Scouting/Deciding on locations

[cole_barash]

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>i am curious as to how people go about scouting a location for a portrait shoot. Two different scenarios, first, you have five minutes to scout a location you have never been to. Second, you have a full 3 hours to scout locations around a town. What o you look for, what to include?</p>

<p>Curious.</p>

<p>Thanks<br>

<br /> C</p>

[charlesheckel]

<p>Good light. I'd look for a location where direct sunlight was blocked, but plenty of it bounced off a light wall to provide flattering lighting with a minimum of squint. I'd expect light bouncing off foliage to give me a greenish cast that would need correction. Late afternoon sun can create a nice bright outline if used to backlight the subject against a dark background, but you want to keep it out of your lens with a scrim or shade and use a reflector to keep the skin tones bright.<br>

There's also the matter of a nice, simple, natural background--but that's secondary.</p>

[patricklavoie]

<p>what Charles said + i search for a nice spot, a place with a attitude or a place that fit my images need; ciment wall, glass panel, brick wall, sea...anyhting that will add something to my portrait..like choosing the rigth background.</p>

<p>For a regular editorial photoshoot it could take days to find the rigth spot, since whe have 8 images to do and dont want to travel across town to get them. Also, by walking a lot in the city you could practice yourslef and take note / images about a partiicular area and start creating a images bank of possible area for the future..so you should not always have 5min to decide where you go ; )</p>

[william_supko]

<p>I usually try to find a piece of public land so that I don't have to worry about obtaining permission to shoot. After that I look for a place that holds a lot of versatility. I like to find things that can add interest to the photo but do not detract from the main subject. I've never been in a situation where I only had 5 minutes to find a location. I've been in situations where the location was scouted for me and I had 5 minutes to familiarize myself with it and that is not that difficult to do. Using the internet makes it so easy to find a place, the only thing I do if I have the time is explore the area at different times of the day to see how crowded it is and where the best lighting is.</p>