What if it rains, or snows? What if your model gets sick? What if your car won’t start?
When you’re working as a photographer you often have a tight schedule or a limited window of time to make the photoshoot happen.
When you bring to the equation a couple of assistants and a model (and maybe a space rented for the day) there’s a whole lot of things that can go wrong.
The wise thing to do is to make a checklist of the flow and resources you’ll use for every photoshoot.
- Location
- Model(s)
- Props
- Natural light
- Gear (Camera, lenses, lights, and everything else)
- Time-frame
- Legal agreements
Your job as a photographer is to make sure you have at least 3 locations at your disposal for each shoot, which you have scouted beforehand, and you need to be absolutely sure that they are adequate.
You can have models commissioned to work for you months prior the shoot, but anything can happen. Having worked with the backup models will save you the time of creating a working relationship with them, making the shoot much easier.
Props get broken, stepped on, destroyed, burned, stained, and so forth. Props are often single-use items, so having spare ones is good.
You can have a backup plan for natural light. Let’s say you need to shoot at sunset, and suddenly it starts to rain. You can try for the next best thing: sunrise. Yes, it is almost 12 hours away and the task will be much tougher, but it can be done.
Having backup gear is really necessary. As with the props, anything can happen, especially for shoots when it isn’t just you and the model. For my last shoot, I took my new 7D mark 2, I had my old 1000D as a backup camera, and a 60D, which I borrowed from a friend.
Time-frame can’t really be backed up in the regular fashion. Through your own experience, however, you’ll know how long you personally need to complete one shoot with the given specifications.
Legal agreements are the thing that keep your images yours and limit the usage outside of the agreed specifications. This works as a backup plan for your budget in case your images get misused.
Read the full article over at Light Stalking.
Source: Light Stalking
