Assisting Part 1

As previously mentioned I came to the conclusion that doing some assisting work on another persons photoshoot was a practical way to spend my time and see how other people were doing things, I had already spoken to Vicky about this and then agreed to help her with a shoot for a band one evening. However due to traffic I turned up late and the studio had already been set up and the band were about to arrive, fortunately there wasn't a lot to set up and Emma had already helped where necessary.
Below are a few images from the shoot, the main problem was that we were in a much smaller studio than we had planned for and so fitting four people into a the given space and photographing them without shadowing each other became an obvious problem. In terms of direction and choices Vicky was entirely in charge of the shoot and I was around purely to help move lights and set things up.This was the first time I had worked in a studio but not with the lighting equipment and so there were no problems setting the brightness of the flash and other settings, only problems in relation to the placement of the lights and the resulting shadows.
I noticed that Vicky had been using a Canon 500D with a standard 18-55mm lens and the cordless flash remote in order for her camera to work in unison with the flashes, again this is a piece of equipment that I am familiar with already and so didn't really phase me. Due to the nature of the shoot I did relatively little in terms of actually helping but spent most of the time making notes and my coming to my own conclusions, I think this partially comes down to the fact that Vicky was partially still getting used to the equipment and environment and so it was equally important for her to do and learn things as it was for my self.

After watching the whole shoot I came to various conclusions, firstly it is crucial that the client comes with an idea of what they want from the shoot or alternatively that you know if you have creative control, this may sound like a simple thing but I noticed that on various occasions both the photographer and the client were asking each other what it is they should be doing next. In the same way both clients need to be comfortable an compliant in order to achieve the best results. Finally I feel that the beeping sound present on the flashes should be turned off once all have been tested as it not only distracting but annoying, furthermore I think that there should be some music playing in the background in order to avoid awkward silences and generally keep the mood flowing however I realise that these are both personal preferences.