She believed in me, her soul plus my arms.

[reddragdiva]

If you haven't answered yesterday's questions, please do so. I really want to know what people really think, not what I or someone else thinks they should think.

Inspired by vivien_claw asking last Friday what I charge as a photographer (crikey!) and by the narnee set from Saturday, I have decided that I am going to start doing photoshoots of my favourite beautiful subjects outside the context of drunk smoky goth clubbing. Not for fame or fortune as yet, just for aesthetics at this stage. Current sticking points: (1) locations (2) a more, uh, manly camera than an Ixus; probably not an SLR as yet, maybe a large point-and-shoot (S1, S2 sorta thing; probably not an SLR as yet). Several of you do photoshoots quite a lot; I welcome your suggestions.

I'll certainly start with one of the Ixys — to compare the state of the art of a few years ago, these shots are from a 2001 Ixus v (mostly just scaled down) and these are from a 2003 Exilim EX-S20 (considerably tweaked). One of these things is not t3h suxx0r like the other.

(And yes, I want YOU as a model. If we do get rich or famous, we'll split the takings fifty-fifty or something.)

Tonight was to have been valkyriekaren's birthday drinks (happy birthday for yesterday!), but she's ill. So tonight will be a quiet night in wid da goils. Tomorrow will likely be compilerbitch's housecooling party, before she goes away to become a rocket wizard.

Comments

[notintheseheels.livejournal.com]

No Dead and Buried?

[reddragdiva]

No. (Damn this bad timing!) It's obvious we shall have to arrange meeting and caffeinating and cig-giving and so forth.

[notintheseheels.livejournal.com]

Indeed, being in the same place at the same time just doesn't seem to be working! However, I now have reason to be in Walthamstow a fair amount so this might help our chances.

[reddragdiva]

So you do :-)

[ickle-yuki.livejournal.com]

Just ask :)

[reddragdiva]

G'day! Let's do a shoot! Um, you here any time this year?

[ickle-yuki.livejournal.com]

:)

In London? no idea.

My travelling to london usually is a rare occasion, due to the expense (£30+ in travel costs is nearly half a weeks money).

I do however really want to see my Nan (she lives in south east London) at some point, so I may be down for a weekend at some point in the nearish future.

I have plenty of time though.

[reddragdiva]

l33t. Just be sure to let me know, and to bring all the goth and pervy finery you own ;-)

Sxxy deth chyx

[davefish.livejournal.com]

First up, do you fancy teaming up for an outing some weekend. I would quite like to try doing something around the city area of London, which has lots of swishy looking buildings, and is rather empty at the weekend, and so could be filled with cameras, women, latex and PVC. It would also give me an excuse to head down to the Big Smoke and do exciting things.

Locations are often a bit of a tricky thing. Getting away from some crowds is probably the key here, as having to wait for people to clear really mucks up the flow of a shoot.

Are you thinking mainly of a gothy aesthetic? Doing a shoot like that generally gathers attention, but something a bit more like some relatively simple (in the stylistic sense) portrait shots can be done without too much difficulty in a park during the afternoon.

As for the camera. How much is your budget likely to be? I hear that the going rate for a Canon 300D (http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_eos300d.asp) is around 300 quid (From discussion with someone who got one around the end of last year, their figures not mine) which gets you mucking around with an SLR. SLR's tend to be a bit more flexible when it comes to what settings you can use, and you have the advantage that you are on an upgradable path, as you can get lenses giving yourself much shinier glass to play with. You can usually get much less depth of field with an SLR, which can be a big advantage in people pictures, where you may well want rid of a distracting background.

Having said that, I know your e-bay fu is strong, and you can find cheap and exciting cameras.

Re: Sxxy deth chyx

[reddragdiva]

Ooooooooh ... mayyybe. There should be useful things like dead factories &c. in range of here too.

My budget doesn't exist, so I'm thinking in terms of buying last year's model or the year before's using my eBay-fu. I just scored an Ixus 400 in box for a hundred quid, which I'm quite pleased about.

My only aesthetic consideration is to present the subjects well. It's all about them. They're stars! The achievement I'm still proudest of as a photographer is, over the course of six months, turning trayce and grrrar's self-opinion from "OH NOEZ I R T3H HIDEOUS TR0LLZ0R" to "Oy, I've got a new outfit, where's yer camera!"

Re: Sxxy deth chyx

[lastaii.livejournal.com]

Camera suggestion: Use what you've got -especially on zero budget. Honestly, if you're going to do daytime outdoor shoots then you'll not need anything fancy. Any compact camera made in the last 5yrs will take a perfectly usable photo (unless of course, you want it blown up to billboard size...). However, you will need to become familiar with Photoshop/PaintShopPro/TheGimp/whatever for post production work -namely masking & blurring out distracting backgrounds, contrast enhancement, fiddling with levels, adding glow etc. This will not change if you upgrade to an SLR :)

Re: Sxxy deth chyx

[reddragdiva]

Oh yeah. For any respectable quantity of light, even the Ixus 50 will do fine. The Ixus 400 I have on the way will do even better. Main thing is to have someone worth taking a picture of.

I work 'round 'ere y'know

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

If this happens, give me a shout.