tips for shooting some old farm sheds/equipment

theregoesjb · Feb 16, 2012

Near where i work there is this house with an old wooden storage barn, there is all kinds of old equipment inside and outside of it. Tractors, trucks, tools... lots of faded paint and rust.

I am thinking about asking the home owners if they would mind me doing some photography... seems like it could make for really neat pictures if they didn't mind. Anyone ever have any experience asking strangers for use of their property for photography or what to offer them? I figure if nothing else ill give them any copies of any good pics...

Also, (assuming they were ok with the whole thing) any tips for shooting this type of stuff? ( Framing/exposure tips/etc. )
The front face of the barn faces south and most of the equipment is right out front so that should help.
I just got a rebel t2i and along with the 18-55 kit lens i have the 50mm 1.8, also a tripod.

Thanks!

480sparky · Feb 16, 2012

Bribe 'em sith a free 8x10 or two.

Spend your first hour on-site with your gear locked in your car.

KmH · Feb 16, 2012

You're far enough north that the Sun is still fairly low in the southern sky, even at mid-day this time of year, so using just the Sun could work. Being low in the sky it's not quite as harsh, but the Sun is still apprently small and the shadows will have sharp, less appealing edges.

An overcast day would make the light to flat and uninteresting if only sunlight is used.

The best approach is to scout the location by spending the day (sunrise to sunset), watching how the light changes, making notes, shooting some test shots, and then planning the actual shoot to be done in the next day or two.

I have done similar, but always planned on shooting near sunrise or sunset using strobed lighting (flash) both inside and outside the buildings to create more drama/depth/tension. That's why I had 14 speedlights.

tirediron · Feb 16, 2012

480sparky said:
Bribe 'em sith a free 8x10 or two.

Spend your first hour on-site with your gear locked in your car.

Good advice! :thumbup: Bring something along to use as a reflector; a large piece of white Coroplast or card stock works well. If you can borrow a flash, that will be very useful.

fokker · Feb 16, 2012

Stir up the dust to make an authentic and interesting atmosphere, preferably with some backlighting from the sun:

gsgary · Feb 16, 2012

If it has wooden planks on the outside look for rays of light coming through the gaps, a reflector and tripod will help

theregoesjb · Feb 16, 2012

all great tips, really appreciate it

I do plan on doing it late afternoon, hopefully right after work some day and spend a couple hours around sunset. I dont have a flash, is the flip up flash worth using? My father has some old strobe flashes from his manual camera, would these work on a DSLR? it fits onto the shoe and has an additional wire that plugs in the side (flash timer i assume?)

480sparky · Feb 16, 2012

theregoesjb said:
all great tips, really appreciate it

I do plan on doing it late afternoon, hopefully right after work some day and spend a couple hours around sunset. I dont have a flash, is the flip up flash worth using? My father has some old strobe flashes from his manual camera, would these work on a DSLR? it fits onto the shoe and has an additional wire that plugs in the side (flash timer i assume?)

They'll work, but most likely only in manual.

The cord is a PC (Prontor-Compor) connection used to trigger a flash.

jonathon94 · Feb 16, 2012

My father has some old strobe flashes from his manual camera, would these work on a DSLR?

Just a warning, but I have hear of cases of Older flashes messing up newer camera.
Per Old Flash New DSLR - Steve's Digicams Forums

The hotshoe on most dSLR models is designed for flash models with much lower trigger voltages (i.e. TTL level), and you'd risk damaging the camera's electronics by using a flash with high trigger voltages.

Other Links that mention this
http://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/19204/can-using-an-old-flash-damage-a-new-dslr
[URL]http://www.botzilla.com/photo/strobeVolts.html[/URL]