Advice--please

[trying2bpro]

I am a newbie--been asked by family member to take some photos for a christian album cover. Need suggestions on posing, backgrounds, techniques, etc. My gear is a Canon Xsi, canon 50mm 1.8mm, and 18-55mm kit lens. Also have calumet 1light strobe set up. Need help!!

[caught14]

Without a lot of detail, here's some general suggestions:

- The background/location will depend on a few things. Will they need their equipment for the shoot? If so, that might limit your options. If it's just a session of them, then you should have plenty of options to choose from. Try picking something unusual, like an alleyway, a warehouse, or an open field.

- For posing, if you can't come up with any ideas yourself, then look at other band images for inspiration. Don't copy exactly what someone else does, but you can at least get ideas on how to arrange people.

- If you are comfortable using your light strobe, then try some shots with that. Get creative and try different positions for the flash to add depth or dramatic lighting to the scene

- Learn how to nail your white balance. This will save you lots of time on the back end. AWB may work okay outside, but it will surely taint indoor images. Along these lines, capture everything in RAW so that you have some flexibility in post processing to tweak exposure/WB/etc.

Just get out there and do it. You will learn a lot from experience. And have fun!

[Benji]

Keep in mind CD covers are square NOT rectangular so the image must be square also.

Benji