Looks like I got my lights and backdrops just in time, not only did I have my first photo shoot on Saturday but also my first experience with directing a child. Luckily, this child was very well behaved and I prayed they would all be like that. But alas, that would not be the case. The shot below was taken with a white canvas cloth as a backdrop and two diffused lights at slightly varying heights but at roughly 45 degrees from point of focus.
I managed to get some photos of Jack and his father together, at one point even their lovely fat dog called Honey made it onto the scene momentarily after some birbery with a doggie treat (which was then soon spat out and forgotten about)
The beauty of digital cameras is that you can just keep shooting and shooting. This was a one hour session and I managed to accumulate just over 600 images. I did this in mind knowing that the majority would not be usable plus it gave me more chance to get that exact pose or facial expression that would make the picture, in a word, perfect. To help with the white background I had to set the cameras exposure compensation up a couple of stops as it was making the image too dark. This also helps to be able to up the shutter speed a fraction and not loose out too much in the way of light for stopping motion blur.
There came a natural end to this photo shoot, it wasn't timed so there was no rush, but Jack was starting to get slightly bored (primarily because his laptop's battery died) and the lights being on him for so long were making him strain his eyes all the time, but he did really well and I managed to get some fantastic shots which required very little in the way of editing. The only editing that needed doing on some of the white scenes were to crop or clone over the bits I didn't want. (Like my assistant holding the backdrop because the dog likes walking past it quite a bit). I just have to remember that props are fantastic for kids as they divert all their attention away and can make some different scenes for shots.
Sunday's photo shoot was a different story, not as peaceful or sedate! I'll let you know how that one went in a few days, right now I'm still editing the pictures :-)
