One day last week I got a phone call mid-morning. It was from a local engineering firm that needed some a quick headshot done of the CEO to accompany an interview in a magazine. They wanted to know my availability and price. Being fairly new to this, I lowballed the price, figuring if the pics didn’t come out at all, I wouldn’t be out much. Also, it was a bit of a learning opportunity for me, so I seized the chance.
I arrived at the offices about 10 minutes before I was to take the picture. I wanted to get a sense of where we might be shooting. I settled on two options – in the executive’s office, or in the conference room. Once he arrived and we spoke, we settled on the conference room so we would have a solid background that wasn’t distracting. I setup the camera, put the flash to camera right, mounted on my Cactus Trigger and a Gorillapod
. This was my second shoot with the Cactus Trigger, and the first indoors. It proved useful, but with some caveats.
All in all I was satisfied with the shoot. I was there for maybe 20 minutes, then spent about 40 minutes in Adobe Lightroom 2. I offered up the pictures for client review on my Zenfolio site, and within 24 hours the whole transaction was done. Can’t imagine how painful this process must have been in the days before digital.
So, what did I learn?
- I need to get another tripod or stand to put my flash on so it is higher
- I need to get a soft box or some other sort of diffuser for portrait work
- I need to practice more
- I need to learn how to accurately set my flash for the conditions
I am sure it went better than I think though. As I said, they liked the result and paid me. It could have gone the other way if it had not been acceptable.
My first real commission
I arrived at the offices about 10 minutes before I was to take the picture. I wanted to get a sense of where we might be shooting. I settled on two options – in the executive’s office, or in the conference room. Once he arrived and we spoke, we settled on the conference room so we would have a solid background that wasn’t distracting. I setup the camera, put the flash to camera right, mounted on my Cactus Trigger and a Gorillapod
. This was my second shoot with the Cactus Trigger, and the first indoors. It proved useful, but with some caveats.
All in all I was satisfied with the shoot. I was there for maybe 20 minutes, then spent about 40 minutes in Adobe Lightroom 2
. I offered up the pictures for client review on my Zenfolio site, and within 24 hours the whole transaction was done. Can’t imagine how painful this process must have been in the days before digital.
So, what did I learn?
I am sure it went better than I think though. As I said, they liked the result and paid me. It could have gone the other way if it had not been acceptable.