Post #15 - Urgent Resolution Question

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Skips

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Name
Skippy
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I've not held a proper camera in around 9 months or so. Tommorow, due to dates being changed I have a photoshoot for a groups Graduation. They want 50 photos. 2 of each of the 25 people. 1 in colour the other in black and white, A4. I have borrowed a camera and my shooting space will be a stage where I have full access to the stage lights and the rear projected screens. So I can use those for backgrounds if needed and project anything I can find photo's of.

I just need ideas for 50 different "fun" poses. It's about 50% male, 50% female and each photo must have only that person in the portrait. Was thinking that if I did the colour as a bit crazy and the b+w as a bit more serious it might be nice?
 
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Skips said:
I've not held a proper camera in around 9 months or so. Tommorow, due to dates being changed I have a photoshoot for a groups Graduation. They want 50 photos. 2 of each of the 25 people. 1 in colour the other in black and white, A4. I have borrowed a camera and my shooting space will be a stage where I have full access to the stage lights and the rear projected screens. So I can use those for backgrounds if needed and project anything I can find photo's of.

I just need ideas for 50 different "fun" poses. It's about 50% male, 50% female and each photo must have only that person in the portrait. Was thinking that if I did the colour as a bit crazy and the b+w as a bit more serious it might be nice?
Click to expand...

The opposite of your suggestion! Turn things on their head :cool:
 
I take it they want fun? If not, keep it simple and just shoot straight with some nice lighting.....

Maybe get a prop and get them to do something with it? If they are graduating then surely they'll have mortar boards and graduation parchments? Could be a good starting point.....

EMPIRE magazine did a LOTR special edition issue when ROTK came out and they got each cast member to have the ring in shot. Some went very predictable - on finger, holding it - and others went a bit wayward with the ring in shot but not playing the key role. It was an interesting theme and an issue I've kept to this day as a souvenier.

Personally, I'd do the colour as the 'straighter' shot and the mono shot as the one where they're doing something a bit daft....
 
Yeah, fun.

I think I can see your point though about black and white and colour. The lighting will be interesting to say the least, like I said, stage lighting, it's a dance/drama group. The graduation isn't a mortar board sort of thing, more of a way to say we've finished the year and whatever. But I'm taking the photos a week beforehand for them to use as decoration on the walls during graduation party and then use as souvenirs.

Thing is, if the photos aren't fantabulous it's probably not a train smash. But I would love to have something good to put into my own portfolio.

Don't actually know which lenses I'm going to have available but it's probably a couple of kit lenses which shouldn't be a major problem.

Interestingly I also have to have two photos of myself I just realised and I'm the only one allowed to handle the camera, guess it's time to figure out how best to shoot a self-portrait as well.
 
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Skips - going on info you have given, then playing on their dancing skills might be the best route; they'll feel comfortable doing it. Maybe do a standard posed portrait and a dancey one?....

I'd just up your ISO so you're getting a decent exposure from the stage lights and I'd go for a WB value that'll look natural without killing any of the colour if they have gelled lights.

this sounds like a really interesting shoot, the kind of thing that'll look god in a portfolio. Good luck and please show us some shots when you can :thumbs:
 
So it looks like the camera I will be using later this afternoon is a Canon 400D with either the 18-55 f/4-5.6 kit lens or the 70-300 f/4-5.6 lens. I think I will probably be using the short end of the 70-300 for close ups and then will see if I can get any use out of the shorter one for some full body shots. But it's a big stage so I've got room to move about if need be. I know the 400D only goes up to 1600 ISO but I don't know what it's performace is like at that ISO. Any ideas?
 
Okay, I'm done.

Went alright even if I did only end up having an hour to do it all.

I'm not sure I like the 400D as a camera but it was more than useable.

Bonus - one of the girls asked me to take some extra photos at the end which she is going to pay for if she likes them.

Here are a few that came straight from camera.


IMG_4592 by SkipsH, on Flickr


IMG_4619 by SkipsH, on Flickr


IMG_4718 by SkipsH, on Flickr

They look very dark here but I know that this monitor has a habit of making it look like a picture of the sun is actually of a black hole, they looked much brighter on the back screen of the camera, so will wait on judgment there for when I can get home to my laptop.
 
Exposures look fine - that lighting is a pig, done a good job under the circumstances. Phew - an hour to shoot 50 x2!!! That's some serious speed :lol:
 
Thanks, yeah I was kinda rushed to say the least.

My original plan kinda got screwed up tbh, I shot the close upish shots with the 75-300 from about 2 metres away. Which is just ridiculous, but the stage was large enough. I was shouting directions, which I just don't like doing for portrait work. Then I was going to shoot wider photos with the 18-55, I started doing one person and everyone else just left...The lighting really was an absolute nightmare, it felt like wherever I placed them there was more light on their back than their front.

My original idea to use the screens as a backdrop was a no go due to the fact that the lights had to be bright enough on the screen to light faces but when that happened it meant that the screen was washed out, ho hum. So instead I had to use a fairly cluttered stage area, which is fine but...obvious problems.

I did learn an important lesson about talking to difficult subjects, had one guy come up with a face like thunder. Got him talking and kept asking him different things, eventually I think I asked him to pull a silly face and he turned to the camera with a half-smile saying "no, man" Nicest photo I think I've ever seen of him.

The other problem I had is that with so many people with camera phones I was forever shouting at people to get out of the way of the shoot. In one circumstance it did work in my advantage though cause I got a shot of someone just chatting and un-posed over my supposed subjects shoulder that's so much nicer than any of the others I have of her, or have ever seen of her.

Anyway, time to edit this nightmare, I will be using GIMP. Trying to make up my mind whether to desaturate the colour photos by about 20% to make them more coherent with the black and whites or not.
 
Thanks guy, honestly I think they will be happy with whatever I give them, I've seen them go on and on about how amazing an out of focus, poorly composed, Background cluttered to all hell photo is. I'm the only one that the standards are there for, lol

I'm happy with them, I think I actually shot 190 photos in all, Some are poorly focused and some were blurry, lighting really was a nightmare, never again, not with those lenses anyway (he says now). I learnt a lot and I'm sure that the guys will be happy with the results. guess that's what really matters.
 
Just delivered the photos to the printer that I've been told to give them to and that person has been given a more detailed brief that I have. These photos are extras and possibly going to be unused (facepalm)

What I absolutely, imperatively, MUST HAVE is head and torso shots. The same photo in b&w and in colour. Close cropped, really need advice on what resolution I can get away with for an A4 photo, Probably printing at 200dpi, going to have to I suppose. Maybe I can fake it and stick a border in too?
 
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