Photos with Santa, Vertical or Horizontal?

12/09/2010 12:42:18 AM · #1

So I've been hired to do a Photos with Santa session tomorrow night by a Parents group of a local school. They are providing Santa and set I'm providing photography services, order forms and delivering prints in a week. I'm going back and forth whether to shoot vertical or horizontal. If you have shot sessions before which were better received which worked better for you. 5x7 crops and wallets are what I'm offering. No other sizes. Thanks

Matt

12/09/2010 12:47:36 AM · #2

I've never shot one, but thinking of all the photos I've seen of kids with Santa, they are overwhelmingly a vertical orientation. I think an important question is what all the rest of the set is going to look like, and do you like what it looks like and therefore want to make it more prominent or not.

12/09/2010 12:52:44 AM · #3

Good point, I've not seen the scene nor the Santa and won't up until about 30 minutes before shooting begins. I can only assume I'll not like it. :D However if I shoot tighter than the scene will they not like that you can only see Santa, the chair and the child? I'm hoping to do this with setting the camera, zoom and lights all one time and fire off with my remote to keep things moving quickly.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

12/09/2010 01:13:28 AM · #4

Yeah, kinda figured it'd be a click next click next affair. I guess for me it's just really hard to say without seeing what there is at your disposal, you know? Assuming they have a tree, that would work well in vertical as a background, or if it's like a bunch of presents with fake snow or something that would work well for horizontal. Some decorations for that stuff can be super garish though, so it may get down to one of those things where the setting distracts from the moment. The biggest thing is to give a sense of setting without making it dominate, I think. Whether it's vertical or horizontal is going to hinge on what there is and how to include it but keep it supplementary.

Forgot to add- Good luck in any case. Hope your Santa is good with kids :)

Message edited by author 2010-12-09 01:14:51.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

12/09/2010 02:02:43 AM · #5

Santa and chair and maybe a tree sounds like a vertical to me too -- to be tall enough vertically shooting in landscape orientation there might be a risk of including too much of the stuff off to the sides, like the other kids in line.

Qiki

Fujifilm X100T

Pentax DA 70mm f/2.4 Limited

12/09/2010 02:52:06 AM · #6

I know you're not supposed to work with animals....now what was the other thing?? :)

Skip

Canon EOS-1D X

Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM

12/09/2010 05:49:23 AM · #7

vertical

f/11 1/250 iso100

tethered or eye-fi

assistant/volunteer to let you whether or not you caught a blink or got good eyes

if santa wears glasses, work with him and the lights to avoid reflections

try to get the kids to take off their glasses

patience...

good luck

ps: $999 for a sony dye-sub printer to print on the spot, cash and carry ;-)

Mike

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Canon Mount

12/09/2010 06:13:49 AM · #8

i dont think i've ever seen a horizontal santa picture. it would be odd to see one horizontal. this is coming from me as a parent not as a photographer.

vawendy

Sony Alpha 1

Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS

12/09/2010 06:26:25 AM · #9

mostly vertical. However, if the family has a number of kids, you may have to go horizontal for that shot. (5 kids can be hard to get in vertically.)

Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX Aspherical DG HSM for Nikon

12/09/2010 08:13:54 AM · #10

Thanks everyone. I had pretty much settled on vertical(I bought an L bracket to mount the camera on the tripod in vertical for the shoot) but just wanted to make sure I was thinking right. The Parents organization seem very excited about all the work they have done on the set, and honestly the parents want a photo of their child and Santa, not someone elses handy work. At least that is my thoughts.

Thanks again.

bohemka

Nikon D700

12/09/2010 08:45:01 AM · #11

Originally posted by mike_311:

i dont think i've ever seen a horizontal santa picture. it would be odd to see one horizontal.

What? Just look down a back alley.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

12/09/2010 11:50:34 PM · #12

Just wanted to post a quick shot from tonight. I let the Parent Organization pick the crop, I wanted to shoot much tighter, but hey what you going to do. The ones paying the bills are the ones who are right, right?

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

12/09/2010 11:54:52 PM · #13

Originally posted by MattO:

That looks like your set-up worked fine. You can always show them a tighter crop later -- you should have enough resolution that it won't affect the quality of a 5x7 -- maybe they'll buy some more or reconsider next year. Congratulations on surviving the event!

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

12/10/2010 12:03:19 AM · #14

Yeah, looks like the setup was decent. I'd agree about the crop, but, hey, at least it looks nice.

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

12/10/2010 12:06:13 AM · #15

Originally posted by spiritualspatula:

Forgot to add- Good luck in any case. Hope your Santa is good with kids :)

Hehe, how wrong is it that I think a HORRIBLE Santa would make for much more interesting photos! ;)

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

12/10/2010 12:07:19 AM · #16

Originally posted by spiritualspatula:

Yeah, looks like the setup was decent. I'd agree about the crop, but, hey, at least it looks nice.

Agreed, but I don't know about that Santa, I'd bet he didn't even smell like rum...

12/10/2010 12:19:30 AM · #17

Thanks guys, I'm happy with how it turned out, the set turned out to be nicer then I expected, however I wasn't too thrilled with the black background, but again what are you going to do, they pay you to shoot what you have. The hardest thing was getting a bit of the bulbs on the tree to show in the photos. Reflections off the background strings were tough too. I'll quick edit them and get them to print. Have to have them back and delivered by next Thursday. Thanks again for the help.

Matt

12/10/2010 12:28:15 AM · #18

Originally posted by coryboehne:

Originally posted by spiritualspatula:

Forgot to add- Good luck in any case. Hope your Santa is good with kids :)

Hehe, how wrong is it that I think a HORRIBLE Santa would make for much more interesting photos! ;)

You should google horrible santa photos. There are some real awesome ones, which is why I sincerely offered hope because I can only imagine how awkward/terrible that could get.
Hey

MattO, how many of these did you do? Just curious how many since you were going to edit out the strings.