I'll give a bit of backstory first!
I'm a professional photographer, do weddings, some commercial, bunch of creative work. People are always after me to do family photos, but I really hate the 'lifestyle' flavor of today, and wanted to do something different. Well, I figured out what I would like my different to be. LF work on a white backdrop outside. A little Avedon portraits-esque. The setup for these images is going to be pretty intense/impressive, and probably falls under the 'labor of love' category as far as sheer effort exerted on my part. I should mention that this will fall under the 'bonus cash' column of my biz. Not anticipating a heavy flow of traffic (although I am hopeful).
I am mostly comfortable with the camera itself (awesome eh?), although I don't have a lot to show for it other than tests of my husband. Since I've been working on this borrowed Linhoff my focussing has become pretty consistent, and while I'm still not totally fluid on the camera, I can operate it competently if I take my time. I have my little DOF table I made and feel like with that, a tape measure, and some breathing exercises I should be able to do this thing. I have a day coming up where I'm shooting some friends (with kids & pets) in my yard to get a feel for the process. (I have been shooting film for awhile, and am pretty cozy with b&w, hand processing and darkroom work - still have work to do of course, but I'm not abysmal. )
Wow! This got long. Sorry about that.
End of post, I'm really just looking for any general advice. Pitfalls, advice on preparing people them for the slow LF process that they are probably not ready for. I'm also a little curious about how LF shooters get past that 'awkward in front of the camera' time that always happens at the front of a session. Do you just wait em out, plunger in hand? When I'm shooting digital I pepper em with funny chatter and shoot till they drop the fear, LF = different story, with them just standing there. Waiting.
Thanks very much for reading my novel
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