Could you advise me on first shoot?

shogran

shogran

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Josh
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Hi guys

A friend of mine has asked me to take some photos of them in clothes for their college course, they want to do it tomorrow at 6pm by an old brewery for an urban look. I have never done this before and have no specialist equipment for this kind of shooting.. She wants shots of her modelling clothes and posing (clothed). I have a Canon EOS 450D with kit 18-55 IS lens and a Canon 28-105 lens, I only have the onboard flash. What lens and settings would you suggest? Given the time I will assume a higher ISO is needed, but that's about as much as I know!

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Josh
 
2 Questions:

What are her expectations?

Can you meet those expectations with your kit and knowledge?

At 6pm it will be dark so you will need lighting, not higher ISO. The on camera flash will give you light but in a harsh and flat way. I would suggest bringing the time forward to when there is natural light available. If you cannot borrow additional off camera lighting gear then I would be thinking about the 1st question above.
 
Sorry, but I wouldn't even contemplate shooting a person at 6pm in the winter with only on camera flash, you're just not going to have enough control over light. I'd reschedule.

Its entirely likely you might not be able to focus in the dark either, so you might have to use manual focus.

So you'll end up with something like this...

5366515564_e00a5a2d46.jpg


My first shoot, taken when I had on camera flash (350d), MF and in a tunnel. Not very good, is it?
 
Agree with the above. You simply do not have the kit for this. Your only option is to shoot in available light and wait for an overcast day so nature provides you with a softbox.
 
+1 to everything above. You could do it with the popup flash, but it won't look good. Putting up the ISO won't do the trick.

Re-schedule for daytime. If it's a cloudy day that's great. If it's sunny put your model in the shade.

The location sounds good, and could give you some gritty/urban backgrounds.

Should be a fun thing to do. Hope it goes well.
 
Thanks for all the responses guys, thinking you're right. I will contact the model and try to rearrange for another time. She only wants some photos for a college project, there will be no money involved and while I'm not saying because of this I'm not bothered about quality of the pics, because I am, it will be a new thing for us both and to begin with I want to see how well I can do this with what I have and see if I enjoy it enough to do it again or buy more equipment.
 
Get creative and buy a couple of high powered torches like the 1million candle light ones, the look will be urban and gritty.
 
Okay guys, went ahead with this shot for the experience and to have some fun. The idea was that if I got any useable shots so much the better. I didn't have a chance to source any million candle torches unfortunately. I chose the best of a bad bunch and played a little in PP, here are a couple of results, still working on these but opinions so far would be appreciated!


India's Photoshoot 2 by Josh Graham Photography, on Flickr


WIP India's Photoshoot by Josh Graham Photography, on Flickr

It was bloody freezing so I'll be working on the red face next!
 
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They have that "flashed" look and I don't quite understand the crops, but if you're especially good at photoshop you might be able to save them.
 
Thank you very much Patrick! Lynnie, yeah a lot of them are quite flashed looking, the crop was because there was quite a messy/distracting background so I'm trying to keep the attention on the model! PP going well so far, have fixed red face and removed the contrast difference above the fur on the 2nd photo (titled).
 
I agree that they have the flash look, but it is a fairly popular look in fashion editorials and ad campaigns, so I don't see it as an issue as long as it is intended.
 
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