Two photographers shoot?

Splinters

Has anyone here ever done a studio shoot with another photographer shooting the same subject? How did it work?

Im meeting up with a buddy later on to make a few plans for shoots in the coming weeks/months and was thinking of organising some shoots together using my studio space. Ive never done a studio shoot with another photographer before and Im curious what way would work best.

Possibly alternating 20 mins with the model could work. We could both shoot at the same time but thats probably a bit messy in terms of triggering lights and distracting for the model.

Any suggestions on a good way to split the shoot?

I've seen it done once, and did it once myself.

When I did it, it was with a good friend and it was a bit of a free for all. We each kept jumping in on each other to steal poses and both throwing out suggestions, etc.. It was all in good humour and went quite well.

The other time I wasn't involved, but was present for two guys doing it, and it was horrible. They mustn't have known each other well at all, but there were snide remarks flying left, right and centre. A lot of one upmanship and 'well I'd do it differently, the 'proper' way' type of comments. It looked horribly awkward and really uncomfortable for everyone (except me, as I wasn't involved, so I found it hilarious).

It's good to work with other photographers because you get to see how they work and learn from things they do (and it also gives you an objective viewpoint of a photographer, so if he does something that you'd normally do, and you don't like it, then you can cut it out of your own routine).

I think you really just have to have some ground rules in place and you need to be able to trust the person (when I seen negative comments flying, i thought it looked bad for the other photographer for making what were sometimes "obvious" mistakes, and also for the one saying it as it removed any level of professionalism he had (ie; I'd never hire him) so they were both losing out by trying to best each other so aggressively).

Can be good though, especially if each of ye have gear that the other person doesn't have (try new equipment).

AnCatDubh

IIRC Borderfox, PaulW and a few others got together and hired a studio with a few models (2/3 perhaps) and had a session lasting best part of the day with them. Some nice results (again IIRC).

Also, I think recently Derek Mc Auley of Studio8 (Drogheda direction) hosted some studio days with a number of togs and one or more models.

Gah, my memory is cr*p but basically yes, it does happen, and yes, it can work well. I guess like anything, think about and know what you are getting into.

Splinters

Yep I can well imagine it varies hugely on the people involved. This is a friend who I have great respect for as a photographer so there'll be no snide remarks or points scoring. Hopefully Ill learn a few things and likewise maybe be able to share a bit of knowledge with him too.

Im guessing taking turns is really the only way to do it. I wouldnt want to be in a position where either of us were trying to compete for the models attention, plus theres the messyness of 2 seperate sets of lights triggering and all the potential problems that could cause.

Essentially it'll just be a fun exercise and if we can get any cool shots out of it for either of our portfolios or for the models involved then it'll be a nice bonus.

melekalikimaka

studied tog in college, so sometimes thered be 10 or 12 in a room, maybe 3 or 4 taking shots, its grand, just as long as you respect each other and keep commentary constructive and to a minimum

Reoil

AnCatDubh wrote: »

IIRC Borderfox, PaulW and a few others got together and hired a studio with a few models (2/3 perhaps) and had a session lasting best part of the day with them. Some nice results (again IIRC).

Yeah a few of us got together years ago in Randalstown up north here.
3 models and most of the day. Was a good experience.

WheresMyCamera?

I've done this in both a very organised and very messy way. Each were under very different circumstances. One of them was with another photographer friend of mine, in this case we kind of planned out the main shots we were both looking to get from the shoot. After that is was a case of if anything came to mind on the day we'd try it out when it might work best within the current workflow/light set up.

The other was a timed and graded event with 10 different models at 10 different stations/set ups. We were in groups of 12 and had 12 minutes for each group with each model at their station. As for how it worked, we had to figure it out ourselves! We found out everyone shooting at the same time doesn't work so everyone was given a minute to control the shoot but the other photographers could still be shooting at the same time if they wanted, they just couldn't direct the model.

Bizarrely enough both worked out pretty well. But only because of the people involved. A free for all without any restrictions doesn't work very well.