Not every shoot goes according to plan; sometimes, everything goes wrong and nothing seems to fix it. Each time you look at the back of your camera, the photos just seem wrong. This isn't your work or vision. You just aren't on your game. But that doesn't change anything for your client! They still expect professional quality images that meet the standards of your portfolio. Rather than panicking and sending the entire shoot off a cliff of miasmic distress, take a moment to gather yourself and reorient the shoot so that it can still be successful, even if you don't end up delivering exactly the perfect images that you originally had in mind.
Simplify
As we become better and better photographers, the complexity of our work notoriously increases. We add more variables to increase our creative control over the images. However, that complexity can work against us when we are struggling. Break the shoot down to the most important aspect, the subject, and then build from there. Don't try to hide the struggle by making the production look like a professional film set with lights and flags everywhere. Don't try to manage a billion different things. Your shoot isn't going well. Simplify to what you can confidently make work, and focus on it. Do what you have done many times before and have been successful at.
Shake Things Up
Sometimes, you can break free of the rut you have tumbled into by just changing the flow of the shoot. Change locations, change lenses, change looks, etc. Use change to both reset the shoot and your focus. By breaking free of what isn't going well, you give yourself the opportunity to restart and make the rest of the shoot very successful.
Remain Confident
No matter how badly things are flying off the handle, you must absolutely and always keep it internal. Even if you think the images are looking awful, don't let your client share your feeling. Instead of saying: "This isn't working; lets change to...," say: "This is great, but I know it will be even better if..." Your client/model will be constantly looking to you for cues as to how the shoot is going and if they are looking good. Keep making decisions confidently. Remind the model that they are doing amazing, even if they aren't. Build the subject's confidence in the fact that you know what you are doing and are going to make them look amazing.
Learn And Move On
We learn by failure, so take stock of yours and use it as a springboard to improve. Don't just move on to the next shoot without figuring out what started to go wrong with this one. Spend the time to evaluate the shoot honestly and brutally to determine where your struggle manifested. Once you have figured out why the shoot started to crash and burn, you can take steps to adapt so that that sort of situation is less likely or even impossible to occur in the future. One of the hardest parts of life is being self-critical enough to overcome future challenges. Never blame your failings on uncontrollable factors. You are the captain of your shoots, so everything is your fault.
If you couldn't get great expressions from the model, it is because you need to improve your coaching. If the weather ruined the shoot, you need to learn to be prepared for any weather. If unreliable gear sent you for a tumble, then you need to adapt your kit so that it is reliable. Short of a natural disaster occurring while you were shooting, there really isn't any factor that you have no control over. You can't always predict the unexpected, but you can always control how you react to it. It is the mark of a true professional when you are able to react calmly, confidently, and effectively to almost any calamity and still deliver quality work after the shoot is done.
Great read. I also remind myself to breathe haha.
nice piece. If you have your chops down your always going to have some solid licks to fall back on, to use a rock guitarist analogy so if your confident in your own ability you'll always find a way out, often without even realising it.
I have a set up I know from experience that will always give wondrous results and use it as my starting point every time as Its simply not possible to get bad results from it, but it takes practice to nail that and the confidence to use it every time, so technically and creatively you can't shoot me down.
Its usually model issues that have ruined it, the one who arrives and says 'what time are we going to finish as I have to be away by 4 no matter what?' or the one who's had a massive bust up with her boyfriend the night before and spends the whole shoot frantically exchanging text messages with him as she slowly disintegrates into floods of tears, or the worst of the lot, the one who has to drink four bottles of Gallo Grenache before you have managed to unpack your camera.
In circumstances like that I have learnt to recognise the warning signs and money be damned I pull the shoot and send everyone home.
We are Artists so we shouldnt be compromised or made to feel less able than we are ;-)
Ryan, we can all too easily relate... and as such can all so easily appreciate your suggestions (and images)
great read Ryan, I am from Vancity as well.
Good tips. I thought I was the only one.
I tend to add humor when something happens along with remaining calm. That's only if something happens and the client notices like a boom with a light on it falls, like it did on my last studio shoot. The weight that was on it fell off, how I'm still scratching my head on that one. But, the shoot continued until something else happened, and I was like really? Once again, added some humor, fixed everything, continued, and you know what? The pictures were beautiful and the client was happy. Boom!
As someone born without a large reserve of confidence in the first place, I often try and overcompensate when things start to go wrong. I suspect by now that people might realise when I'm working that, the more decisive and confident I appear to be or the more I say "never mind, doesn't matter, carry on", then the further up the creek we are!