Scroll down to “Two final notes” if you want to know who she is dressed as, otherwise here’s a long boring post about my photography mistake and potential solutions:
Here are some more of my photography mistakes and a slight example with what happens if you don’t plan for a photo session. Granted, there was no way I could plan for a toddler just dropping in when I had this setup going. But the example still applies.
So, it is obvious that the batwings head accessory is not showing up. That happens when you have something that matches the background unless you’ve applied a prop setup to account for the matching. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to solve problems in photography. For starters, I could have just used a different color backdrop. In this scenario, though, I was set up for something else and that black background is triple layered in a precarious way so changing the background wasn’t an option. Alternatively, I could have processed and touched them up to bring out the colors, but that is a tedious job and takes time, and not really something I want to invest in too heavily for practice and experiment work. However, I still have two other options (and probably more with a little thinking) that I could have fallen back on.
Reflectors and lights.
If I set up a reflector in any number of key locations, I could have separated the subject from the background better by bouncing light in any number of directions. Which directions? Well, that brings us to the other solution: more lights. Specifically rim lights, hair lights, and background lights. Any one of those items could have solved this as well and any of those key terms tells you where you might want to bounce light if you are using a reflector. If the background was brighter, the subject would be separated from the background. If the subject had a rim light, she would be separated better from the background. Finally, if the hair area were brighter, it would make the head accessory brighter too and separate the subject from the background better. A carefully positioned reflector can make this happen as could another light.
Now, if I wasn’t in the middle of another photo session and if I knew I was going to photograph the subject, I would have planned accordingly. Most importantly, I would have taken the time to find out what she was going to wear and coordinate my background or my setup to that outfit.
But the two important take aways here is:
1) There are usually lots of solutions to problems in photography.
2) Planning goes a long way in photography.
Two final notes. First, I keep writing that I wasn’t expecting her when I did these photographs. Don’t confuse that with me not wanting to take her picture as I enjoy working with her very much. She’s the right amount of “unexpected” my photography sets need and I absolutely enjoy working with her as well as having her on my photography set. Not to mention that If a toddler wants their picture taken then you take their picture – no debate.
Second, and arguably just as important (or at least she would think so); she’s dressed as Vamperina.