THEAPPRENTICE
SHOOT WITH APRO
Professional portrait photographer Catherine O’Donnell shows our PhotoPlus Apprentice how to take natural family photos in a studio
TECHNIQUE ASSESSMENT
Portrait pro Catherine showed enthusiast Ieaun how to set up his Canon for top people pictures
IEAUN WAS well versed in shooting in Manual mode so Catherine suggested continuing to do so. This M mode gives Ieaun full control of the three core exposure variables: shutter speed, aperture and ISO. Catherine was looking for a minimum shutter speed of 1/100 sec or faster for sharp handheld shots, and would use a wide aperture for single subjects, or a more narrow aperture of f/8 for group shots. It was then just a case of adjusting the LED power and ISO sensitivity to achieve a well-exposed image.
IEAUN started off in the High Speed Continuous drive mode on his Canon EOS R5. However, when Catherine noticed he had quickly filled a 32GB card with the EOS R5’s large 45MP images firing off at 20fps, she suggested he switch over to Single Shot drive mode! This allowed him to really slow down and take his time to finesse his compositions before firing the camera, rather than relying on a fast burst to catch every pose. Although Catherine added: “It’s worth switching to High Speed Continuous for action shots, such as trying to catch a child laughing at a precise moment, or little ones running around.”
EXPERT INSIGHT
PUTTING together amood board on sites like www.pinterest.com can be really beneficial to help you nail down the themes you’d like to cover in your photoshoot. It’s good to share these with your clients and models so they have an idea of the style and colours of garments to bring along to the shoot so you’re all on the same page, and all fully prepared before the d
