I’ve had a lot of luck posing people for headshots. Mainly I have them turn their whole body to the right or left then twist to face me. I rarely have subjects face me directly with their shoulders square to me.

There are always people who say they don’t like themselves in photos. I kind of feel that way. If they have that look in their eye that they think they’ll look bad, I try to distract them. Like asking them to do a complete spin and get them right as they come back around. Once I had a kid do jumping jacks. I have them say funny words like pickle or mommy or my girlfriend or have them intentionally lisp like “Why tho therious?”

You want heavy women to really listen to you? Tell them how to make themselves look skinny in a photo…

If you don’t like yourself in photos, its really something you can work on. Look in the mirror and say its showtime or big dick or sexy. Turn sideways from the mirror and only turn your head and neck facing it --that’s the way I look best in photos so I always try to pose like that.

I experienced that on a trip to Japan. I filled up a 32GB card for the first two thirds of the trip including Oita, Osaka Kyoto and Hiroshima and put it away for the next card. When I got home the card had disappeared and I looked everywhere and called the lost and founds in three airports with no luck. So I eventually accepted that I was a dumbass who didn’t secure the card enough. So many great memories in photos and video…

Then two months later I’m looking in my bowl of reader glasses and I see a card at the bottom. I thought it was a new one I’d just bought and just for the heck of it I’d look to see if anything was on it. And damnit it was the missing Japan photos! I don’t know if I’ve even been happier!

So I had the deep loss and enrapturing discovery!

I’d tell them that you’re starting a tattoo site or a tattoo IG page and its free advertising because you are starting out. Use the word ‘share’ a lot…! And take a lot of photos…

You should buy some off camera lighting if you’re going to keep doing these. Once they put the ointment on a new tatt it will shine up if you use oncamera flash. Aim it at the ceiling… Ring lights are cheap!

You’ve got quite the dilemma.

For one thing, most of the mirrorless lenses aren’t cheap. DSLR lenses used are.

I’ve both a mirrorless and a couple great DSLRs all Nikon…

For pleasure and trips I take the mirrorless because it does video beautifully, too.

But for all my late night events, I only use the DSLRs…I’ve got the most lenses for them. They focus better at night with flash.

If I were you I’d go mirrorless… because then you’ve got ‘the future’ and you can really see which you like.

If you can move around, try different perspectives. From behind each team, at the net between both teams from the side and look for the best angles. You are the photographer, so find the best shots.

You must use f-stop lenses at or below f2.8.

When I’ve shot volleyball I get maybe 50-60% of the shots are keepers. I try to get faces between plays when they are smiling at each other or high fiving. Action shots are much harder but the more games you shoot, the better you get at anticipating good action. Maybe 1 in 3 are good. And I’ve found that if you can’t get faces, get butts. Your GF might not like that, but a spike from behind to me is easier to get and just as interesting as from the front…just saying.

It will be easy

1.Shoot them outside during the day before the party. Assign someone to line them up.

2. Find a wall for the background under cover but facing out toward the the bright sky.

3. Have each person stand at an angle to you and turn their head to face you. They should not back up to the wall…have them stand a foot from the wall. There has to be no direct sun on each person.

4. Your camera should NOT be on Auto ISO. Try ISO 100 first then go higher if its too dark.

5. Take the photos in Program mode. Focus mode should be AF-S or Single. Aim at the eyes. Take the picture look at it, and adjust until it looks right.

Rinse and repeat…

If you do this before the party to practice and to check your settings, you just might have some nice results. They don’t expect much…it didn’t cost them a thing. So blow them away with the shots.

Thing is, if they’re good you’ll probably have to do it again and again…

^^^ This is so true.

It really is best to just move on. Use your photos in your portfolio and probably avoid working for/with her ever again. Your life and career will be much smoother if you work with people that do what they say and say what they’ll do.

She screwed up…does she know she did and told you? If not…it would happen again with her.

I worked 5 weddings unpaid before I did my own, and the experience was worth it not just for how to shoot the wedding but for how to run your own photo business with integrity.

There’s something definitely wrong on his end.

For context yesterday I delivered 665 edited photos to the customer two days after the shoot. And I had two other gigs over the weekend. Everyone’s busy but he’s in trouble somehow.

He could have incredibly bad time management, or uber procrastionation, or computer failure or something in his world has really gone wrong. Hopefully its not anything with your photos.

Give him a deadline and your money back if he doesnt deliver…today. Friends are friends, but six weeks is out of whack.

Dive deep into these articles… https://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm

They would be very helpful…

Then get the Scott Kelby Photography books. Each page shows an image and the techniques, settings, and equipment to accomplish it… He has many books on all aspects of photography so pick the ones for the style you’ll need. He’s got courses too but I’ve never taken them.

Your photographer cancelled on you and didn’t offer to give back your deposit?

Yes, I’d ask for the deposit back and not reschedule…

If they are not going overboard to make up for inconveniencing you then find someone else…

Yeah you go your way I’ll go mine, FandF… I’m betting your going to have to get the last word…bring the snark biotch!

Make it a dinner…they could cook! And for some reason you HAVE to do the photos after eating. Maybe you walk in and say I am so hungry I can’t shoot…can we eat first? Or your kids need to eat. Then they’ll all be kind of tired and full and that will shorten the shoot. Everybody won’t want to do the full session.

You’re not going to get out of doing it…you’re just not. So do it. And figure out ways to shorten the shoot and make it fun family time at home with a couple pictures at the end.

Always do it at their house or your house. Forget about locations…ugh! The location is at one of your homes…

more than 500 because I do what I say and say what I’m gonna do…and I don’t let people down. Half my business is repeat business. If I fuck up I make up for it…jimmy!

Just keep wearing your tshirt and underwhelming your peeps…

I use pixieset… Their photo galleries look great, and you view them as thumbnails. You can choose the size downloads you like from low dpi’s up to high resolution.

Here’s a recent gallery https://picprokeithlindquist.pixieset.com/danielandcaitlynengagement/

Its easy to view and share to FB but not IG…

Flint you’re too sensitive. Its time to man up when a man screws up. Not be a defensive pussy. If it sounds like you’re being talked down to, then you’re not realizing what the customer thinks of you because you were paid and didnt deliver.

OP’s showing up early didn’t help did it? Next time make sure your settings are right so your photos are in focus as part of your earliness.

If I know I’m going to be late I wear a tie. When I say dress nice I mean don’t wear a nicer t-shirt like you haha. I’m not saying be a simp…I’m saying be respectful with pleases and thank yous.

I’ve shot more than 500 events and had a few fuckups along the way and I know how to best resolve them by satisfying the customer…what about you,little Jimmy?

Shoot the building the way you like it, then add them. Have them start closer to the building, take the photo, have them move closer to you…take the shot, move closer, etc. Rinse and repeat…

Shoot with a higher number f-stop so both your people and the building are in focus…f7.1? F8? Either use a powerful flash or shoot on a sunny day late in the day when the sunlight hits the building the best…

I’d take full responsiblity and explain to the client that it was your fault. You didn’t explain the importance of having models there on time, and also the importance of having the food ready to go so you could get all the shots in that hour.

Don’t share the shots you took.

He doesn’t care about the shots you got unless you have ALL of the shots he wanted. So tell him let’s reschedule when everyone has time and you ‘and he’ can coordinate the shoot better.

Tell him you did all you could with what you had but your goal is to get him quality shots for all the plates.

It sounds like it was a team effort and you weren’t the leader you needed to be… He will respect your approach if you sell this right. And for the next shoot, if he agrees…show up early and dressed nice, have a plan for each shot, be super engaging to the models, and say how great the food looks often. Say please and thank you a LOT. In other words…make up for your fuck up.

I find certain words help…it will get your eyes to shine. Pickle, Mommy, Pickle for my Mommy, Sexxay, and a little trick I use is say a word that has ‘s’ in it and change it to ‘th’, so Tho Thexthy, Why Tho Therious?

Find a word that makes you smile. and say it out loud or to yourself. Repeat it.

Look straight at the camera lens nowhere else. Look into the back of that lens.

As a photographer there are plenty of photos I’ve taken where someone is looking away or looking different, and I know they just didn’t feel good about themselves being photographed. And if I do catch them before I take the photo, I ask them to look at me and fart. Often gets a smile.

What I’m trying to say is distract yourself anyway you can, look right at the camera like a dare and say that word that makes you happy.

Constant improvement is key. I am so much better than I was 20 years ago. I’ve better technique and better equipment, and its been a long haul since.

I had a lot of frustration when I bought my first DSLR. It was a package with a Nikon D70 and a short and long Tamron lenses that were super soft. I realized it wasn’t me it was the crap Tamrons and got 18-200 Nikon and a 50mm 1.8 Nikon and the images were better. I had a few gigs and went to Africa with that setup and the pics were good but not half as good as I get today. That was 15 years ago, and since I’ve gotten better cameras and lenses with money from gigs. Its a slow gradual process getting the right tools you can afford. Now I really don’t have any wants for more equipment. I look at old shots and I can see how far I’ve come. I can’t believe people paid me for some of the pics I delivered haha.

Think of the future and where you want to be. Find photos you love by others and make them your goal. If I looked back I may not have gotten to where I am now!

I’ll never forget working with a pro wedding photographer and watched how easy she made it look and how freaking crisp her images were…her stuff became my goal. And I’ve reached it and I think surpassed her style.

Another thing that really helped were all the articles on this page. Great stuff … read every one!

You’ll need a backdrop – these are great. If you’re going to do more headshots, they are essential. A white one even makes more sense. With a white one, its easier to erase the background and put in a custom backdrop.

https://preview.redd.it/dwqzhw3aal0c1.jpeg?width=3038&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2cb2f315b6eeaad933fc0b32ef0e78b4a03ea412

I usually do corporate head shots with one light. I’ve used this one for more than five years and the results are fabulous. And use an umbrella and set it up as high as it will go on a stand so the shadows are behind and below your subject.

A speedlight might work with an umbrella or a softbox. You cannot just use a Speedlight aimed at the subject without a large diffuser.

You could probably use your video light but I’ll bet that will make your subjects squint which isn’t a good look.

The lower the ISO the better anyone’s skin is going to look, so bright lighting and low ISOs are the way to go… try 100 to start then adjust.

Shoot them all in RAW and definitely manual so all the headshots look uniform. If you shoot Auto program and Auto ISO, a dark skinned person’s shot will look a lot different than a light person’s shot.

I wouldn’t go into shooting multiple corporate headshots without the right equipment. Whatever you do, set up what you have and practice a LOT before you go to do it!