Rapid fire Vs Slow and acurate

[Peakapot]

I am doing a simple family shoot this weekend. I have a small studio setup with white background. I use a stand with a big roll of white paper which i pull out and cut off after each shoot. The paper is 3m wide and the stand is 3m tall so i can easily fit a whole family on. My question is, do you do continuous shooting and look for the right shot amongst loads of bad photos or do you try take your time and just take good photos. I have tried both and i'm not sure which is best. I have done the continuous method and then picked out 30 good images from 1000 and iv also shot just purposeful photos until iv had 10 good ones. I find the continuous method works well with kids as you get natural shots. What do you do and more importantly what is the "best practice" method?

Regards Peakapot

 

[Derrel]

Best practice is to have the camera mounted on a stand or tripod, and framed, with a reasonably lengthy remote release held in your hand and behind your back, so blinkers do not see you trip the shutter. Most blinkers are men, and it runs in families; if you've ever worked in a full-time portrait studio, you'll understand that you can also use the remote release in front of your body and make an exaggerated stabbing motion with it, let dad and the boys blink, then just press the release after their eyes open. On people with exceptionally bad blink reflexes, set up, then lock the mirror up. Do not use pre-flash on speedlights or white-light or red grid type AF-assist systems.

Best practice also involves a pre-shoot consultation in which you tell the parents that you are in charge, and NOT to look at the kids, and to keep their mouths SHUT, and to NOT talk to the kids at all during the session, to prevent them (the parents) from utterly ruining the session. Parents ruin more family sessions than anybody.

If you know how to shoot, 80% of your frames will be at least acceptable. Be animated, be in charge, be in command of the session. Again...if there are kids, or a BIG group, it becomes essential to mount the camera, focus and frame the shot, and to then direct the poses, direct the shot, direct the eye direction, and to describe the expression desired, and to shoot the shot when the time is right.

You will get more good, solid photos by directing and leading the poses and expressions and by being animated and by WATCHING the subjects and shooting with a remote release behind the back than you will any other way. Your camera-room skills are the most important thing to work on.

Your characterization of rapid-fire vs slow and accurate is not really accurate. That's just NOT the way a shoot must be done, at one or the other extreme. The key is to be in charge of the photography session.

 

[Peakapot]

makes perfect sense when you explain it like that. I have a wireless remote and will try having the camera on the tripod set up ready to go while i direct them. The shoot is on Saturday and Sunday so i will let you know the result

thank you very much

 

[Derrel]

Start with the pre-shoot consultation with both parents and outline how the shoot will be done. Convey to them that YOU are the one to get the smiles, the laughs, the expressions, and that they are NOT, under ANY circumstances, to "look at the kids to make sure they're smiling" ands they are NOT, under ANY circumstances, to even talk to the children. I'm serious...this is so,so,so,sooooo important. Parents can ruin a set by making a kid feel picked on, angry, upset, single out, etc. Many parents are pretty "wound up" about a family photo session, and the picture-face frozen fake smile and the every-shot-must count mentality from the film era still lingers on in many families. Parents will often be very nervous, and can easily snap at a kid for the slightest perceived lack of cooperation. I can not stress enough how critical it is for you to understand this, and to tell the parents beforehand that you must be allowed to run the entire photo shoot, and that they must not say a single word to the kids! No teasing...no coaxing...no coaching. no expression monitoring. Moms looking downward and across the group at a kid in front of Dad....ruins many shots. Parents literally ****ruin**** many sessions when they try to get the kids to do anything, the kids get upset, and then the session has to be brought back on-track.

Start with the mother, singles of her, shot as verticals. The Dad will take his cues from the mother. Shoot mom's singles first, then mom + dad as a couple, then Dad as a solo subject, and THEN bring in the wife and kids and start on the family as a whole. Trust me--woman first, couple, man alone, then family, then kids, then finish up with some breakouts of "the boys" and "the girls", and any blended family variants or special requests, like one kid + trophy or award, etc.,etc..

The basic idea is that with a fixed camera, you get people to LOOK at your face, and you can tell jokes, play-act, coach, direct, on an as-needed basis, first for an adult woman, then a man and his wife, then a grown man--who will be the most-insecure, reticent subject of the whole family 9 times out of 10. Mom will set the tone, and the others will follow her lead. With the kids watching how mom and dad act in segment 2, the kids see the needed behavior that both parents will model. Dad alone needs to be shot fast, and well, and is the ONLY person you might consider shooting dead-last.

You need the parents to keep their mouths totally SHUT once the family unit is in front of the camera, AND also once the kids are in front of the camera, send the parents out of the room, so they will not "try to help", and ruin the photos.

If you have shot a few hundred family sessions, you'll know why this is the best general outline of how to shoot a typical M + W- 3 children type family. It's not about the lighting nearly as much as it is human psychology and normal family dynamics. Family members standing off to the side of the camera, making comments to other members, is poison. Spectators and peanut gallery people can draw the eyes terribly, so keep them directly behind you, facing the wall, or in an adjoining or entirely different room. The more experience you have, the more you know how to handle the personalities, but again...the peanut gallery members, no matter their age, need to STFU and let you be in charge of the picture-making AND the expression-unifying, and the expression solicitation and achievement. If you want to, print this post out, and let the parents read this. let them know that telling little Caleb to, "Smile big or no ice cream for you!" or any other helpful coaching, cajoling,bargaining, etc. is the best way to ruin their family pictures. The photographer's job is to run the entire session, and they need to let you be in control, and they absolutely need to shut up and follow directions, and to keep their eyes on you, and let you do your part without them cocking up the whole shoot by being "parental".

 

[vintagesnaps]

If you have to ask....

A thousand? one thousand of one family at one time? Stop doing that. Learn how to frame shots, learn how to get proper exposures, learn how to compose images.

You need to know how to work with people. You need to be able to take charge. To do that you need to know what to do with your camera and be able to direct and engage people - you need to come across in a way that they listen to you and follow your directions because your expertise and authority come thru in the way you talk to them.

I looked at your profile and some of the questions you've asked are good and seem to show that you're still learning. I think you'll need to keep learning and practicing so you'll be able to do portraits and be successful with it.

If this family are friends/relatives then hopefully you can just have fun and use it as a learning experience.

 

[tirediron]

Absolutely spot-on advice from Derrel. For a typical family shoot, I try to provide three proofs of each pose, and to get that, I usually shoot 5-6 frames. I love my tripods (and own more than any one human has a right to...) but NOT in the studio. While Derrel's method for avoiding the blinkers is excellent, I've found that with modern software, it's much easier just to move eyes around and not worry about it. For me, the freedom to move just a bit right, left, or wherever is worth the 30 seconds or so it will take to swap a set of eyes.

 

[table1349]

One other thing to remember if you are using studio lighting of some kind or another, rapid fire shooting can cause bad exposure if the units have not fully recharged and it can overheat the unit(s) which can cause various sometimes expensive problems.

 

[Overread]

Few thoughts to add:

1) Overheating is a concern, if you've got good quality lighting units they should have heat sensors that should stop the flash firing if it overheats. Remember even without using high power a series of fast bursts will build up heat very quickly.
Do let your flashes have a break and read up on their expected limits so that you've got some idea how far you should take them before you're risking them. Last thing you want is a flash dead on site (ideally though you'll have at least one spare).

2) Your keeper rate is a variable beast and a tricky beast. See as you get better it will start to improve. You'll be timing your shots (individual or bursts) better and better; but at the same time as you're getting better your standards will generally rise too so you can see it go backwards again and get "worse".

The key is to keep studying what you are doing and understand the flow of events. The more you do something the more you'll start to learn when to and when not to press the shutter. You'll also start to learn when you're shooting a shot that you "know" should work and one where you're "risking" a failed shot but you're going to try for one anyway.

I would say your method shouldn't matter so long as you work at improving it and that its not hampering your editing workflow and pace too drastically.
For something like portraits I would also say you don't want to blind your subjects; but all means take many shots but don't leave them with spots before their eyes and your flashes smoking from overuse.

3) Take your time; its hard and the first few times you do this you will find everything happens at all once and there just isn't enough time to do anything you plan to do. But that does get better with time; the more you do it the more familiar you are and the easier things will go.

4) And on that subject having a plan of what shots you want can drastically cut down the "machine gunning" aspect because you shift from grabshots at opportunities to planned shots at key points in time. This is even easier in a situation where you have control over lighting and subjects - although of course this does mean you have to study to be able to know poses to have a plan in the first place; but it all ties together well and should give you key points to focus upon that will cut down your machine gunning.

 

[Peakapot]

Thank you very much for all the points. I have just finished setting the studio up. Tomorrow i am shooting a wide range from New born boys and girls to large families and one guy who is nearly 7ft tall. I will take all the advice offered and put it into use. I will of course share my results with you so you can offer further advice. Thanks again

Regards Peakapot

 

[astroNikon]

then picked out 30 good images from 1000

Oh my.

The last individual session I did - 1 hour, I took under 40 photos and 10 were keepers. The reason the other one's weren't was due to
- person breathing wrong (I normally tell them to breathe in, then out and smile)
- they shifted or closed their eyes.
- arm/leg/ head/ chin/ hair /body position shifted slightly
- reposition in relation to the lights

but everything else, knowing the correct aperture / shutter and exposure (or correct at the beginning) you need to know before hand. Especially as mentioned above, controlling the shoot.
Good luck.