Neighbor 2 Neighbor Shoot Tips

Preparation for shoot
- Learn how to use your equipment, how to set ISO, aperature, white balance, exposure
- My starting settings: ISO 400, aperature f/11, white balance 5600K, camera/flash sync speed 1/160s
- Test your equipment before the shoot to make sure you know how to work it
- Learn how to use flash, how to make your camera trigger the strobes

Things to Bring
- Backgrounds with neutral colors are best, not black or red
- Smooth your background, steam, iron or stretch it, (minimize wrinkles)
- Tissues
- Mirror
- Bench and stools
- Minimal toys
- Basket for baby pictures
- Snack and drink for yourself

Things to NOT Bring
- Makeup
- Food or candy for families

Family Portrait Shoot
- Put a marker on the floor to show family where to stand
- Tape down electrical cords or cover them with carpet
- Use sandbags to weigh down light stands
- Set white balance to match strobe/flash
- Shoot a gray card to check color balance
- Set flashes to different channels or frequencies so they don't interfere with other setups
- Shoot name card first (so we know which family this is)
- Pose family in a single plane, "have them press their noses to an imaginary window"
- Concentrate on taking the best family shot, then as many groupings and poses as you like.
- Leave space around edge of picture so it can be cropped to 8x10 or 5x7.
- Separate family from the background if possible, by blurring or darker background
- Check for open eyes, and good expressions before you decide that you are done
- Expressions are more important than technical perfection
- Don't shoot over another photographer's shoulder
- Keep your shoot time to 15 minutes or less
- Have fun, It is OK to make a mistake, each family should have 4 photographers taking their picture

Post Processing
- Calibrate your monitor before editing (brightness, contrast, color)
- Do minor editing on all pictures that you give the families
(adjust brightness, saturation, contrast, level and crop)
- Do more extensive editing on the 8x10 image
(lighten and saturate eyes, darken eyelashes and brows)
(whiten teeth, but don't add new teeth)
(clean up skin, but leave beauty marks and freckles)
(minor body shaping is OK, but don't do too much)

Helper Tasks
- Stay with family, and take them to at least 4 photographers
- Makes sure that each photographer gets a picture of family with card
- Watch time, 15min or less per photographer
- Introduce family to photographer and explain family relationships
- Helpers trying to make children smile must be directly behind the camera so it looks like the children are looking into the camera

Requests for N2N
- Ask families to bring a hair brush for touchups
- Have someone fluent in Spanish available
- Tell families to expect to be here for 1/2 to one hour

Do the club members want to go out to dinner after the shoot?

Details Regarding the N2N Family Portrait Shoot