Nikon D5, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 200, ƒ/5.6, 1/80–Alienbees B1600, triggered with Pocketwizard TT1 and TT5 system [logo from Wikimedia Commons and modified]
This weekend was my daughter’s high school homecoming. This is her senior year, when everything is the last time for her class. They commented that they all stood around the first year, afraid to dance at the party. Now, seniors didn’t care what others thought as they did as freshmen.
If you follow my blog, you know my daughter is involved in theater, and her friends are primarily other theatre geeks. They are not an exclusive group, so I said this was most of her friends, but the theatre kids love everyone and are excited to have more people hang out and do life together.
Great Self-Esteem = Great Photos
When a photographer’s subjects are confident and can relax and be themselves, you spend more time capturing those moments than trying to pull them out of a person.
The photographer’s key role in making this happen is to create an atmosphere in which the subjects feel in control.
I try to convey this by asking many times throughout the photo shoot if there is anything else they would like. I suggest pairing people up and keeping the excitement going, but I always try to say I am here for you.
I arrived early and started by picking a location. I set up my lights, and my wife helped by standing in as a subject so I could get the lighting right on her face and balance it with the background and the other light on her face.
For the better part of 15 minutes, I was troubleshooting. I had one lens that wouldn’t work with my flashes. I finally found the combination of my Nikon 85mm f/1.8 on the Nikon D5 that would work for me. This required me to move back and forth to get the close-up shots, then walk fifteen feet to get the group shots.
By the way, I spent a good hour working with my cameras and all my lenses, testing them with flashes.
I believe I have a lens that was just repaired. That is the problem. I now know for sure what the problem was I was having when I was setting up for these photos.
Once I had the lights in place, I didn’t change them. I moved closer and farther back, and occasionally twisted the models left or right to get a different look. In the closeup of my daughter, I just turned her until the strobe off to the back was directly behind her.
Here is the setup for you.
I was so thankful to be photographing my daughter and her theatre friends. They exuded so much more confidence than they did just four years ago.
What I think is so exciting about taking these photos this weekend is that I feel like I captured the traits in these kids who are now young adults. Just before next year, they enter the workforce or go off to college to live their own lives.
I am so proud of who my daughter has become and the friends she has made in her time in school.
In the TV show Friends, we watched these six people live together for over ten years. They dated, then had to break up. The reason so many of us returned to watch the show was that we loved seeing them work hard to keep their friendships intact, no matter what happened.
What I love about photography over text is its power to capture emotions. To capture emotions, you need to be prepared. The camera must be set correctly. You must have considered the lighting for the photograph. You have been thinking about and taking into account the background. Will you make it razor sharp or blurry and out of focus?
But more important than knowing your gear is knowing your subject. You cannot capture that which you have no knowledge of or understanding.
For me, to do great photography that is compelling requires the photographer to be involved in their subject’s life long enough to let you in and see them for who they are.
I had watched these kids from when they were young and had them in my home many times, allowing them to get to know me and me.
While my relationship with my daughter’s friends is different from hers, there is still a relationship. I think that is key to understanding your role as a photographer. I am not trying to be their friend who hangs out every day. I want to be like a parent, a safe space where they can hang out and be themselves.