Photoshoot

Technical Decisions:

I decided to shoot outdoors to use available light to keep things simple. The reason I wanted to shoot outdoors and not in a studio was based around the idea of not wanting to be too conceptual with my final image. I wanted there to be obvious clues in the background as to what my subject was involved in and I think this is clearly shown in the photos below.

As far as equipment I chose to shoot with a wide angle (10-20mm) lens and all the below shots were at 10mm. The reason for this was to exaggerate the size of the model and fit as much as possible in frame. The lens stretches perspective without distorting lines unlike a fisheye. It provides nice colour and contrast which was perfect for such an overcast day.

I chose to place my subject against a simple background so that he would stand out and the red kit he is wearing aids this. I think If there were distracting background elements the attention would be pulled away from the centre of the frame which could leave the viewer wondering more about the location than the subject.

I was shooting wide open which is f4, i chose a high shutter speed of 1/200 to eliminate camera shake as I was shooting handheld and found iso 200 gave a good enough exposure with just ambient light. Looking back on some of the shots I think they may have been slightly overexposed and I would have benefitted from a polarising filter due to the sky being quite bright. This would have allowed me to expose for the foreground and capture detail in the sky. 

I also experimented slightly with off camera flash. I used wireless remote triggers and a speedlight set to manual power. I had a diffuser on the end as I didn't want any harsh shadows being cast, the flash was set to half power off and was pretty direct. I used it to try and lift the shadows from under the chin and generally brighten the models face up:

No Flash

With Fill Flash














I actually decided against using the flash for my final shot as I felt it washed out some of the colours and seemed to make the model sit above the background which isn't what I was looking for in my final shot. However I was happy to experiment but for this project it just didn't work for me. I think if I was shooting towards sunset/dusk off camera flash would benefit me a lot more and this is something to bear in mind for the future.