Page 6 - Photography_Week

F E A T U R E

TECHNIQUE ASSESSMENT

Ian met Ania and model Kirstie in Ania’s photo studio, and Ania started out
by checking that Ian’s camera was set up for shooting under studio lights.

FULL CONTROL

Ania says... I got Ian to set up his Nikon D810 for the shoot, of f/8. I suggested he drop down to f/5.6, as f/8 wasn’t
and he was pretty close with his settings. He used Manual quite tight enough; we actually want the back of the head
mode right out of the gate, which is ideal for full control to fall out of focus slightly, so f/5.6 will retain sharpness in
over your parameters, but I noticed that he set an aperture the face and drop focus behind.

SYNC SPEED WHITE BALANCE
Ania says... Ian had set his shutter speed to 1/160 sec, Ania says… I like to colour-correct before I start shooting, so I
but his camera is capable at syncing at a maximum shutter always use a grey card under the lights I’m using and set my
speed of 1/200 sec, so I got him to adjust this accordingly. Nikon’s white balance to ‘PRE’, which is the Preset manual
There’s nothing inherently wrong with using a slightly slower option. I fill the frame with the grey card and press the shutter.
shutter speed, as it’s actually the very brief burst of flash It doesn’t take a photograph in this mode, but the camera will
that freezes any motion in the subject, but it’s better to be take an accurate white balance reading, even if the grey card
safe than sorry! is out of focus. If done correctly, the Nikon will then flash ‘Gd’.