First Shoot with a Stranger

Strobist info: Shot with an on camera Speedlite with Stofen. Flash angled away from subject towards gold reflector camera left.

This last Saturday I did my first shoot with someone I didn't know previously. I posted an ad on Craigslist saying I would shoot portraits for free. Vickie was the first person to respond. She was great and I hope the experience was mutually beneficial. I've definitely learned some things from it.

What I Learned

• There's a huge difference between the static environment of a studio vs. being out in a public place using mostly natural light. The is sort of a duh thing but I've been shooting so much in my home studio that I kind of started taking the lighting and easy camera settings for granted.


• I need to learn more about posing my subjects in ways that are flattering to them. I had very little input for Vickie and I think she would have appreciated it if I could have told her what to do. Problem is I don't really know...yet.


• Focus issues. We were short on time because the sun was setting (we were in a glass sky bridge here in Spokane using natural light) and I think that pressure caused me to shoot too quickly rather than really paying attention when I use focus lock on the eyes and then recompose the shot. A lot of the photos were soft.


• Slow down, see the details. This has something to do with the last point about focusing but when I went back and reviewed the shots I realized that Vickie's hair was causing weird shadows across her face. It would have been easy to remedy with just a turn of the head or a reflector (compare the first shot in the blue coat where I used a reflector with the second and you will see what I call "hair fangs" across her face although I tried to soften them in PS).


• Part of being a good photographer must be knowing how to use what's available to you to create a compelling photograph. I kept trying to find a way to plug in my strobe light but would have been better off just accepting that I needed to use natural light or my on camera Speedlite.