crasher8 said:awinphoto said:Usually when I shoot with a second shooter, I tell them exactly what I expect them to shoot and how I want them to shoot... My last wedding, amateur, good but not great photographer... He shot 7d and 5d2 and used 135L and 24-105.... It was slightly low light and 90-95% of his 5d2 shots were unusable and he had a slightly better keeper rate with the 7d... Long story short, despite telling him exactly what I wanted, I shot similar stuff just in case, and for the most part, I ended up using only a handful of his shots and most of mine... It was a great learning experience for him and I sat down with him afterwards and critiqued his shooting with him no bars held... He learned quickly... the second shoot I had with him, it was an outdoors event and better lighting, but his keeper rate was much much better... In the end, gear can be crucial, but also you much teach your second shooters, talk to them, and guide them... If they dont know why what they did was wrong or doesn't work, then they would never know and wont improve...
awin…just for kicks, what were some of the mistakes he made the first time around? Metering? AF? WB?
A lot of his downfall, especially the first shoot was technique... too slow of shutter speeds in certain situations would lead to camera shake, Shots of the bride walking down the isle the 5d2's AF couldn't track or keep her in focus... I had him in front of the bride near the groom and I was in back getting the entrance portraits and got her walking down the isle from the back... his 5d2 just wasn't up for the task. He tried the 7d and 135 and shoot around 1/100 and 1/125 but would get camera shake where you can tell he got a good shot IF it was in focus. Metering, he was alright for the most part but wasn't quick enough with his reciprocals to compensate for a faster shutter... Then in the reception, I slapped a 580 on his cameras, and he shot the ambient too close to normal, and so he was nearly at 1/15 or so shutter at F4 and ISO near 5000-6000 give or take (reception they practically turned off the house lights and had these funky neon accent lights lighting the room) and the shutter was too slow so he would have the properly exposed subject and then a ghost of the motion blur of the regular exposure... Going into it, I knew his skill level and knew I was the primary and treated it as a thing where anything he can add to my product would be considered gravy and I didn't let myself get complacent in thinking "he will get the shot so I dont need to worry"... He did get a few really cool detail shots I missed and all in all, I think I was able to deliver a solid product to my clients, and as i can train and get his technique down, he can be a really good second shooter.
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