Charlie - Stevenage
SHOOT FEEDBACK (Friday 13th September 9.30am)
Mum/Dad/Toddler - Emma’s Diary Shot.
Lovely communication on the phone, very lovely to clients, and warm in nature.
Upon arrival asked if the experience is free, you explained well what the voucher covers with confidence, put the client at ease and said they could do more at the viewing stage.
Continued to set up studio ready for he shoot, light metering across the spectrum of the studio. Great job and attention to get your lighting right.
First bit of advice here, and same with the viewing appointments - Get this all ready before your customer enters so you’re prepared, and also probably remove your hoody before you greet the customer. You wouldn’t go into Rolex and have someone greet you in tracksuit and then reveal the suit! You look super smart in the shirt!
Also in regards to prep, checked names of client on LightBlue before beginning shoot, maybe best to know beforehand and greet with names at the door. ‘You must be…’ shows professionalism.
Upon sitting for the first shot, you chose a split with dad and the baby, and then got mum involved, I’ve noticed this with first two shoots I’ve seen. I’m sure you have your reasons, as long as you get that family one in there it’s fine.
Proceeded with a sat shot of dad and baby, then got mum in quite nicely for a sat shot of the family.
I like your direction and ease of nature with communication;
Telling them to get super super close while directing and encouragement is great. Your agility in and out is fantastic, create lovely closeness with the set ups. A lot of playing with the kid, making the experience very lively, entertaining and interactive.
Lighting looks well feathered too.
Only directional/communication tweak I’d add in these set ups is this one - ‘take a look at me’ and then ‘take a look at the little one.’ To get your looking at camera and your interactive shot for each setup as you work through them. Always make sure to get one of each.
Also remember to reverse splits. You got a shot on the stool, and then one lifting but in the same direction. It’s best to reverse for usability later on.
Same happened with mums shots. She was lifting same way as the father, needed to reverse to balance with dad.
‘How did you get here? Making conversation about trying to get down. Nicely building rapport.
I have to stress this one as seen in both shoots. When moving onto the toddler sat in the middle, safety of the kid is paramount - make sure you get the parents to sit parallel to the toddler/baby on the floor/beanbag shots always. You don’t want them falling.
After a minute of toddler alone, dad was then told to sit down next to toddler which is the right thing to do for safety, mum came behind to help with expression.
If you’re struggling with expressions it’s a good idea.
To make the most of the set up of the toddler sat on the floor, get the full body shot, and also get a close up shot.
10 minutes into the shoot and we have lots of content.
Split with dad sat to begin.
Family sat.
Splits with mum sat stool
Split with dad stood
Family stood.
Mum lifting.
You started to stall a little on individual of baby, I think once you get one or two, full body then close up you can move on. Keep it as snappy as you did at the beginning throughout.
Mum asked if we can change when you were about to change set up, then you said yes. Makes sense to change clothes as you are changing set up - try and get all the content you’d like to be used in a composite before changing as a rule of thumb.
Remember the 15 minute mini session.
When you feel like you’re making a big lighting change, like one for the impact shot, then would be a good time to change or even add a prop such as a hat or glasses. Always check if there’s anything they’d like to use in the shot at that stage. You can then revert back for some white background shots at the end in the new outfit for variation. Repeating a few set ups and also capturing new ones.
Overall doing a great job so far, apart from the speed of the individual shots. I’d want to see a few more family set ups and splits at the beginning.
One thing to mention based on what I saw Julie doing, when you’re doing the splits, I would discuss how they can work together - expand on that and show how they can work well into wall pieces at the viewing stage.
The door bell rings 15 minutes in - that bell is very loud - can you turn that down?. Delivery of products which you put aside.
You’re continuing to build nice rapport, chatting about Italy and about their day ahead.
With the single shot on the beanbag, always direct mum and dad to sit at the side of baby/toddler so they’re safe. Safety first nice shot secondary. Just advise them to sit parallel so she doesn’t swing off the side!
After this set up of the individual sitting on the beanbag, this is a great opportunity to get more splits here, mum/dad behind the toddler and a family shot.
Take advantage of the lighting set up you have and you can make the most of the time.
15 minutes in, we have got one more shot from when you were at 7 minutes ago. Pace has dropped.
I noticed you looking at camera in shoot - but I wouldn’t worry about looking at camera at any point, this can take your time and sometimes look unprofessional and also can miss opportunities. Check the first shot on the camera to make sure your lighting is right, and concentrate on capturing the action then until your next set up.
When changing the lights, you said;
‘Just changing to the honeycomb, to make everything clearer’
You tried to give a bit of detail there, but expand on it so it adds value to the customer. Something along these lines…
‘What I’m going to do now is change the lights so we get a real nice headshot of little one, this style will focus the light and show off her features and eyes and makes a great impact shot.’
People won’t care about what the name of the light is, but will remember the benefits of why you’re using that light if you apply it to their baby.
For the headshots on the beanbag, turn the backlights off, at the moment I can see their on filling in and likely washing away some controlled light. Also put the light at 45 degree angle for a great catchlight.
The peekaboo game you played here with the kid was great, just make sure to keep camera strap around your head incase you drop it on a baby’s head! It’s very unlikely, but the parents may worry about it and I’d never risk it.
With the shots from above, this is also an opportunity to get some more splits. You can do a cute shot of the mum/dads hands holding baby’s hands here too.
I then noticed when mum pulled her off the beanbag, the little one was walking a little while assisted, you also noticed and said well done.
In the future grab this opportunity by both hands and capture it on your white background towards the end. It’s a great shot to capture, and a special time for them they’ll never get back. To capture this one will seriously up your content!
I appreciate you were currently shooting to the grey style at this stage, and it wouldn’t have worked lighting wise at that time, but keep the awareness and capture it later on.
Content wise so far we have the following;
Sat family shot.
Stood family shot. 2 x splits with mum and dad. 3/4 individual shots.
Shoot has ended.
Post session chat
You did this well, and followed the pattern. Keep referring to your post session chat for the script bridges until you get the flow right.
Started by explaining what they get with the voucher; ‘Shoot, work in between and print…’
The bridge the would be ‘anything you want beyond that, we offer a few payment options…’
Then the bridge is ‘now with the guide, we have everything from…’
You discussed the price guide well, the key information was discussed with confidence.
You sandwiched the idea of payment plans nicely, explaining that £600 could be split into 10 payments of £60 at the start of the process, and then again after discussing key items upon wrapping up the discussion about products (boarded prints, digitals, collection 3) and reiterated the monthly at the end in relation to it.
It had all the information which is great, and we’ll work on getting it more fluid and working for your style into the future.
On a side note, I did notice in your second shoot which I had a brief look at that you did the walking shot, so you recovered there as its clearly in your arsenal of ideas.
Your energy was even better in this one and the content seemed a lot richer.
Some quick observations on this second shoot worth mentioning for small improvements;
With the family baby on shoulder shots, get parents to look at the baby. It’s a much more rounded shot being interactive than looking at the camera.
Again with the baby on belly on beanbag, be clear to get parents to sit parallel by the kid incase he/she falls.
‘How does she feel laying on her back, I know some babies hate it.’
Try not to use that terminology as you’re enforcing a negative there. It’s like when a client comes in and says the baby never smiles, it’s almost being set up for failure.
I’d ask how the baby is on his/her back, leave it there and say we’ll try it and see how he/she gets on.
Again, don’t forget to turn the backlights off in the future for the impact shot set ups, it will shadow more beneath the chin and add more definition.
Overall, you have great energy and enthusiasm with the clients, and a very warming and engaging nature towards the children. You keep the energy and experience levels high in a shoot which is half of what the customer invests in. You’re keeping it fun, so continue to do that and now add in the professionalism and confidence that you know what you’re doing.
To improve this month, I’d aim to work on adding more content, more balance for your composites, and adding and refining a few more lighting styles to add variation.
Particular impact lighting, and side lighting as below.
Impact shot lighting style is easy to reproduce in your studio as it is in mine. I want to see you adding these on into the future!
The above also had blue gels, but you can do this without for the clean backlit head shots. It’s a simple effective headshot you can start adding on.
Remember to turn your back lights off if its a laying on the beanbag shot like this. No back lights on here…
Also remember, safety first with the more ambitious single shots and keep mum and dad parallel to avoid any accidents!
Well done, onwards and upwards!
Monthly Show Scores - Charlie - Stevenage
I’ve chosen three shows at random from September to feedback the following out of 10, this will give you an overall score each month to work on. 60 points maximum per show, highest possible of 180. If any of these areas you need help with or are struggling on, reach out to me and I’ll give you some direction to help.
170 -180 = Perfect
155 - 170 = Excellent
135 - 155 = Great
120 - 135 = Good
100 - 120 =. Okay
80 - 100 = Poor
60 - 80 - Very Poor
Content / Positioning / Lighting / Balance / Expression / Edit
Shoot 1 - TA1012 Martha Clement
Content - 5
Positioning - 6
Lighting - 6
Balance - 6
Expression - 7
Edit - 7 = 37
Shoot 2 - TA1034 Nikkala Samfat-Purcel
Content - 7
Positioning - 6
Lighting - 6
Balance - 9
Expression - 8
Edit - 7 = 43
Shoot 3 - TA1022 Robyn Brandon
Content - 7
Positioning - 7
Lighting - 7
Balance - 8
Expression - 9
Edit - 7 = 45
125 / 180 - Good!
Content is okay throughout, aim for more variation of shot set-ups and variation of family shots to push towards great/excellent scale.
Positioning is okay; I’d work on focusing to set up parents base first and then introducing the child to the shot.
Balance is great, splits are mirrored and plentiful, which is great.
Expression is great throughout - lots of interactivity and smiles between parents and the children. You seem to be pushing this area very well. For excellent just improve the eye contact with the camera in your individuals, and increase interactivity.
Lighting and edit need a little attention - I’d focus on finding your sweet spot in the studio for that even white lighting. Sometimes its spot on, sometimes its missed, so I think its just directing your clients to the right spot to avoid underexposure or any hot spots from the backlights. Also start getting your impact shots in the shows as mentioned in the observations. Overall the edit could also do with a touch more of a lift in the mid tones to give it that extra pop!
Well done!