Last weekend we had the pleasure of hosting Aurora Lady at the Hub LA last Saturday for A Lady Fantasy Photo Shoot a workshop all about planning your own photo shoot. Aurora’s helpful tips outlined all the planning steps to direct your own photo shoot without using a fancy SLR camera. Co-founder KC gives us the low down from that workshop.
Here are some of the highlights from my notes!
She shoots with a Cannon G11 and uses auto/ portrait settings most of the time. When shooting close-up items see if your camera has macro settings. If you aren’t sure which settings to use, try taking the same photo with all the settings and shoot with the setting that gives you the best results.
Always follow the rule of thirds. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds
Take at on of environmental shots… they tell the story. These include the background and other touches.
Golden Hours: Right before sunset, during sunrise. Everything looks golden and wonderful. You do need to know where light is coming from and shadows. By hitting these golden hours things look more professional too. In the afternoon it is around 4:30. You will have about an hour. Then there is a power spot of like 10min of awesomeness.
Know what your friends can do for you. You don't take advantage of them, trade with them, figure out what you can do for them, but make sure you utilize them!
Before the shoot send out a long email to models with the pictures of layout and all the details: Mood, goal, what they need to bring, come with a fresh face if you will do makeup there, etc.
- Credit people appropriately!! Do your due diligence to credit everything you post with the right names and links. Give a heads up to collaborators when the time comes that you are posting the pictures so they can share their hard work too!
