Santa Claus is Coming to Town or lessons learned from shooting Santa Claus

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Kids of all ages
Kids of all ages

The leaves have finished turning, so we turn our attention elsewhere. I am a volunteer photographer for my church. The Sunday before Christmas, Santa visited to have pictures taken with kids.PL20131222-CSL-Santa-6017

 

I would love to say that it went off without a hitch; however there were still opportunities to learn.  This is the second year that I have done this.  I learned from last year.

  • I needed a backdrop;  otherwise I needed to do a LOT of post process or the photos were distracted by the clutter of the stage.
  • Last year, I knew that I needed model releases to shoot pictures of the kids, and had them ready.  The problem was which release went with which kids.
  • I used multiple speedlights, but they were not enough and the color balance based on the ambient light caused problems.   Also the PocketWizards on my canon flashes were not very reliable.
  • I had a couple of elves last year to help, but it was still chaos !  Partly because no one knew what to do, and were expecting me to tell them, only I didn’t know either.

So based on last years experience I did a variety of things slightly differently.

  • This year, there was still chaos, though less of it. I wrote out a plan before hand and shared it with the elves, none of whom had worked with a photographer before.  However, there was still a mix up about where the event would take place.  However, the biggest problem was that parents and kids all wanted instant photos the moment the service was over, and so there was a chaotic rush to get everything ready.  This rush led to not doing the necessary checking as everyone was clamoring for Santa Claus.  It didn’t help that I was running a fever and had an ear ache.
  • This year I staged the gear ahead of time in a room off the stage which definitely helped.
  • I bought a brand new cloth  backdrop.  I had only used small paper backdrops previously, and this was huge.  PL20131222-CSL-Santa-6031I had bought sand bags, so no disasters from that perspective.  It turns out that because it was new, the material had pleats in it.  The result are vertical lines going through heads of people…. I had clips, and could have pulled it flat, if I had noticed…  Also, the backdrop was too close to the people and in focus rather than nicely blurred….
  • I have a large Photec / softbox/umbrella.  I only took time to setup the umbrella with a studio light.  I had planned on using a second studio light as fill, but did not set it up because of feeling rushed, and used on camera flash with a Lumiquest bounce as both the fill and the trigger for the studio light.  It worked but not great.  Really needed the diffuser on the Photec. and a true fill source.
  • When I printed up the model releases, I put a sequence number on each of the releases.  Then,  the first shot of any sequence is the sequence number.  This gives me a white, a black and allows me to tie the model release to the individuals.  This worked out very well.

    Model release with sequence number on the back
    Model release with sequence number on the back
  • The elves had a great time, and felt like they contributed.
  • Even with only the one studio, and the on camera flash, the lighting came out reasonably well, and has minimized the post processing time dramatically.

So, what will I do next year, the same or differently?

  • The sequence number on the back of the model release was a huge win.
  • The backdrop goes further back, and I will check to insure no pleats…
  • Writing out the plan and circulating to the elves ahead of time was a win as well.
  • Given that there will be a time crunch; I will have the lights pre assembled in the side room rather than having to assemble them.  The elves can setup up the stands and sand bag them while I carry out the lights.
  • I may use a white paper backdrop on the side as a reflector for fill.
  • I will come in and setup up the whole thing ahead of time (like a week before) so that I can be sure how it all goes together.

Once again, the issue is preparation, plan, taking time (that isn’t available).PL20131222-CSL-Santa-6049

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