How to Map Your Portrait Photoshoot for a O-Fail Workflow
Photo by Aksonsat Uanthoeng from Pexels
This week is a continuation of our previous episode, but with one specific purpose: How to map your photoshoot.
What is mapping your photoshoot? The simplest definition is that mapping your photoshoot determines the road you, your client, and your staff or your team will take to manage the photoshoot.
One thing we need to clear up before we take a deeper dive into this is: What is the difference between mapping and workflow. Ideally, the two are very much interrelated. But workflow is actually the flow of your shoot that begins before your photoshoot. It's how you organize your thoughts and how you plan to execute them as they relate to your photoshoot. In order to do that, you have to create a road map.
In summary:
You Have to Map Your Photoshoot In Order to Create an Unobstructed Workflow
Here are a few highlights from this week’s episode:
{3:14} Mapping can be a bit of a chore. But it's also your lifesaver because it's where you work out the fine details that help avoid obstacles and challenges that may come up during your shoot.
{5:27} So obviously, the first major piece of gear is your camera. In my case, that's my Nikon D 750 and my D 7200, which is my backup, even though it has a crop sensor. And as a second backup to that, I also have a D 300 [archived], which is an older Nikon camera, but it still takes great photos.
{5:58} In addition to my primary camera, and my backups, my phone camera is also important because that's what I take my behind the scenes shots with. If I'm going to use my camera, if I'm going to use my phone camera for anything, then it's on a gimbal, just to make sure that the photos or the videos that I'm taking are stable. In addition to that, or as an alternative, if I'm going to use one of my other cameras, one of my other DSLRs, then that's going to be on a gimbal as well or it's going to be on a very comfortable shoulder rig.
{7:22} Going into the shoot, I knew I wanted good clarity and detail so I planned to shoot with an aperture about four to 4.5. Once I saw the clothing that she brought with her, I stuck to that, but I also increased my range. Most of the shots that you see on the website, in the show notes were shot at an aperture someplace between four and 5.6.
{8:33} Depending on what it is I'm shooting, I make the decision that it's either going to be a duplicate of the first card meaning both cards will have raw images, or the second card will have JPEG images.
{8:48} Something I've talked about previously is having a sleeve or a carrying box for your SD cards and using some type of a system. So while I'm repeating myself, I think it is worth repeating that you store your cards in some type of a system.
{11:05} So I set up the tripod, and I remove the camera from it when needed. If you want super sharp photos, use a tripod. If you don't believe me, take a couple of photos with and without one. And you probably see a difference. You can have the steadiest of hands. but when you photograph on a tripod, it still makes a tremendous difference…When you do [use a tripod], there's more face to face contact between you and the client because your face is not behind the camera as much.
{12:50} For those times when I take the camera off the tripod, I use a shoulder strap. The strap I use is made by Black Rapid, and they make a shoulder strap that offers support not just by the quantity and the type of material that sits on the your shoulder that absorbs the bulk of the weight of the camera….
{16:48} The L bracket then accommodates you shooting in either landscape or portrait mode by just switching your camera into position very easily on the tripod. It definitely came in handy with this shoot. All of the portrait photos that were done on the tripod, were done using the L bracket as were the ones taken in horizontal orientation.
{18:16} When you tether and magnify the image, you get to see some of the few little things that may be off and that you can now go back and correct. This will help limit the amount of editing and post processing that you may have to do.
{21:08} Instead of it being an ongoing distraction, after let's say those 10 shots, and after you and the team and the client, take a look at what's going on, and you work towards correcting them, I pretty much shut down tethering.
{23:43} Take your spin on that makeup as it relates to your client. You can't just look at a photo of a celebrity and say oh, that'll look good on my client, you really have to do a little bit of work and look at their eye color their skin tone, etc.
{27:32} We have to have the ability as photographers to take photos of our clients in flattering poses whether they're standing, sitting or they’re reclining, and that means knowing the best poses for certain body types. Along these lines, you also have to know which lenses flatter person's body, and the look that you're trying to achieve.
Click here to listen to this episode and to get more details on mapping your photoshoots so you and your clients can have smooth sailing during during your shoots.
Incorrect Focal Length and Poor Direction with Hand Placement
Hand appears large and disproportionate to the rest of the body. Photo shot with 24-70mm at 26 mm. Correct by using an appropriate focal length (e.g., 50mm) and asking the client to move her hand back. Remember, whatever is closer to the lens appears larger.
Natural Light from Window Camera Left
V-flat located camera right bouncing light to back on to face.
