Halloween Sessions Part 2

Well, It wasn't a complete failure. I had 3 parents/4 kids show up to my second week of photos. Now I had fun, but I am far from content with how the shoot went overall. However, this week instead of sulking in my failures I am going to focus on what I learned and what I will be able to do better next time!

Some things I improved on from last week:
-Set up of the backdrops, I moved some things around on my backdrop to be at more appropriate heights for a child shoot.
-I doubled up the backdrop on one of my "stations"

Things I need to do better:

-Backdrops: It was my first shoot so I used tablecloths and scene setters instead of appropriate backdrops. This was one of the hardest parts of the shoots for me, there was really nothing I could do about it. I was forced to try to edit glare and wrinkles out of my images which really hurt my productivity and overall images. I will definitely be investing in a better material backdrop for my next shoot to save me editing time and also the embarrassment I felt when showing off poor attempts at removing the wrinkles in editing.

-Positioning: Although I tried to make sure I got the entire backdrop in frame I sometimes had it crooked. In my group shots I had children too close to the edge which made it hard to crop and edit effectively.

-Being Aggressive and Overall Interaction:
I need to KNOW what show I want to get and take charge. I let the parents have the run this time, and although it was for the most part okay, its my JOB to get the shots that they want. I need to give directions better and be less shy in my interactions.

I am really hard on myself and felt that both of these were just inexcusable mistakes, but looking back I'm feeling a little less defeated. I haven't had any formal classes and I was honest with my customers about this and charged a very low price. The only thing that worries and saddens me as that these clients may not be repeat customers because of the quality of the backdrops and some of the final images. Also I worry that other people will not want to give me a chance if I do Christmas photos because they will think that these weren't that great and conclude that the Christmas ones won't be much either.

Some of the better shots:

I really want to enroll in an online photography certificate program so that I can really start to learn the technical side of photography and really begin to improve. I just have to see if I can afford it and also if my current college will allow it.