As a photographer, 2008 was a very important year for me. I shot more than I ever have and in doing so, started to feel like I’m starting to know what I’m doing. I thought it might be helpful (for me and perhaps some others) to rundown some of the things that I’ve learned throughout the past year. Here’s one of them... Don’t forget to look for shots off-set Sometimes I find myself so focussed on getting the shot I have in my head, I’m not leaving myself open enough to what’s happening around me. Here are three examples from the same shoot.
I had decided to try a ring-flash, so as I made sure it was working I turned behind me to shoot something, and there was Bernadett & Daryon. Popped a frame and said to myself... “yep, it’s working.” Little did I know that I had just taken one of my favorite shots of the day.
Later that afternoon, as the window light began to fade, Daryon (MUA) needed light so that he could see what he was doing... I quickly set up a kino-flo diva light and pointed it over his right shoulder. While Melissa was getting madeup I wanted to shoot her... but I had the ring-flash attached to my 5D, and did not want to take it off So I grabbed a Rebel-XT with a 50mm ƒ1.4... and took this shot of Melissa... one of her favorites.
Which led to this shot (below)... where I played with camera position and used the kino-flo as a backlight and nothing in front. You can see a bit of green fringing on her chin... that’s how the Rebel deals with extreme contrast. I wished I’d had a backup 5D at the time because it would be nice to have this shot in better quality.
After this shoot I became convinced that a good second camera (not only as a backup but as a second camera to shoot with) can be extremely useful.