Stock Photo Shoot

[SLOShooter]

The company that I work for knows that I do photography as a hobby and I have done some product shots for them that they liked quite a bit. We sell tablet computers.

So they realized that they don't have any stock photos of people actually using this thing, so they want me to take some pictures of some lady outdoors with the tablet. They're thinking like in front of a home and at a coffee shop with a client, yada yada.

I need some pointers from people that have done something like this before. I use a Nikon D70 and I've done some amature portraits but nothing serious. I have the kit lens but I've been close to purchasing the 50mm 1.8D and this sounds like a good excuse to do it. I'm also thinking I might need to use a fill flash at some point so I might be getting something to solve that as well.

This is not a life or death assignment, we have the lady and the product they just want to try it to see if we can get anything useful without having to hire someone. Basically I want to blow them away so that I can do more of this kind of thing in the future. I know that you guys aren't going to make me into a professional overnight but I'm also sure that you can point me in the right direction. I don't think I'm actually going to be doing the shoot for an other week so I plan on looking for good locations and taking some notes on what the light looks like at certain times of the day.

There's also a possbility of doing indoor, office shots, what kind of gear am I looking at for that? on camera flash? Strobes? Hot lights? I donno, you tell me!

 

[Rob]

Hi there,

It should be a fun assignment, so go with your thoughts. You're going to need to think about the purity of the image for stock art - no clutter in the background and only relevent things in focus.

Fill-in flash is great when used well, but can be tricky to master. It's ideal for a coffee-shop type shot as you can reduce the exposure to get the background dark, fuzzy and unobtrusive. Avoid using it on full power as you'll find it shows too much. If you can stop it down to 1/4 power then you should get good results.

I'd say a lens in the 50-120mm range would be ideal, especially a prime (fixed) lens as this will give you maximum lighting potential.

Good luck

Rob

 

[SLOShooter]

Thanks for the Reply, I should be getting a list of locations here within the next few days. Getting pretty excited about this project.

 

[KevinR]

I would say the 50mm is a good idea. Also, get a good flash. I would go of camera with the flash with something like a Stroboframe and your sync cord. You should be able to get some really nice stuff.

 

[SLOShooter]

Right on man, thanks.