Commercial Photo Shoot

Had a great day covering a commercial photography photo shoot in Peterborough, United Kingdom. I had to photograph four models and four new products called Vplate which is a form of vibration plate used in training and fitness.


It was a very challenging day, covering 4 locations including a house, a gym, swimming pool and a fitness studio. The whole session had to be done in 5 hrs including the travelling etc.


Armed with four speedlites, canon 5dmkii, canon 50d, some prime lenses.


The light on the day was very poor, typical wet and dull day in the the United Kingdom ! day before was nice and sunny.


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Four locations in 5 hours doesn't allow for much tinkering time with the lighting setups. That sounds more rushed than a wedding & ceremony.


While I generally like the first two, I'm not that keen on the last one where the lighting's fairly flat and the model is posed too "straight-on" to the camera (it makes her look wider than in the other shots). Also, the background and her skin tone tend to blend in a little bit. Overall, though, a good set under the stressful conditions.

Time constraints are the worst!


The other day I had to shoot golfers who were in the middle of a round and we had to shoot them at the hole they were on. I am going through PS hell to make something out of that shot. Then I moved on to a racquetball court and the gym forgot to reserve the court for the shoot and people were waiting to use the court so I literally set up lights and finished the shoot in 15 minutes. Then I moved on to a basketball shoot in the same gym and actually had all the time in the world for that one. Obviously those shots turned out the best. The 3 shoots all together took less than 2 hours.