People and Place
Assignment 5: People and place on assignment
I was asked by my friend if I could take some pictures of her daughter Sara’s Christening. As a portfolio I showed them my web site http://victoriarahm.weebly.com/portraits.html where I have some of the portraits I have taken. They seemed happy with them, and engaged me as the photographer.
First of all I needed to ask them what their expectations were. They would like photos throughout the day: arrival at the church, the ceremony, portrait images of Sara and finally from the party afterwards.
Secondly I explained what I could do and what I suggested. I would offer them 10-15 good, final and processed images, in both print and web resolution, on a cd. I imagine a professional photographer could offer something similar. In fact, I gave them many more in the end.
It would be helpful if I could visit the location beforehand to see what the backgrounds I could use and what the light situation is like. Before the photo shoot I have to be prepared and make sure that, the memory card is empty, fully charged battery, clean lenses, equipment like reflex screen, flash etc. For the portrait session I was planning to used a prime lens with 35 mm focal length with which I can use a big aperture which would blur the background.
Shooting
On the day I arrived 45 minutes before the ceremony to do a few test shots in the church, and to be there for when people arrived. I asked the priest if it was OK to take photos, and it was all right. I wanted to create a story of the whole day from the beginning to end, and something Sara can look at when she’s older and get a full picture of her Christening day.
It was a cloudy summer day, so the good thing was there would be no harsh shadows, but I used a flash with diffuser outside the church as people arrived. Inside the church it was more difficult. The church has white walls and big windows, but I still used a flash with diffuser in order to get enough light. Towards the end of the ceremony I took off the flash, and used a variable ISO setting with 1/60th second minimum shutter speed. This obviously creates more noise but also more natural looking images. I’m not sure which of the techniques is the best. If I was to continue with this kind of event photography, I would need to figure out/try out different ways of using flash indoors. I also have a white bounce card for the flash, but I thought it wouldn’t work with the high ceilings in the church.
When shooting at an event like this, the photographer has to be quick to react and also discreet. I sat at the front row which gave me a good position. At one point of the ceremony I discreetly crossed the aisle to get a better view of the priest’s actions. I wanted to catch the vital moments of pouring the water and the baptism. Those moments don’t come back.
When taking pictures of the groups I feel quite confident now when directing them how to stand, where to look, to put that bag on the floor, stand a bit closer and move a bit. I would like to do more of this, and to get more experience doing it.
The portrait images of Sara were actually taken the following day, as on the day there were too many things going on. It was better to do it calmly. I have never photographed such a little baby before and it was a new experience. She was changing constantly from smiling to crying, and looked in every direction. I made funny (?) sounds to get her attention. Another problem was how to position her to get nice light. The photos were taken outside. She was lying on her back and I tried to reflect the light with a screen towards her, but it’s not easy to get the right angle. We also tried by holding her up and by putting her on her stomach, but she is still too young to hold her head up for long. I was lying flat on my stomach in front of her. I think now that maybe putting her in a car seat covered by a light fabric could have been a possibility. I wonder how baby photographers overcome this problem.
Technicalities
I ended up with over 300 images. Some of these were unusable and some were better than others. Selecting the images in post processing takes up a lot of time.
I haven’t altered the images a lot in post processing, but each photo still needs to be dealt with. They were all shot in the Raw format. I followed the following steps for each photo:
For the portrait images I have in addition to the steps above also made a selection of the eyes and sharpened them individually.
It’s exciting to see the change when the image is saved for web/screen as it’s only then I see the best version of the image. The colours become clearer then.
It’s obviously a long and tedious process to go through all these steps, so I investigated if it was possible to record macros, or actions as it’s called in Photoshop. Yes it’s possible, but only on the full Photoshop, not in Elements I have. Reading up on the internet, it may be possible to use some actions created for the full version in Elements, but not to record them myself. The actions I found to be downloaded were quite gimmicky, how to create a retro looking image for instance. I would have liked to be able to create actions based on the bullet points I mentioned above. That would be an incentive to get the full version of Photoshop. Up until now I have been quite content with what Elements offer. I can see it would be very useful for a professional photographer, to be able to save some time and energy. In any case, I try to use as many shortcuts as possible, to speed up the process.
Conclusion
In this last assignment of “People and place” my aim was to pull together the various chapters of the course and to use what I have learnt. Therefore this assignment contain both portraits, people aware and unaware (even though they knew I was there), and images of the locations where the ceremony and party took place.
I was invited as a guest and it was sometimes difficult be both a guest and photographer. I was constantly on the outlook for images, and I wanted to be a social guest. In one way it would be easier to shoot at an event where you are solely the photographer, but on the other hand I felt comfortable because it my friend who was the “employer”.
Overall I’m quite pleased with the photos as a record of the day, and I have sent off a cd to my friend with both the print and the web versions.
First of all I needed to ask them what their expectations were. They would like photos throughout the day: arrival at the church, the ceremony, portrait images of Sara and finally from the party afterwards.
Secondly I explained what I could do and what I suggested. I would offer them 10-15 good, final and processed images, in both print and web resolution, on a cd. I imagine a professional photographer could offer something similar. In fact, I gave them many more in the end.
It would be helpful if I could visit the location beforehand to see what the backgrounds I could use and what the light situation is like. Before the photo shoot I have to be prepared and make sure that, the memory card is empty, fully charged battery, clean lenses, equipment like reflex screen, flash etc. For the portrait session I was planning to used a prime lens with 35 mm focal length with which I can use a big aperture which would blur the background.
Shooting
On the day I arrived 45 minutes before the ceremony to do a few test shots in the church, and to be there for when people arrived. I asked the priest if it was OK to take photos, and it was all right. I wanted to create a story of the whole day from the beginning to end, and something Sara can look at when she’s older and get a full picture of her Christening day.
It was a cloudy summer day, so the good thing was there would be no harsh shadows, but I used a flash with diffuser outside the church as people arrived. Inside the church it was more difficult. The church has white walls and big windows, but I still used a flash with diffuser in order to get enough light. Towards the end of the ceremony I took off the flash, and used a variable ISO setting with 1/60th second minimum shutter speed. This obviously creates more noise but also more natural looking images. I’m not sure which of the techniques is the best. If I was to continue with this kind of event photography, I would need to figure out/try out different ways of using flash indoors. I also have a white bounce card for the flash, but I thought it wouldn’t work with the high ceilings in the church.
When shooting at an event like this, the photographer has to be quick to react and also discreet. I sat at the front row which gave me a good position. At one point of the ceremony I discreetly crossed the aisle to get a better view of the priest’s actions. I wanted to catch the vital moments of pouring the water and the baptism. Those moments don’t come back.
When taking pictures of the groups I feel quite confident now when directing them how to stand, where to look, to put that bag on the floor, stand a bit closer and move a bit. I would like to do more of this, and to get more experience doing it.
The portrait images of Sara were actually taken the following day, as on the day there were too many things going on. It was better to do it calmly. I have never photographed such a little baby before and it was a new experience. She was changing constantly from smiling to crying, and looked in every direction. I made funny (?) sounds to get her attention. Another problem was how to position her to get nice light. The photos were taken outside. She was lying on her back and I tried to reflect the light with a screen towards her, but it’s not easy to get the right angle. We also tried by holding her up and by putting her on her stomach, but she is still too young to hold her head up for long. I was lying flat on my stomach in front of her. I think now that maybe putting her in a car seat covered by a light fabric could have been a possibility. I wonder how baby photographers overcome this problem.
Technicalities
I ended up with over 300 images. Some of these were unusable and some were better than others. Selecting the images in post processing takes up a lot of time.
I haven’t altered the images a lot in post processing, but each photo still needs to be dealt with. They were all shot in the Raw format. I followed the following steps for each photo:
- In the Raw interface -> adjust exposure or rescue highlights if necessary, increase blacks, clarity and vibrance to 10
- Open the image to the editor
- Slight cropping if necessary
- Sharpen
- Save the PSD
- Save the print jpg version (shift+ctrl+s)
- Resize to web resolution (alt+ctlr+i) to 72 ppi, 750 pixels wide if the image is horizontal, 575 if the image is vertical
- Convert colour profile to sRGB
- Save for web (shift+ctrl+alt+s)
- The result is that I have one folder with print resolution and one folder with web resolution.
For the portrait images I have in addition to the steps above also made a selection of the eyes and sharpened them individually.
It’s exciting to see the change when the image is saved for web/screen as it’s only then I see the best version of the image. The colours become clearer then.
It’s obviously a long and tedious process to go through all these steps, so I investigated if it was possible to record macros, or actions as it’s called in Photoshop. Yes it’s possible, but only on the full Photoshop, not in Elements I have. Reading up on the internet, it may be possible to use some actions created for the full version in Elements, but not to record them myself. The actions I found to be downloaded were quite gimmicky, how to create a retro looking image for instance. I would have liked to be able to create actions based on the bullet points I mentioned above. That would be an incentive to get the full version of Photoshop. Up until now I have been quite content with what Elements offer. I can see it would be very useful for a professional photographer, to be able to save some time and energy. In any case, I try to use as many shortcuts as possible, to speed up the process.
Conclusion
In this last assignment of “People and place” my aim was to pull together the various chapters of the course and to use what I have learnt. Therefore this assignment contain both portraits, people aware and unaware (even though they knew I was there), and images of the locations where the ceremony and party took place.
I was invited as a guest and it was sometimes difficult be both a guest and photographer. I was constantly on the outlook for images, and I wanted to be a social guest. In one way it would be easier to shoot at an event where you are solely the photographer, but on the other hand I felt comfortable because it my friend who was the “employer”.
Overall I’m quite pleased with the photos as a record of the day, and I have sent off a cd to my friend with both the print and the web versions.
Comments from my tutor
I received some useful comments from my tutor regarding my assignement. Overall it was quite positive and few suggestions how to improve.
Some comments relates in a way to the equipment I use. For instance, in the christening dress image, he suggested I could have used a higher ISO setting, and this is something he has suggested for other images previously. I still don't often think about changing the ISO manually, and I think this stems from the fact that I don't have a dedicated button on my camera, so I need to go into the menus to change and this takes longer time.
Another comment was on the use of flash. I should practice using the flash in different locations, such as rooms with tall ceilings and bracket the exposure, to avoid too much flash with a black background. I agree I should practice this more, but I can't manually change the power on the flash I have with a dedicated button, but I must again go into the menus. I don't want to be a crafts woman blaming my tools, but I notice how my lower range equipment limits me.
The tutor showed in a remake how red eyes should be removed and I fully agree this is something I have to remember to do.
Click here to go to People and place blog
I received some useful comments from my tutor regarding my assignement. Overall it was quite positive and few suggestions how to improve.
Some comments relates in a way to the equipment I use. For instance, in the christening dress image, he suggested I could have used a higher ISO setting, and this is something he has suggested for other images previously. I still don't often think about changing the ISO manually, and I think this stems from the fact that I don't have a dedicated button on my camera, so I need to go into the menus to change and this takes longer time.
Another comment was on the use of flash. I should practice using the flash in different locations, such as rooms with tall ceilings and bracket the exposure, to avoid too much flash with a black background. I agree I should practice this more, but I can't manually change the power on the flash I have with a dedicated button, but I must again go into the menus. I don't want to be a crafts woman blaming my tools, but I notice how my lower range equipment limits me.
The tutor showed in a remake how red eyes should be removed and I fully agree this is something I have to remember to do.
Click here to go to People and place blog