Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hello everyone.

I have 2 shoots coming up that I need to prepare for:

1. My cousin has asked me to do some maternity shots for her

and

2. I'm shooting my cousins Debut (read: traditional Filipino 18 year old "coming of age" party) this October but I am doing her casual portraits (for a big picture that everyone signs) this summer.

Currently, I only have 1 420EZ (yes, a Z) With a 42" (i think 42..) Opus shoot through/reflective umbrella.

I currently own No reflectors hehe.

I also own an old flash unit that can only fire full and 1/16th power.

I fire my flashes with Cactus wireless triggers.

For the maternity shoot, I was thinking of purchasing some seamless paper, but I need opinions as to what to buy... Black or white?! I understand that I can make the white go black by moving away from the background and bringing my light closer to the subject, however, I'm unsure if my subject will fit once I move far enough.

Also, If I purchase the white paper, I don't think I can effectively achieve the pure white background style.

I've tried it before and here is the result:




As you can see, I have a few issues with Flare.

Another thing my cousin has requested is to include 2 of her friends for the shoot. The background I used on that shoot is a 4'x10' sheet of fabric that's pretty wrinkly, and I had to do quite a bit of PP to get it clean. So I don't think I could fit them all.

Therefore, I was looking at this And cutting it in half and placing it side by side to have a larger workspace.

Keep in mind that I also don't own a background stand.. I was just thinking of taping it to the wall

Thus I figured that a black seamless would be easier to work with - I wouldn't have to strain my lights and wouldnt have to spend so much time in PP.

Moving on to shoot #2 - I plan on buying some reflectors. this stood out to me and would help me tremendously not only now, but in future work.

Money is also an issue - I have enough to buy ONE background and the kit. So I throw it to you guys.

Which background colour should I choose to give me the most "use" and applications? Can anyone suggest HOW I should shoot a maternity shot? Should I bother buying the reflector kit? Can anyone LEND me a background/stand (im shooting to far with this one)?

This is all so overwhelming, I hope I made sense.

Help me TPMG!

Rent a studio. DONE.

Haha I wish.

I wouldn't even know what to do with all that equipment - I'm comfortable with my gear.

Also, I don't get enough practice at this portraiture stuff and don't know how to pose subjects. Most of the time when I shoot - I spend LOTS of time because I'm still exploring...

seconded. Easy and she'll probably have a lot of fun too.

From a quick google search I see the rates are around 300/day

This is 300 that could potentially go towards gear for me to OWN.

So unless someone has a studio I can use for free, I think a studio rental is way over my head. I don't get paid to take photographs, so $300 for a rental is money wasted IMO.

If she was paying me to do this then that's another story...

u can use your own equipment, you just need the space and their backdrop or white wall. You will need to pose them anyways, in studio or not in studio. With the money you intend to pay for paper, you can get a studio rental.

My point is, with that paper I'd have it until it gets too worn out to use. I could use it again in case we wanted to try the shoot again.

I would stick to white paper for maternity shoots.

Instead of the reflector you can use a piece of foam core board that you can buy at an art store.

There are also a few sites with instructions for DIY background stands using PVC tubing.

I was actually thinking of building one as well. I haven't been to my local home depot/lowe's/rona to see the price on PVC.

The foam core board is a good idea as well.

I know my aunt has an old car window reflector thing (the thing you use on hot days). Maybe that would suffice?

Test the reflector beforehand, if it is textured it may give uneven results.

Where are you located? There's a bunch of studios in Toronto you can rent by the hour for around $30-45/hr or cheaper with half/full day rentals.

http://www.studio207to.com

http://www.studio18.ca/

I have shot at both of these places, Studio 207 has a white cyc cove if that matters.

Scott

Yeah.. you wouldn't need a full day. Two shoots will last max 4 hours. You'll get tired before the model does.

Anyway, you could always shoot outdoors.. although it's pretty hot nowadays. It gets cooler by the lake though!

Thanks guys, but in my situation I think I'd rather invest the money on gear to own. Like I said, if I was being paid for this gig, I'd rent. But since this is just a favour for my cousin - and a learning experience for me - I'll forgo the studio.

Thanks for the heads up on studio space though. It may come in handy in the future

If you are planning to shoot three people at once, it might be a stretch to use the lights you have as a key light- I presume you are going to try for availalbe light. You can try to supplement with a couple of reflectors (and you really should hae a couple), but you are going to need someone to hold those unless you are going to get light stands and associated kit (a boom arm etc.). A studio rental seems like a good solution.

If you aren't going to go with renting a studio (i did read the thread), perhaps try taking them to a public space with a good background, big windows and lots of soft light (interior might be better to avoid the harsh light of a sunny day and the heat). The interior of the AGO might work (in the space facing onto Queen street- north facing). Perhaps not the style you are looking for, but it's nice, it doesn't have distracting backgrounds, it's bright (you can shoot at ISO 400), and air-conditioned)- and you can go look at some art aftewards. You can bring your camera in- but not much else.

If you want to try to do at home with what you have, pick up some big reflectors (I tend to use blended gold and silver- I find straight fold a bit too yellowish- I like the bit of warmth you get from the gold/silver refelector) I would go with- white backgrounds probably. You can tape pretty easily- try gaffer tape- won't destroy your walls.....

Hey, thanks for your input.

What I'd probably do is shoot just my cousin (and her husband one a few shots) on the white/black background and then go outside for some group location shots.

I do have someone to hold the reflector - her husband if he co-operates

What I forgot to mention is that the shoot is in AJAX... so driving to toronto isn't an option. Are there any nice places in Ajax to shoot in?

EDIT: Also, where can I buy some foamcore? Staples has them but they're like 15 bucks for a 20"/30" sheet. Does wal mart sell em?

get some white foam insulation panels from any building centre.
They come in 2'x8' or 4'x8' panels.

Hey Laz,

I can see where your coming from. I was there not to long ago myself.
If you decide to go the home route, which I did myself - its kinda nice being able to shoot in the basement or where ever you setup, any time you please.

I went with a roll of white seamless. 9ft wide by who knows how long.. but theres LOTS. I've only barely dirtied up the first 4-5 ft so far, but no so bad that i cant shoot with it or fix in PS. For a stand, i picked up a 10ft gray PVC pipe from homedepot, and two heavy duty bike/hooks from solutions. The hooks where the foldable style, very heavy gauge with a rubberized hook area. It had an actual mounting spots to be placed. And mounted it to a drop beam in the basement. Its permanent, and gets outta the way quickly.
I would have to say that this set up of BG cost me less than $100 easy.

With this size paper i recently was able to shoot a family portrait with 9 people. 4 standing, 3 sitting, and 2 on the floor.

I two shot with two lights at first and It wasn't so bad. It does take some time and you gotta be creative.

http://www.zarias.com/white-seamless-tu ... ear-space/

This tutorial helped me a fair bit also. The seamless tutorial does tend to work with 3 lights, but he does also have his ONELIGHT section and info. That was what really drew me in the first place. I started with only a SB600 and that was it.

Zack has lots of great info, and I think after reading some of his stuff you'll be well on your way shooting at home with what you got.

Hope this helps

Thanks for your input Eman, I'm glad I'm not the only one going through this hehe.

I unfortunately don't have basement space (my aunt lives down there) nor much space upstairs, so I decided to build a collapsible BG stand. I have a blueprint I drew up and I'm going to depot in a few minutes to canvas for prices.

I'll make a topic about my build soon.

On a side note, I have a friend named Eman hehe.