Staying sane in the 3rd lockdown has been hard. Children have been off school for almost a year. Exams have been cancelled twice. And we have been told numerous times not to go out, stay in if you must but go out when you can’t, which is never. Confused? Ain’t we all!
So this time around parents, like myself were getting better at doing the quality time thing with the kids. Things that they enjoy, that you can do in your own home! What was my thing…? Getting them to do self portraits!! God did we laugh!!
If you have been following my Self Portrait journey on my insta, then you know how much fun I’ve been having, so it was only right to include my three daughter’s but let them take the reigns.
I set up a tethering system with Capture One and used one Godox V1 speed light with a modifier. I gave them the Sony RMT-PTBT remote to control the shutter from in front the camera if they wanted. Showed them how to change the aperture and the set the rest to auto! Oh man did they have a ball. If I didn’t have them cooking dinner that night, we all would have gone hungry!
So the set up was easy, as I have a few backdrops which I buy from Ebay, I let them choose which one they liked but you can shoot wherever with or without a backdrop. Even a white bed sheet could work! I set up the camera in front with a single speed-light also in front higher up and tilted down as per the diagram below. If you want to reduce shadows, then try to move your subject further away from the backdrop, but remember this is all about having fun!
My girls were having so much that they went and called on the rest of my house. My wife and my son joined us all in front of the camera whilst the girls took turns with the remote! Needless to say that most of the images are no way usable but that is not really the point here. There is minimal learning but a great way to do family bonding and to get your kids off of mobile devices for a bit!
Alternatively, why not embrace the use of their phones and get your kids to do a photo scavenger hunt! You can find ideas here.
Short blog today but useful nonetheless! Until the next time! If you can’t beat it, cheat it!