Rob Almeda wrote:
My guess is it is a 4 point lighting system. Who is Alameda?....well it is not me....BTW Bob, just have fun with your project and you will do everything okay. Good luck !!!
Alameda California? (home office) Probably spelled it wrong?
HA, just finished the first round. Got 62 done the first day. Many people were either out of the office, forgot and wore "logo" t-shirts, or just plan refused. Not my problem. I switched from a "per person" to a flat fee for the job. I had a sneaky feeling that it wouldn't go smoothly like the cattle call they had envisioned.
The set up was a cluster ___ They gave me 6 pages of instructions on what they wanted. The exact poses, light set up, etc.
The instructions said "emphasize natural light" and they put me in a room with windows tinted with what looked like limo tint. When I first walked in the room, the lights weren't on, and I almost ran into a ping pong table.
They specified the light panel as "fill light" but had it positioned as key light. 45 degrees up, 45 degrees off to subject left. I had my 2'x3' light panel that I use for newborn shots in the car, so I "faked" the window behind me as "natural" I'm not overly happy, because the LED panel is cool, and I specifically put warm color bulbs in my panel.
The paper is like 5' wide, and they wanted the subjects to be 67.5" in front of the "fold" of the paper. Problem is, at that distance, the larger people's shoulders were outside the paper. They specifically wanted from the belly button up, "they will crop". OK, no problem, but i still had to move people back so I didn't have to photoshop white behind everyone.
Next "fun" opportunity. They said "no editing, just JUST cropping, AND fixing glare in glasses" OK, some glasses are just shaped so that no matter how you put the lights, you will get glare.... so I had to take extra photos of all the glasses people (all old like me, so a LOT of glasses) with no glasses, so I could fix the glare. Sigh....
The 4 point, HAD TO BE aperture, since they only wanted me to use the non existent window, and the 1'square light panel (mistakenly called) the fill light. I don't do aperture mode, and I know I won't use it for the rest of the people later next week. Depending on the clothes, and the skin tone, my metering was all over the place at f/4. I had to go in and adjust almost every photo to get the backgrounds to all resemble one another. It is something I didn't notice during the shoot, but it made a huge difference. Spot metering would have done the same thing, because I had everything from, so white, they looked translucent, to EXTREMELY dark African American skin tones, and everything in between. Shooting that many people using the settings supplied in the "guidebook" they sent, made 10x more work than if I would have just metered, set it in manual where I wanted it, and went to town.
OK, that was the "bad."
The good is that
1. I would say that 90% of the people I shot the first day were amazing to work with. They took direction, and all but one gave me very good results. (he wasn't about to cooperate, from what I'm told, he thinks the government is going to use his photos off the internet, or some weird thing)
2. Got 4 family portrait shots, and a 2017 wedding so far.
I really didn't enjoy the feeling of frustration that I had no creative license, I felt hamstrung by the company, but the people there were just absolutely great. I made a little sign with numbers and handed it to them as they walked in, and told them to prepare for their mug shots. It broke the ice, and just by joking around, I think I ended up with some really good expressions. If a guy was next, and had a woman behind him. I would tell him that he needs to keep his clothes on, and the "underwear modeling session" would begin after we got the rest of the staff done. This got quite a bit of joking around started. There were a few, like everywhere, that wanted to do the "tough guy" thing, but by the time we were done, I had a very nice expression, if not a huge smile, on everyone by the time I was done.
I did sign a non-use agreement. Thankfully, the people that booked me for family shoots have already agreed that I will be able to use their family shots if I want to.
All in all, I actually learned a lot about shooting in "modes" and why I will probably just stick with my manual mode. My hand held meter is still my best friend. (next to my lovely bride, that is)
Thanks to everyone who offered input.