Question on Catwalk Fashion Shoot

PopeBuckfastXVI

Hi All,

My friends GF has some pieces in an upcoming fashion show, and she's asked me to come along and take pictures for use on her blog/website.

My gear is as follows:
Nikon d80
Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 AF-S
Nikkor 50 f/1.4 AF-D
Nikkor 55-200 f/5.6 AF-S (kit)
Nikkon SB600

I'm wondering if my 55mm will have the reach I'll need, not sure how close I'll be, or if the 200 kit will be fast & sharp enough with the SB600 @ ISO200?

Any thoughts? Alternatively anyone in Galway willing to lend a 70 or 80-200mm f/2.8 for a couple of hours on wednesday!?

mikeanywhere

Everything will hinge on how far you are away (for the gear you have) and also what lighting they are using ie one light source or disco style for effect.

I have done a few and usually bump up the ISO to allow me to shoot without flash. You will only know whis when you are there and see the layout. Go and speak to the person doing the lighting and ask what they are doing.

Shoot manually to get consistent results too

dazftw

If you have strong white light you will have nothing worry about really.

Iv'e shot two fashion shows one in a night club and one in a hotel.. Guess which came out better :rolleyes:


I was basically up at the cat walk in the hotel using the canon 17 - 40



In the night club it was dark with red and blue lights and no flash.. Looked like I took the photos with a phone

PopeBuckfastXVI

I know a lot will come down to my position. The high iso performance on my camera is a bit crap, don't like to go above 400 ever if I can help it. Hopefully they allow flash, now the question is, go direct, and save the watt seconds or bounce for a more flattering look... I guess bouncing is the way to go, must make myself a good diffuser before then...

mikeanywhere

Give me a bell - just sent ya a PM with my number

mrboswell

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

I know a lot will come down to my position. The high iso performance on my camera is a bit crap, don't like to go above 400 ever if I can help it. Hopefully they allow flash, now the question is, go direct, and save the watt seconds or bounce for a more flattering look... I guess bouncing is the way to go, must make myself a good diffuser before then...

If the celling is high and you presumably won't be near a wall, bounce flash may not be an option...

If ISO is that bad then its time for a new camera...

PopeBuckfastXVI

mrboswell wrote: »

If the celling is high and you presumably won't be near a wall, bounce flash may not be an option...

If ISO is that bad then its time for a new camera...

Oh but for the want of some money I'd have a d300 tomorrow! I mean bounce off a card attached to the flash.

Anyway, had a good chat with Mike on the phone and he gave me some brilliant advice, really looking forward to it now, and hopefully it'll go well!

sheesh

Did a charity fashion show a couple of months ago shot it all with a 50mm f1.8 as luck would have it my positon was good for it I had the aperture down around 2-3 so as to get all the clothes in focus I should really have been about f 4 some of the shots were good others not so.

4sb

I was asked to shoot a charity fashion show in a hotel recently. I was able to stand at the end of the stage. Shot with a Nikon D300 and 24-70 mm and flash. Didnt really need much flash - the lights they used were very bright, in fact I overexposed a lot of the first ones. Checking the Exif - I used a variety of focal lengths, but a lot were around 50mm, and was around f5.6 - f8.

More of the shots here: http://picasaweb.google.com/CualaGAA/CualaAcademyFashionShow2010#

PopeBuckfastXVI

Hi All,

Thanks for the good advice, especially to Mike who went above and beyond the call of duty to help a novice out.

Well it was a mixed evening, I arrived in plenty of time to check the light and pick my position. It was a 'different' sort of runway, in reality it was a corridor that passes between 3 rooms. I was told that the models would stop inside the entrance of each room before moving on along the runway. I picked a position which got me an unobstructed view of the entrance to the brightest room, great stuff enough ambient to use ISO400 @ f/2.8 with a little flash fill, noise was a worry going higher than that, so I was pretty happy with the situation. My "client's" head pieces were out third, but a friend of hers was out second and she asked me to see if I could get some of them, lovely - practice on the first lot, then start in earnest on the second, and be perfected by the third.

First batch of models arrived out, the first one makes her way up the long runway towards me, gets to my doorway, hold... hold... then, oh christ, she's not stopping - fffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu- they're walking to the end, and not stopping, oh sh*t! There's no way I can relocate unless I'm prepared to srtut my stuff down the runway, as that's the only way to the end.

My AF is hunting in the light, and by the time I've focused she's moved on, a rash of models are out together and I'm starting to panic! Seems like they're walking the runway twice though, so that's ok, at least I'll get two bites of each cherry. Start to get into it, but focusing is still a problem, up my ISO to 640, pump up the flash and change the shutter speed to 1/250 (max synch speed, thank christ I already knew that!). OK noise is going to be a problem now, but less of a problem than blurry pictures! My client's friends pieces are out now, and they've switched to once up and down (Murphy's law at work), it's getting close to time and my AF is still hunting.

In desperation I switch to manual focus, something I only ever use with an f/22 landscape, this can only end badly. Shoot a couple of badly badly out of focus pics when I notice my client's first pieces coming down the runway, crap! Switch back to AF, raise the camera as the first one gets to me, click, but no whirr, check the LCD - sh*t, I've left the lens in MF, and only flipped back on the body, switch the lens just in time to see the model heading back down the catwalk, disaster!

Settle down a bit as the next one levels, raise the camera and do my best to frame, focus and shoot as quick as possible, god damn my AF, seems to take a lifetime to find her. Lather, rinse, repeat for the next 5 or 6 models. Alternating between getting them coming down the runway, and coming back from the end. Then it's all over, retreat a safe distance to check my shots. Thanking the gods of computing for Bibble 5.0, noise ninja and sharpening!

Anyway here's a few that, hopefully, aren't too bad. Not really looking for C&C, just for people to see how I got on, I know already what I did wrong, and I know what I'd do differently. Anyway valuable lessons learned, and in the end of the day it was me or no photographer for her, so she knew she was taking a chance on me but was ok with it, I'm very grateful for the opportunity. Definitely something I'd like to try again, but I'm a long, long way off charging for my services...



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mikeanywhere

Cracking images, well done!!!

Borderfox

Very nice, see nothing to worry about

Shots are nice, but what I really, really enjoyed, was reading the description of how your time went there. Brilliant insight. Thanks.

SinisterDexter

Great story, nicely written.

Question: Whats up with the faces of 3 & 5? See the distinct change in colour?

PopeBuckfastXVI

SinisterDexter wrote: »

Great story, nicely written.

Question: Whats up with the faces of 3 & 5? See the distinct change in colour?

Not sure what you mean? Change in colour from their bodies? They're two different people with different make up!?