We are going to talk about this from the equipment standpoint, as well as the shoot aspect. If you are just going out to have a nice day, and capture the time in photos, this may not be the blog for you.Having your smartphone is probably enough of a backup you will need so the fun keeps on happening. This is aimed for new professional shooting and landscape photographers.
For both groups, having backup equipment can be the difference from walking away empty handed or making a living. If you are on a commercial job, your client doesn’t want to hear about problems. They have hired you to pull off the shoot and deliver the final product.
There is a saying, you have your camera & lenses,batteries, card, and a tripod; everything else is extra. Basically, you should have the skill to pull off a shoot with just these basic things. Everything else just improves the shoot or makes your life easier. These are the things you should have duplicates of. That doesn’t mean you have top end cameras; most backup cameras are of lower quality. Most are your last main camera that you just kept when you got a newer camera. Same with the other gear here. If you’re new, this is when you borrow or rent a second camera or tripod.
For landscape photographers this happens not because you need to deliver images to a client but, more because you have probably invested time and money to get to your location. Getting to a location and having gear fail, or worse, you forgot to charge your batteries, or you forgot to get an empty card and you card is full of images you haven’t downloaded just bites! If you have a backup of these with you, you are ready to go.
But things always happen. On my last trip my camera somehow got turned on in the bag and the weather was blue skies (for a landscape shooter, mostly when you’re heading to waterfalls you really want some clouds.)The batteries were not a problem, I had backups and a battery bank and charger so I could charge while I shot.
Read blog about accessories in your bag
This leads to the biggest point in this blog. Have backup plans. For my trip I had some locations planned in deep woods where the trees gave me the cover needed. I also had an astro shoot I had in mind that I was able to change my plans and shoot while I was in the Smoky Mountain area. I also had a backup camera that I can shoot infrared (IR) images with. IR is best in bright sun, so I just adapted my shoot list. No, I didn’t get all the shots I originally planned, but I got other ones in mind that I was able to get. My shoot list is always longer than what I can shoot on a trip. Weather,locations, and other obstacles can and do come up. So have alternatives.
I was able to shoot waterfalls that are deeper in the woods.These waterfalls are in shadows allowing for long exposures. It caused some extra work to capture better brackets so the blown-out highlights could be toned down.
Another waterfall was shot late in the afternoon when the mountains blocked any direct sunlight. When planning this was already designed in the itinerary and really saved the day.
The trip was focused on waterfalls, but with the changing weather it opened the chance to do an astrophotography shoot. This one came out of the list of places to shoot. It’s not a list, but a Google map with currently over 200 pins of locations and details. When eating, I was able to pull up this map and see what was close and possible.
For commercial shooting, having alternative ideas to shoot before can also save the day. When I’m shooting for a fashion designer, and it’s in studio, we work from a mood board. This leaves lots of room for alternatives. Even changing from a studio to a street shoot, or from natural to strobe lighting; this is why should be able to shoot both, you should be able to make strobes look like natural light.
For product shoots, having alternative props and sets is a must. If the shoot calls for a strip-out shoot, being able to build a quick set can lead to up selling and getting a hero shot added to your job. Your Art Director (AD) will usually have a set idea, but most are open to suggestions. Work with your stylists or prop buyer beforehand so they have solutions (plus they also can add ideas).
On a shoot for a winery, the assignment was to capture a family shot. This is when you shoot all the available wines from a given winery. They also wanted to highlight a new wine. The normal way to do this is in a static line shot. Pretty boring but straight forward. Having a backup idea,this image was shot at the end of the shoot and added just as an alternative.It ended up being the image used in the campaign.
These days, budgets are too tight if you ask me. It is harder to have an assistant on set and I find this a hindrance to pulling off epic shots. Having someone who can be setting something up in the background or pulling a backup light onto set while you’re working with the client, really makes for a more creative and productive shoot. So, a backup person would be the most important addition for any commercial photographer, if only the budget would allow for this more often.