advice for shooting a female model

[dxrocnxj]

im flying to new jersey for a model shoot in december which gives me a little bit of time to learn.

this is for a models portfolio as well as my photography portfolio.
but im getting paid fairly well. flight round trip was paid for along with 300 bucks for the job.


i want it classy, and december in new jersey is cold, i want it to be outdoors as well as indoors, i want bokeh. really really good bokeh. any new lens suggestions. maybe even older manual focus lenses?

as well id like good lighting. will sunlight be enough outside, or if snow is out on the ground how can i avoid discoloring of white balance?

please help!

[erichlund]

85mm f/1.4. 105mm and 135mm f/2 DC. 70-200mm f/2.8 VR. The new 50mm f/1.4.

The no longer surprising one on the list is the zoom. The new kid on the block is the 50mm and is not yet proven. The others are very strong. Only the 70-200 and 50 will AF on your camera.

I don't see a tripod on your list. If you are shooting studio shots, you want to shoot from a tripod. Even outdoors, where you can, you should shoot from a tripod. You can always handhold a second (rented) body. Tripods eliminate all camera shake. VR reduces camera shake. Camera shake will soften your images and unless you are on a tripod, you will have some. With the DC lenses, you can soften what you want soft, while keeping the parts you want sharp, sharp.

Please don't take this as a criticism, but you should understand that $300 for an offsite shoot is peanuts. You should be charging that for a 1 hour on site studio shoot. Remember, your charge includes processing and printing, which takes significant time to do well, and if you have to be away from home, you can't be doing other work.

I would imagine that if you walked into a successful photog business and commissioned an offsite shoot, you would get charge on the order of $1500/day plus expenses. More, if the photographer included an assistant or two. Of course, something like a wedding would be a lot more, but that's a whole different order of effort.

I understand, of course, that this may be a way to get a foot in the door, and it's not about the money. Just remember, if your trying to become a pro shooter, you should prepare and act like one.

[dxrocnxj]

actually eric, thats the exact kind of stuff i was looking for, thank you.

[erichlund]

I should point out that I'm a software engineer, not a pro photographer, so my $$$ amounts are just what I think would be a good starting point. I'm not at all sure what the pros on this site or out there in the "real" world charge. My thoughts were based on something as simple as, this is actually several days work, so what would you need to cover those days as income if you want to generate a decent living wage? You also have to consider that you have to pay your own benefits, so we're not just talking about straight wages.

Another thing you have to consider is something like "How much do I charge my customers for the time I don't have customers?" That has to be based on an overall busy schedule, because your customers are not going to want to shell out lots of money for you to sit idle. But, eventually, you have to cover the down time. For example, as a pro, you will likely hire an assistant. That assistant gets paid a wage, whether you are getting paid or not, so your fees have to cover this overhead time.

Before you really get into business, you should write a business plan. This is not a trivial suggestion. Most startup businesses fail. Those without a plan fail at a much higher rate than those that do have a plan. Things you need to cover are things like:

Why are you doing this?
What income do you want to achieve at certain points in time?
How will you finance the business? (This is especially important before you achieve a profitable condition).
What is your budget?
What training do you need or need to provide?
Will you have employees? How many and what basis will they work under?
Where will you work?
What type of work will you accept?

These are just off the top of my head. The library and book stores have books on planning a business. Once you take the position that you want to be a pro photographer, and that you want to work for yourself (two distinctly separate things), you need a plan to succeed, or success will only possibly be a fortunate accident.