Family Picture Saturday!

[MelissaLaska]

I will be taking pictures of my Aunts and uncles (8 of them) this Saturday morning. I'm a little nervous as they are expecting professional pictures. Any tips are greatly appreciated! It will be a nice morning, the weather right now says mostly cloudy.

Thanks in advance.

Melissa

 

[tirediron]

Relax! Find a nice area with an even, non-distracting background, use a large aperture (ensuring that you get all the people in sharp focus), and keep the subjects well separated from the background. Use the longest focal length you can, and be ready with reflectors or fill-light to overcome shadows and 'racoon' eyes.

Good luck.

 

[pbelarge]

Cloudy is good, as long as it is not raining. You will not have to be as concerned about overexposure.

 

[MelissaLaska]

So should I set my camera for F16 and 1/80 and not use my speedlight flash?! Or should I use my flash? what would be better?

 

[tirediron]

So should I set my camera for F16 and 1/80 and not use my speedlight flash?! Or should I use my flash? what would be better?

Can't really say until you're there. I would try for at least 1/125, and preferable 1/250th of a second with a large aperture (small f#).

 

[MelissaLaska]

So I went outside right now and tried a 1/125 and up to 1/250 and a larger aperture of anywhere from f5-f9. I was getting alot of face glare or that nasty shine on the cheeks and nose.... I'm afraid of that. I tend to get that often and I have a hard time fixing that in the moment..... suggestions? The best exposures that I got with a cloudy day like today was f9 and 1/250 OR f16 and 1/80. Both of this was without flash.

 

[tirediron]

What's your ISO set to?

 

[MelissaLaska]

OH WOW it's at an 800! Is that why?! It doesn't need to be that high or shouldn't be right?! should be 200, right?!

 

[tirediron]

Always set your ISO as low as it can be to still acheive the desired shutter-speed/aperture. 800 is way too high.

 

[MelissaLaska]

GREAT thank you for showing me this! I would have kicked myself if it was set that for saturday and I didn't know it!

 

[tirediron]

I would also suggest shooting in RAW+JPG (Large/Fine) and White Balance to 'Auto'. Shooting in RAW will give you the most flexibility for post-processing correction, but you'll also have nice, printable .jpgs that you can use too.

 

[pbelarge]

I know that tired mention to set your wb to auto.

My suggestion is to try it at cloudy. The images will be warmer. If you are shooting in raw+jpeg, you can always adjust the wb during editing.

 

[MelissaLaska]

thank you, thank you! I changed my ISO right away, I will also try using either auto or cloudy depending on what it is like Saturday and finally i will shoot in raw+jpeg. Thank you for all your suggestions, they are greatly appreciated! I feel a bit more confident now, which plays a main roll in taking pictures!

 

[KmH]

Open shade, 6:15 pm, group is facing northeast.

The camera settings were:

1. 24 mm focal length
2. Lens aperture f/5.6
3. Shutter speed 1/250 (max flash sync speed to let in less ambient light)
4. ISO 200
5. Flash control was set to rear curtain sync.
6. 1 SB-800 speedlight 3 feet camera left (full power, 14mm zoom), 1 SB-600 speedlight 3 feet camera right (full power, 14mm zoom).

 

[mrpink]

I will be taking pictures of my Aunts and uncles (8 of them) this Saturday morning. I'm a little nervous as they are expecting professional pictures. Any tips are greatly appreciated!

Have them hire a professional.





p!nK