Graduation Photos.

[captlen]

I did the graduation of the local Medical School last week end.* I have done this for the last three years.* This year I set up two monolights at the reception to get pictures of the Graduates and thier families/friends etc.* *It went very well.* In previous years I just did candids at the reception.* I will see if this pays off in greater sales.*

What do you all think?

[Shortie]

A moment to keep well done

[croma65]

Congrats for your graduation! And for the shot as well.

[Mark McCall]

Captlen,
Nice exposure for sure, great expression.

From the highlighlights, and lighting on the face, it looks like your lights are slightly lower than normal. Is it just my age old eyes??

I also checked your Exif info.
Looks like F19 @ 180th...ISO 400.

Just a suggestion, but here's a way to get a more dramatic light and depth of field on your images.

Use the lowest ISO possible when shooting under monolights (or studio lights).
Get down to 100 ISO on the 10D.
Set your lights for F5.6, use a longer focal length, set your subject farther from the background.
Raise your lights a tad.

Rock and Roll......call me when your rich!

Mark

[captlen]

Mark,* As always thanks for the advice.* The background is real the set up was on a hotel balcony and the background is the golf course in the distance.* The lighting is bright Caribbean sun almost high noon the balcony is coverd so is in the shade.

This was one of those disaster learning situation in which we all survive and learn by.* I originally set up with two umbrellas on the mono lights.* Then the wind picked up and I almost lost one,* it fell but the umbrella broke the fall so the light is fine. (need a new umbrella though).* Because of the wind I ended up using the lights with only the metal reflectors.* You are spot on on the lights being higher.* In a hurry to get them set back up I missed that.* I was back and forth from this "location" and switching to on camera flash for candids of the reception.* Lesson learned, take the time to stop and reset the camera when you change form one to the other.* Easiest would be to have used my back up camera ( nikon d70) for* one of the jobs. but I really prefere the canon.

When the morning was over and I downloaded the images I was very pleased and they are selling well.
The hassle of the day seemed less when I realized that the end results were OK.* (always room for improvement).* this is a real good gig.* The school pays me well to take pictures on the graduation ceremony they get to use the images for their promo and alumni purposes but I retain the right to sell the images to their graduates.* This is the first time I have set up a "studio" to one side of the reception area for his kind of shot.* I think it will pay off.* I sell them the prints via the internet since the grads are only here for the weekend then off around the world to do their residency.

I have learned a lot from this site and again thanks.* When I do get rich, Mark, I will come to tx and take one of your courses.

Thanks