MarkBarbieri
Semi-retired
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2006
- Messages
- 6,172
I had my spring "garage studio" photo shoot last weekend. It was fun, but I'm glad it's over. We had 10 families in 2 days. It poured down rain most of the day on Saturday (we got about 10 inches in two days).
The whole job is quite a lot of work. It takes a couple of hours to get everything set up. We had to move one of the canoes to the backyard. We set up six lights (four of mine and two borrowed) and two softboxes. We put up a roll of 9' wide white paper and another roll of 9' wide back paper. We taped the white paper to the floor and pulled the black down over it as needed. We borrowed the second paper stand to make it easier to switch rolls.
I tried a program called DLSR Remote Pro by Breeze Sys. It gives you the ability to remote control your camera (which I didn't do) and the ability to see your shots seconds after taking them (which was nice). The downside was that it locked up a couple of times. I also had to stop in the middle of one shoot because my camera was hung up while writing images. Once I unplugged it from the laptop, it finished writing. Canon makes a wireless connector, but it's a bit more than I want to spend.
I took just over 2,000 shots during the weekend for a total of a bit over 40 gig of data. I'm mostly adjusted to my 5D, but I still like the handling of my old camera better. Having the portrait grip has really helped a lot. Also, downloading the camera profiles for lightroom and switching to Camera Neutral has significantly improved my picture quality. I hate the Lightroom built-in profile for the 5D.
I tried the Canon 85mm on a few of the outdoor shots. It's nice, but i'm not wowed by it. For what I shoot, I now know that I wouldn't pay the premium to go from the 85mm f/1.8 ($400) to the 85mm f/1.2 ($1,850). I'm glad that I rented it because it taught me that I don't really want it.
I shot almost exclusively in the studio with the 70-200mm f/2.8 and shot almost entirely between f/8 and f/11. I switched to f/2.8 to f/5 for the outdoor shots. I hated all of the outdoor shots (lots of failed experiments), but some people claimed to like them.
Here are some of the shots:
My wife is holding a diffuser panel to smooth the sunlight on the model. I used a 1/2 CTO gel to warm the model. I don't like the look.
White shirts and a dark dog. Oy! Why me?
Four girls. All with bright blue eyes. Dad's going to have a tough time in a few years. They want us to go sailing with them in the BVI next summer. They are very photogenic, but I'm not sure I want to be on a sailboat with that many females.
These are a coworker's girls, not neighbors. They are super sweet and very smart.
Tried for an unusual crop for this one. He was kind of shy, so I wanted to show him being tentative about being in the picture. I have lots of normal shots of him, but I thought I'd try something different. What do you think?
This ballerina was amazing.
Her little sister was a delightful model as well. I'll pay money to take their pictures.
The whole process was physically exhausting. As a photographer, you have to move around a lot. I was constantly standing on ladders, laying on the floor, sitting, standing, moving. I was very sore by the end of the day on Sunday.
After having read McNally's latest book on using off-camera flashes, I thought alot about how things would be different. It would have been nice not to have power cords to worry about. It would have been rough not to have modeling lights. That would make learning with speedlites much, much more difficult. It would have been really nice to be able to adjust my settings from the camera rather than constantly going to each light to adjust them. Alien Bees should have a solution for that later this year. Having quicker recycle times was also nice, but not a huge deal. I think I like having the studio lights for the garage where I can shut down the other lights and use the modeling lights. Shooting outdoors, I'd probably be happier with speedlights.
I also used a 3' x 6' diffuser on the outdoor shots. My poor wife had to stand on our rock pile holding it over the kids. I was nervous that the wind was going to blow her into the pool. It worked well. I think it will be a useful addition to our tool kit.
In the past, I used the old AB remote or shot tethered to a flash. I had problems with both. I switched to the new AB remote switch and it worked flawlessly throughout the shoot.
I think that for my next shoot, my biggest need isn't more gear (except the remote power adjustment). I need training. I'm going to sign up for some local classes. I'm still fumbling around too much, making too many dumb mistakes, and struggling to get the look that I want. I also need to practice more. In the end, that's what these shoots are really all about. I get to practice my technique and the parents get serviceable shots without having to pay for them.
I used my new Hoodman Loupe for the first time on this job. I was nervous about buying it becaues I thought I wouldn't really use it. I love it. I'm getting old and I need reading glasses to see my LCD. Having the Hoodman allowed me to dispense with the glasses. It worked really well. Even indoors I found it very useful. I think I'm going to like it.
The whole job is quite a lot of work. It takes a couple of hours to get everything set up. We had to move one of the canoes to the backyard. We set up six lights (four of mine and two borrowed) and two softboxes. We put up a roll of 9' wide white paper and another roll of 9' wide back paper. We taped the white paper to the floor and pulled the black down over it as needed. We borrowed the second paper stand to make it easier to switch rolls.
I tried a program called DLSR Remote Pro by Breeze Sys. It gives you the ability to remote control your camera (which I didn't do) and the ability to see your shots seconds after taking them (which was nice). The downside was that it locked up a couple of times. I also had to stop in the middle of one shoot because my camera was hung up while writing images. Once I unplugged it from the laptop, it finished writing. Canon makes a wireless connector, but it's a bit more than I want to spend.
I took just over 2,000 shots during the weekend for a total of a bit over 40 gig of data. I'm mostly adjusted to my 5D, but I still like the handling of my old camera better. Having the portrait grip has really helped a lot. Also, downloading the camera profiles for lightroom and switching to Camera Neutral has significantly improved my picture quality. I hate the Lightroom built-in profile for the 5D.
I tried the Canon 85mm on a few of the outdoor shots. It's nice, but i'm not wowed by it. For what I shoot, I now know that I wouldn't pay the premium to go from the 85mm f/1.8 ($400) to the 85mm f/1.2 ($1,850). I'm glad that I rented it because it taught me that I don't really want it.
I shot almost exclusively in the studio with the 70-200mm f/2.8 and shot almost entirely between f/8 and f/11. I switched to f/2.8 to f/5 for the outdoor shots. I hated all of the outdoor shots (lots of failed experiments), but some people claimed to like them.
Here are some of the shots:
My wife is holding a diffuser panel to smooth the sunlight on the model. I used a 1/2 CTO gel to warm the model. I don't like the look.
White shirts and a dark dog. Oy! Why me?
Four girls. All with bright blue eyes. Dad's going to have a tough time in a few years. They want us to go sailing with them in the BVI next summer. They are very photogenic, but I'm not sure I want to be on a sailboat with that many females.
These are a coworker's girls, not neighbors. They are super sweet and very smart.
Tried for an unusual crop for this one. He was kind of shy, so I wanted to show him being tentative about being in the picture. I have lots of normal shots of him, but I thought I'd try something different. What do you think?
This ballerina was amazing.
Her little sister was a delightful model as well. I'll pay money to take their pictures.
The whole process was physically exhausting. As a photographer, you have to move around a lot. I was constantly standing on ladders, laying on the floor, sitting, standing, moving. I was very sore by the end of the day on Sunday.
After having read McNally's latest book on using off-camera flashes, I thought alot about how things would be different. It would have been nice not to have power cords to worry about. It would have been rough not to have modeling lights. That would make learning with speedlites much, much more difficult. It would have been really nice to be able to adjust my settings from the camera rather than constantly going to each light to adjust them. Alien Bees should have a solution for that later this year. Having quicker recycle times was also nice, but not a huge deal. I think I like having the studio lights for the garage where I can shut down the other lights and use the modeling lights. Shooting outdoors, I'd probably be happier with speedlights.
I also used a 3' x 6' diffuser on the outdoor shots. My poor wife had to stand on our rock pile holding it over the kids. I was nervous that the wind was going to blow her into the pool. It worked well. I think it will be a useful addition to our tool kit.
In the past, I used the old AB remote or shot tethered to a flash. I had problems with both. I switched to the new AB remote switch and it worked flawlessly throughout the shoot.
I think that for my next shoot, my biggest need isn't more gear (except the remote power adjustment). I need training. I'm going to sign up for some local classes. I'm still fumbling around too much, making too many dumb mistakes, and struggling to get the look that I want. I also need to practice more. In the end, that's what these shoots are really all about. I get to practice my technique and the parents get serviceable shots without having to pay for them.
I used my new Hoodman Loupe for the first time on this job. I was nervous about buying it becaues I thought I wouldn't really use it. I love it. I'm getting old and I need reading glasses to see my LCD. Having the Hoodman allowed me to dispense with the glasses. It worked really well. Even indoors I found it very useful. I think I'm going to like it.
