Im panicing now to put it short, I was at party last night, met an excessivly pretty girl who is a model and she needs some portfolio or something before next week so I said id take photos of her as a favour, so now I got to meet up with her again for a photoshoot I have no idea how to picture models or humans properly whatsoever. anyone any experiance? was thinking up a good backround as if u take the pic indoors or streets it will look crap, was thinking a bright white backround almost like studio effect but dunno any help would be appreciated

ps I only have my F1.4 50mm and 70-200mm F2.8 lens

No experience but a few thoughts.

Will shooting against a bright white background not tend to make the subject look a little washed out in comparison?
Something a little less stark might be better if you have access to it. Cream, pale grey or blue for instance. Might be an idea to try a few different backgrounds to see what works best if you have the time.

You should probably find out what sorts of shots she wants. Whole body, head shots, hand shots e.t.c.

I also wouldn't entirely rule out a couple of outdoor/indoor shots. A couple of shots of her walking through a park with a trendy coat on wouldn't necessarily be too bad if she was aiming at clothes modelling for a catalogue or something for instance. Likewise a couple of action shots in a coffee shop or similar might get some more natural expressions (laughing, smiling, thinking/concentrating).

Good luck.

Bratty, you smooth talker you!
Few things - to consider:
What does she want from the shoot? Talk to her about what she's hoping to have at the end of it.
What do you want from the shoot? Work out whether this is going to be portfolio material, or just a bit of laugh.
Decide on a location between you - hopefully the sort of shots you're after will help decide this.
I'm guessing you're going to be relying on available light rather than lighting it deliberately, and I'd suggest avoiding flash. It's not normally very flattering, unless you're going to get into colour correction and a bit of bounce maybe.

On the day, start out quite wide, get to know each other. Hopefully she'll have ideas of what she can and can't do (be open minded enough to 'play' with ideas) and as you're shooting digitally, there's no harm in just shooting as much as you want.
As the shoot moves on, I'd suggest moving the lens in closer for the head shots etc. as you get more comfortable with each other.

A lot of this shoot is going to depend on your ability to be friendly, open, communicative, and professional.
I wish you all the best.
That's all that's crossed my mind immediately, I might have more thoughts later.

And don’t forget to bracket those exposures. That is - one stop under exposed, one at correct exposure, one at one stop above. Your camera should let you do that. This means less room for errors.

Focussing is important - I won’t lecture you about depth of field, but do consider it when photographing her. If the background and foreground are slightly burred, and she is sharply in focus, that will be much better, especially if you are going to do the outdoors or coffee shop scenarios.

If doing a portrait, use focus on her eyes - if they eye is in focus, and there is a reflection in them, this will be good. Note she does not always have to look directly into the lens either. You can go for the thousand mile stare shots.

Count down out loud to taking the picture - three, two one, click! This way she will know when the shot will be taken.

Get some white card - a large sheet - and use this as a reflector. This will help remove shadows from under chins, etc.. She can hold it out of shot, or you can place it up against a wall. This is helpful if you have one light source.

This is very good advice and the difference between photos that look like a friend took them and photos that look professional.

e.g. sit her next to a window with lots of light coming in and there will be more than enough light to not use a flash but you will get shadows under her chin and on the side of the face away from the window. Get a big piece of white/grey card and get heer to hold it under her face and angled towards her a bit and the light reflected off it will reduce the shadows and even out the light a lot.

Bear in mind how you'll have to rig that. Do you need to take a tripod and rig something? Or are better still, take a friend who'll work to your direction and assist in controlling the light. White card is good, 1"-2" white polystyrene board is great.

The foil reflector things you get to protect your car from the sun are also quite good at making use of available light. Lightweight, cheap and foldaway, plus several colour options.

thx for help all, but what is bracketing? ive no idea where it is on camera and what it does etc?

RTFM!

Mark

And as for what it is RTF-Post-Paul-Made!

who is paul and where can I find this post?

oh that, well no point for me as I adjust in photoshop anyway if its too bright or dark, ill be shooting in RAW also

That'll get you so far, but you still have a fairly narrow margin for error, even with RAW - too far in either direction will give you noise, RAW or not. Best keep a PC or laptop nearby - test the first one and if it is ok, keep going!

Nooo.....!!!!!

It’s common practice in digital and analogue photography to do bracket. The pros do it, and digital photography means Never Having to Worry About Paying for Film Again™. As Gav said, you’ll only get so much from adjusting RAW and regular bitmap data. Photoshop is pretty capable, but you can over do it very quickly. Brightness adjusting in apps like Photoshop does just one thing: manipulates the brightness - but you will lose detail in the process. Don’t rely on it being a life jacket.

You have not said what camera you have, but I am guessing that it’s a DSLR, so exposure adjustment should be there. If not, adjust shutter speeds or aperture and take shots. Remember you will need to shoot in either manual, aperture priority or shutter speed priority modes. Having the camera on automatic won’t give you this facility.

Anyway, before you do anything else, run (don’t walk) to Amazon and see if there is a Magic Lantern book for your camera. These are extended manuals, and are written fairly plainly. I have mentioned them here (and in the old place) many times before, and I really can’t recommend them enough. You will find out stuff about your camera that you probably didn’t know before.

Look here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_5_1 ... ic+lantern

Before you launch into taking the photos, practice on a friend, relative or (if you have the gift of the gab) a complete stranger. At least you won’t be fumbling with your equipment in front of the pretty girl