It was tough and i felt like crap when i read those comments but i knew i was probably getting myself into a mess. I'm going to keep practicing and find some students who need photos taken for free. Best way to move on and up.
At least you saved yourself from having to chop off all those pretty girls' heads.
I already saw some pictures on their website of heads chopped off.
http://puu.sh/3an5H.jpg
(MrPie, TPF does not permit the posting of images to which the poster does not hold rights/permission; I've changed it to a link for you)
So yeah... :lmao::lmao::lmao::lmao:
Well, if that's a sample of the sort of work they're using, I would stay away from it even if you were an expert. Why? Because in my experience, the the poorer the quality work a company uses, the more they complain. I have a feeling if you had taken this on you would have walked out owing them money. As Ron said, I applaud your decision to walk away!
So... having sorted that out, doing a bang-up job of images like this isn't terribly difficult, once you've practiced it and developed a system. What you want (or what they were trying to acheive I think) was what is known as high-key lighting. That is, a bright, clean, shadow-free image on a white background. The ideal set-up for this consists of a roll of white seamless paper on a background stand, three lights, three lightstands and one large soft-box and lots of room. To shoot full-body high-key I would want at least a 20' deep space.
Position your background against the far wall and bring your paper out at least 10' so that it has a gentle curve and then meets the floor, laying flat for at least 5' (all distances approximate). Tape the paper down with white gaffer's tape and then position one light on either side of the paper pointing at the opposite side of the background (ie, the light on the right is pointed at the left side of the paper and vice-versa) and at a distance and hieght so that they illuminate the whole background. Make sure that you have enough paper on the floor so that your model will be at least 2-3' in front of these lights, and use reflectors, gobos or whatever to ensure that no light spills toward the model.
Mark a point in the middle of the paper a couple of feet back from the front edge for your model to stand, and then figure out where you need to stand to get the right perspective at whatever focal length you are using. Mark your spot with a piece of tape. Now, position your third light just to the right or left of where you're going to stand facing the model and at a height so that it's pointing slightly down, say 10-15 off of vertical (this is your key or main light).
Now, using either light meter, or a stand-in model (both preferably), set your key light so that it gives you the exposure you want at 1/200 and f8 (or whatever aperture/SS you like, those are nice, safe, generic numbers) and your base ISO. Once you've got that dialed in, then set your background lights so that they are 1/3 - 1/2 stop brighter.
Now you can bring them in assembly-line style. "Stand on the 'X' please, face the light, head up, chin out..." *click* *click* *click*, turn to your left please... repeat. Next!" With a little practice and the right gear (which does NOT have to cost a lot) you can set this up in 10-15 minutes and turn out images that will literally need less than a minute of post-processing each.
