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Archive 2021 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos

  
 
DougVaughn
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


The company I work for operates senior living communities (assisted living) and is wanting quality lifestyle photos for our website and marketing materials. Up to this point, they've used stock photos, but it would be much better to have images of our own communities and residents. We're a very small company with a small budget for something like this.

They have asked if I would consider doing photos for them. I'm reluctant as I'm not a professional (finance guy), but I do have a decent amount of experience with portraits. My concern is I can control the lights for portraits, but not so much for people going about their daily activities (exercise classes, card games, lunch, etc.). This feels a lot like event photography would be, and I have no experience there.

The communities are not strongly lit, and it's typical indoor can lights, likely a mix of temperatures. Do most folks in this situation shoot with only available light (would require 3,200 ISO in most spots)? I fear a flash will add harsh shadows, make all the backgrounds dark, and create varied white balance across the scene.

I'm sure I'm overthinking this, but I know I can't walk around with a big soft box lighting every scene. Bouncing flash off a ceiling is guaranteed to create color casts as the ceilings aren't white. The wedding and event folks must encounter this all the time and handle it with ease. Any advice is appreciated. I've searched for tutorials on lifestyle photography but get something completely different than what I have in mind.



Jun 17, 2021 at 09:02 PM
kaplah
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


DougVaughn wrote:
The company I work for operates senior living communities (assisted living) and is wanting quality lifestyle photos for our website and marketing materials.


You might find some inspiration here: https://ashleymorrisonphotography.wordpress.com/

I'd say "hire Ashley" but presumably that would be out of budget.



Jun 18, 2021 at 04:06 AM
Paul_K
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


Don't know what (additional) lighting equipment you have at your disposal, but perhaps using remote (heavily) diffused speedlights. Nice and small, so easy to place in a spot where it can give a light accent without being visible in the picture, and with the advantage of TTL metering.

A studio flash unit IMO would probably be too large, and most likely miss TTL metering

Or halogen lamps (of course no need for 1000W units) with a color temperature of 3200K probably close to the available light so no funny color temperature mixes.
Disadvantage might be that the light diffusers necessary (I think just plain white umbrellas for the most diffused light possible) may also be a bit too big

While LED light may also seem an option, if you have a RGB LED light and set the mix to 'white' , in my experience that results in a purple color light which mixes horribly with 3200K tungsten / household lamp light. There are 3400K LED lights available, but hose are not the type usually offered.



Jun 18, 2021 at 04:36 AM
story_teller
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


Here are some starting points -
1. Determine the main points (messages) you want to convey from the photos. What are the important lifestyles benefits you want to portray? Create a storyboard of the photos and pass that by your employer to make sure you're capturing what they want.
2. You're going to need model releases from anyone who is recognizable in the images anyway, so why not get a few individuals/couples, groups from the homes to work with you to stage some of the real-live events. That way you have more control the lighting, staging, etc.
3. If the facility has white ceilings, you can bounce flash to get more even lighting in some situations. Take a look at some of the work by Neil Van Neikerk using a speedlight. The nice part about staging the photos is that you can take your time and get the lighting correct before you bring the people in for the shot.
4. Always shoot a grey card for each scene, so you can correctly adjust white balance.

That should get you started and good luck.



Jun 18, 2021 at 07:23 AM
DougVaughn
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


kaplah wrote:
You might find some inspiration here: https://ashleymorrisonphotography.wordpress.com/

I'd say "hire Ashley" but presumably that would be out of budget.


Thank you. I will check out her website. Yes, I'd prefer to "just hire Ashley" or someone like her and save myself the headache. What I'd rather spend time doing is individual portraits on black and white film, which is more up my alley.



Jun 18, 2021 at 08:23 AM
DougVaughn
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


story_teller wrote:
Here are some starting points -

That should get you started and good luck.


Thanks. I had already though about most of this, and your points are good. I did a written storyboard (no pictures) for the marketing team to let them know what I think we need. They are also aware we will need model releases. It's a good idea to get some willing participants to fake it (OK, not exactly your words. ).

White ceilings aren't an option (mostly beige or some variant thereof). Yes, I ALWAYS shoot a gray card because I'm colorblind and will already spend way too much time trying to post process. By the time I'm done, my wife will be tired of me saying, "do the skin tones look OK?"



Jun 18, 2021 at 08:28 AM
rek101
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


I never had to produce anything worthy of a marketing brochure, but for a year or so I took photos for an assisted living (while I volunteered there) for their newsletter. I think first of all, you would need to think of this as two totally different types of photography, portraiture and interior...not so much event.

Since I know nothing about interiors, I'll just talk about the portraiture side. The images I thought really worked the best were when you see a resident with a younger family members together as a family. That mixture of several generations I think works very well. I also like photos of staff members bonding with residents and that could be lit as a two person portrait. When I tried to capture events/activities, the lighting was just too tough and there would often be something a bit depressing in the background. I'm sure activities and events can be lit well, but a bounced speedlight on a full frame slr certainly wasn't enough. I'd think you'd need a softlighter or equivelent softbox and to stage it a bit.

As for lighting, I bounced a flash off the ceiling, but it was a white ceiling....best results seemed to be backlit. Even better, get people next to a north facing window. You obviously want very soft light, but pay careful attention to your backgrounds to make sure there's nothing depressing visible.



Jun 20, 2021 at 03:28 AM
DougVaughn
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


rek101 wrote:
The images I thought really worked the best were when you see a resident with a younger family members together as a family. That mixture of several generations I think works very well. I also like photos of staff members bonding with residents and that could be lit as a two person portrait.


Excellent advice. Thank you. I'm not sure they have thought through what this would take since most people know nothing beyond pointing their smart phone and clicking. It's also why pro photographers can and should be paid well for spending an entire day doing it (plus the next day processing). Short of staging a day-long shoot, I'm not sure you can get all the right people in the right place to create worthy marketing materials.



Jun 20, 2021 at 12:50 PM
kaplah
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


DougVaughn wrote:
[...] Yes, I'd prefer to "just hire Ashley" or someone like her and save myself the headache. What I'd rather spend time doing is individual portraits on black and white film, which is more up my alley.

"headache", "I'd rather spend time" - mulled over this and other things on the thread, and have come to the conclusion that the best advice is to plead lack of competency to your employer and just not do it.

They are in effect asking someone who sails to operate a power boat, or a handyman who does electrical work to do plumbing. Not exactly, but you get my meaning.

The likely outcome is you'll be miserable and the employer will be unhappy and not want to use what you produce. Also, residents whose time and attention will be consumed may end up unhappy.

Stock photos are cheap, have worked up to now, and will continue to work.




Jun 20, 2021 at 06:23 PM
tjkp
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


kaplah wrote:
Stock photos are cheap, have worked up to now, and will continue to work.



This is a situation that stock photos are perfect for, and everything else kaplah wrote is accurate too. You *might* get photos that fit what the marketing folks want, but it's more likely to be a headache for everyone involved and ultimately not produce images that replace the stock photos. Would marketing be open to black & white portraits of the residents as a separate project? Then they can get something personalized to the community and you're not forced into an uncomfortable position.

edit to add:
Marketing should budget for this. Period. Talk to a couple photographers in the area now as a consultation to get a sense of the price, then build that into their annual budget or save up over a couple years. It'll be more expensive than they think, but worth the effort and wait to get exactly the kind of customized images that they want, and to have it professionally produced.



Jul 01, 2021 at 08:11 AM
c.d.embrey
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


How large are these facilities. Here in SoCal many have eight tenants., living in converted four bedroom houses. If you own three houses, that's 24 people at $4,500.00 each. In Huntington Beach, CA there are over fifty of these small assisted care homes.

I fear a flash will add harsh shadows, make all the backgrounds dark, and create varied white balance across the scene

If you know so little about lighting, you should not attempt to do the job. Photo Journalists do these things everyday, with no problems.

My ex-wife does economic forecasting, but she's know nothing about light modifiers



Jul 01, 2021 at 05:56 PM
c.d.embrey
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Advice for Senior Living Lifestyle Photos


kaplah wrote:
Also, residents whose time and attention will be consumed may end up unhappy.



Many residents are noncognitive and incontinent. That's why they live in assisted care homes.



Jul 01, 2021 at 06:12 PM





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