Just Another Photo Shoot

When doing a commercial photograph shoot of a celeb customer You not just need to be good at what you do, youhave got to be consistent and work well under pressure. You not just need to make the Celebrity ecstatic but provide a photo that all others concerned are happy with. Occasionally they’ll give you direction while other times the ball is in your court and it is one hundred pc your decision of what to style of photograph to shoot.

As a San Antonio Photographer, I’ve had the chance to do a couple of photo shoots of wellknown folks for poster advertisements and other promotions. One I remember was a shoot done a couple years back for Tracy Lawrence, a well known Country Music vocalist. The pictures were to be used for poster advertisements and mailers. When I bid on the assignment I didn’t know whom I was going to snap. All I had been told was it’d be a celebrity in town for one or two hours and what images were to be taken. And that I would be doing the still photography in the breaks in the video shoot going on at the same time.

If you know anything about video and still photography the lighting is completelydifferent. Sharing time with a video crew typically means no time to setup and adjust your lights. It’d be an immediate setup and start shooting.

After arriving at the studio where the shoot would occur I was chuffed to discover that I had a room nearly to my self. Unlike other shoots where you share a scene with the video crew I had another room. I still didn’t know the concept of the shoot so I pulled out all of the lights I had and got ready. They would have liked a clean white background and then something a touch more creative.

After I finished my light set-up I went next door and shot some background pictures of the video shoot. Naturally it was running long and shortly it was time for a lunch break and i still had not had an opportunity to start my shoot. This appears common at lots of the mixed video and still projects I get employed for.

During lunch I ask the marketing director what unique shots they were thinking about. One pool area shot was discussed which had the worst light you might imagine. Full sun in South Texas in the middle of the day. All I could see were the white props reflecting the light and an enormous shade from his cowboy hat and reflections off his Guitar. Having photographed jewelry for several years I know how long it takes to eliminmate all of the reflections from brightly polished jewellery and thought a high polished Guitar in full sun would be even worse.. This was not going to be my ideal photograph shoot. Lucky for me they suspected the 100 and degree weather was too hot so that the 2nd idea was to use a metal lined room with a country table for the background. Perfect window light and fill employing a single strobe put me back in my comfort section.

Eventually they bring the client for me to shoot and I find out the video is running really behind and my time was cut from 20 minuets per look to about seven mins. Not an issue as took one test shot and it was perfect. Asuperb look on the portable that everybody was pleased with and Tracy Lawrence nailed every expression needed. After hours of boring video work he was chuffed and a true professional when it came to doing the still photographs.

After my 7 mins of shooting I found I had to move all my gear to create space for another video being shot in the same room I was using and that after that I might have him for the remainder of the day to do the remainder of the photographs. After a couple more hours I get the word that he’s leaving at six hundred for the airport and since the video folks had other issues I may not have sometime to end my shoot.

During some of the down time I had done other bits of the shoot but still needed Tracy so he might be in the final layout. At roughly fifteen till six they say he’s on his way and to prepare. Of course the video gear was still in they way and theyare dashing to move it around and help get my lighting back in effect. Again without any time for test shots I used a similar way setup I do for portraits and got an ideal look on the 1st shot. Some with a guitar, different shirt, hat and we were done shooting four looks in less than 15 mins. Many of these images are posted on my site.

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Tagged with: Celebrity Photography • Commercial Photography • photography

Filed under: Work at Home

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