Tips for shooting my first model please

[nycityinsomniac]

Im not familiar with doing a photoshoot dedicated to one person so i want to ask you guys for some advice. She wants to do something in an abandoned house or just somewhere with an old weather beaten background.

Im guessing the lighting wont be very good and i dont have studio lighting so should i just use off camera flash?

Ill be shooting with my 7D when it comes in this week with a 430EX II Speedlite TTL Shoe-Mount Flash. Hopefully the light will be good enough to just shoot without flash.

My lenses include:

Tamron 70-200 2.8
Sigma 50mm 2.8
Sigma 10-20 4-5.6

Which 2.8 lens should i use? the one where im closer or further away from my subject? Which F stop should i mainly shoot in? Im thinking about F4 to get a good range of my subject in focus.

Do any of you guys have a link to the best poses to have the model do?
Any other advice is appreciated.
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[hawk911]

well, you got a lot going on for a first time shoot.

Lens choice will be dicated by space available, pose, and lighting. If you try to go all natural lighting, then the 2.8 of either focal length will be critical. Even the 7d with higher iso using the f2.8 lenses will give you more options. I'd leave the 10-20 home- at that FL it will just make her distorted, unless that's the goal of your shoot. If you could buy a set of triggers and get the flash off camera, you'll have more options.

Lastly- poses will also be dictated by space, props available, and her ability to move and strike the pose. With the limited lighting choices, see what the location presents and go with it

[ns@flowcentric.net]

I do not know if I am too late, but what I did for a shoot for a friend of mine is to hire nice lenses (I got 50mm 1.2L and 85 1.2L) and I got a 580EX Flash for master(on shoe) with my 430EX II as slave (off camera). There is really some reasonable places out there - I got mine for in USD value: $100 plus +- $20 insurance(if that much for insurance - could not remember that part) for saturday morning till monday evening

[Hollywoodgt]

I do not know if I am too late, but what I did for a shoot for a friend of mine is to hire nice lenses (I got 50mm 1.2L and 85 1.2L) and I got a 580EX Flash for master(on shoe) with my 430EX II as slave (off camera). There is really some reasonable places out there - I got mine for in USD value: $100 plus +- $20 insurance(if that much for insurance - could not remember that part) for saturday morning till monday evening

It would have been nice to see some of the pic you did with that combination. I'm thinking of buying a 50mm 1.2L just for portrait stuff.

[Bryan Grant Photography]

85 is better first portrait lens

[hawk911]

or even the 50mm f1.4 if budget is an issue.

[Dooms_day]

I'd get the 50 1.8 no matter what, if you like the 70-200 for portraits better than the 50 you could think about getting an 85 1.8, but on a 1.6x crop its pretty zoomed.

[Hollywoodgt]

I think your question is a hard one to answer. Like a few people mentioned, not knowing your light and square footage is something that has to be taken into consideration. Do you have any way of defusing your light so your not getting flash burn? If you had electricity you could buy some cheap tin lights from Ave. Use them as modeling lights. I personally like a lot of bokeh and shadows.

Best bet is cruise the portrait and glamour sections, write done some ideas and then try them. Can you shoot tethered and bring a lap top so you can see your images better?

Good luck, best way to gain experience