Yesterday I wrote about starting my biggest creative project to date. Here is my review on the day of photographing. Just a heads up, it’s pretty dry & lifeless, you might want to skip along to another post.
What worked?
- The concept of getting a large group of people involved was daunting, but we managed to create enough interest. I was hoping for 40 people to get involved. I’m yet to do a final count, but I think it was around double that. Win – win.
- Having a production plan. It made having a goal very easy, and whenever there was doubt of what to do, any of us could refer back to the plan.
What didn’t work?
- We didn’t have an flow to the system, there wasn’t a defined “here is the line to get a photograph”, and thus I felt people slipped through the cracks.
- After session 2 I adapted one of the poses, to give us more options in post.
- I didn’t have a tick up my sleeve for making people smile.
- I didn’t communicate with a couple of people after the server meltdown saga of last week. Had I followed them up, things could have moved along a little smoother.
- I grabbed someone who was camera shy for my lighting test. She wasn’t comfortable & I was trying to talk to her and sort out the lighting, which was a challenge. At the same time, one of the lens fogged up, this also through me, it was like photographing with a smoke machine.
What did I learn?
- Planning is key.
- Leave enough time to setup and get things working.
- My HD600 stobe is a bit of a work horse, easily handling the 1100 photos at 1/8 power.
- It’s ok to work in a team. I do not have to do everything, all the time.
The next phase will be post and editing into the final concept before it goes to print.