Photography: Help! I need to know how to take model shots

[zero_2003]

Hey, I need help from some Pro photographers here in RFD.
Some of my friends want me to help them take some model shots, just for school porfolio. I dont want to do a crappy job, so i want to sharpen up my skills before the shoot. My tools are very very limited, I wish i have more, but no money, so im resulted to using my old school Canon SD100 and Canon S30.

You see, it's not really about the cameras (haha, im sayin that mainly because i dont have good ones). I need to sharpen my skillls, so can you guyz give me some advice. Like shooting under low light. Links to tutorials and such. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks !

[eelfliw]

Rotovision has a collection of books called Pro Lighting Series that's excellent for you to get ideas from.

[JAC]

When in doubt, shoot in B&W with lots of shadow. Gives it sort of a "classic" feel, and hides a lot of mistakes. ;)

[slippy]

doesn't matter when the clothes are off

haha j/k

all i know is in low light use a high iso

[bobaroo]

this might be obvious, but... use a tripod!

[Headhunter]

Bought this (http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/item.asp?Item=978184222780&Catalog=Books&N=35&Lang=en&Section=books&zxac=1), found it extremely useful, and $13 is a great price.

[snplow]

Well, by no means am I a professional photographer, (I'm actually more of an amature, but I've gotten some pretty good pics) so here are a few things that I find helpful:

- Chose your perspective carefully, don't always take shots at "eye level". Try crouching down or finding a tall ledge to snap your shots.

When you're crouching down, it makes your subject look bigger and it also seems to make your subject look like the focus of the image.
I haven't really experimented with taking pics from up above so I can't comment too much about that.

- During morning, dusk, or overcast is usually the best time to take pics because it eliminates harsh shadows. However, taking pics in overcast conditions will not get you your nice blue sky background.

- Use the zoom (not that there is much of a zoom on the SD100 anyways). Zoom all the way in and step back when taking photographs. I read somewhere that this is what professional model photographers do, but I don't do that kinda photography so I can't comment on that.

- High ISO = brighter pictures but more grains in the picture, therefore it is best to use a very well lit place with light coming from many directions (to get rid of harsh shadows) while using a lower ISO setting (I leave my camera on 50 for the sharpest image quality).

- I don't know if the S30 can do this or not (I know the S100 can't) but see if you can increase your aperture size as much as possible while decreasing your shutter speed (to an acceptable level). By increasing the aperture, you narrow your depth of focus so only your subject will be in focus and the background will be blurry. This way, it draws more attention to the subject and not the background.

- Try using B&W, it does get rid of a lot of mistakes (such as color temp, etc...)

Here's an example of getting a picture while crouching:
Note how the empenage of the plane and the ppl seems to be taller. The fact that it was vertically framed also contributes to making things look taller
http://users.accesscomm.ca/rgs2003/post/sample1.jpg

Here's one taken from an elevated position:
http://users.accesscomm.ca/rgs2003/post/sample2.jpg

Wow, just going through my photos makes me realize how much I miss flying...

Anyways, thats besides the point, good luck with your photo shoot!

[DaFonz]

Shoot zoomed in... otherwise, at wide angle focal lengths, you'll be distorting features on the face (like giving them a big nose).

Shoot with the lowest ISO you can. Ig you can, go to home depot and pic up some lighting to use. There's a ton of tutorials on 3 point lighting... after you done, return the lights to home depot.

Shot in color, convert to black and white later if needed.

A nice wide aperture (2.8) will result in a razor thin DOF so youc an blur out the background

Remember your rule of thirds.

[confused]

don't forget the tripod

[yatko]

This is what you need:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0764543180/qid=1106568994/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-4584454-4152901?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[Hodge]

Article here - http://www.anandtech.com/digitalcameras/showdoc.aspx?i=2323

[zero_]

Did you mean portraits (http://www.photo.net/learn/portraits/) ?