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POTW: Ohayocon 2010 - blog - vrillusions

POTW: Ohayocon 2010

February 3, 2010 at 7:15 pm

POTW: Ohayocon 2010

I went to Ohayocon over the weekend which means I had plenty of pictures for this week so it was hard to make a choice. The above picture was from my first 1 on 1 photo shoot I've ever done. I've been taking pictures of people for years but it's typically one or two pictures and then I move on. I wasn't used to having a single subject for an extended amount of time but was probably one of the most educational things I've ever done. Some general observations from the photo shoot:

  • I'm very comfortable with the equipment. I knew this going in but it just kinda affirmed that I know all the details about my camera and even the new demb flip-it I just received a couple days before the convention. I quite literally never thought about how to set the camera settings; I just set them.
  • First photo shoot at an anime convention was an excellent idea. Another thing I realized before hand but not how much of a benefit it was. I was extremely nervous at first but we're both at an anime convention, so obviously we have something in common to talk about while walking around to locations. Which has also instilled some nervousness for if/when I do a photo shoot outside of a convention setting. Although that could just be solved at the pre-meeting while determining the goal of the photo shoot and such.
  • I really need a faster lens. Faster lens is a term used to describe camera lens that have a larger aperture which means they let in more light which allows me to take better natural light photos indoors. Due to the higher iso I used there's some noise at 100% zoom. I've been having my eye on the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 L lens for quite a while now but not sure when I'll be able to afford it.
  • I rushed things. I expected it to be around a half hour and ended up being like 15 minutes, a lot of that walking around scouting locations. A lot of the negative observations really came to this.
  • I didn't "see" the images. For example the first area we did some photos was against a white wall. White wall plus white parasol don't go well together. This was immediately obvious when reviewing the pictures later but at the moment I just didn't think about it. At the above location first picture she didn't have the parasol behind her so it was dark brown hair against black which didn't look right. Could have solved that a couple ways but the parasol behind her just worked. Another thing that didn't jump out at me but I still found quickly was just the placement of things. For example there are a couple where the hair wasn't straight. Basically simple stuff I should have caught but didn't.
  • I completely didn't think about proper posing and such. Fortunately she was very natural behind the camera and was kinda in auto-pilot so I didn't have to do much direction aside from initial pose. I knew most of the "rules" I just completely didn't think about it during the shoot.

Not really photo shoot specific but just a general observation; convention centers are horrible for color correction. I set the white balance to florescent and gelled the flash with a green filter to color correct the flash to florescent as well. Problem is I typically set the power level of the flash low so there's just a little fill light. The end result was the flash gave a greenish cast to people. I dumped the gel after the first day but it took a while to get the images from the first day usable. Also taking at least 2 pictures of each group worked out really well. Lets me choose when one may have someone walking in the background or something else that detracts from the subject. By far I spent the most time post processing this images than I ever had before. On one image the color balance was really off took quite a while to get good enough. Moments after posting it on the forums though I saw a comment complimenting me about the picture, that made it worth it to me.

I set out with a goal of having over 100 pictures and handing out all 100 of the business cards I had made. In reality I had around 30 images and handed out maybe 15 cards. A lot of the times I saw someone I wanted to take a picture but I didn't want to hold back foot traffic for it. I did do the first of what I hope to be many more photo shoots and still had a good weekend. Not sure of the next convention I'm going to. Possibly anime punch but can't say for certain.

Rest of pictures can be found in photo gallery

Posted in Photography.

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