18 Apr Photo Studio Hire Pro Tips : Set Up Your Shoot for Success
Shooting in a dedicated photographic studio can be a great experience and opens up all sorts of creative possibilities. Just ask Chris Greenwood. He loved shooting in the studio so much it had him jumping for joy! Photo studio hire allows you to shoot in a pro studio without worrying about the constant running costs and maintenance. But even before you start shooting there are a few things that you should consider to set yourself up for success.
Photo Studio Hire – Get Organised
Sounds obvious, right? Well you wouldn’t be the first one to arrive at a shoot without that essential cable that connects your camera to your flash trigger. With so many gadgets and cables to remember that it’s easy to forget something that could really hamper your shoot. So get organized!
Visualize Your Shoot
Work through each stage of your shoot. Visualize each step in the process. Get your camera out of your bag. Set up your triggers. Set up your lighting stands, flash units, backgrounds and props. Brief the models and stylists. Tether your camera to your laptop. Visualizing your way through your shoot means you’ll have a much better chance of being organized on the day. Think of it like pre recording a video so that on the day of the shoot you can just hit “play”. On the day you’ll have all your equipment, briefing notes, and shot lists to hand. Clients love a cool, calm, and collected photographer. Nobody likes someone frantically searching their camera bag muttering “I’m sure it was in here!”
Have a Shot List
Once you’re in the flow of a shoot, things can easily take off on a tangent. It can be easy to forget that key shot the client needed. So you deliver a knockout set of images. They’re dynamic, full of energy, the compositions are great, the colours are fantastic, and you’ve nailed focus and depth of field.
But the one shot they were really after is missing. You realize the next day, half way through your edit. You rifle through the RAWs, scrolling through the captures looking for that portrait format version of that landscape shot you got, and realise with dread that you’ve missed it. The last thing you want to have to do is call the client and tell them you missed something and need to book another day of photo studio hire. So have a shot list. It’s great for clarity with your client, and can be a fun and engaging process to work through. Most importantly, once they’re all ticked off you can rest easy that you’ve delivered to the brief.
Don’t Be On Time. Be Early.
It’s great to be on time for your shoot. You arrive at the photography studio at 9am as agreed with the client. Only they’ve arrived 10 minutes early. So they’ve been waiting around, and you can’t help but feel on the back foot. So arrive early. You won’t be twiddling your thumbs. There’s always something you can be doing to get ahead of the curve. Check your memory cards and batteries (again). Run through your shot list (again). Or if you’ve nailed everything, drink another latte.
Test Your Lights
If you have the opportunity, it’s a real help to be able to test your lighting set up before the shoot. Some pro photographers even book an extra day of photo studio hire ahead of the shoot. They make the time to go through the technicalities of the set up in relative peace and quiet. So on the day of the shoot, when the client, the agency rep, the stylist, the models, the hair and makeup teams, and their associated friends, family and the office labradoodle arrive, they already have their set up nailed. Check with the studio you hire, as they may offer a discounted rate for a lighting test prior to the shoot.
Think About Health & Safety
Yes, I get it. Yawn. Nobody likes a boring health and safety talk. And to paraphrase the old saying about crashing aeroplanes, “Any photoshoot you can walk away from is a good photoshoot”. But let’s be serious for a minute. Any shoot can be a high risk environment. Particularly if you have powerful lights, reels of electrical cables, wind machines, lighting booms, and 6ft models teetering about in spike stilettoes. Even with photo studio hire, it’s still your job to look after the safety of yourself and your team, not the studio. So know your responsibilities and brief any of your subcontracted team appropriately. Looking after health and safety on your set will improve the efficiency of your shoot, and the enjoyment of everyone involved.
So the message is simple really. Plan ahead. Be organized. And remember that much of the hard work in creating great images happens before you even set foot in a photography studio or press the camera shutter.