Viktor Sidorin began to share with me the secrets of reportage photography of people. The first master class was held at the Wall Street Bar. I would like to write down the material learned for myself and share with you, suddenly someone will also be interested.
Then there will be scraps of unstructured recommendations (which I remembered in my own words), with terminology regarding my Nikon D300S camera, SB900 flash and shooting conditions in nightclubs, i.e. practically without light.
When shooting half-length plans, you must manually set the flash to 1/128 and try to keep the distance in the region of a meter - one and a half. Also, this is the optimal flash exposure, because it is almost invisible and people will be more willing to pose for you. When removing full height - you can choose 1/64. There are footage clues on my flash. If we are shooting a reportage and there is no time to rebuild the flash, then we can set the TTL mode. But be prepared for mistakes - overexposures.
Off-camera flash (on a cord) is not so easy to shoot, because you need to "blindly" hit a person in the face with an infrared setting. There are few justified cases of side flash shooting (this is only a reportage). Also, it should be borne in mind that when we shoot with a flash from the side, then a person has a shadow on his face from the nose, from above from the chin, from below … generally horror:))
In sequential shooting of people it is better to keep the ISO around 400. Shooting in RAW, in case of an error, these frames are easier to stretch.
It is better to always cover the flash with a diffuser. It also protects the flash from being burned out. hitting something (even touching a finger) on the flashing flashlight will damage the flash.
Beware of photographing people close to the wall, even if it is a wall with sponsor logos - let it step back a little. If, nevertheless, the person is near the wall, then it is ideal to shoot a little from the side (45%). If there is a white wall behind the person - it will light up the frame, black - look at the bright spot from the flash on the frame.
It is best to photograph in manual mode (M). Shutter speed 1/20 - 1/50, aperture - depends on your goals for displaying the background. 2.8 - draws well the half of the face from nose to ear, 3.2 - captures the entire head, 3.5 - 5.6 draws the background more clearly (if required). As it turned out, when photographing from one meter, 1/20 on the lens without a stub is quite a good option. If you need clear shots without a blurry background, then you can switch to shutter priority mode (S), then the aperture will be set for the maximum possible development of the background in the given conditions. But 2.8 is prettier, especially if there are lights and other club lighting in the back.
If the person is looking slightly to the side, then turn the camera vertically so that the flash is on the side with which his nose is. This will remove the nose shadow in the frame.
If you shoot a series of one-sided camera angles for a chronicle, set the lens to one focal length value and do not change it during the entire reportage, using your legs as a zoom. This will allow you to get a stable series of images of the same quality (I couldn't do that, and the fix is not yet in my arsenal).
Exposure metering took on a point with the surroundings, focusing - automatically … if the automatic machine did not find a face, then it readjusted to the central focusing point, caught the face and, fixing it, lined up the frame.
I wish creative success and more lively and tasty pictures)))
