Professional quality portrait photos with a d7200?

Dannyj1984

Dannyj1984

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Danny
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Good evening,
I have been asked if I would take some photos for a friend who is applying for cabin crew job, I mainly take landscape photos and occasional photos of my niece, but never done any proper portrait photos.
My current gear is a Nikon d7200, sigma 50mm 1.4 lens ( multiple other lens 55-200, 18-55) the other probably aren't suitable for portraits. Yongnuo 568 flash, 110cm reflector, going to buy a light stand, umbrella (white) and the Yongnuo remote trigger so I can experiment with different lighting.
They need 6 passport photos, 1 full length and 1 head and shoulders against a white back drop and 1 full length and 1 close up ( head to waist) with a casual background.
Basically I just want to know if with this equipment I have will I be able to get photos of a high enough quality? My dad is an ex pro photographer back in film days, so even if I am not confident with the set up he will be able to sort that. No touching up in Photoshop is allowed for the pictures.
I have a portable background stand with a white background and she has a large conservatory so was hoping to set that up there to make the most of the natural light. Then head up to the local woods for the casual shots, using trees, hills, sat on a bench, coffee shop as a background.

Any help or advice would be gratefully appreciated :)

Danny
 
Yes is the simple answer. Use the longest focal length you can to prevent distortion, but your dad will already know that. You need the light to be fairly even and flat for passport photos to keep your umbrella fairly close to the camera axis and just above your head. Make sure the subject isn't too close to the background and you have enough light in the eyes.

Just choose something like f/8, ISO 100, manual mode and 1/200th or so. Adjust your flash in manual to suit.
 
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Ah, I see you need a white background. That's going to be a problem without another flash. With another flash - any flash - it'll be a breeze... except for the full length shot, which you're simply not going to be able to do without a proper infinity curve and more light.
 
Thanks for your advice. Will the problem be having shadows on the white background? If I was to buy extra lighting would I be better getting continuous or another couple of 568 flash units? By infinity curve do you mean a long background that will sweep down and under the feet ?

Danny
 
Dannyj1984 said:
Thanks for your advice. Will the problem be having shadows on the white background? If I was to buy extra lighting would I be better getting continuous or another couple of 568 flash units? By infinity curve do you mean a long background that will sweep down and under the feet ?

Danny
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Continuous are generally useless for portraits, flash all the way. And you'll need some space too, ideally your friend should be a couple of meters in front of the background, and then you'd want more than that between you and the subject, telephoto and full length, maybe 4-6 metres? So a total of 8 metres for the background, you and the camera.

To be blunt though, if you don't really know what you're doing, and you've got to buy gear, then it makes more sense for your friend to get someone else to do it. Or rent a studio that's already set up, your mate could pay for the rental, the owners will probably show you the ropes too. You might find you like it, and choose to learn a bit more, but you might also find its not for you and you won't have wasted money on gear you're not going to use.
 
Yep, white seamless is HARD. Throw in a lack of space, experience and gear and it's simply going to be beyond you. The other shots would be easily achievable with another manual flash with a good slave, a white or light coloured wall and 4m of space.
 
Having read it properly now :oops: :$

This might just be possible.

If you can set up the background in the conservatory, and you can shoot from outside it, you solve 2 problems, the space - you can go further into the garden, and the lighting, as the light falling on the Background will be as strong as the light on your friend.

So your flash might be a boost for a little accent lighting, hair light, or to up the exposure on the background.

On the photoshop 'rule' that's to stop you retouching your mate beyond recognition, you'll be fine tidying up the background a bit.

That lot does require some 'thinking outside the box' though, you might even pop up a diffuser and maybe a flag to control the sunlight falling on your friend and bring it down a bit in relation to the background.

A studio already set up would be lots simpler to get decent results with little effort.
 
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Phil V said:
Having read it properly now :oops: :$

This might just be possible.

If you can set up the background in the conservatory, and you can shoot from outside it, you solve 2 problems, the space - you can go further into the garden, and the lighting, as the light falling on the Background will be as strong as the light on your friend.

So your flash might be a boost for a little accent lighting, hair light, or to up the exposure on the background.

On the photoshop 'rule' that's to stop you retouching your mate beyond recognition, you'll be fine tidying up the background a bit.
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But they need full length against white, Phil...
 
The23rdman said:
But they need full length against white, Phil...
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If...
His background would do it, and could be hung at the 'house wall' and the shot can be taken from outside the conservatory, it's possible (I edited my post whilst you were reading it though, so us agreeing with each other then discussing it will look weird later)

My gut reaction is still that the OP is ill equipped, the best option is for the friend to use a pro, second best, hire a studio, 3rd best, what I said here.
 
Yep, I agree. It may just be possible, but it's far beyond the skills of the OP, in all likelihood.
 
The23rdman said:
Yep, I agree. It may just be possible, but it's far beyond the skills of the OP, in all likelihood.
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Challenging certainly!

I'm no studio expert, but I reckon I could set this up in a fully equipped studio in 10 minutes. To get results I'd be happy with using daylight, would require the right day and probably some messing with diffusers and black reflectors to get decent light and would take half an hour of messing about.
 
Phil V said:
Challenging certainly!

I'm no studio expert, but I reckon I could set this up in a fully equipped studio in 10 minutes. To get results I'd be happy with using daylight, would require the right day and probably some messing with diffusers and black reflectors to get decent light and would take half an hour of messing about.
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It's not so easy even in a studio. Yes, if you have a nice reflective floor you can do it pretty quickly, but without one a standard painted infinity curve is not easy to light effectively. The problem is always getting the floor white - something tile board solves.
 
Jayst84 said:
Guarantee all this can be done with natural light. It's cabin crew photos, not a studio lighting exam.

They want straight up record shots of what she looks like, and a few that show some personality. Both of those will be better met in this circumstance by using a camera, a cloudy day, and by having a laugh with your mate.
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Maybe you didn't read the requirements. Full length against a white background?
 
Jayst84 said:
I did. Doesn't say seamless. It's a job application. Who's going to provide that? They just want shots with no distractions.
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Well, the OP did state "professional shots"...
 
Thanks for your comments,
I was already going to buy the remote triggers for my flash so that wouldn't be an expense anyway, I did originally say they would be best getting s pro to do it, but I'm not sure they have much spare cash, so the free option sounded tempting At the end of the day if I give it a go and e photos aren't suitable then at least I have had a little experience and they can still sort out some pro photos, the outside shots I am pretty confident I can get to a good enough standard :) she was talking about doing them against a natural type back ground but from reading the spec of what they want on the application, like someone mentioned already they want to see you outside naturally not too portrait like.
Will take my dad along to the indoor shoot though as I'm sure he will be able to help with the set up.
I will also mention to her about hiring a studio

Thanks for the advice, very helpful


Danny
 
Just actually reading the types of photos they want it doesn't mentioned specifically a white background, just a plain background.
 
Dannyj1984 said:
Just actually reading the types of photos they want it doesn't mentioned specifically a white background, just a plain background.
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'Plain' is a lot simpler than white.

Grab a mid grey and read my later kit recommendations in the lighting section.
 
The23rdman said:
Except it does specify white.
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Sorry that was my mistake :) I just presumed white as that is what my friend said but on reading the Emirates application it just says photo must be, in colour, plain background

Dan
 
Dannyj1984 said:
Sorry that was my mistake :) I just presumed white as that is what my friend said but on reading the Emirates application it just says photo must be, in colour, plain background

Dan
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That's dead easy then. :)
 
The23rdman said:
It's not so easy even in a studio. Yes, if you have a nice reflective floor you can do it pretty quickly, but without one a standard painted infinity curve is not easy to light effectively. The problem is always getting the floor white - something tile board solves.
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I know of a couple of portrait studios which really only do white seamless high key. The studio is permanently set up that way. You could be in and out in an hour with virtually no retouching.
 
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juggler said:
A know of a couple of portrait studios which really only do white seamless high key. The studio is permanently set up that way. You could be in and out in an hour with virtually no retouching.
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Yep, once you have the light set the best thing to do is leave it. White seamless is all about SPACE!
 
Is it normal for an application to have so many types of photos, sounds more like auditioning for a modelling job than flying.
 
I don't think you need to go as far as you're planning, nor even as far as others have suggested. I reckon you could just take standard photos and edit out the background in postprocessing.

In fact, I've just done a google for "cabin crew job photo full length" and came out with this:

http://www.studioimages.co.uk/emirates/

(DOI: not linking for any purpose other than demonstration and it was first link in Google)

Some research into what exactly is required might give you more information. From the above, it looks like you could get away with one photo cropped to various dimensions to fulfill the requirements.
 
Ha yeah they like their photos. One head shot, one full body shot and I think 4 casual shots. She had the application with her outlining what they need.
Here is a photo from last night. Brutally honest criticism welcome :) haha she seemed quite happy with it. I was also quite pleased considering my first ever try and I had to clamber on a table to get the full body shot :) Not done anything in photoshop other than crop it a little.

DannySarahC2web.jpg
 
I would say a good first try, I think that a 50mm is way too short, and personally I would shoot from a bit lower down for a full lentgh shot.
 
Thanks, any longer lens I would of had no chance getting a full length shot, that was literally from one side of the conservatory to the other. I stupidly forgot my 35mm lens. (On a dx Nikon)
Danny
 
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