I think part of the disconnect here is you weren't (we didn't read) that you wanted 1" X 2" image for web use.
Most of us here strive for the highest quality possible, and our answers reflect that.
Had I known that I could have given you two different thoughts. One: take point and shoot run in office yell surprise and shoot. At 1" X 2" you would be hard pressed to see the difference between this and a great properly lit posed large format portrait.
Second: Depending on many factors of course, would this be a good opportunity to take really good high quality portrait shots that show your photography skill and make these available to each individual, or the company for other, (annual report, wall size portraits, print advertising)? At additional cost of course. If you get no takers on the high quality images you can always just complete the assignment and deliver the small images.
I shudder at delivering less than a high quality image. I have had several requests to print on site, and I have turned these down because printing on site requires too much of a quality hit for me.
Sam
I concur. I did some corporate headshots with the website as a target, but since I made sure they know the originals were hi-res I also got a few personal orders.
Had I known that I could have given you two different thoughts. One: take point and shoot run in office yell surprise and shoot. At 1" X 2" you would be hard pressed to see the difference between this and a great properly lit posed large format portrait.
Thats flaimbait right there, I'm not going to seriously answer that, sorry
Second: Depending on many factors of course, would this be a good opportunity to take really good high quality portrait shots that show your photography skill and make these available to each individual, or the company for other, (annual report, wall size portraits, print advertising)? At additional cost of course. If you get no takers on the high quality images you can always just complete the assignment and deliver the small images.
I would've loved to do that but frankly I never saw a chance for that
happening within the specs. Just like everyone else in this thread.
I shudder at delivering less than a high quality image. I have had several requests to print on site, and I have turned these down because printing on site requires too much of a quality hit for me.
Did you think the same way when you started out?
“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
― Edward Weston
One thing I have hard time understanding is why a person who's asking for help (=OP) and been given plenty gets defensive all of a sudden. Sam is a very experienced person, I would listen.
I, for one, love the motto "fool me once - shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me". If, say, my advise is not appreciated, the solicitor will *never* hear from me again, neither on the original issue, nor ever. Internet is too big and life is to short.
Just my 2 pennies..
What I am doing here is defending the clients wish (not mine). He asked me
to shot it this way. I dont need some advice on another gig. I know how to
light for individual portraits and premium quality. What I freaking don't know
is what's the best way to shoot the gig as I described it because I have never
done it before. What's so hard to understand about this?
“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
― Edward Weston
The advice I got on how to shoot it was great, the advice I got why not to shoot it wasn't answering my question on how to shoot it at all.
“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
― Edward Weston
I would like to get some ideas on how to best shoot such a job.
Here are the some of the responses.
This seems like a mistake
Do yourself a favor and rethink this plan. You may likely waste your time and produce inconsistent photos
You would have to pay me a lot of money to do that for 40 people!
Maybe the client just wants embellished snapshots of the local wildlife in their natural habitat
You need to get thicker skin if you're going to post an open question like this on an internet forum
I have made this point many times lately. Someone comes to the forum seeking advice from those who should know more, and gets responses like this.
Yes good advice was given, especially by Scott and a few others, but what is the point of comments like those above?
Did it really answer the original question?
Does it inspire more newbies to come onto Dgrin and ask a question?
I really wish that someone could explain the point of these types of comments to me.
Is it really that difficult to help someone?
I wasn't going to respond to this, but since you chose to highlight quotes from my original post in this thread as your example of how I made fun of the OP, I feel I must respond.
If you read my post without these lines taken out of context, you will see that I was actually trying to help this person. He came here asking for help. I merely pointed out that it would not be possible to achieve what he wanted given the limitations he provided. That is helpful. Don't waste your time doing something that is not possible.
The other quotes you listed were obviously jibes directed at others (scott, etc...)
I stand by my comment that you need thicker skin on the internet. This was all pretty tame, and I still fail to see where anyone made fun of the OP.
From where I stand, he never really had any interest in hearing what anyone had to say about this shoot. I'm not sure why he posted his question on this forum in the first place. People with far more talent and experience have given him suggestions which he has chosen to ignore.
I'm with Nick, he won't be getting any advice from me in the future.
I would shoot each scene with two speedlights, one on camera and the other on a stand or a clamp. Probably bouncing the one on the stand off the ceiling and the on camera flash with some type of diffusion (fong lightsphere, etc). I would determine what the ambient light is coming from the window and over power it one stop. This could be done pretty quickly and will keep your color balance problems to a minimum. I would do everything I could to keep the skin tones free of color cast from the office overhead lights. All of this would be done with the settings on manual using at least 1/125 shutter to avoid color cast.
I would like to get some ideas on how to best shoot such a job.
I would suggest possibly spending a little chat time around the office beforehand, meeting some folks, introducing yourself, and learning some names. Learn the floor plan some, knowing where your going next. You will be more comfortable, and your clients employees will be more comfortable with you. When it comes time to shoot, you will be capturing more of the personality of the employees, thus the personality of the company, and no matter the web site resolution, the companies image(personality) will show, and the client should be happy.
Laugh a lot, get your subject to share a sincere smile, and have fun!
Hi, I'm a newbie here as well. It looks to me like you've got a pretty good handle on what you need to do. I'm no pro, but I take most of the pix as needed at my work place. Most of them are for the web. The people there are ecstatic with the results. Most of them wouldn't be able to tell the difference between my Nikon pix and a point and shoot until they see them side by side. But that's ok. What you do have here is a great opportunity to meet 40 people that may need a photographer in the future!
You know what your client expects and from what I'm reading, you will deliver.
Have fun with it!
Interesting thread - I am doing a similar project for our company. We want something that tells a different story than the normal string of corporate mug shots. We want to get across something about the dynamism, creativity, individuality - a more personal face that reinforces the customer belief that they can trust us because we are people.
The pro photographers we contacted have frankly no idea - they all want to set up mini-studios with all their gear and do mug shots. So we started ourselves using a team member who is a great amateur photographer (not me!) walking around. (In sympathy with the thread starter this is where we played with the 70-200, and then used more lenses because it didn't really work - not good in bad light, and too close often). Then we paused because, while the shots themselves were ok even good, the total impression was looking very messy and disconnected - different lighting, lenses, clutter. Similar effect to trying to read a book in which every sentence is written in a different font. Very individual but unreadable.
We went back to the basics - we want to tell a story about us, our connectness and commitment, our human face. And this is where we are today so please keep the ideas coming. Our current idea is to bring a strong stylistic formality into every picture - using kodak instamatic type frame, bw, the on-camera flash, the same prop appearing in every photo. Don't think we have it yet but that is the way we are going - even if we never finish the project it is create teambuilding and everyone is learning something about working together.
(By the way, on the finances, with this kind of assignment it is likely a misconception to think the client is only prepared to pay for x hours or y studio shots. Eg for our company it is an important part of our branding and communications activity - it is the idea and then the execution that counts.)
Interesting thread - I am doing a similar project for our company. We want something that tells a different story than the normal string of corporate mug shots. We want to get across something about the dynamism, creativity, individuality - a more personal face that reinforces the customer belief that they can trust us because we are people.
The pro photographers we contacted have frankly no idea - they all want to set up mini-studios with all their gear and do mug shots. So we started ourselves using a team member who is a great amateur photographer (not me!) walking around. (In sympathy with the thread starter this is where we played with the 70-200, and then used more lenses because it didn't really work - not good in bad light, and too close often). Then we paused because, while the shots themselves were ok even good, the total impression was looking very messy and disconnected - different lighting, lenses, clutter. Similar effect to trying to read a book in which every sentence is written in a different font. Very individual but unreadable.
We went back to the basics - we want to tell a story about us, our connectness and commitment, our human face. And this is where we are today so please keep the ideas coming. Our current idea is to bring a strong stylistic formality into every picture - using kodak instamatic type frame, bw, the on-camera flash, the same prop appearing in every photo. Don't think we have it yet but that is the way we are going - even if we never finish the project it is create teambuilding and everyone is learning something about working together.
(By the way, on the finances, with this kind of assignment it is likely a misconception to think the client is only prepared to pay for x hours or y studio shots. Eg for our company it is an important part of our branding and communications activity - it is the idea and then the execution that counts.)
Interesting addition to this thread. Your initial, unsatisfactory results were what several here had predicted. Thanks for sharing.
Interesting addition to this thread. Your initial, unsatisfactory results were what several here had predicted. Thanks for sharing.
+1
Very interesting indeed.
There is a many reasons behind the fact they do mass portraits (school pics, team sports portraits, corporate portaits, etc.) in a studio-like environment. Not only it's more effective, but it also allows to avoid the mess you've mentioned. Yes, VPs are often "taken" in their own offices, but the number of VPs is realtively small, so it's relatively easy to keep a level of individuality for each shot. OP case (and probably yours) has several dozen targets, most of which, probably, have a very similar working environment to limit the possible "poses" to just a handful, yet different enough backgrounds to create a "messy" feeling, since the background is constantly changing... In a situations like that a studio-like (i.e. same/uniform) environment is the key, since it presents a common ground and at least makes it clear the the only thing that changes is the face.
Good luck with your project however, it would be really interesting to see how/if you are able to pull it off:-)
“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk.”
― Edward Weston
Comments
I concur. I did some corporate headshots with the website as a target, but since I made sure they know the originals were hi-res I also got a few personal orders.
Advice for highest quality within the specs is what I was looking for.
Thats flaimbait right there, I'm not going to seriously answer that, sorry
I would've loved to do that but frankly I never saw a chance for that
happening within the specs. Just like everyone else in this thread.
Did you think the same way when you started out?
― Edward Weston
I, for one, love the motto "fool me once - shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me". If, say, my advise is not appreciated, the solicitor will *never* hear from me again, neither on the original issue, nor ever. Internet is too big and life is to short.
Just my 2 pennies..
to shot it this way. I dont need some advice on another gig. I know how to
light for individual portraits and premium quality. What I freaking don't know
is what's the best way to shoot the gig as I described it because I have never
done it before. What's so hard to understand about this?
― Edward Weston
Let me see.
Here is the original question:
I would like to get some ideas on how to best shoot such a job.
Here are the some of the responses.
This seems like a mistake
Do yourself a favor and rethink this plan. You may likely waste your time and produce inconsistent photos
You would have to pay me a lot of money to do that for 40 people!
Maybe the client just wants embellished snapshots of the local wildlife in their natural habitat
You need to get thicker skin if you're going to post an open question like this on an internet forum
I have made this point many times lately. Someone comes to the forum seeking advice from those who should know more, and gets responses like this.
Yes good advice was given, especially by Scott and a few others, but what is the point of comments like those above?
Did it really answer the original question?
Does it inspire more newbies to come onto Dgrin and ask a question?
I really wish that someone could explain the point of these types of comments to me.
Is it really that difficult to help someone?
Website
― Edward Weston
I wasn't going to respond to this, but since you chose to highlight quotes from my original post in this thread as your example of how I made fun of the OP, I feel I must respond.
If you read my post without these lines taken out of context, you will see that I was actually trying to help this person. He came here asking for help. I merely pointed out that it would not be possible to achieve what he wanted given the limitations he provided. That is helpful. Don't waste your time doing something that is not possible.
The other quotes you listed were obviously jibes directed at others (scott, etc...)
I stand by my comment that you need thicker skin on the internet. This was all pretty tame, and I still fail to see where anyone made fun of the OP.
From where I stand, he never really had any interest in hearing what anyone had to say about this shoot. I'm not sure why he posted his question on this forum in the first place. People with far more talent and experience have given him suggestions which he has chosen to ignore.
I'm with Nick, he won't be getting any advice from me in the future.
http://clearwaterphotography.smugmug.com/
http://belmontphoto.smugmug.com/
http:/weddingphotonashville.com
Nikon D700 (3 bodies), Nikon 14-24 f2.8, Nikon 24 f/1.4, Nikon 24-70 f/2.8, Nikon 50 f/1.4, Nikon 85 f/1.4, Nikon 70-200 f/2.g VRII, SB-900(2), SB-800(5)
Sam
Please post a few shots when you have completed your assignment so we can see how it turned out and possibly learn something.
Thanks,
Carl
Laugh a lot, get your subject to share a sincere smile, and have fun!
You know what your client expects and from what I'm reading, you will deliver.
Have fun with it!
The pro photographers we contacted have frankly no idea - they all want to set up mini-studios with all their gear and do mug shots. So we started ourselves using a team member who is a great amateur photographer (not me!) walking around. (In sympathy with the thread starter this is where we played with the 70-200, and then used more lenses because it didn't really work - not good in bad light, and too close often). Then we paused because, while the shots themselves were ok even good, the total impression was looking very messy and disconnected - different lighting, lenses, clutter. Similar effect to trying to read a book in which every sentence is written in a different font. Very individual but unreadable.
We went back to the basics - we want to tell a story about us, our connectness and commitment, our human face. And this is where we are today so please keep the ideas coming. Our current idea is to bring a strong stylistic formality into every picture - using kodak instamatic type frame, bw, the on-camera flash, the same prop appearing in every photo. Don't think we have it yet but that is the way we are going - even if we never finish the project it is create teambuilding and everyone is learning something about working together.
(By the way, on the finances, with this kind of assignment it is likely a misconception to think the client is only prepared to pay for x hours or y studio shots. Eg for our company it is an important part of our branding and communications activity - it is the idea and then the execution that counts.)
Interesting addition to this thread. Your initial, unsatisfactory results were what several here had predicted.
http://clearwaterphotography.smugmug.com/
Very interesting indeed.
There is a many reasons behind the fact they do mass portraits (school pics, team sports portraits, corporate portaits, etc.) in a studio-like environment. Not only it's more effective, but it also allows to avoid the mess you've mentioned. Yes, VPs are often "taken" in their own offices, but the number of VPs is realtively small, so it's relatively easy to keep a level of individuality for each shot. OP case (and probably yours) has several dozen targets, most of which, probably, have a very similar working environment to limit the possible "poses" to just a handful, yet different enough backgrounds to create a "messy" feeling, since the background is constantly changing... In a situations like that a studio-like (i.e. same/uniform) environment is the key, since it presents a common ground and at least makes it clear the the only thing that changes is the face.
Good luck with your project however, it would be really interesting to see how/if you are able to pull it off:-)
― Edward Weston
- Wil
Thanks for following up!
Great results!