11/03/2013

Toronto Zombie Walk 2013

Busy these days. Every Halloween, the week before there is the Toronto Zombie Walk in downtown Toronto. Took some amazing photos from it.

Women love horror/zombies. It felt like a 50/50 split of male/females at this event.


This is the most recent kind of makeup used by costumers this year; its like a frontal mask where layers are added to give amazing look. Find the rest of my photos on my Deviant Art gallery; many will be blocked unless you have a (free) account and turn off the maturity content filter.

So some notes on this photoshoot:

Success: 
- taking some amazing photos in inclement weather (cold, wet, windy, cloudy dark) and being prepared camera-wise (gear); I brought 2 lens (std kit zoom lens with VR, and a nifty fifty) and I never changed out of the kit lens, nor spent time switching any gear except batteries (took over 400 photos)
- 1 in 6 success ratio; there were alot of good photos, more, if I can take care of the below issues

Improvement required: 
- bring wipes for rain or shoot from a different angle; you may not see it in the viewfinder, but rain will affect the way the photo looks and appears (in most case, ruining the photo)

- arrive earlier; I intended on getting downtown about 15 minutes earlier so I could scout out a good place to take photos, but ended up right on time and failed to get a prime spot

- close focus issues; I tend to have problems when subjects get really close to the camera. I press the shutter button down to take a photo, but the camera failed to acknowledge it and fails to take a photo. I believe this is more of a lens issue and I must learn a minimum distance that the camera will auto focus.


Other notes from the shoot:
- I took all the photos in manual settings; generally low iso (~250), lowest f-stop (~3.5), ok shutter speed (1/80s)

- bring that extra memory card; my memory card is 8gigs, all taken in raw (only) and it lasted ~400 shots and I actually ran out of space. I'm very glad I brought the second card. One big card would be better (but also puts all your eggs in one basket)

- 1/80s resulted in some of my best photos; 1/60s resulted in lower quality. If you have a model, then 1/60s is fine b/c they are posing, but in a parade-style photoshoot, you need to freeze the movement. The only problem is that you need to worry about exposure and ensure the picture is not too dark.

- focus point is critical. Many photos were ruined by not ensuring the focus point was on the subject's eyes. A slight variation resulted in someone in the background being in focus instead. I see the value of a fast focusing lens now. I did single (vs continuous) focusing.. not sure whether that would make a difference. By increasing your f-stop (8/9) may help with this problem, but then make more of the background in focus, which is not what one would be going for when you're focusing on one person at a time.

- dress for the weather; I went with 2 heavier layers of clothes and then a light jacket because I find myself frequently having a backache from my heavy equipment. THAT was a mistake: it was a very cold day and I'm surprised I didn't catch a cold. Also: gloves. Very important. Something that covers most of your hands and leaving the dexterity to manipulate the camera. 

- bring snacks or water (atleast); waiting for the parade to get to your special spot takes a while. I was very lucky and a friend went to get me a hot beverage while I shivered while waiting. Be prepared in that sense as well.

- produce your photos early and have a media contact; I saw the photos taken from the TZW on various websites and found them of very low quality. Know of a way to get your photos out there and you could be staring at your photos from a very well regarded media source.