Brian Mauro/Cameron Govan

My last shoot proved to be my worst experience with shooting. I arrived early enough to set up my workflow. I propped up the tripod and sampled some shots where I knew I would start. I changed my WB for direct sunlight and set my speed at 200, with an f/stop of f8 and shutter speed of 500.

The biggest difficulty was directing my subjects. Both of which had two personalities. Cameron just plain didn't want to have a picture taken, and Brian might as well be Swanzey's cousin, because he just couldn't do a straight shoot. I wasted about 15-20 minutes just being flustered and trying to adapt to the two personalities. Finally, I realized the more direct and to the point I was about what was going wrong and why I am still trying to take more pictures, I was able to get somewhere. While I don't think this was the best shoot, it allowed me the experience of this type of situation. I hope that next time, I will come right out of the gate with a more direct approach to nip in the bud the slow first 20 minutes of unproductive shots. For some of the indoor shots, I was using the flash and dropped down to 320 shutter, and f8 and 5.6. I did lose track of my settings as I started to see some positive results coming in......

Brian Swanzey

The sun was harsh for a 4:15pm shoot. No golden light as I thought it would be. The sun was still around 1pm. Springtime threw me off. My shutter was 800 with an f/stop of f11 and also used 640 shutter speed with the f11 f/stop.

WB was set for direct sunlight. No tripod or flash was used.
Tried to use the shade, but again the sun really burst through and created ugly shadows that made the subject look like a tiger...

Amber Charlebois

I used the flash, bounced off the side, not the ceiling.
Shutter was 125, f/stop 4.5 with my WB set at FLASH.

Not much to say. It went well. The lab wasn't really spectacular as labs go, so the challenge was the right background.

I arranged beakers and tubes etc., prior to the shots.

Bob Wang

The day was cloudy, and I adjust my white balance as such for the outdoor shot on the steps of the mansion.

I used a friendly shutter speed of 125 with an f/stop of 4.5

For the indoor shots at the chair and window, I was using the tripod. Shutter was set at 30 and the f/stop 4.8. We were shooting with overcast cloudy natural light at 3:45pm, so the natural lighting was certainly not like I like it. I think I nailed a nice serious shot. The one where he is not smiling, but in serious thought waiting for me to set up.

I sometimes take a shot just after I set the camera, for two reasons- one, to catch them less contrived for the shot and the other because you almost always get a great unexpected shot from it. I was bouncing the flash off the wall for this as well.

Joel Harmon

Part of my workflow now, is, that I arrive well before the shoot and check my light source and camera settings. I usually find a passersby and ask them to pose for me.

For Joel Harmon I was at f/stop 5.3 shutters 30, 40, 60 with flash and tripod.

I am finding it has been easier now for me to engage the subject more. The more I make them at ease, the easier and the quicker the shoot. The less painful it is for the subject, makes for an easier transition to the next setting and pose. They don't feel rushed.

Libov, Howard

Used a tri-pod with strobe and wink light. Also used a diffuser on the wink light.
Ultimately the wink light looked better with the diffuser on it. Still picked up flash reflection in his glasses. I asked Howard how to avoid that and looked slightly down with eyes looking up towards me. I will remember that for the future as I know I will have subjects wearing glasses.

I failed to write down my settings however and I shot these two weeks ago.

I am pretty sure I adjusted my white balance to fluorescent lighting and ISO at 400. I can only guess that I was in the 125-250 range? But maybe lower to around 60 with an fstop of around 5.6

Rene Steinke

I was able to set up before Rene arrived. I even shot a few faculty members that were passing by.
I used the tripod for the seated window shots.
White balance was mixed, I tried sunlight and fluorescent settings....
Shutter speed of 60, fstop/4.3 & 5.6
On the stair stoop in the mansion I used the wink light with a diffuser. Getting the right light was hard. Shutter was about 125 with an over exposure of .5, I was getting dark images before this.
Outside was better using white balance of direct sunlight and shutter to around 400, fstop 5.6