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- Joined
- Feb 28, 2003
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- Huntsville
- First Name
- Scott
- Last Name
- Friday
Howdy,
So I occasionally take pictures of kids at church when they are goofing around on the play ground after church while waiting for the parents to decide where they might want to go for lunch. I also shoot some of the church events. I usually end up posting pics of the kids on their parent's Facebook pages (after asking to make sure it's okay). One thing led to another and I was asked if I would mind shooting pictures of a MOPS event.
MOPS is a ministry for mothers of preschoolers. Child care is provided and it allows the moms a chance to visit with other moms in the same stage of life. There are also "Mentor Moms" that attend and share their experiences as survivors of raising preschoolers. Our church has been hosting MOPS for quite a few years. There are some paid child care people, but there are also a lot of Grandmothers that come in and help with all the kids. There have been times when there have been 100 kids or more.
I was up at the church Wednesday evening and set up everything for the family shots to make sure I had everything right. The moms that recruited me were there and put together the backdrop. I could not get the light from the flashes to work the way I wanted. I was getting reflections off of eye glasses. A friend from church that is also a photographer happened to be there and was helping me. She volunteered to run home and grab her light stand. I only had one. This let us setup two flashes about 45 degrees to either side of the camera and get rid of the reflections. Here's the setup with my helper,
The flashes are my SB700 in the soft box on left and my old SB-28 shooting through the umbrella on the right. I used a set of Cowboy Studio radio triggers to fire them in manual mode. The SB700 was set to 1/4 and the SB-28 to 1/8 since it was brighter through the umbrella. The moms would enter the building through a side door down the hall on the left and come through the sanctuary to arrive for pictures at the doors on the FAR right. After the picture, they would exit stage left into the hall and drop off their kids at the age appropriate rooms before heading up to their meeting room.
This is Melanie, the one that recruited me
and Kristin, a budding photographer that just bought all my D7000 stuff.
After these two shots, moms started arriving pretty quick. The photo shoot isn't really part of the normal schedule, so no extra time was set aside for taking the pictures. The way it was presented to me, the moms would arrive, cue through the sanctuary into the "studio", get their picture taken and move on to the hallway. Of course, I knew that it would not go so fast and smooth. There were kids involved! It become obvious REAL fast which kids were morning kids and which were not 
In general though, it worked pretty well. I tried to get 3-4 shots of each family. Sarah had some dolls and stuffed animals that she would let some of the younger ones hold. That worked well except for a few that wanted to keep them after the shots! We got real busy for about 15 minutes and then had the late comers arrives sporadically for about another 15 minutes. In total, I think we shot for about 45 minutes to an hour before breaking down to visit the various rooms for candid shots of the kids and moms.
ELBC = Elkin's Lake Baptist Church
The older kids are part of home school families. There were activities for the older kids as well.
Overall, I am pleased with the portrait shots. Given the short notice to prepare and time frame for shooting, they turned out nice. The size of the backdrop is larger than I would have preferred. In order to keep the words in the frame, it makes the people take up less space. It would have been better for people standing, not sitting. But a standing shot with the kids would have been tough. Most of the time I was able to get good shots with everyone looking and smiling. But there were some tough customers that just weren't gonna cooperate, stuffed animals or not!
And now for some candids. Next time, I think I will need to bring along some knee pads... I don't get around on my knees like I used to 
This dude is cool. He had on a great cape. He's BATMAN! It said so on the shirt!
The hat was his idea
Maddie is one of my regular "models". She follows me around either wanting her picture taken or to see the images on the back of the camera. She WANTS to push those buttons!!
This little dude was chasing after me faster than I could back away while on my hands and knees with a camera in my hand!!
Mrs Geneva Tyler. My kids all love her and her husband. The bring donuts to Sunday School
This guy was happy just chilling in the middle of the room watching all the action
This one was chasing after me as well. She REALLY likes having her picture taken!
Mrs Brenda Tatum... ALWAYS with that beautiful smile on her face!
Cool eyes...
Taking pictures of babies is a challenge, especially if they don't know you. Some freak out. Some love it. Some will warm up to you. Some will poop in their diaper... 
The room definitely had an "earthy" odor to it
I left the baby room and headed for the Pre K and Kindergarten. These kids are a little easier because I can talk to them. That makes a HUGE difference. I also let some of them take a few pictures (with help) just to get them "into" the whole taking pictures thing. That worked pretty well.
This one LOVED having her picture taken
This dude can't take a bad shot. He is incredibly relaxed in front of the camera
I had to work on this guy, but he came around after seeing me getting fun shots of the other kids
The mother of all cowlicks!! :shocked:
This photo is a GREAT example of what drives me freaking NUTS!
Sarah is not well focused and the other girl is. Yet, their faces are really close together and almost in the same plane. Controlling the DOF and actually knowing what will happen seems to just be a "thing" for me. I get real frustrated with it. If I stop down the lens to 5.6 or 8, either the shutter speed wants to drop unacceptably slow, the ISO goes through the roof, or BOTH. I gotta get this sorted out...
See... same thing again. All in a nice line, but as you look from right to left, the focus starts going soft.
This little dude got some serious lip smacking action!!
After I was done with the kids, we went upstairs to the big room where the moms were meeting. They were doing some kind of crafts thing and just visiting with each other.
It was getting close to time for everything to end, so Sarah and I hauled back down to the sanctuary to get set up for a group shot of the moms before they grabbed the kids and left. The setup was just a flash stand left and right, with me several rows back into the seats. I popped off about 20 shots before I got the flashes and exposure decent. Sarah was my patient assistant for this step. I let her control the remote trigger for the camera.
Once the ladies started coming it, I got them on the steps real quick, showed them where the edges of the shot would be, and got them arranged without much trouble. A quick peep through the view finder made sure everyone was in the shot and I could see all the heads. Amazingly, they got it right on the FIRST shot!! I went ahead and popped several more just to be sure, but that first one was the best of the bunch. The combination of stage lights, LARGE windows on the side of the sanctuary, and flashes made for a crazy white balance, especially since the stage lights did not fall on everyone the same way!
A few of the moms were hanging out talking while their kids were outside goofing around with each other. I grabbed the 70-200 and headed outside for a few more shots.
That tongue is STUCK to the side of his mouth constantly!!
Big brother picking flowers and blackberries
Isaiah. His family is from India. He's a fun kid!
We packed up all the gear and headed for the house. We stopped to grab lunch, I dropped Sarah off at home, and then went to work. I shot around 475 pictures I think. Final count after culling and processing was around 375. Most of the ones culled were because of focus issues. I guess I need to just put the shutter speed around 1/150-1/200, set the aperture to f/8 and just let the ISO float as high as it needs to go 
I was using the pop up flash for almost all of the indoor shots. I had an old white film canister over it for my diffuser. White balance was a challenge for most of the shots because the rooms all have very large windows and bright fluorescent lighting. The Auto setting kept coming in too warm. Even after processing, I think I left a few of them still too warm.
I need to get another light stand and soft box. I also need to get a trigger system that lets me adjust flash settings remotely. A second SB700 would be nice so the two flashes would have the same output at the same settings. Then I could still use the SB-28 for back lighting.
It was a good learning experience.
So I occasionally take pictures of kids at church when they are goofing around on the play ground after church while waiting for the parents to decide where they might want to go for lunch. I also shoot some of the church events. I usually end up posting pics of the kids on their parent's Facebook pages (after asking to make sure it's okay). One thing led to another and I was asked if I would mind shooting pictures of a MOPS event. MOPS is a ministry for mothers of preschoolers. Child care is provided and it allows the moms a chance to visit with other moms in the same stage of life. There are also "Mentor Moms" that attend and share their experiences as survivors of raising preschoolers. Our church has been hosting MOPS for quite a few years. There are some paid child care people, but there are also a lot of Grandmothers that come in and help with all the kids. There have been times when there have been 100 kids or more. I was up at the church Wednesday evening and set up everything for the family shots to make sure I had everything right. The moms that recruited me were there and put together the backdrop. I could not get the light from the flashes to work the way I wanted. I was getting reflections off of eye glasses. A friend from church that is also a photographer happened to be there and was helping me. She volunteered to run home and grab her light stand. I only had one. This let us setup two flashes about 45 degrees to either side of the camera and get rid of the reflections. Here's the setup with my helper,
The flashes are my SB700 in the soft box on left and my old SB-28 shooting through the umbrella on the right. I used a set of Cowboy Studio radio triggers to fire them in manual mode. The SB700 was set to 1/4 and the SB-28 to 1/8 since it was brighter through the umbrella. The moms would enter the building through a side door down the hall on the left and come through the sanctuary to arrive for pictures at the doors on the FAR right. After the picture, they would exit stage left into the hall and drop off their kids at the age appropriate rooms before heading up to their meeting room. This is Melanie, the one that recruited me
and Kristin, a budding photographer that just bought all my D7000 stuff.
After these two shots, moms started arriving pretty quick. The photo shoot isn't really part of the normal schedule, so no extra time was set aside for taking the pictures. The way it was presented to me, the moms would arrive, cue through the sanctuary into the "studio", get their picture taken and move on to the hallway. Of course, I knew that it would not go so fast and smooth. There were kids involved! It become obvious REAL fast which kids were morning kids and which were not In general though, it worked pretty well. I tried to get 3-4 shots of each family. Sarah had some dolls and stuffed animals that she would let some of the younger ones hold. That worked well except for a few that wanted to keep them after the shots! We got real busy for about 15 minutes and then had the late comers arrives sporadically for about another 15 minutes. In total, I think we shot for about 45 minutes to an hour before breaking down to visit the various rooms for candid shots of the kids and moms.ELBC = Elkin's Lake Baptist Church
The older kids are part of home school families. There were activities for the older kids as well.
Overall, I am pleased with the portrait shots. Given the short notice to prepare and time frame for shooting, they turned out nice. The size of the backdrop is larger than I would have preferred. In order to keep the words in the frame, it makes the people take up less space. It would have been better for people standing, not sitting. But a standing shot with the kids would have been tough. Most of the time I was able to get good shots with everyone looking and smiling. But there were some tough customers that just weren't gonna cooperate, stuffed animals or not! And now for some candids. Next time, I think I will need to bring along some knee pads... I don't get around on my knees like I used to
This dude is cool. He had on a great cape. He's BATMAN! It said so on the shirt!
The hat was his idea
Maddie is one of my regular "models". She follows me around either wanting her picture taken or to see the images on the back of the camera. She WANTS to push those buttons!!
This little dude was chasing after me faster than I could back away while on my hands and knees with a camera in my hand!!
Mrs Geneva Tyler. My kids all love her and her husband. The bring donuts to Sunday School
This guy was happy just chilling in the middle of the room watching all the action
This one was chasing after me as well. She REALLY likes having her picture taken!
Mrs Brenda Tatum... ALWAYS with that beautiful smile on her face!
Cool eyes...
Taking pictures of babies is a challenge, especially if they don't know you. Some freak out. Some love it. Some will warm up to you. Some will poop in their diaper... The room definitely had an "earthy" odor to it I left the baby room and headed for the Pre K and Kindergarten. These kids are a little easier because I can talk to them. That makes a HUGE difference. I also let some of them take a few pictures (with help) just to get them "into" the whole taking pictures thing. That worked pretty well.This one LOVED having her picture taken
This dude can't take a bad shot. He is incredibly relaxed in front of the camera
I had to work on this guy, but he came around after seeing me getting fun shots of the other kids
The mother of all cowlicks!! :shocked:
This photo is a GREAT example of what drives me freaking NUTS!
Sarah is not well focused and the other girl is. Yet, their faces are really close together and almost in the same plane. Controlling the DOF and actually knowing what will happen seems to just be a "thing" for me. I get real frustrated with it. If I stop down the lens to 5.6 or 8, either the shutter speed wants to drop unacceptably slow, the ISO goes through the roof, or BOTH. I gotta get this sorted out...See... same thing again. All in a nice line, but as you look from right to left, the focus starts going soft.
This little dude got some serious lip smacking action!!
After I was done with the kids, we went upstairs to the big room where the moms were meeting. They were doing some kind of crafts thing and just visiting with each other.
It was getting close to time for everything to end, so Sarah and I hauled back down to the sanctuary to get set up for a group shot of the moms before they grabbed the kids and left. The setup was just a flash stand left and right, with me several rows back into the seats. I popped off about 20 shots before I got the flashes and exposure decent. Sarah was my patient assistant for this step. I let her control the remote trigger for the camera.
Once the ladies started coming it, I got them on the steps real quick, showed them where the edges of the shot would be, and got them arranged without much trouble. A quick peep through the view finder made sure everyone was in the shot and I could see all the heads. Amazingly, they got it right on the FIRST shot!! I went ahead and popped several more just to be sure, but that first one was the best of the bunch. The combination of stage lights, LARGE windows on the side of the sanctuary, and flashes made for a crazy white balance, especially since the stage lights did not fall on everyone the same way!
A few of the moms were hanging out talking while their kids were outside goofing around with each other. I grabbed the 70-200 and headed outside for a few more shots.
That tongue is STUCK to the side of his mouth constantly!!
Big brother picking flowers and blackberries
Isaiah. His family is from India. He's a fun kid!
We packed up all the gear and headed for the house. We stopped to grab lunch, I dropped Sarah off at home, and then went to work. I shot around 475 pictures I think. Final count after culling and processing was around 375. Most of the ones culled were because of focus issues. I guess I need to just put the shutter speed around 1/150-1/200, set the aperture to f/8 and just let the ISO float as high as it needs to go I was using the pop up flash for almost all of the indoor shots. I had an old white film canister over it for my diffuser. White balance was a challenge for most of the shots because the rooms all have very large windows and bright fluorescent lighting. The Auto setting kept coming in too warm. Even after processing, I think I left a few of them still too warm. I need to get another light stand and soft box. I also need to get a trigger system that lets me adjust flash settings remotely. A second SB700 would be nice so the two flashes would have the same output at the same settings. Then I could still use the SB-28 for back lighting. It was a good learning experience.
