Tips for planning a street portrait photo session

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Hi, in a couple of weeks I'm going down to Saigon to shoot street portraits of my friend's daughter and her friend. They are Vietnamese girls and will wear the traditional dresses. It will take place in the streets of Saigon. This is on my initiative as I want to include pictures like this in my portfolio.

I have never done a planned photo session before. My experience stretches to planning my street walks, planning on how to shoot golf courses and similar.

With actual people in the picture I really want to make good use of their and my time and hopefully catch some great pictures.

I know the city fairly well having commuted to work there for two years and I do have some good sites in mind, but she has promised to take us to a couple of other sites that are a bit further away and that I haven't visited before.

We are likely to meet about after lunchtime and go on until sunset. The weather this time of year gives a good chance of clear skies, but obviously the afternoon sun will not help in making it easier. The late afternoon we will spend around the cathedral and the adjacent park. At least that's my idea now.

I have done some homework on direct a portrait shoot, I am a fairly relaxed person and I know my friend's daughter quite well. I do speak Vietnamese reasonably well which will hopefully help to make things more fun and relaxed. What I do need to understand is how to structure this. Do I take notes of sites I want to go to? Poses? Angles? What more?

Of course on this forum I have to ask about gear, I don't have a proper flash, only the 270. I could pick up a 430 just for this session if it makes sense and if I understood how it would help me. In terms of body and lenses I'm covered.

Any thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

thanks
J
 
Re: flash. What's your camera? If you have one with an integrated speedlight transmitter, being able to use a 430 off-camera could be a huge plus. (the 270 II can do this as well, but I believe the original 270 could not). Plus canon has refurbs available, which I'm a huge proponent of, since they're cheaper and individually inspected before leaving the factory. Anyway. Between the flexibility of off-camera flash, and having a rotating head, you'll be able to do a lot of fun things with light.

Otherwise, if you have a model you know well, and you're a relaxed and easygoing person, then I think that while planning is valuable, you should trust your spur-of-the-moment instincts as well. Either you or your models may see a particular spot, or envision a particular pose, and even if it's not on your planned list, go for it! Worst thing that could happen is it doesn't work out as great as you thought, and you can move on to the next planned out spot. But if you know some places that you have in mind, and they have some places they have in mind, I'm sure you'll be able to capture some great images!
 
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bseitz234 said:
Re: flash. What's your camera? If you have one with an integrated speedlight transmitter, being able to use a 430 off-camera could be a huge plus. (the 270 II can do this as well, but I believe the original 270 could not). Plus canon has refurbs available, which I'm a huge proponent of, since they're cheaper and individually inspected before leaving the factory. Anyway. Between the flexibility of off-camera flash, and having a rotating head, you'll be able to do a lot of fun things with light.

Otherwise, if you have a model you know well, and you're a relaxed and easygoing person, then I think that while planning is valuable, you should trust your spur-of-the-moment instincts as well. Either you or your models may see a particular spot, or envision a particular pose, and even if it's not on your planned list, go for it! Worst thing that could happen is it doesn't work out as great as you thought, and you can move on to the next planned out spot. But if you know some places that you have in mind, and they have some places they have in mind, I'm sure you'll be able to capture some great images!
Hi, thanks for your comment. Well the planning I want to do is to make sure I have a baseline to work from, then leave the door open for improvisation of course. I want to be prepared to make sure we don't lose time because I'm clueless.

About camera, I have a 5D3 so no pop up flash. Will see how I do it, I might bring just the 270 for fill flash where needed.

thanks
J
 
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