Prom on a ship in San Francisco. Lucky kids.

Okay so my friend and his girlfriend want me to photograph them and 2 other couples tomorrow for their prom, so I was wondering what were some good formal poses. I just want to get an idea because I'm not good at posing...yet. They want me to photograph them in the afternoon, and well I have no choice. They have to be on a bus at around 3 p.m. since they are having their prom on a ship in San Francisco (lucky huh? My senior prom was in a hall that wasn't even all that). I will be using a T1i with 18-55mm lens and I also have a 55mm-200 lens (well it's the only gear that I have).

I dunno about poses, but make sure you take pictures with them completely in the shade.

Do they go to Tamalpais High School? That's where I went and we had our prom out on a ship. Went out under the Golden Gate and came back.

Needless to say it was pretty awesome.

toxic wrote in post #10097918
I dunno about poses, but make sure you take pictures with them completely in the shade.

yes, I've learned from my mistakes and hopefully I can find some good shade. Thanks! Should I step down the exposure also when I shoot them in the shade?

gotglade wrote in post #10098032
Do they go to Tamalpais High School? That's where I went and we had our prom out on a ship. Went out under the Golden Gate and came back.

Needless to say it was pretty awesome.

Well you're lucky too. I didn't get to experience a prom like yours and nope it's Livingston High School in California

This is where they want me to shoot them


click here to zoom in on the picture

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/png'

unique one wrote in post #10098224
yes, I've learned from my mistakes and hopefully I can find some good shade. Thanks! Should I step down the exposure also when I shoot them in the shade?

Up to you. If you want to get as much background as possible, then underexpose the skin by a stop (I'm assuming you use RAW). Otherwise just let it blow out or use a flash.

toxic wrote in post #10099474
Up to you. If you want to get as much background as possible, then underexpose the skin by a stop (I'm assuming you use RAW). Otherwise just let it blow out or use a flash.

hmmm...what do you mean when you say "underexpose by a stop?" do you mean decrease the exposure comp. or decrease the flash exposure comp. or both? I use the RAW+JPEG setting and I don't have a flash. Only flash I have is the one attached to the camera, so I will have to work with that. Thanks.

unique one wrote in post #10099757
hmmm...what do you mean when you say "underexpose by a stop?" do you mean decrease the exposure comp. or decrease the flash exposure comp. or both?

I'm assuming you don't have a flash. Find the exposure that exposes the skin properly, and if you want less of the background to be blown out, double your shutter speed or stop down a stop so that the skin is now underexposed by 1 stop.

If you spot meter caucasian skin, "proper" exposure is around +1 on the exposure scale (I dunno about other types skin off the top of my head). So to underexpose one stop, you place the arrow at 0 instead. Remember that this method only works in spot or partial since you have to meter off skin and only skin. The exception might be if someone's wearing white...priority goes towards not blowing it out, so meter it at +2.

If you use flash, it's a matter of taste.

toxic wrote in post #10102641
I'm assuming you don't have a flash. Find the exposure that exposes the skin properly, and if you want less of the background to be blown out, double your shutter speed or stop down a stop so that the skin is now underexposed by 1 stop.

If you spot meter caucasian skin, "proper" exposure is around +1 on the exposure scale (I dunno about other types skin off the top of my head). So to underexpose one stop, you place the arrow at 0 instead. Remember that this method only works in spot or partial since you have to meter off skin and only skin. The exception might be if someone's wearing white...priority goes towards not blowing it out, so meter it at +2.

If you use flash, it's a matter of taste.

I read this a little too late, but it's good to know now for next time. Thank you!