Technique assessment

What’s the priority?

Anthony says... I asked David to set his D810 up for our first shot of the day. He put it into aperture-priority mode and set an aperture of f/13. “I’ll need it all in focus because we’re in front of a landscape,” David told me. But I suggested using a wider aperture like f/3.2 because we didn’t actually want the whole scene to be in focus. We needed some blur to isolate our model, Jen, from the backdrop.

Spot metering

Anthony says... On a shoot like this, you need to be able to balance the light for your subject, not the surroundings. Lifestyle clients quite like the scene to be blown out or thrown into shadow, as long as the subject (the model, or the clothes if you’re shooting for a catalogue) are well exposed. I had David switch from matrixmetering mode to spot metering for more accurate light readings.

Continuous high burst

Anthony says... David was shooting in singleframe mode, which meant that even if he held the shutter button down longer than the shutter speed, the Nikon would only shoot one frame. I changed it to Continuous high burst mode for him, and then he could shoot multiple photos quickly as Jen walked up the dunes. This is essential when the model’s position is always changing, like when she’s walking. It’s better to do this and pick out your favourite photograph on the computer later.