This surprise photoshoot went better than I thought it would, but not as well as I had hoped it would. I am definitely lacking in the area of low-key portrait photography. The results here don't look too bad I suppose, but the clarity of the images is nowhere near where I would have wanted it to be. I think I am going to have to study up a lot more if I am to get better at it.
We were in a theatre using some of the theatre spotlights as the light source. I tried some with a flash, but they mostly came out to harsh for my liking, even on the lowest setting. I was not sure what settings to use on the camera either. I don't mean the refined settings - I just mean the basic settings. I felt like a complete beginner with a camera I have never used before, just randomly turning dials and changing numbers in the hope that I was turning them into the right direction and I'd get a passable result.
Passable
Friend
The first group you will see here are ones I have selected of my friend that don't really show her face. She is hard to shoot for me because she is always moving, always dancing, always has her arms and fingers and hips going this way and that. I like that she is always dancing, especially after all the challenges she has faced over the last decade in her cancer fight. Of course, this was also the point of the shoot, so I just let her dance and tried to get some usable shots.
I had to take many just to get a handful.
These were not quite what she said she was after, however she has now seen the first round of edits and is happy with the results. She is also surprised that some of the ones I tried were actually pretty good. Her friend was there also who worked in some photography place or something, and she was pretty skeptical of my directions and choices to the point that she said in Finnish something like,
"Just do what he suggests, then after we can do it the proper way."
Family
We were there in this weird theatre in an industrial area for over three hours and most of the time we were shooting my friend, but when she was resting between sessions, Smallsteps and my wife came to play and dance about to the music too. I would like to take more family photos like this, as I think they could be great memories, if I was better at taking the photos.
but at least it looks like they enjoyed themselves.
My friend is already talking about doing this again sometime and I think I am up for it. I would want to go in a little more prepared though and at least have those basic settings down for my camera, so I can be "pretty sure" I am turning the dials and numbers in the right direction to get better quality and clarity in the images.
So. Are any of these passable?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Olympus Em-1
12-40mm 2.8