Practical and technical problems- Lighting Experimentation

I completed a lighting experiment photoshoot, where I went back to the Rosscourt B&B and captured a variety of portraits. I chose to use the 'Nikon speedlight' because I thought that the flash would give the portraits quite a natural feel that I want to create with natural light in my environment images. I angled the flash light to create a soft and subtle effect, however I feel that some of the portraits are very bright and don't convey the delicate atmosphere of the owners and B&B.

There were many technical and practical problems that I came across when capturing these portraits. Firstly, I feel that the background was problematic with the stripy wallpaper because it could cause distraction for the viewers. To overcome this problem I should have found a plain wall but I did find this tricky because the walls mostly had pictures and patterened wallpaper on them. This wall was slightly lit by natural light, which I used when taking portraits and found that they were too dark. Another problem that occurred was with the balancing of the camera on the tripod. I normally use a tripod when capturing portraits but I felt that it was difficult to fill the the whole frame with the owners, this was because there were objects next to them that I didn't want to capture also. Also to capture the portraits I had to turn the camera and tripod to the portrait orientation, which I feel didnt work as well because it caused a wonky camera frame. To overcome this problem I could have tightened the tripod to the correct angle, which I think would sort at the balance of the camera frame. A third problem to address was with the focus setting on the camera. I found it very difficult to focus the camera and control the settings when the camera was flipped portrait on the tripod. to overcome this problem I would change the settings and focus before and then flip to portrait mode and check the focus once more. There are a lot of technical problems within this lighting shoot but I feel I will learn from these when completeing future shoots and I now know how to stop these problems from happening. A last problem I think is important to highlight is wth the lighting equipment. This was my first time testing the Nikon speedlight and I feel it strongly worked to show the owners in their B&B environment. However, I felt that the flash was very bright and nearly created over exposure but just gave quite a bright and strong effect. This effect is the complete opposite to the soft and delicate atmosphere I want to create within this project, even with the portraits of the owners. To overcome the bright flash my assistant could have held the light from a distance to create more of a subtle effect, which could even look like natural lighting.

My overall view of this lighting shoot were that I did come across many technical problems but I now feel if I were to complete this shoot again I would be able to stop these from happening. From looking back at a shoot and recgonising problems I will definately try and highlight problems when at photoshoots. However, I am finding this difficult because I am in a new environmnet with people who I don't know, so I will need to gain more confidence within location shoots. I believe that my confidence with asking has definatley come along since the portrait project but I do need to speak out if something isn't right, which I can fix there instead of looking back on it. I do though think that there are a few strenghts within this testing shoots. These include the positioning of the owners, which I think are perfectly positioned in the middle of the frame. Also I think that now I have experimented with the Nikon speedlight I could definatly use it again but will think about the problem that occurred in these images.

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