Scoping out location for shoot tomorrow

[Braineack]

this was the best shot of the day, and I'm still not entirely happy with it.


The Millers by The Braineack, on Flickr

 

[D-B-J]

this was the best shot of the day, and I'm still not entirely happy with it.


The Millers by The Braineack, on Flickr

Doesn't look bad, but the fill seems a bit under what it should be.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Braineack]

That's the best of the lot for sure.

I jsut made bad decision. I guess it was nerves but I wasn't please with how the shoot turned out. Left Auto-iso from my last use and didn't factor it in. went I got the flashes out, I kept it in A mode by mistake. I even forgot to use my light meter on the flashes and just winged it. Had a fussy 1yo to deal with and my nerves got to me. When I finally went through them all it was like "that's all I got?" I had a bunch of planned shots I wanted to do and didn't even think of them.

I'm still editing the decent ones and when I hand them over I'm going to offer a reshoot. I don't feel I'm meeting expectations; I could be wrong, and even if they are thrilled, I'm not incredibly happy about them.

here's another:


Finley by The Braineack, on Flickr

 

[Derrel]

Well...it's a learning process. I've made the Auto ISO + flash mistake...that can be disastrous. On the shot of the parents and Finley, the baby is slightly OOF,as is the dad's hand, and the parents appear to be slightly "ghosted" from one of a few possible things: FP synch giving that 1,000 flashes per second motion blur; subject movement; camera movement; or maybe even VC active at above 1/500 second...the parents are just not "tack sharp", but have that weird, ever-so-slight blurriness that I myself have seen from fill flash used in bright strong light. This is only like your second or third "for other people" shoot, so there's no shame in having had a tougher than anticipated time, or forgetting the way you had planned things. Unless you actually write the shoot's progression down, consider it akin to going to the grocery stores without any kind of list whatsoever...sometimes you get home and unpack the groceries and think, "WTF was I THINKING!!!!"

My guess is the fill flash is so,so close to the ambient exposure that there are two very close, ever-so-slightly competing exposures going on in the first shot.

 

[Nevermore1]

Which park is this? It's getting on my nerves because I'm pretty sure I went there years ago but am just drawing a blank right now.

 

[Braineack]

Which park is this? It's getting on my nerves because I'm pretty sure I went there years ago but am just drawing a blank right now.

EC Lawrence Park / Walney Pond. Been going there since a kid. Looks exactly the same.

Well...it's a learning process. I've made the Auto ISO + flash mistake...that can be disastrous. On the shot of the parents and Finley, the baby is slightly OOF,as is the dad's hand, and the parents appear to be slightly "ghosted" from one of a few possible things: FP synch giving that 1,000 flashes per second motion blur; subject movement; camera movement; or maybe even VC active at above 1/500 second...the parents are just not "tack sharp", but have that weird, ever-so-slight blurriness that I myself have seen from fill flash used in bright strong light. This is only like your second or third "for other people" shoot, so there's no shame in having had a tougher than anticipated time, or forgetting the way you had planned things. Unless you actually write the shoot's progression down, consider it akin to going to the grocery stores without any kind of list whatsoever...sometimes you get home and unpack the groceries and think, "WTF was I THINKING!!!!"

My guess is the fill flash is so,so close to the ambient exposure that there are two very close, ever-so-slightly competing exposures going on in the first shot.

Pretty much nailed it. It was actually shot at 1/80, so what I think you're seeing is blur from camera shake and then the faint flash exposure. I think I had VC off too, and didn't realize it.

Here's the rest of the few keepers from the day: The Millers - an album on Flickr

 

[Nevermore1]

Yes, I've been there, it's been years though. I do drive by it everyday. Guess I need to go back again.

 

[vintagesnaps]

The one you thought was your best is nice and they'll probably like it (my nit would be that bright bit of sunlight on the baby's hair). The other one seems to have a rather odd vantage point, that leaf in the foreground looks rather huge/out of proportion and makes for a distraction and the baby's feet/legs seem to have gotten a little lost in the grass).

edit - And now that I see the others, you got some nice ones that they should like. You could improve on getting the right moment - the ones of the baby could've captured better expressions; you should've waited another sec. or so tll mom stopped adjusting her top before you shot that one (or got another shot or two).

Seems like you need way more practice in shooting out in various situations, in learning how to engage and work with kids, getting your timing down, etc. before you take on clients. Then you'd know what to do in a variety of situations and have the confidence to be successful. You look like you're getting there but still have learning to do.

 

[Derrel]

Well, one thing about you, you take failure like a man, without a single bit of whining or excuse-making. Kudos on that!

Now that I have seen another six or so images I would say that your scene-setting under the pergola was nice, and the flash to ambient balance was very nice. The handful of pics you put up had good expression and emotion, and the two adults looked pretty good. The baby is at that age where so many kids are kind of, well...lump of clay-ish, you know? Anyway, what you consider rejects are significantly better than many FB shooters can do on a good day. I think you have a knack for lighting, and some day you'll be very,very,very good at it.

 

[Braineack]

Yes, I've been there, it's been years though. I do drive by it everyday. Guess I need to go back again.

The best part for me was that THEY picked it, and I'm 2min down the road.

I added another batch of photos. Probably all I'll ever show them; the rest aren't worth letting them see.

 

[Nevermore1]

I think you got some good shots. Yes, there is room for improvement but that's how you learn. You did a lot better than I would have! I wouldn't have had the patience to get the photos of the baby they can be so difficult to work with until they get a few years older! My 3 year old will only sit still and cooperate when she feels like it.

 

[Braineack]

I think you got some good shots. Yes, there is room for improvement but that's how you learn. You did a lot better than I would have! I wouldn't have had the patience to get the photos of the baby they can be so difficult to work with until they get a few years older! My 3 year old will only sit still and cooperate when she feels like it.

Yeah, shooting kids doesn't help.

The couple loves the pictures and thinks I'm crazy to suggest they weren't up to par/expectations.

 

[Derrel]

Well, the overall rendering of the scene and the light and the people is actually quite lovely. I mean, the fill-flash is GOOD! The way the scene and people was "rendered" is very appealing. She looks good, dad looks good, kid looks clean and tidy and little...the park looks like the light is gorgeous...these are very close to being A-list shots, but it's only on some very fine, nit-picky photographic expert type level that these are not as good as you had hoped. Like, the slight blur on that one first shot: its NOT visible really on anything under 2,048 pixels wide!!! It looks GREAT at screen size or 5x7!!! And, compared to say, cell phone portraits, these are pro-type work. Besides, people judge family photos not so much on technical quality, but on emotion, and how their loved ones "look". And you made the people and the scene look very,very good. You obviously expect perfection in every aspect, which is commendable, but what THEY SEE is themselves looking GOOD, not your camera-handling decisions and exposure choices being only 90% perfect. For every 10 criteria, you satisfied 9 perfectly well.

 

[Braineack]

As my wife always says: The band doesn't just walk on stage and play.

Thanks for the kind words. I'm pretty self-critical--I made mistakes--but they don't know that. I know I can do better, but like you also said: this is my second time ever going out and doing this.

Learned a lot, hope to improve for the next time.

 

[JacaRanda]

I think you did wayyyy better than you think you did. As a regular old client, I would be a happy camper.

As the photographer, you have a nice list of shoulda woulda's that one day will be instinctive, clockworkish.........
Don't be afraid to put notes in your phone or tablet or on a small notepad.