Damm I hate it when everything go's wrong.

[That_Look_Photo]

Originally Posted by jimmyd

Never blame yourself or the model or subject, at least not publically. Always divert blame elswhere-- the camera or other gear, sunspots or solar flares, government conspiracies. Later, when you're alone and thoroughly depressed, slowly recreate what you did, step-by-step, and then--when you discover what went wrong--whether it was a brainfart or faulty equipment, punish yourself with actual physical pain or take a sledgehammer to the offending gear. BTW, if you have a backup camera and the problem persists, your options are fewer and you might consider solar flares or conpiracies as possible excuses. If models can flake because they were supposedly abducted by aliens, you can have shooting problems attributed to the sun or the government.

Hi,

I have not looked at the equipment yet to see what is wrong. I figure I better get to work on the images. I am thinking the camera may have screwed up. And I never even thought to break out my old Nikon D100. I am going to take this as a lessen and learn from it.

Mike

[That_Look_Photo]

Originally Posted by Doug_Lester

I've no idea what went wrong, so all I can say is we've all been there, or will be there. It's usually just some dumb error. All I can say is sometimes life just sucks!

I have another shoot at 2pm tomorrow..God help me...

Mike

[n5wd]

Originally Posted by That_Look_Photo

I spent hours working on my lighting and getting everything ready for my shoot. I thought I had it just about perfect. Then it's time to shoot and my lighting was a disaster . My meter and camera were so far off I could not understand why. Every shot was blown out. It was like I was not changing anything by turning down the power output to the lights. The meter said everything was good but the camera was blowing out every time.. I looked like a real jackass in front of the model. I feel I let her down and myself. I have been so mad at myself I have not been able to go back and see what was wrong. Even the white balence looked to red. I have never had a day like this before and it makes me want to just give up.

I just had to talk about it..sorry.

Mike

Do you know how to read the histogram on your camera? If so, you can use the flash meter as a guide, then fine-tune it with the histogram, and you won't wonder if you're getting good exposures - you'll KNOW you are.

Other than that, like has been said, we've all been there - learn from it and do better next time.

BTW - don't try to make a silk purse from a sow's ear - Photoshop can't put detail where it doesn't exist (your overblown images). Maybe cut and run time.

[jtsmith]

I have not read all the responses but it sounds to me your lens is sticking wide open

J T

[StanTom]

You need to tell the client that it's the newest style.... blown highlights is now

try fresh batteries

Don't beat yourself up , you have some time to figure it out ,
What's the chance that your lens wasn't locked on the smallest aperature or your light meter was off for some reason .
maybe the exposure comp on the camrea is on ...
( but I would aggre with JT on checking the lens - just read his reply after posting this )

When all else fails try the 2 button reset ( but bring out the old camera to see if it works first )
well .. good luck finding the problem hopefully the model will understand everybody can have a bad day

[Photomart]

Hey Mike --

Been there and felt your stress. Nothing I hated worse than when I shot film and was on exposure 42 before I realizedthat the film was not advancing. How about posting one of your blown out images (straight out of the camera) so a few of us can look at the image data and see if we see anything wrong.

[That_Look_Photo]

Originally Posted by Photomart

Hey Mike --
Been there and felt your stress. Nothing I hated worse than when I shot film and was on exposure 42 before I realizedthat the film was not advancing. How about posting one of your blown out images (straight out of the camera) so a few of us can look at the image data and see if we see anything wrong.

I think the problem was the connection with the lens and the camera body. I changed the lens and everything looked good. I put the lens on that I did the shoot with and it worked the way it should.
Here is one of the better images as for exp ...You can see how the background is super bright. the model was about 6 or 7 feet infront of the backdrop. All that was done was a resize and save as ..
This is the point in time I started to just turn down the lights on the backdrop. And it did not make any diference. I had to move her more away from the backdrop to get this shot.

[lsc1]

Wow, Given your comments, I thought this was going to be much worse. I guess maybe you had something else in mind but this doesn't look too far out of range to me from an exposure point of view. Maybe it's time to calibrate my screen.

Cheers,
LSC

[That_Look_Photo]

Originally Posted by lsc1

Wow, Given your comments, I thought this was going to be much worse. I guess maybe you had something else in mind but this doesn't look too far out of range to me from an exposure point of view. Maybe it's time to calibrate my screen.
Cheers,
LSC

Like I said that was one of the better images..Here is a bad one

[RVMD]

ISO correctly set on your meter? Camera in manual mode w/a shutter speed and F-stop to match the meter. Meter in correct mode? Strobe vs. ambient? Metering of strobes and not modeling lights? Ambient light level not excessive? Lens closing down? Camera OK for shots outdoors?

FWIW, I took a piece of 8x10 cardboard and covered half in white seamless and half in black. I have the model it and I take a shot, the two spikes are clearly visible on the histogram and you can then fine tune your exposure.

Keep us updated on your problem. I'm curious to know what went wrong.

R