Final Shoot Practise

Venue
Shepshed Dynamo Football Club

Equipment
Sony Alpha 200
Bowens Portable Lighting Kit
Sync cable
Battery pack

Models
Katie
Terry
Becky
Kelly

Lighting design
See separate blog

Comments
Using the ideas I gained from my research and inspiration pictures (see Inspiation Blog) I decided to take some pictures of my footballers after match and try and duplicate the types of shots that I enjoy looking at.

The shoot didn't start well as I was using a new lighting kit and it took me nearly 10 minutes to work out how to remove the protective cover from the lights. This of course made me feel flustered and didn't make me lok that competent in front of my models. Luckily they are my friends so were more than understanding, it was me who felt bad.

In the morning the sky was full of clouds so I thought I was in for the perfect conditions. Unfortunately for me, great for spectators the sun came out and all the clouds disappeared. There was no way of getting away from the direct sunlight, which was too bright so I decided to setup the models with the sun coming from the right and getting them to look to the left. This would hopefully remove the chance of the models squinting. I then useed one of the flashes as a fill light aimed straight at the models face.

My models were great and made the process of shooting easy, something I am very thankful for as my brain was trying to come to terms with not the best lighting conditions, new environment as well as trying to get some great shots for my final portfolio.

The shoot went well although I struggled to come up with some great poses for the models, I felt that I needed to do some more researc into possible poses to better show what I had in my mind.

I found that the harsh, bright sunlght and my models wearing our home kit, black and white, was blowing out the highlights so I had to experiment with my f-stops so not to allow too much light in. I used the skills I gained from my studio shoot with Sam to set my shutter speed, metering and autofocus points. I was very grateful of having done that shoot as it enabled me to spend more time taking pictures and less time making caera adjustments.

Overall, I found the shoot really useful as it agained highlighted the importance of the correct lighting to make the final images successful. One other useful point that I gained from this shoot was that the background can also make or break a picture. In some of my shots the background is too busy and therefore the viewer loses the model as the main focal point because their eye is taken all over the place.

I feel better equiped now to complete another shoot that will hopefully produce my final images. To see the pictures from this shoot please click here.