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10/15/2012 01:21:57 PM · #1 |
My wife volunteered my services to shoot an engagement session for her colleague. Did it yesterday. I've never been interested in doing this but I didn't want to say "no," as long as they understood their expectations should be tempered. Of course I didn't charge anything as I don't really know what I'm doing, so it's not a business question so much as a general call for help from those with experience in such things.
[Long, drawn-out and boring side note on my experience: I take pictures of trees and buildings and stuff; not people, and specifically not people with expectations of receiving a photo of any quality. I'm not smart, I don't react quickly enough in dynamic situations, and buttons and beeps and lights seriously confuse me. I've never had to explain all my shortcomings to the inanimate objects I've typically shot, and I prefer to keep it that way. I made some horrible rookie mistakes (having my camera in aperture priority with a flash, for example, which limited my shutter speed to 1/60 -- I've since read that having it in manual mode would have allowed me to bump it up to 1/320... info I should have known before the shoot).]
That said, this couple is so spectacularly photogenic that there are still some pretty nice shots, despite all of my mistakes. So my question is, what now? I'm going through these and editing the winners, and I realize I don't even know what aspect ratio is appropriate.
So my question is... which aspect ratio? I'm going to provide multiple crops of some of them, as they work in 1:1 or even more irregular formats as well. But what should the standard be?
And an even sillier question: How large should these file sizes/dimensions be? (Sorry, I never print anything, but they will be printing these.)
Thank you very much for any help. |
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10/15/2012 02:52:58 PM · #2 |
Why don't you ask them what size prints they're going to make?
I usually set up almost all of my prints for 8x10 (including any border), which I can then resize and print 4x5 (on 4x6 paper) or up to 16x20 from the same file. |
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10/15/2012 03:04:14 PM · #3 |
| I've always used a 4x6 ratio. I had asked the same question to one of my photog friends who has done this for longer, and she said she uses 4x6, too. But if I'm cropping, I do try to make sure that if they do want other size/ratio prints, they can crop it appropriately without losing anything too important. As for file size, if I'm giving them a disk, I don't resize them to make them smaller. I'd rather give a disk with huge files than small files that they try to blow up and end up looking crappy. |
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10/15/2012 07:09:52 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Why don't you ask them what size prints they're going to make? |
That would be a quick and easy solution. Absurd.
I'll take  lilysmom's recommendation and crop them to how I think they look best and send them the full-size files. Probably only 30 or so photos. |
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10/15/2012 10:46:48 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by bohemka:
I'll take lilysmom's recommendation and crop them to how I think they look best and send them the full-size files. |
Nothing wrong with that if they'll have to take care of printing (and setting up for printing) themselves. I mostly border mine to make them fit the paper size without risk of (further undesirable) cropping. |
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10/15/2012 10:54:10 PM · #6 |
My wedding photographer gave me all my digital copies in a 2:3 ratio. No cropping or resizing. I printed and cropped on my own.
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10/16/2012 12:46:34 AM · #7 |
| Just ask if there is any image they plan to print any of them larger than 8 x10, and set the dpi to 300 |
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10/16/2012 08:02:22 AM · #8 |
i use lightroom and typically deliver everything at the in-camera aspect ratio (2:3). if i crop, i leave it with the same constraints. unless i'm doing the printing, i usually don't do too much editing (think dpc basic editing: slight adjustments as necessary for exposure, slight sharpening). if people take the images to a kiosk or a lab for retail prints, that print process will do most of the heavy lifting on the processing, anyways.
glad you survived :D |
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10/25/2012 03:21:53 PM · #9 |
Thank you very much for the replies. Sorry for the late reply from me... I can't seem to find any time for anything lately.
I have provided all of the photos at 2:3, and have done special crops and edits to those where I thought it would help or provide a perspective they may not think of.
Despite my lack of time I've asked if we can re-shoot. This is more for me now, and my satisfaction of a job well done that I can be very proud of. They're fine with what they've got, but I know it can be better (famous last words).
Anyway... I've learned the hard way about the 1/60th flash sync speed in aperture value mode. Because of that, and being out in daylight, I experienced a bit of motion blur.
Am I better off switching to manual so I can set shutter speed to 320 (while still managing Av)? I'm assuming the flash will power up or down to compensate exposure, so there's no need to move the ISO around (or set it to auto). It'll be me on the move, following them around a park, so I won't have time to do much more than occasionally check a histogram.
Or do you ditch the flash entirely? It provided a nice fill so the fall colors were preserved and not blown out. But if it's just too much trouble I'll leave it.
This is very basic stuff, I know, but it's a new situation to me, so I appreciate any quick tips on settings that I can "fire and forget" for such a shoot. Thanks a lot. |
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10/25/2012 03:32:56 PM · #10 |
if you have android or apple get this app:
Posing App
its basically these and more in a nice app.
//digital-photography-school.com/posing-guide-21-sample-poses-to-get-you-started-with-photographing-couples
are you selling them prints or just providing digital copies for them? |
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10/25/2012 03:39:15 PM · #11 |
Thanks.
Originally posted by mike_311:
are you selling them prints or just providing digital copies for them? |
Just giving them the digital copies, plus an edited version of all as well. I have asked how they plan on printing them, as Lightroom has different sharpening setting s for printing matte vs. glossy.
I've seen you talk about Lightroom elsewhere and I have to agree. I just upgraded to LR 4 and it's amazing. I've done all edits in LR and can export easily. No need to touch PS for this at all. |
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10/25/2012 03:51:20 PM · #12 |
only asking becuase if you want to sell prints, I'd recommend showing proofs in person as that will maximize your sales since emotions will be running high on the first viewing.
I'd keep the aspect ratio the same but just provide a more interesting crop and i'd provide a full res exports, you never know how large they want to print.
and yes LR4 is amazing i rarely use PS for editing images i take for others, unless i need to merge or do some crazy cloning.
Message edited by author 2012-10-25 15:53:10. |
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