Halloween Portraits from JDRF Fundraiser

anonymouscuban

Here are some of the photos I took at yesterday's JDRF fundraiser that was held at my office. It was an event for employees and their families with different Halloween activities all to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. I setup a "photo booth" where I took portraits for a $10 donation to the JDRF. Included was minor editing the and the digital negatives.

I started off a little frustrated because the area I had reserved was taken by a couple of other people. I ended up setting up in a spot that had a lot of traffic walking through so you can imagine how that went. I also did not like the corn stalks in the BG but the event coordinators wanted to leave them so I made the best of it.

Setup was basic, two AB-400 with white umbrellas in bounce orientation. Set one on camera left and one on right. At first I tried to get fancy with Key and fill ratios but I realized quick that it was going to take too much time to adjust for each person. I ended up setting them up with my wife as the practice model and left them as is. It was tough getting the kids and even adults to do what I wanted with all the distractions so I made the best of it. It really was a get them in/get them out environment.

So I'll stop the gabbing and here are a few of the pictures. Would appreciate some feedback as this was a first for me. I'm sure there is a lot to nit pick.

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divamum

These are GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think you did a terrific job, especially in what was no doubt challenging circumstances (I can't even get my own kid to hold still most of the time ).

anonymouscuban

Thank you so much. Very encouraging. I just hope the parents like them.

jiro

Considering your limitations I think you did an awesome job photographing them. thumb

CASowers

The shots look great! Very well done. Parents will no doubt be thrilled with the results.

kris10jo

The parents will be thrilled. Great shots of some adorable kids!

anonymouscuban

Thanks everyone for the encouraging feedback.

Here are a couple more:

divamum

Dude, you nailed all of these. If I had one nit it would be the cornstalks growing out of some heads but, really, in the circumstances with the background setup you had, it seems that would have been pretty unavoidable. Sure, if you had time to be "more artistic" you could do more with angles, shallow depth of field etcetcblahblahblh but in the fast-moving situation like that I don't think you could have offered anything better. I know I'd have been terrified to do something like that - would have scared the pants off me. You did a great job!! I'm sure folks will be VERY pleased

anonymouscuban

Diva... thanks so much for the feedback. Yeah... I knew right when I saw what they had setup for me that the corn stalks were going to be a problem. I asked to remove them but the coordinators thought that it would look better with them... more festive so I didn't argue. I did the best I could with what I had. I tried to minimize the stalks in post on the first couple pics I worked on but it was going to take way too much effort to do it on every photo so I said screw it and just added some vignette to minimize it. It was pretty scary but once I got going, it ended up being quite a lot of fun. I'm really glad I went through with this. I ended up raising about $300 for the JDRF and got some experience doing this type of work at the same time. Not bad I guess.

Nikolai

Alex,
I think you did pretty good, considering the circumstances.
Hopefully it would lead to a few paid gigs :-)
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Nikolai