Share your bad photography job experiences/F#$% Ups.

[Modafroman]

Originally Posted by switchblade327

Yeah a little OT but just wanted to compare notes as I've gone mostly to manual and realized many ways to skin a cat. Thanks for that

Btw it's about where I would shoot people in darker environments though I tend to use less flash and bump this ISO up

Yea true. Theres lots of ways of doing it, those seem to be what i've found to work for me.... sometimes I get a little bit too overexposed on peoples faces, guess I gotta tone the iso down or maybe bump the iso up and kill the FEC.... no idea. Yea, most of the time I can't really say to people move here, move there for better light, spin around etc, just gotta take make the best of the situation at hand I guess

[Sir.Eos]

I'm going to attempt to reply to this tangent and lead it back towards the original theme.

These days when shooting social stuff I always aim to get a sense of the atmosphere of the place, long exposure, second curtain sync and depending on the feel i'm going for spin the camera around for dragged effects. Also where possible i'll walk around the group to get a favourable background. My standard settings are usually around 8mm fisheye, f/8, 0.5" - 1" depending on what i'm shooting, ISO800.

The reason i settled on those settings is when i started shooting socials i stayed fairly boring 24mm, f/8, ISO400, 1/80. This lead to heaps of shots where the flash would illuminate the subject but they were standing in a sea of black with occasional dots in the ceiling etc. Always hated the results of my socials and I'm sure clients weren't too happy with them either.

And because this thread doesn't have enough examples in it here are a couple of randomly picked socials, one shot in may last year, one shot a fortnight ago:

Old settings:

EXIF: 24mm, 1/60, ISO200, f/2.8 (waay too shallow to be shooting people in this sort of regard)

New settings:

EXIF: 8mm (fisheye), 1/2, ISO800, f/8

[Sir.Eos]

I was reading Google+ and a post by Scott Kelby came up about some recent failures he had shooting football - http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2011/archives/22126

Even the pros do things wrongly.

[cleary]

Good timing

I had a couple of friends ask me to do some pre-wedding shots for them last weekend - I ended up at the brides house which was chaotic with everyone running around with cameras and posing and oohing and ahhing, so I found a quiet spot for some portraits, and marked it out as my own and brought everyone through for the shots they wanted...

Went back over them that evening and the exposure is different in just about every shot. The location was fixed, the ambient lighting was fixed yet it still varied a huge amount.
It finally clicked that maybe using TTL in that scenario was not the best idea. My focal point was on sometimes on dark suits/white dresses/different faces. I should have just gone with a manual flash setting and got a consistent amount of light

I did get some great keepers, and I should be able to recover most of the others, but there was no consistency. Live and learn

[dandanmien]

I physically lost an entire CF card towards the end of a night.

Good times.

[abadonn]

I used to do some decent sports photography (for an amateur) in the 80s. In the early 90s my gear got stolen without insurance and I lost the will to replace it. Almost 20years later I lash out on a decent SLR (by non fanboi standards) and almost immediately my niece insists I shoot her wedding. I try and refuse. She insists it'll be fine and she cant afford a pro, So I acquiese.

So, I have a new 550d. My knowledge is faded old non-digital stuff. And a mid Feb garden wedding. I cram all the info I can from books/websites (with little chance to practice) and read the entire 550D manual from front to back. I spend more money preparing for a high sun high contrast open air event.
So on the day itself of course a cold front has come in, its 20degs and there is thick fog in the mountains/hills its taking place in.

My emergency policy was to try and succeed in quality in lieu of the quality I doubted I could achieve. 700 shots later..

And overall it worked ok, the light was soft and sufficient (as the fog was burning off) and I only made a few complete failures. Oh, as a bonus my eyesight has recently and suddengly gone longsighted, at the time of the wedding I was barely aware of this and wasnt quite sure why I was having trouble seeing up close things, like focusing and settings and stuff. Autofocus ruled.

I'm not too happy with the results, you won't see any in the gallery forum, but the bride and my family thought they were fine (they may have been polite) and everyone was happy.

I didnt enjoy it though, I was out of my comfort zone, I dislike 'formal' portraiture, I knew I was adequate at best and thats no enough for me. I'll avoid them in future. Unless I'm begged. Perhaps

Funnily enough one the hardest things was knowing how to organise people, I'm more of an observer than a co-ordinator and just didnt how/when to say 'ok, group shots, you stand there, you over there..' and all the other stuff you're meant to do. I had people telling me what to take instead.

[Stygian Shane]

I was asked to shoot my sister's wedding after my first not only DSLR, but camera at all. K100D, stock lens. I didn't want to, but as most people in this situation are, was told I'd do fine.

Nope.

Live and learn - I wouldn't do anything more than family portraits where the opportunity for multiple shots is there, until I get a hell of a lot more experience - something that I'm not helping myself much with at the moment!

[switchblade327]

Originally Posted by Sir.Eos

I'm going to attempt to reply to this tangent and lead it back towards the original theme.


Old settings:
image
EXIF: 24mm, 1/60, ISO200, f/2.8 (waay too shallow to be shooting people in this sort of regard)

New settings:
image
EXIF: 8mm (fisheye), 1/2, ISO800, f/8

OT Again but good insight and agreed on the background... I loathe the black, the second shot looks brilliant, first shot looks like it was shot with a P&S

[Power47]

Originally Posted by Stygian Shane

I was asked to shoot my sister's wedding after my first not only DSLR, but camera at all. K100D, stock lens. I didn't want to, but as most people in this situation are, was told I'd do fine.

Nope.

Live and learn - I wouldn't do anything more than family portraits where the opportunity for multiple shots is there, until I get a hell of a lot more experience - something that I'm not helping myself much with at the moment!

people that put u and themselves in that situation deserve to get fucked over.

[bubblegoose]

Originally Posted by Power47

people that put u and themselves in that situation deserve to get fucked over.

Put me in that situation and I'll let you fuck me over

[broccoli]

It's hard to say no when you are being pressured by family to do something. They don't understand that when you say you can't do it, you are the one who knows what you are talking about and their airy-fairy ideas that you'll suddenly possess experience and skills that you haven't yet acquired won't give them the professional services they want for free. It's not very nice making a family member work through a social function, either, when they could be relaxing and enjoying themselves.

[zach]

I must be lucky or something, not once have I been asked by family/friends/relatives to take photos for them (apart from happy snaps at BBQs etc) and I usually have a camera around my neck. Guess they think I'm some kind of deviant

Never really had any major stuff ups, wasted a few rolls of film etc.

[bubblegoose]

Mate of mine just recently got a camera (60D etc), and that same weekend it was his mums birthday. They wanted some family photos done, and rhe wasn't confident with taking the photos. So he got me to go over and take the shots. Got them done quickly and surely, without a nervous novice having to stand there sweating and shaking in front of family members with no idea. Haha

So if family members want you to do something, delegate :Lol:

[Mr DOHC]

Originally Posted by cleary

It finally clicked that maybe using TTL in that scenario was not the best idea. My focal point was on sometimes on dark suits/white dresses/different faces.

i get this cometimes at the race track.

white car with yellow wall behind it, then black car with 90% of the shot being the bitumen, then the same shot with a yellow car beside it being blown out massively

the 7D seems to have helped this a bit.

i did 2 shoots for my friends mums Bikini business very amateurish, i hope i get another go soon to rectify this. but i also have to pin a bit of blame as she didnt want to go anywhere to do the shoots, she wanted to stay at hers (she lives in a resort-style apartment complex)

[cleary]

Originally Posted by Mr DOHC

i get this cometimes at the race track.

white car with yellow wall behind it, then black car with 90% of the shot being the bitumen, then the same shot with a yellow car beside it being blown out massively

the 7D seems to have helped this a bit.

you wouldn't be using flash at the race track though would you?

i did 2 shoots for my friends mums Bikini business very amateurish, i hope i get another go soon to rectify this. but i also have to pin a bit of blame as she didnt want to go anywhere to do the shoots, she wanted to stay at hers (she lives in a resort-style apartment complex)

...will assume nsfw...