My first portrait shoot. Help

[saiine]

My girlfriend and her sisters have asked I take a picture of all three of them this weekend out on the beach. Here in San Diego it's set to be about 67 degrees and sunny all weekend.

I have the 70-200 F4 L and 17-40 F4L and 50 F1.8 and a 430 EX Hotshoe for my Rebel XT

This isn't a paid shoot and more just for fun, but I still would like to take some good shots. Anything I should pay attention to, any time a day which is prefered or that you would recommend? Should I buy a reflector? Etc

Appreciate it guys

Shane Montgomery, http://www.shanejmontgomery.com

[mikeseb]

Here in San Diego it's set to be about 67 degrees and sunny all weekend.

I curse thee and all thy works, you demon spawn who'll be on a warm and sunny beach with four women this weekend. Here in KY, it'll be in the 40's with some kind of water leaking from 18% gray clouds, while I try to keep seasonal affective disorder from driving me to suicide.

Where have I gone wrong?
 

Seriously, it depends on the time of day. You may need something to help fill in the shadows if you're shooting near midday. Any large piece of neutral-colored material can serve as a reflector, as long as it's stiff/heavy enough to resist the wind; you don't need to run out and buy a purpose-built reflector unless you think this will be a regular event. Bring along a friend to hold the reflector and make a day of it.

Have fun; let us know how it went.

[Hank]

I'd grab a friend and head for the beach right now for a practice session.  

For simplicity sake you may have the best luck putting their backs to the sun so the scene is well lit, but their expressions aren't scrunched by the bright light.  Now experiment with using your 430 EX for fill.  It depends on your tastes, but I like a shallow DOF so the background drops out of focus from your main subjects, which would mean using your 70-200 for this project.  Your 17-40 would be useful if you wanted to show the broader scene with your subjects relatively small in it, but you might exceed the power limits of your strobe for useful fill.  Same may be true with the 70-200, as you will have to step back a ways to get in 4 subjects.  With the 17-40, beware of getting too close to your subjects with short focal lengths due to the potential for distorting facial features.

Once you have a feel for that, turn your subject for side lighting, and repeat your fill experiments.  

Somewhere in those two sets of experiments you will find a lighting combo which is pleasing to you.

On behalf of your reputation with your girlfriend, and especially her sisters, don't try to do this learning step while they are standing around.  They will get bored, but you are the one who will suffer.

[gryffyn]

My girlfriend and her sisters have asked I take a picture of all three of them this weekend out on the beach. Here in San Diego it's set to be about 67 degrees and sunny all weekend.

I'm with Mike.....curse you! ;-)

Sounds like a blast.

Some suggestions:

1) Avoid mid-day if you can, since the sun and shadows will be very harsh at that time.
Reflectors and fill flash might help if you don't have a choice.

2) Bring a picnic basket with snacks and wine/beer (if it's allowed on the beach) for a lunch break.  It will make the mood lighter and more fun, and probably result in less stilted pictures, if the girls have never modelled before.

3) Since this is an "experiment" for fun and not for profit, take your time!  Pose the girls, take a shot, chimp, check histogram and highlight blinkies, adjust camera settings and repeat.  Don't be in a hurry and skip the chimping since a bit of time there will result in better images, accounting for the light at the time.

4) Post some samples to make us all jealous when you're done.

5) If you feel like you need help, send me a plane ticket and I'll be glad to come and assist. <grins>

Have a blast!

[saiine]

ahah mike, that's great. Thanks for the advice. Problem is, her sister is 8 months pregnant and ready to pop. I'm wanting to go to the beach and a few other locations to shoot but her sister is like 2 hour out of the house max and will get grumpy. My girlfriend says 11:00am is going to be the time to shoot.

thanks again

I curse thee and all thy works, you demon spawn who'll be on a warm and sunny beach with four women this weekend. Here in KY, it'll be in the 40's with some kind of water leaking from 18% gray clouds, while I try to keep seasonal affective disorder from driving me to suicide.

Where have I gone wrong?
 

Seriously, it depends on the time of day. You may need something to help fill in the shadows if you're shooting near midday. Any large piece of neutral-colored material can serve as a reflector, as long as it's stiff/heavy enough to resist the wind; you don't need to run out and buy a purpose-built reflector unless you think this will be a regular event. Bring along a friend to hold the reflector and make a day of it.

Have fun; let us know how it went.
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[gryffyn]

Thanks for the advice. Problem is, her sister is 8 months pregnant and ready to pop. I

In which case, ignore my advise to offer alcoholic beverages to the preggers one.  

You might want to review the Continuous Shooting options on your camera, so that you're ready to put it into "motordrive" action mode if she starts to whelp during the shoot.  Just to make sure you capture "all" of the action.  

[macgyver]

11:00 am is a great time for a shoot.

[dwdallam]

1. Go to Google
2. Type in the search strings:
Outdoor Portrait Photography
or
Portrait Photography Outdoor
or
any combination of those words or others you can think up.
3. Read
4. Read read
5. Read sum MORE!
6. Test shoot

7. Basics:
Reflectors, diffusers, and Gobos.
White sheet, blankets
Props: Lunch basket was a good suggestion, wine glasses, hats, towels, etc.
18% Grey card
Set your white balance, or at least see if it gives you better results than auto
Get in close and fill up the frames. Remember that the subject is the focal point, not extraneous things like feet, people walking by, Ferris wheels, beer cans, etc.
8. Take lots of shots and bracket them.
9. Settle on one or two compositions and then work them like crazy for lighting and angle.
10. Be prepared to do it again. Tell your subjects that it is quite possible you'll need to do it again.
11. Tell them that your camera works better when there are small bathing suits because of its "outdoor skin tone reflection" processor, which gets confused unless it sees as much cloth or skin as possible.
12. If they buy #10, please post shots for review.

[saiine]

haha, you guys kill me.

I can say I have a new found respect for portrait photographers. All the points Dwdallam and you all have made are spot on. I was shooting in Manual, but didn't pay attn to messing with white balance or bracketing.

I'll post some pictures up soon. What I didn't know and overlooked at first was using the flash during the daytime. I figured I'd capture some good natural light.

My girlfriend recommended messing with the flash midway through and the results were way better. I feel the only decent ones are the ones shot with a fill flash.

Not a horrible shoot by any means, very fun and very educating. The goal was accomplished and they picked the 8x10 out to give to their dad for the birthday. I'll need more practice.

As I said, I'll post some shots up soon. There's one up on my blog of my gf shooting here two sisters http://www.shanejmontgomery.com

Thanks for all your recommendations and help.

1. Go to Google
2. Type in the search strings:
Outdoor Portrait Photography
or
Portrait Photography Outdoor
or
any combination of those words or others you can think up.
3. Read
4. Read read
5. Read sum MORE!
6. Test shoot

7. Basics:
Reflectors, diffusers, and Gobos.
White sheet, blankets
Props: Lunch basket was a good suggestion, wine glasses, hats, towels, etc.
18% Grey card
Set your white balance, or at least see if it gives you better results than auto
Get in close and fill up the frames. Remember that the subject is the focal point, not extraneous things like feet, people walking by, Ferris wheels, beer cans, etc.
8. Take lots of shots and bracket them.
9. Settle on one or two compositions and then work them like crazy for lighting and angle.
10. Be prepared to do it again. Tell your subjects that it is quite possible you'll need to do it again.
11. Tell them that your camera works better when there are small bathing suits because of its "outdoor skin tone reflection" processor, which gets confused unless it sees as much cloth or skin as possible.
12. If they buy #10, please post shots for review.
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[Hank]

Gotta love that fill.

Which lens worked best for you, BTW?

[gryffyn]

As I said, I'll post some shots up soon. There's one up on my blog of my gf shooting here two sisters http://www.shanejmontgomery.com

Nice shooting shot.  Or is that a shot shooting?  

[saiine]

Hey Hank,

Actually that was the one day I noticed a huge difference in quality between L and NON L glass.

I think my 70-200 worked best. I bought my flash a few days prior and still don't even know how to use it properly. My girlfriend has been cool enough to let me continiously just shoot her with different zooms / power on the flash to expirement. I had my zoom on my flash at about 70 and was shooting at about 80-100.

The 50mm prime was great, but didn't give the clarity the 70-200 or even 17-40 did.

I have a Rebel so the 17-40 at the end is at 64 which I shot a lot of and got good results.

Overall I would have to say the 70-200. Boy did that flash make a difference though. My batteries were also nearly dead so I was having to wait 8 seconds between charges for flash. This flash works great on full batteries though.

I imagine it's going to take awhile to begin to feel what lense / flash power I should be using for various conditions. I've only been into photography since September, and mearly a street photographer during that time.

The "professional portrait stuff" is throwing me for a loop but you guys are helping immensely.

Gotta love that fill.

Which lens worked best for you, BTW?
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[dwdallam]

L glass will make a big difference, both in your images and your bank account.

Professional photography is no weekend matter and haha funny funny sort of activity. It's dead ass serious with huge amounts of challenge, and a long learning curve.

My process has been:

Read
Shoot
Get evaluation
Evaluate it yourself so that you understand what is wrong
wash repeat.

I've been at it nearly a year now seriously, and I don't think I have one professional shot yet. I know I'm getting closer though. I understand what I am doing wrong, and now it will just take practice to get the technique down.

at this point in my "professional" photographic path, the best advice I can give anyone is to learn the basics by reading and shooting anything that will give you an example of what the basics do.

I use to set up a Coke can on a fence post and practice aperture settings and composition for hours. Then I'd go home and look at each picture, note its settings, background, and under stand how the light was working both through the lens and what effect it had on the image.

I'd intentionally shoot what I thought were "wrong" exposures to see what the effect is like compared to a shot of the same subject I would get at the "correct" exposure.

Last, don't only shoot when you think you have a "good" picture, since you'll probably F it up anyway. Just shoot EVERYTHING the best you can as outlined above. Bracket like crazy so you can see what exposure is all about. Get a basketball, wrap it in a cream colored towel, take it to the beach, and shoot the hell out of it. Put a shiny can next to it to create your own "problem" lighting to work out. Take pictures from every angle you can think of, including high and low POVs.

It's like anything. if you want to do it good, you have to do it all the time and eat it and breath it. So is life

[saiine]

All very good and very much appreciated advice.

I did purchase the book 'The portrait' and also part 2. I'm going through them and practicing like you said, on various objects around. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of natural light, I buy a flash. It's a godsend and a headache. I'm sure there are pro's looking at this message whom can remember their first flash.

The coke can and basketball is a great idea. I'll give it a go this weekend.

Take it easy!

L glass will make a big difference, both in your images and your bank account.

Professional photography is no weekend matter and haha funny funny sort of activity. It's dead ass serious with huge amounts of challenge, and a long learning curve.

My process has been:

Read
Shoot
Get evaluation
Evaluate it yourself so that you understand what is wrong
wash repeat.

I've been at it nearly a year now seriously, and I don't think I have one professional shot yet. I know I'm getting closer though. I understand what I am doing wrong, and now it will just take practice to get the technique down.

at this point in my "professional" photographic path, the best advice I can give anyone is to learn the basics by reading and shooting anything that will give you an example of what the basics do.

I use to set up a Coke can on a fence post and practice aperture settings and composition for hours. Then I'd go home and look at each picture, note its settings, background, and under stand how the light was working both through the lens and what effect it had on the image.

I'd intentionally shoot what I thought were "wrong" exposures to see what the effect is like compared to a shot of the same subject I would get at the "correct" exposure.

Last, don't only shoot when you think you have a "good" picture, since you'll probably F it up anyway. Just shoot EVERYTHING the best you can as outlined above. Bracket like crazy so you can see what exposure is all about. Get a basketball, wrap it in a cream colored towel, take it to the beach, and shoot the hell out of it. Put a shiny can next to it to create your own "problem" lighting to work out. Take pictures from every angle you can think of, including high and low POVs.

It's like anything. if you want to do it good, you have to do it all the time and eat it and breath it. So is life
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[Andrew Teakle]

Shane,

Remember when you use fill-flash that you can adjust the flash output to get very natural results. On top of the camera is a button with a lightning bolt and +/-. Hold this and use the command wheel to (usually) decrease the flash output, just as you would adjust exposure. This can allow very fine control of the shadows. Occasionally using flash at the same exposure as the ambient light will give a two-dimensional, "pasted onto the background" appearance, whereas dropping the flash output to -0.7 or -1 stops softens the shadows while still maintaining the appearance of depth.

Enjoy the journey, it's a huge amount of fun.

Andrew

[rwong2k]

Hello,

While adjusting the flash output to get natural results, do you guys still use a difussor or flashgun pointing straight at the person,

Going to have to try the bouncing off the card technique to see if that works in outdoor portraits

Shane,

Remember when you use fill-flash that you can adjust the flash output to get very natural results. On top of the camera is a button with a lightning bolt and +/-. Hold this and use the command wheel to (usually) decrease the flash output, just as you would adjust exposure. This can allow very fine control of the shadows. Occasionally using flash at the same exposure as the ambient light will give a two-dimensional, "pasted onto the background" appearance, whereas dropping the flash output to -0.7 or -1 stops softens the shadows while still maintaining the appearance of depth.

Enjoy the journey, it's a huge amount of fun.

Andrew
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[Jonathan Wienke]

My experience is that while shooting portraits, the main light needs some diffusion like a softbox or umbrella, but a fill light doesn't necessarily require any diffusion if its light output is 2 stops or more below tho main light. If all you're doing is keeping deep shadows from going too dark, you can get away with shooting direct. But the closer the fill light's brightness is to the main light, the more it needs to be diffused to avoid harsh shadows. This shot used a 550EX fired into an umbrella for the main light, with just a tiny bit of fill from a second 550EX in the camera shoe firing directly at the subject with no diffusion at all.