A & O Dinner

Dreadnote

The middle school I work for is hosting an A & O Dinner where students (ages 11-13) with 4.0 grade point averages and citizenship marks of outstanding are invited to bring 2 family members for dinner (guest list is about 100 students - so potentially 300 people present). They asked me to do portraits of the families since the school Principle and Vice Principle had received many compliments on the sports photos I have been taking for the teams as a fund raiser (though how many of the 300 will want portraits is unknown).

Here is the dilemma :scratch: I have never done portraits of any kind before. I have never posed anyone. Every picture I have ever taken has been from a "journalistic" point of view (ie. it was already happening and I just took a picture of it). The portraits will be of from one to three people. The theme for the night is "flower power", and I have license to do just about anything I want. The gear I have is a Nikon D300s w/ grip, 24-70mm 2.8, 70-200mm 2.8, 50mm 1.4, 2 SB900's, one 43" umbrella with a removable cover so I can bounce or shoot through, and a couple of super clamps and umbrella adaptors with which I hope to monkey some "strobist" setup together.

This is a "favor" I'm doing for them, so expectations are not all that high, however I would prefer not to embarrass myself either. Also, I am kicking back any profits to ASB to help fund further activities and events, so it would be nice if I was able to produce a product that the parents would actually be interested in buying. I accepted this "challenge" as a "learning experience" during which I will have to opportunity to learn the basics of portraiture. Is this venture hopelessly doomed?

Any suggestions, comments, links, references, inspirations, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Also like I said I have never done this sort of this before, so don't feel that even the simplest of suggestions would be too remedial.

Thanks in advance for your comments.:bow

puzzledpaul

<< even the simplest of suggestions >>

Just in case you have to write it anywhere ... it's Principal, not Principle ...

pp

Dreadnote

Heh yeah, it's kinda sad I work at school isn't it...so much for public education... Although admittedly, I was looking less for tips related to spelling and grammar usage and more along the lines of portraiture. Although if you can recommend a good context sensitive spell checker I would appreciate that as well.

briandelion

This might be a good place to start. Not what you'd call "cutting edge" but some sound advice. http://desmond-downs.blogspot.com/2010/05/40-rules-of-portraiture.html
Also, there are many tutorials on youtube that cover the basics. Since you don't have much time to prepare, it might not be a bad idea to just go with your instincts and what looks good to you. Approaching this like you're cramming for an exam might make you feel unsure and self-conscious about all the things you don't know.
It sounds like they already like your work so just act like you know what youre doing and have fun. You may surprise yourself!
Interested in seeing the results.

Dreadnote

briandelion wrote: »

This might be a good place to start. Not what you'd call "cutting edge" but some sound advice. http://desmond-downs.blogspot.com/2010/05/40-rules-of-portraiture.html
Also, there are many tutorials on youtube that cover the basics. Since you don't have much time to prepare, it might not be a bad idea to just go with your instincts and what looks good to you. Approaching this like you're cramming for an exam might make you feel unsure and self-conscious about all the things you don't know.
It sounds like they already like your work so just act like you know what youre doing and have fun. You may surprise yourself!
Interested in seeing the results.

Thanks for the web reference.

Well things turned out to be even more hectic then I imagined. I wound up tucked in a corner behind the curtain on stage and right next to the band and couldn't hear myself much less talk to the families getting their pictures taken. I had about 3-4 minutes with each group to attempt to get them into something resembling a portrait. That and the fact that I really and truly don't know what I am doing produced less than perfect results. Never-the-less, I do like some of the shots I took. The setup was in a corner with a wall in back and to camera right. Light 1 was 45 degrees to camera left and about 6 and a half feet in the air shot through an umbrella. Light 2 was on camera bounced off the wall to the right. I shot with flashes on TTL (I'm not sure that was a great choice but I thought it might offer a bit of a safety net...mixed feelings about that) with light 1 at +2 ev and light 2 at -1.3 ev.

Please give C & C. This is after all a learning process for me.

1)

As a point of interest, the young man in the white shirt is a 7th grader at my school who a couple of weeks ago cut off his long hair that he had grown out to his waist and donated it to a group that makes wigs for cancer patients.

2)


3)


4)

This one I thought was especially cute when I noticed the little bit of cake still in the corner of her mouth. Also, the young girl said that this was the only photo she had where her brother actually smiled. I am glad I was able to catch it.

5)

This was the band, comprised of some of our faculty members.

6)

The evenings theme was "Flower Power".


Thanks for looking.

briandelion

Regardless of the situation I think you did great! Full of energy and good cheer.