michaelmowery

<p>Still trying to figure out what the goal of the shoot is? Now I am guessing it is just the uniform.</p>

<p>Ok now that we are on the same page and you opt not to take my first advice I will attempt to give you advice based on your attempt to D.I.Y<br /> 1. No you don't really need strobes unless you are in a very dark room or if there are windows and you have outdoor bright light and want to balance it.<br /> 2. HDR is a good option. Regardless of what you do you will spend time in photoshop.<br /> 3. Hot shoe flashes is very limited when shooting interiors. They are good for accent lighting.<br /> I hope I answered your questions.</p>

<p>Then ask the question instead of telling the story about what your debating on doing with your business. You did say you wanted help in deciding what your best option was and your mouth said the best option is probably hiring a pro. You asked for it. I am just saying.</p>

<p>Your a professional contractor and I am a professional photographer so why don't we swap jobs I always thought of myself as a competent amateur contractor. See where I am going with this. Do your self a favor and hire a Pro to showcase your work properly so you can get your next contracting job.</p>

<p>I am not sure what your goal is here or what other photos have been taken. If this is the only photo that your going with and if it is for some type of campaign I would say the lack of eye contact makes it weak but that is the least of your problems. What commercial do you see on tv that the model is not making eye contact as they speak about the product? You have one frame to make everything work so far I have no connection with the model and I can barely make out what airlines that is but only because I am familiar with most US airlines. What is this suppose to say? I look cute in this uniform? The eyes are not going to make the picture any better. I would reshoot and nail the objective.</p>

<p>Using a scrim on the dress can work otherwise change your exposure on the second shot to expose for the dress better then layer them in photoshop. The blue cast sometimes can be caused by your flash tube not having UV coating and the dress has been treated with some chemical in the color process that shows up as a blue tint. This also happens with hair coloring.</p>

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<p>Join PPA they automatically cover I think up to $10,000</p>

<p>The client's complaint is that they did not get all the images they wanted and the images they did weren't sharp. This is not a complaint that they did not receive the number of images promised but rather you failed to provide images that they wanted and the ones you did get were out of focus. Why would you include out of focus images? That tells me that it just wasn't one or two but many. What are your shutter speeds on these images? Most likely its movement rather than out of focus images. <br /> You did not say if the 100 images per hour was in the contract but you did say you discussed it. I would never have in a contract 100 images per hour as you have experienced may not happen. Yes that is the basic formula though but things happen. I do however put in the contract will receive a minimum up to 500 images. To this day I have always shot well over 500 images.<br /> This just sounds like the customer was dissatisfied with your performance and quality of work which I don't think is something they can sue over. You did meet the requirements of your contract though so I would not worry about it. I would however take a closer examination to why your images are soft or out of focus and figure out what images you did not take that you should have taken. Lastly it is your job to come home with the bacon regardless of all the short comings of the days events. You have to make it happen and let them know before you leave what photos have not been taken and let them make the choice of what to do because once you leave its all over and nothing can bring back the clock.</p>

<p>you have described exactly what to do except for the last part using the 2 additional lights to blow out the background. Just do it and see what happens. One light is all you need and yes the subject is right against the background. You first need to make sure you are using a super white seamless background. You don't want to automatically assume that you need to overexpose your white background to get white. That is a misconception. Having a person floating in white space is not my first choice but if it is yours then that part will be done in post. </p>

<p>7inch fresnel attachment for Profoto. This is only lighting the face.</p> <div></div>

<p>Wide angle lenses will produce small head sizes so that is something to consider. You did not say how the image will be used or how large it will be presented. You don't want to have to use a magnifying glass to see the people. Your lights should be enough power to pull this off since it is at night. Keep your iso as low as you can yet still be able to shoot at f8 or f11. Use tripod and shutter speed no slower than 30 sec. Be aware of stray lights from street lamps illuminating the people. The tripod will also allow you to take a timed exposure before or after you add the people. You can later layer the two images to have the best background picture with the group shot.</p>

<p>I agree that this should be done without umbrellas/softbox. I would use just the silver reflector and I would use at least 4 strobes to evenly illuminate the area. I would also experiment with focal length. I don't know how much extra area you want to show.</p>

<p>Good Luck Tom in your venture. I hope you make money. I would much rather do that than shoot weddings but for now shooting the weddings pays the bills.</p>

<p>This is nothing new and has been going on for years. Photo both generally is cheaper which is why you may see more photo booths.</p>

Your just responding to Johns answer? He doesn't understand that his method would require an extreme amount of flash power more than a speed light can deliver. Please post one of the images that you took. Did you find your answer from anyone here?

<p>You should be asking the first shooter these questions. On the job training beats asking for advice on a forum any day. </p>

<p>Maryann It would be helpful if you would post one of the pictures in question.</p>

Your alternative is to wait till the sun is below the horizon and take your shots then. The colors in the sky will be more saturated.

<p>Maryann reading the last line in your post "flash won't cooperate" I assume you are saying you are at full power. You did not tell us what iso your at but at this point it doesn't matter cause you are maxed out on flash power and you still can not achieve your goal. You have two choices either get a stronger flash or get a pair of pocket wizards that allow for hyper sync to allow you to set a much higher shutter speed.</p>

<p>You are entering a whole new field of photography. You better educate yourself on interior and architectural photography instead of asking for guidance on a forum. Just a bit of advice. That said use the kiss system. Buy yourself a tripod and do bracketed timed exposures. That is your best approach without making it complicated. From there you can always perform HDR if necessary.</p>

<p>If this is for reproduction purposes or to show exactly what the artwork is without distorting it you must always shoot straight on. </p>

<p>First off is this art piece flat or is it round? What is the size of the art piece? These are very important questions. For the most part it will be trial and error on the job. You use your modeling lights on your flash to see where the reflections are and you keep inching the lights until they are gone.</p> <p>That said there are two approaches that I recommend if there is no way to eliminate the reflections. If the art work is fairly small then use a large soft box that is at least 3x larger than the art work and place the soft box as close as you can. This way all reflections are reflecting the diffused soft box. If your art work is large then you will want to place your strobes further back and remove any soft box or umbrella and use the bare heads with a silver reflector. This way any reflection will be a point of light which you can easily retouch out in post.</p>

<p>Well said Rick!! I was going to comment but you said it all very nicely.</p>

Just to be clear I am not talking about shooting natural light. I am shooting with studio lights doing dramatic lighting but I am using the environment as the background. Yes I can make the natural background dark or light. Creating dramatic pictures is all in the lighting.