Shooting the runway/catwalk segment of a fashion show

[joshua_mortel]

I guess my question is pretty general --how do you cover the catwalk portion of the fashion show?

 

When I covered it I ran into some problems with flash recycling times (SB-800 with Alkaline batteries), but

nothing too bad.

 

Backstage I noticed there was another photographer shooting with a light ring --that is a continuous lighting

solution that I haven't really considered.

 

Ran into problems with composing shots... horizontal photos yielded long stretches with nothing going on or

cut-off legs. Tried to use the rule of thirds, but I have the hardest time covering this portion of the show.

It's difficult switching back and forth from horizontal to vertical picture because I have to swivel the bounce

flash --I am not using a bracket.

 

Just trying to get ideas... any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

[leicaglow]

You should do a search for "catwalk". I've seen this topic covered many times: http://www.photo.net/portraits-and-fashion-photography-forum/0088KD

 

There is definitely a lot of info on the subject.

[frank_skomial]

Sounds like you used a fixed focal length lens ? Using a zoom lens could help with composition.

 

Alkaline batteries recharge slower, so invest in high capacity rechargeables, and use 5th battery. Use alkaline

batteries as a back up, just in case rechargeables were not fully charged ?

 

If you used a bracket for flash, you would need to rotate bracket arm, instead of rotating the flash head. Bouncing

flash on a bracket or on the camera... there advantage of the bracket could be lost or minimized. However with

bracket, you could shoot flash head straight forward with posisble use of the diffuser dome, and allowed use of lower

ISO or smaller aperture.

[joshua_mortel]

Frank, I was using a zoom on the wide end.. 17-55. Yeah, I should probably use "real" flash batteries heh

 

Thanks for the link, Michael, they bring up some good points.. "OPF" was indeed a problem at this show... hmm