One thing I rarely talk about... (Patreon)

A very large part of my photography is trial and error. When I go into a photoshoot, I usually have the general idea of what I want to photograph, but 90% of the time I’ll never get the perfect shot the first time. Photography isn't a perfect art. It takes a lot of trial and error to get the lighting just right and sometimes, it can take hundred of tries before I get juuust the right photo!

When juggling ISO, Shutter Speed, Lighting Set-Ups, along with minifigure blocking, the image can change drastically. Too much of one can over compensate for another. Low ISO with an external flash with give you great resolution in an image, but you can loose the fine details of the subsequent lighting. If Kirk is too far to the right, he'd be blocking one of Spock's ears... etc. I find that I can take dozens of test shots to balance that complex juggling act!

So here's around 140 images that were taken in my best attempts to get the shot to match correctly with the idea that was banging around in my head. It goes to show you just how much of a trial/error photography is.

Ironically, this video contains about a quarter of what was actually photographed during this shoot. It includes everything from lighting and framing test shots, intentional shots that didn't make the cut, plus other shots taken by accident or the camera moved or whatever. Basically, I just took a chunk of photos from the 'Kirk/Spock' set-up, and put them together to demonstrate a point! :P

This is pretty much how all my photoshoots go. I never get the perfect  shot the first time. It takes time to form the image into what I really want. Sometimes that perfect shot is hiding somewhere in the middle of the shoot, or even the very last photograph taken! :P

I’m far from a professional photographer, but I’d argue that even professionals take bad photos... they’re just a little more picky when it comes to the ones they choose to share ;)