Beginner people and animals... URGENT

lucy901123

lucy901123

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Name
Lucy
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Yes
iv got a shoot coming up tomorrow with a 4 of older lades with learning difficulties. they are having the animal man in so will be handling lots of different animals. the shoot will take place in their home (im thinking livingroom) so im wondering whats the best way to shoot? im presuming space will be tight and there will be furniture around the place and a couple of them are unable to walk very far and not to mention the animals present. any suggestions, iv never done this before???
i.e. backdrop/no backdrop, lifestyle/posed... i have NO idea lol!
 
Not that I'll be able to help but it may help someone who knows about these things to help you if you post what gear you have, i.e. body, lens, flash (on/off camera) etc.
 
I have standard kit lens 18-55mm zoom for Canon 1000d
Plus a 50mm f1.8 prime lens ☺
 
Best advice i can give you is take your time.
For indoor low light then i would say your 50 1.8 is going to be your best bet
 
Do you have a separate flash ?
If not try to avoid using the on camera flash, you will get red eye in either the humans or animals,
plus depending on what the animals are you could scare them, that said if they are used to this
type of thing then they probably won't mind
 
@lucy901123, it would help to know what your level of experience is, and how severe the learning difficulties are.

If it were me I wouldn't rely on being able to set anything up - background, flash, posing or anything. I would try to rearrange furniture or get people to sit where there's good light, though, and concentrate on capturing natural reactions. The animal handler is going to be in the way a lot, so make sure you're on the opposite side from him. The subjects are likely to remain sitting - make sure you get down to their level.

You may well want wider angle than 50mm, and you may find that f1.8 is way too shallow to get both animal and subject in shot. Experiment before hand to work out what you'd need to say get someone's lap and face both in focus. You may also need a high shutter speed (>1/250s) to freeze animal movement but may be better off just timing things carefully. Don't be afraid to bump the ISO right up. I'd shoot in manual so I could control both aperture and shutter speed and ensure that neither went too low.

I'm guessing you're not familiar with flash, in which case this probably isn't time to start unless you have time to practise. If you do have time then work out how to use automatic flash on your camera, bouncing it off the wall & ceiling behind you. That could solve a lot of problems.

One tip I was given for home portraits where you don't know what you're going to find was to ensure that you take lots of voile fabric. Then you can put a couple of layers over any windows or patio doors which are letting in direct, harsh sun - unless you want to get creative with shadows. Then you also have the option of using it as a plain white / light grey backdrop.

I'd also take some reflectors to bounce some light into faces. You may be able to just prop them up and leave them. Large pieces of white card will do the job.
 
What Simon said... especially the part about your 50mm being quite tight on your crop sensor in what could be a very small area... which would lead me to say use your kit lens, and unless you ramp up your iso, you'll want some fill light, prob best fulfilled with bounce.... BUT... although there's a handler there, are these animals that are going to be ok around flash? I think that's something you should check out perhaps?
 
I'm surprised (shocked even) that no one has said it sooner. Old ladies with special needs, animals that require a handler, unknown location, inadequate equipment and no idea how to pose people...on a portrait shoot.

I don't want to be too harsh Lucy but this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.... I really hope you're insured.
 
UaeExile said:
I'm surprised (shocked even) that no one has said it sooner. Old ladies with special needs, animals that require a handler, unknown location, inadequate equipment and no idea how to pose people...on a portrait shoot.

I don't want to be too harsh Lucy but this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.... I really hope you're insured.
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Maybe I wasnt very clear on the situation at hand nor my knowledge and/or experience but in actual fact, it was a very successful shoot!!
There's being harsh, and then there's being rude. I'm open for any constructive criticism but last time I checked my post was for advice not negative comments like yours. Take them else where please! Everyone has to start somewhere!
UaeExile..Its actually very difficult to inform others whom are professionals of your skill level as an hobbiest aspiring to become professional!

But as for all the other HELPFUL replies, thank you very much I appreciate your comments and your time to respond.
 
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lucy901123 said:
Maybe I wasnt very clear on the situation at hand nor my knowledge and/or experience but in actual fact, it was a very successful shoot!!
There's being harsh, and then there's being rude. I'm open for any constructive criticism but last time I checked my post was for advice not negative comments like yours. Take them else where please! Everyone has to start somewhere!
UaeExile..Its actually very difficult to inform others whom are professionals of your skill level as an hobbiest aspiring to become professional!

But as for all the other HELPFUL replies, thank you very much I appreciate your comments and your time to respond.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but that's not me being rude by a long stretch. I was just pointing out what I thought was the bleeding obvious that this sounded like a challenging shoot for anyone, let alone someone who by your own admission "had no idea".

If you stick around long enough you'll see this board is a helpful mix of old, young, experienced and noob. Some will tell you everything is OK and you're doing great and others will tell you the exact opposite; most will do it in a way which is direct and assertive but rarely rude.

Anyway, I'm sorry for offending you and I really hope I haven't put you off posting further. You might want to put some of your best shots up in the photo section for critique.
 
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lucy901123 said:
Maybe I wasnt very clear on the situation at hand nor my knowledge and/or experience but in actual fact, it was a very successful shoot!!
There's being harsh, and then there's being rude. I'm open for any constructive criticism but last time I checked my post was for advice not negative comments like yours. Take them else where please! Everyone has to start somewhere!
UaeExile..Its actually very difficult to inform others whom are professionals of your skill level as an hobbiest aspiring to become professional!

But as for all the other HELPFUL replies, thank you very much I appreciate your comments and your time to respond.
Click to expand...

Cool! So how _did_ you do it? Flash or no flash? And have you got any results you can share?
 
Graham W said:
I don't usually get involved in stuff like this but I don't think Adams comment was rude at all. Honest, blunt even, but certainly not rude.
Glad it went well for you. How did you go about it in the end?
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+1, I was thinking similar thoughts to Adam when I read the original post.

I was also thinking, stop panicking, shoot within your knowledge and only try new stuff once you have a couple of good shots inside the camera, you will be fine...

Glad it turned out ok, any pics to share?
 
Yes, as above, would love to see how you made out and how you decided to shoot in the end... :)
 
lucy901123 said:
Maybe I wasnt very clear on the situation at hand nor my knowledge and/or experience but in actual fact, it was a very successful shoot!!
There's being harsh, and then there's being rude. I'm open for any constructive criticism but last time I checked my post was for advice not negative comments like yours. Take them else where please! Everyone has to start somewhere!
UaeExile..Its actually very difficult to inform others whom are professionals of your skill level as an hobbiest aspiring to become professional!

But as for all the other HELPFUL replies, thank you very much I appreciate your comments and your time to respond.
Click to expand...
I've seen much worse comments than that on this forum. To be honest I was thinking the same thing anyway.
 
ANIMAL COLLAGE.jpg Ok, i take it back, not a 'rude' comment as such. But the the comment 'disaster' i felt was unnecessary at that moment as i was purely asking for advice..but im over that now lol.
Anyway, the shoot.... i just opted for the lifestyle approach with no flash, no backdrop and natural surroundings natural light and captured the ladies in their moment. For safeguarding reasons I can't post my pictures of them as they are vulnerable adults. But I have a couple of my mum which I can post. the pictures of the animals where ok too (in my opinion anyway ). And in all fairness I was really happy with the results so to me, it was successful .
 
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You did a nice job, Lucy. I can very well understand the pre-event jitters. Your positive can-do attitude surely helped a lot.

Animals can be very theraputic and the smile on the face of the woman above shows it.

You could not post pictures of the folks with special needs because of privacy laws? I understand that.

If you get a chance to check your white balance on your images and to straighten mum4a it would help a little.

Marie
 
lucy901123 said:
Ok, i take it back, not a 'rude' comment as such. But the the comment 'disaster' i felt was unnecessary at that moment as i was purely asking for advice..but im over that now lol.
Anyway, the shoot.... i just opted for the lifestyle approach with no flash, no backdrop and natural surroundings natural light and captured the ladies in their moment. For safeguarding reasons I can't post my pictures of them as they are vulnerable adults. But I have a couple of my mum which I can post. the pictures of the animals where ok too (in my opinion anyway). And in all fairness I was really happy with the results so to me, it was successful .
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Fair enough but I think your original post made it sound much worse than what it was.

Good job on the shots.... The animals look great!
 
Aha, thank you very much everyone. Really boosted my confidence with all of you replies. I think the problem being with myself is confidence in myself in all fairness. I know more than I think but don't allow myself to believe it lol.
Thank you again
 
I think you did a great job and have captured some really good images.
Stick with it your going in the right direction :)
I will look forward to seeing more of your work in the future !
And please don't take offence at negative comments sadly it happens in most Forums and a lot of camera clubs :(
Keep smiling and taking more images :banana:
 
I think you did really well and I'm not a portrait photographer by any means so I may be wrong but the last one of your mum looks a little out of focus on her face. I'm actually not sure if that's a bad thing as it kind of gives the photo a certain something real about it. But if you aren't aware, generally always try and get the face in focus. In this case depending on what apeture you used, you could up widen the apeture slightly. Alternatively, depending on how you're focusing, you could change to a single focus point (or a cluster of them) and move the focus point around until it is over the face. Just some things to keep in mind for future maybe :)
 
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Yeah I will deffo look at that for future reference. Thank you. It was something I actually picked up on myself in all fairness. There was a few shots I should have widened the aperture and if I had of done, it would have produced some good shots. But I guess that's just a learning curve isn't it. :)(y)
 
Can I just say firstly how lovely this thread has gone :D
Lucy it sounds like you really enjoyed yourself and you've got some cool images to boot.. Go you! :D
 
Being asked to do a shoot when you're still a beginner, and still learning about photography and your camera, can be daunting and nerve racking .You've done well and should be very happy with the results. If I were you I would try to do more of this sort of thing as it is great practice and really improves your skills, as well as boosting your confidence.
 
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