunity to mess around with the settings on the camera to see how it affected the images. The winning shot was shot at ISO 200, f/4.0 and 1/40 shutter speed. There was a little noise when viewed at full size but at the size it will be used (3x5 color ad in a newspaper) it looks better than 99% of the ads usually in the paper, so the owner and I are both pleased.

Here is the image after I made some minor adjustments in lightroom:

fiveoboy01 · Sep 23, 2009

Did you not read the whole thread?

Yes, I did.

Glad you're happy with your snapshot.

Misfitlimp · Sep 23, 2009

not digginh how the backdrop ends on the left side there pal, or the sink in the shot. The girl in the front is blurred it looks like. IMO but if the buissnes owner is ok with it then thats ok. I personally woudlnt be happy with it. Rememeber i said IMO

Eyetattoo · Sep 23, 2009

Misfitlimp said:
not digginh how the backdrop ends on the left side there pal, or the sink in the shot. The girl in the front is blurred it looks like. IMO but if the buissnes owner is ok with it then thats ok. I personally woudlnt be happy with it. Rememeber i said IMO

Yeah I wasnt too happy about the back drop but I wasnt able to move them to the right at all because the wall ends right beyond the crop. I noticed the girl in the front to with the purple hair. She was hard to get in position and keep goofing off so I went off of having the others looking good and not worrying too much about her.

Do you think I should have sped up the shutter or something else?

Thanks for the input!

Flash Harry · Sep 23, 2009

quick edit, not great but you can do the improvements yourself, I've just recalibrated the monitor and thought yours too dark too. H

gsgary · Sep 23, 2009

Eyetattoo said:
Misfitlimp said:

not digginh how the backdrop ends on the left side there pal, or the sink in the shot. The girl in the front is blurred it looks like. IMO but if the buissnes owner is ok with it then thats ok. I personally woudlnt be happy with it. Rememeber i said IMO

Click to expand...

Yeah I wasnt too happy about the back drop but I wasnt able to move them to the right at all because the wall ends right beyond the crop. I noticed the girl in the front to with the purple hair. She was hard to get in position and keep goofing off so I went off of having the others looking good and not worrying too much about her.

Do you think I should have sped up the shutter or something else?

Thanks for the input!

You should have been at a higher ISO, that picture must have been badly underexposed, should they have green skin :lol:

Eyetattoo · Sep 23, 2009

Hmm.... Their tones look good on my monitors. It's possible that it got distorted in Flickr?

KmH · Sep 23, 2009

You got some subject motion blur because of the slow shutter speed.

Most 'clients' don't know anything about photography and just about any image is acceptable to them.

Now that you have a shoot under your belt, a careful, honest, self-analysis of your results will really help push your growth as a photographer. :thumbup: