Photography Tips from Commercial Photographer Vincent Laforet

This you tube interview with photographer Vincent Laforet gives some interesting tips on how to think whilst doing a shoot.  He advises to put the camera down and walk around whilst collecting ideas about what particular images you want to achieve.  He talks about selecting your equipment for a particular shoot as taking too much equipment will slow you down and not enough may cause you to miss a brilliant opportunity. He talks about when looking through the lens you need to make an image that will elicit emotions and thoughts as good images which cause emotion for a product will sell it.

Photography is about research he says, pre-plan everything as this is what separates amateurs from professionals.  Create a repertoire with the client which will allow the shoot to be relaxed and then set up the equipment, do not call the client until all the equipment is set up.  Go through each setting individually, ask yourself  "what's the shutter speed and why?  Do you need to freeze motion or do you need motion blur.  Ask yourself "what's the aperture and why?  Do you need shallow depth of field or wide depth of field. Ask yourself "what ISO? He says ask yourself what you want to include in the frame and what you want to exclude and this will give you an idea of what lens to use.

Vincent Laforet was born in 1975 and started his career as a photographer at the age of 15.  When he was 25 he worked for the New York Times and had a Pulitzer for feature photography.