Commercial Photography In San Antonio

When doing a commercial photograph shoot of a star client You not only have to be good at what you do, youhave got to be consistent and work best under stress. You not only have to make the Celebrity ecstatic but offer a photograph that all others concerned are pleased with. Sometimes they will give you direction while other times the ball is in your court and it is 100% your call of what to style of photograph to shoot.

As a San Antonio Photographer, i have had the chance to do one or two photo shoots of wellknown folks for billboards and other promotions. One I remember was a shoot done a couple years gone for Tracy Lawrence, a well known Country Music vocalist. The photos were to be used for billboards and mailers. When I bid on the assignment I didn’t know whom I was going to snap. All I had been told was it might be a celebrity in town for a few hours and what pictures were to be taken. And I would be doing the still photography during the breaks in the video shoot going on at the same time.

If you know anything about video and still photography the lighting is totally different. Sharing time with a video crew typically means no time to setup and adjust your lights. Itmight be a rapid setup and start shooting.

After arriving at the studio where the shoot would happen I was cheerful to find out I had a room almost to my self. Unlike other shoots where you share a scene with the video crew I had another room. I still didn’t know the idea of the shoot so I pulled out all the lights I had and got prepared. They wanted a clean white background and then something a bit more creative.

After I finished my light set-up I went next door and shot some background footage of the video shoot. Naturally it was running long and shortly it was time for a lunch break and I continued to have not had achance to start my shoot. This seems common at a large amount of the mixed video and still projects I get hired for.

During lunch I ask the selling director what unique shots they thought about. One pool area shot was mentioned which had the worst light you could imagine. Full sun in South Texas during the middle of the day. All I could see were the white props reflecting the light and amassive shade from his cowboy hat and reflections off his Guitar. Having photographed jewelry for one or two years I know how long it takes to eliminmate all the reflections from brightly polished jewelry and thought a high polished Guitar in full sun would be even worse.. This was not going to be my ideal photograph shoot. Fortunate for me they believed the hundred plus degree weather was too hot so that the 2nd concept was to use a metal lined room with a country table for the background. Perfect window light and fill employing a single strobe put me back in my comfort sector.

Finally they bring the client for me to shoot and I find out the video is running really behind and my time was cut from twenty minuets per look to about 7 mins. Not an issue as took one test shot and that was perfect. Asuperb look on the portable that everyone was happy with and Tracy Lawrence nailed each expression needed. After hours of boring video work he was chuffed and a true pro when it came to doing the still photos.

After my seven mins of shooting I found I had to move all my gear to make way for another video being shot in the same room I was using and that after that I might have him for the rest of the day to do the rest of the footage. After a few more hours I am getting the word that he’s leaving at six hundred for the airfield and since the video folks had other issues I may not have sometime to complete my shoot.

During some of the down time I had done other parts of the shoot but still required Tracy so he could be in the final layout. At fifteen until 6 they assert he’s on his way and to stand by. Of course the video hardware was still in they way and they’re speeding to move it around and help get my lighting back prepared. Again without any time for test shots I used the same way setup Ialways do for portraits and got an ideal look on the first shot. A few with a guitar, different shirt, hat and we were done shooting 4 looks in less than fifteen mins. Many of these pictures are posted on my website.

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