Bridge Photo Shoot

I have been really wanting to take some higher pressure pictures, so I decided to make Cassandra dress up and drive 20 miles away to a location that I thought would be awesome. I always get home from work too late and all the good light is gone. Today I got home just barely early enough to get over to this bridge I drive past a lot on the way to work. I think I am prepared to call the shoot a total failure. Here are some of the lessons I learned.

On the drive there, I was excited because the light was perfect and golden in the last half hour before sunset. But then as we got closer to the bridge I saw that, surprise surprise, it was right next to a hill that was blocking the sun from the first third of the bridge, the part I had planned to stand on take the picture.

(Lesson #1 Never call somewhere you have never been a location. IOW Go to where you want to take pictures with someone else at the planned time for the shoot at least once before you go there to take pictures.)

Then when we got there, tons of "Keep Out" and No Trespassing" signs lined the path. Empty beer cans and boxes showed us that people go there often, so I figured we weren't in any danger. We kept going even though the light wasn't what I wanted. Then I made the second mistake: I didn't take my lights with me. I went prepared with a small strobe, a wireless trigger, and a light stand. When I saw we would have to got through some bushes and wouldn't have much time, I left my lights.

(Lesson #2 Always take everything you have.)

Then Cassandra and I got to the bridge and I just starting clicking off pictures. I was nervous; I could tell she was nervous. So I just told her to sit somewhere and smile, while I desperately tried to find a good setting. I had a hard time getting the right exposure because if I exposed for her face, the sky was blown out, and since it was just flat, regular light, it didn't look good overexposed. If I exposed for the sky, she was too dark. (This is when my light would have really come in handy.) So I tried to find ways to get the sky out of the picture while I tried to help Cassandra relax. I set my aperture to 1.8 just because I did. And I figured it was too dark and I wouldn't be able to get fast enough shutter speeds. This is all mixed up, nervous, flustered thinking. All in all, I couldn't get anything to look the way I wanted it too. At the end, I got Cassandra talking, which made her more comfortable, but I was still trying to find the right exposure. So I just gave up and started clicking off pictures at the settings I had thinking they would be good enough and I could fix them in photoshop.

(Lesson #3 If shooting on the fly, take time to find good light, then take time to help the subject relax, then think about camera settings. [I think this is where shooting a lot comes in because when you are trying to fix things on the fly, it is much more instinctual than anything else.])

(Lesson #4 The first few shots are always throw-away shots. Think of the first fifty pictures as all throw-aways, knowing that you are going to take fifty more. If one is good, good, but don't count on it.)

Then when I got them home they were all out of focus because the depth of field was so shallow from the wide open aperture, and (the worst of all) the background, which we had driven so far, broken the law, and worked so hard to get to, was completely blurry and not even part of the pictures. I should have been shooting at at least a 4 or 5.6. Then, since Cassandra was comfortable and I just starting clicking off pictures without worrying about my settings, the ones I liked were all too dark.

(Lesson #5 If you are in a cool environment, use it by stopping down and including it.)

(Lesson #6 Don't assume that you can just fix it later. Get a good image first. Check histograms and blinking highlights along the way.)

Anyway, this is the picture I ended up with. It has a lot of noise in the shadows because I had to lighten it so much in post. But I think Cassandra looks pretty good in it.