Who?

If it is your first go at taking photos that others are goig to use and display then don’t get scared about what they will think, remember;

  1. They are most likely asking YOU to do it because they already like your photos and trust you to take them.
  2. If you have a DSLR then you can take as many as you like, show your photos while you are taking them and discuss whether they are what your ‘client’ is looking for and you can delete them and take more if needs be.

I deliberately chose a friend that I felt comfortable dealing with (or rather they chose me) and so this made the whole process a fun excercise and not a ‘job’ that I was dreading.

Prepare

I discussed the kinds of photos that my friend wanted of their car, in this instance it was HDR shots of their car from different angles.  We also discussed locations that were both suitable for the subject of the photos and also in a convenient location for both my friend and I to get to.  I also discussed what he wanted to do with the photo, he is going to choose one or maybe two shots from the collection to get a large print framed and hung in his flat.  The type of shot I took would be different to these if he had said “they are for an advert to sell the car” or “I want an action shot”.

I also asked him to prepare by cleaning the car (obvious as it is) and making ure that they new what would be expected of them on the day (he was in one of the shots but as I have not asked him, this photo is not in this post!).

On the shoot!

We chose a location on top of a hill so that I could capture as much sky as possible and as little land, tree etc.  This was both to create a moody and slightly aggressive feel to the shots and also to keep the focus on the car and not the background.  We also chose to take the photos early in the morning, this was both to capture the rising sun (if it had appeared on this occasion!) and also so that it was quiet and therefore mean that less people would be around allowing greater freedom to move the subject car around without the fear of another car or person being present in the background.

We took photos from many angles to allow more options to my friend when he came to choose the photos.  As well as the horizontal angle changes I also took shots from as low as possible to try and give the car a greater presence and also to get the ‘moody’ sky into the shot for a more drmatic effect.

I discussed each shot with my friend and explained what I was doing and why, this worked well for a couple of reasons;

  1. He could tell me before I took the shots whether he thought he would like them (I then decided whether to listen or take the ‘I know best’ route and take them anyway saying “lets try it and see”.
  2. It encouraged a conversation where a couple of good ideas came out that without the conversation just would not have been thought of!
  3. It made my friend feel more a part of the shoot and therefore meant that he was not just stood there getting bored!

Processing

I pretty much took 3 differerent exposures of each angle and then combined these into HDR photos as explained in my previous post ‘HDR Explained‘.  I also used LucisArt to further enhance the photos and NoiseWare to remove any noise from the photo before saving them.

Presenting the photos back

Once I had the photos I took them to my friend and went through what I had done to them.  My friend liked all of them alot and decided on 2 to get printed out.  I actually preferred different ones to him but remember – they are for your client, don’t try and force them to like the photos that you do, everyone has different tastes and as long as they like some enough to get them printed then you have done a good job!

Top 5 tips for taking photos for others (in my opinion!)

  1. Trust yourself
  2. Speak to your client
  3. Take your time
  4. Take LOTS of photos!
  5. Be in control