F/1.0

Did some location scouting yesterday, and I figured I’d share one of my little tips for scouting for shoots.

Now, normally when scouting, you go around and when you find a potentially good spot for a shot you fire off some frames

However, I like to use my G9 for scouting - not only because it is light and compact (I toss the g9, a sync cord and strobe in a little shoulderbag, and it weighs a few oz.) but for the *movie mode*

In addition to my reference shots when I find a good spot, I will flip it into video mode, and pan around the area - recording all the angles/light in the area - as well as speaking some “notes” about my ideas for the shoot. That way when I get home, I not only have my still images of the locations, but a bunch of little video clips showing all the angles, with narration along the lines of “corner of x street… light coming from the west… will place model in front of the tree/car/whatever… with a reflector to the left and single strobe to the right”

or something like that

This way I remember *excatly* what I was thinking at the time for the shot/setup.

Anyway, hope it’s a useful tip - it doesn’t have to be with the G9 either, any pocket cam with a video mode will make a nice companion to your SLR when scouting locations! (though with the G9, I find I hardly need the SLR backup)