A photographic project is not something that one should take lightly, it is not a task that you can improvise, much less one that you can throw yourself into blindly. Well that's what I did. And I made one mistake after another. Because I didn't know the steps to follow to carry out a photographic project , in fact I didn't even know that you had to have a "plan" to carry it out, because I had never given myself the idea of doing one. But a topic came up that motivated me a lot and without thinking I jumped in, it wasn't premeditated, it came up taking a photo and I jumped into the pool. So I could check one by one all the mistakes that can be madewhen you don't have a plan. What's more, some of these mistakes you can even make if you have it, there are details that can be missed. That is why I want to share my experience, so that what happened to me does not happen to you, so that you anticipate every last detail and that your photographic project is a complete success. Do you want to meet them?
MY IDEA
My idea was to photograph my baby in his first 12 months of life. I had thought of many photos to take of her before she was born, but I don't think something like this had ever occurred to me in the long term. As you will understand, she was motivated, she was my baby, I took a photo of her that inspired me, I was all postpartum with hormones revved up and full of love and I said, here we go!
And I was wrong, well, not completely, because I have the memory, the experience too (and I can share it with you on top of that), but if you intend to carry out a photographic project you must go further and not wait to keep the memory and a potato of photos if you look at them together. And I'm not saying that the photos in this-my-project are, because I think they're wonderful, not because I took them, but because my little girl comes out and they're made with so much love that I can't see them like a potato. Now, if I put on the person-external-and-objective glasses, I recognize that from a photographic point of view they leave a lot to be desired. What did I do wrong? Well here are my mistakes.
1. NOT PLANNING
I have already commented that it was something impulsive and this was my biggest mistake, from the beginning to the end. The "number one", the most serious. If I had planned, maybe I would have avoided other mistakes. The truth is that I am impulsive, I like to act and have quick results, sometimes it works for me, but it is a "flaw" from birth that I have and that I have to improve if I want to achieve a photographic project that is worth seeing or demonstrate. Plan, plan and plan. Even the dumbest detail you can think of. For example:
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- Not thinking about what was the right place . The first month and the second seemed great to me because my little one did not move, but there came a time when I was so afraid that he would move that I couldn't even focus decently, nor "nah, nah." Placing your baby on top of a dresser is not a good idea, I assure you! But of course, I couldn't change anymore because the idea was to photograph it in exactly the same place, with the same background...
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- Not anticipating that you might need an assistant . Of course, this is what happens when you try to photograph a baby and especially when you try to do it on top of a piece of furniture. That to take the photos you depend on me being there and of course... it's not always possible, especially when you live 500 km from your family and in your current city you know fewer people than a sea crab in the desert. As a result, you only have dad, who works more hours than clockwork and the last thing he wants on the weekend is to start a photo shoot. It is that the time when you have a baby is golden, if you have not lived it you cannot know it.
- Don't think about the wardrobe . And how good these photos would have turned out if it had occurred to me to buy her the same little outfit in different sizes, or at least one similar, because that way there is soooo little unity ? Seeing them all together is when you realize these details. This can still be solved by going to black and white, but of course, not all the images support the gray scale and, also, I think that in this case I would lose a lot, those tones of the cloth flags give a touch of tenderness to the photos. Ideally, you plan from the beginning if the photos will be in color or in black and white and not use it to patch.
- You could have planned to photograph her each month with a gesture characteristic of her stage of development, for example raising her head, sitting, crawling, etc. I could also have decided to photograph her always awake, but it is that in the three and four months that she began to curl up it was good that she was asleep... Now when I see them all together, it is a bit out of tune.
2. NOT CLEANING THE CAMERA SENSOR
Of course I was there to think about these things... with a high-demand baby, practically without help, having to work, etc., etc., cleaning the sensor was the least of my worries... ERROR ! What a pity that the photos are so "dirty" (sniff). Please, don't let it happen to you ? It doesn't matter what you photograph or what the object of your project is.
3. OVERESTIMATING MY POWER OVER LIGHT
I am a lover of natural light, you will have been able to verify it if you have been here for a while. But it is a mistake not to take into account the flash for occasions like this, that is, indoors, in the same place (whatever day it is), far from the window and having to photograph a specific day (your birthday, day above or day below). Everything was getting complicated for me, winter in this city is not as bright as in the south (where I am from) and there were days when it was so cloudy that the photos came out quite dark. Come open the diaphragm, so much so that I failed to focus, because of course, I had to shoot fast in case it felt comfortable going down… I also raised the ISO value, but then they came out with noise… I could have used a flash with a diffuser, a light window or any object that would help me with lightingwithout damaging my baby's eyesight and without scaring her, of course. But no, I thought I was a super-woman-de-la-luz and the ca…, sorry, I screwed up ? Moral: when planning your project, very important, keep the light in mind!! If you anticipate that you may not have enough natural light, help yourself from the beginning with artificial light, mixing one and the other does not look very good (depending on each project, of course).
4. DO NOT PUT A TITLE
Essential. Before starting a project you must put a title, it is not worth saying I am going to photograph the evolution of my baby and call the folder itself, Adriana evolution. No. This shouldn't work like that. A project must have a title, it will be part of the topic, of the project. It will also give you some ideas when planning. At least I could have called him "12 months, 12 smiles", or whatever. Title it now costs me much more and I lack motivation, totally, if it's already done... and why... with all the bugs it has ?
5. DO NOT SAVE ALL THE PHOTOS IN THE SAME PLACE
Oh, how chaotic I am sometimes, especially when I lack time. It is that I thought that a baby only slept (another mistake that you only know if you have had one). And of course, she downloaded the photos as she could, when she could and where she could. Bad very bad. That happened to me because I didn't have a Workflow (I've put myself in modern mode), that is, because I didn't have a workflow . If you don't have one, consider it, or at the very least, keep all the photos in the project in the same folder (and on the same computer). This way it will be easier to work with them later and you will not lose any image.
6. NOT USING THE SAME ORIENTATION
Always shoot vertically or always horizontally is something that you should consider from the beginning, especially if you want to make a montage with all the photographs at the end. Ideally, there should be an aesthetic unit and this should be one of them, unless your project requires something else. Now you see all the photos of my daughter vertically, but some of them had to be cropped because I didn't take this detail into account either.
7. DO NOT EDIT ALL THE PHOTOS AT ONCE
A photographic project implies, in addition to a narrative unit, an aesthetic unit. If you edit each photo on one hand, especially with a lot of time involved, you will fail. Or later you will have to recover the originals and repeat all the work. If you look at my photographs, there is a difference between one and the other in color temperature, contrast, lighting... Be careful with this if you don't want to spoil the project or work double.
8. DON'T SHOOT RAW
Shooting RAW has advantages and disadvantages . Here I think it has more advantages. It would have saved me more than a head warm-up at the end if I had done it in all the sessions and not just in some. Another option is to use RAW+JPG.
9. DO NOT PRINT ON PAPER
My little one is over two years old and I haven't revealed these photos on paper yet . It will seem crazy to you, I know, this, together with the lack of planning, are the most serious errors. I am so embarrassed to write and admit this that before turning off the computer, now that I have all the photos together (I did it to write the article, that's fine) I'm going to transfer them to a USB and tomorrow I'll take at least one 10×15 copy, nothing to continue overestimating the time I will have to make an album or some enlargement. The day has come.
YOUR TURN
As you can see, I put love in it, and a lot. Little technique. Many errors. At least I have the memory, because my precious Adriana will never again have between 0 and 12 months, and I also have learning. Mind you, I wish she had learned that before she was born! Now it's your turn to take note of these mistakes and take a look at the 9 steps to carry out your photographic project .
Did you like it? Has it served you at least? If it has been so, I ask you to share it. I would have appreciated coming across an article like this some time ago ? Thanks and until next time!
