First Official Shoot...Engagement/Family Pic/Baby Pic

CyberSteak

Well in just over an hour and a half I'm off to do my first official photo shoot that won't be in full automatic mode (took a fudamentals course at betterphoto.com with Jim Zuckerman just recently). It'll be, as the title suggests, engagement photos, a family pic, and some baby photos (young engaged couple with a baby). Totally doing it free of charge and for the experience. Hopefully things go well and the images that I see in my head, transfers to the picture. I haven't mastered that yet (I don't think I'm anywhere close) but hopefully that'll come soon.

Any thoughts, advice, or well wishes welcomed! I'll post my "master works of art" when I get back and get them up later today.

lizzard_nyc

Hey there,
Looks like you have a full day today.

I'm new so I can't really give you advise, but just wanted to say good luck to you and break a leg. Post your photos when you can, I'll be looking for them.

I will say something basic though that I've read on other threads, you are probably going to need frequent breaks because cranky babies as well as adults will cooperate better with full bellies and a little relaxation, specially with all the shooting you plan on doing--so eat, hydrate, take breaks.

I'm doing a little good weather dance for ya.

CyberSteak

First off, lizzard_nyc thanks for your comments.

Well...it's a learning experience.

Things to do next time...

1. Check out the location ahead of time at the time of day you intend to shoot.

I was wanting shoot towards the lake but even with the nice cloudy day, there was too much shadow so we had to switch that up. The alternative was going the other way where there was a very busy unflattering background (house, cars...ect). So I tucked them into the bushline on the northside and proceeded with minimal use of on camera flash (yeah I know...an off camera flash is on my list of things to get).

2. Get those great pose ideas you had before the shoot...onto paper.

This was really silly of me not to do. My memory is bad on the best of days. The added excitement and stress from wanting things to go great didn't help much. Despite all the poses I got (mostly traditional *yawn* poses), I didn't execute on a lot of the poses I wanted to try out.

3. Bring some mood music.

Just a thought I had. And I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not. For anyone who's tried it, please chime in. But on the way to the shoot there was some mushy-mushy ballads on the radio and I thought that'd be great to have playing during the shoot. Music is a great trigger for emotion. And when the focus of the shoot is romance and love, it's bound to be useful.

4. Angles, angles, angles.

I wanted the couple to be focusing their attention on each other, not the lense. I thought it made the pictures look far more intimate. But I really need to pay attention to those angles. What was a nice angle on one, turned out to be a bad angle for the other.

5. Find out what the couple intends to wear.

The man had a white t-shirt which proved to be very problamatic as it was reflecting light like crazy and making it very hard to get exposures right.

Otherwise it was a fun shoot. Some memorable moments contributed mostly by the baby (gave his dad a bleeding nose and pushed the stroller into the lake!!!) The couple is game to do it again. Hey free pictures from someone that kinda knows what they're doing...it's an easy sell. The baby was a little less then willing to pose for photos. Next time we'll just let him have free roam and take a whole lotta candids. Still going through the photos but got one that I consider a keeper so I did some editing in Elements and hope to present at least this one to the couple today...

As taken...



Edited...



More to come when I get a chance to go through the rest.

entropy07

Hey! Yeah, I do some engagement / baby work on top of weddings, and baby work is definitely quite a challenge! As for engagements, don't take it from me, take it from Laurence Kim (another smugmug user, I believe). He has some great posts on how to get engagement photos to look natural:

http://laurencekimblog.com/index.php?category=12&start=0

For engagements, I almost always send the couple an email beforehand on how to dress. I don't dictate how well they should dress - some choose to be formal, others choose to be casual - but I do tell them to avoid certain color combos or patterns, I learned this after a couple came in dressed all in white!

I've never thought of bringing mood music (too much stuff to carry), but that's definitely something to consider if I had a studio or if I were doing a fashion shoot

For babies, I just know that you can't really control them, they are their own persons after all! I usually make sure that a baby has napped beforehand, that there is water and food available and one or two toys. I often ask one or both parents to stand behind me and make funny noises or faces to try to get a baby to laugh.

I've definitely had some of the same concerns you did - and a lot of times I still do! - when I do these non-wedding gigs. I've just learned to relax a little more and just have fun. When you're having fun, your subjects will have fun too.

lizzard_nyc

Hi Cybersteak,
Was waiting til you put up more photos to reply.
I am at the beginning of the learning process so I'm glad you posted all the things you learned from your first shoot as well as all the things you felt you could have done better or should do next time.

I like your idea on mood music-- music (especially if it's their own) could probably go a long way in changing the mood and relaxing people as well as giving them a little boost--I think it's a great idea. Maybe just grab a travel ipod speaker and have them bring their own ipod (most people have them) if not use your own--GREAT IDEA.

As far as the one photo you posted, I like your edited version, you cleared up their skin a bit and warmed it up but you didn't overdo it so they don't look real anymore.
Sweet photo!
Hope you post more.

CyberSteak

lizzard_nyc more pics are coming. I just have to wait for the weekend when things slow down a bit and I can go through them. I wanted to get this one edited up a.s.a.p. so that I could show the couple. It was the one photo that they were most uncomfortable taking. Understandably so when there's a guy with a camera about 18" away from the event. Maybe next time I'll use my telephoto lens instead of the 50mm portrait.

I like your idea of buying just the speakers to have said couple plug their I-pods into. Or I could just look for one that takes any mp3 player. That's a good idea.

As far as the edits to the pics. I changed the white balance from daylight to cloudy. It made their flesh tones warmer which I thought was appropriate for the type photo it was (who wants a frigid kiss?). And yeah I cleaned up the male's complexion as well as the open piercings on his ear (I found them distracting). I darkened the background as I found some spots to be a bit too bright. And then lastly I cleaned up any stray hairs on the female. The one over her eye was driving me nuts and it was the biggest job to get rid of. Hopefully the rest of the photos won't require that much editing.