On Sat, 31 Jul 2004 23:55:21 +0200, Petros
wrote:

Hi all!

This is my first time here, and I'm printing out articles like crazy,
because there is a lot of helpful advice to be had. Thanks!

My question has to do with a wedding that I'll be shooting for a friend
of mine next weekend. I did some test shots with the couple today, and
found out that the groom has a reaction to the shutter that makes him
close his eyes when he hears it, even if the flash is turned off. Does
anybody have any advice for what I can do to minimalize his reaction?
I'd hate for all the shots of the "happy couple" to be with his eyes
closed.

Thanks.


aug204 from Lloyd Erlick,

Concentrate on him for a short while, getting in close and
tripping the shutter many times. Best of all would be to do
this during a practice run. Perhaps do it at the very
beginning of the session. And of course do not use the
flash. His blink response will probably decondition quite
rapidly. (It's a first-year-psychology conditioned response
to the shutter sound. He's lucky not to have been one of
Pavlov's dogs, because the surgery they had was not very
nice.)

As others have suggested, work with a quiet camera. The
conditioned response occurs in response to the conditioning
stimulus, in this case the sound of the camera. So if you
get him used to the fact that the sound does not imply a
flash in his eyes, plus if you use a quiet camera or make
sure environmental noise and/or distance cover the noise for
him, both his conditioning and the strength of the undesired
stimulus will be reduced.

I sometimes find that little kids squint and respond to the
expectation of flash as soon as they see a camera -- or me.
No sound stimulus required. Here's something that helps a
lot, even with adults (definitely try it out on your
groom...) -- after a few frames and plenty of friendly
banter, invite a few folks to look through your camera. The
kids especially love this, but adults respond, too. While
they look at their family through the viewfinder (set it up
carefully first), declaim to one and all about how beautiful
things look through a camera viewfinder, and how much you
love to look at the view it provides. **Let the kids trip
the shutter once or twice each.** (Cable or electric remote
release is essential for many reasons.) After this
treatment, no child will squint at you! (Of course, the
flash must be shut off for this to work...).

I've long since abandoned flash altogether. To have anything
but outright ugly light from flash, one's skill level must
be very high. Examine the work of Shelby Lee Adams for an
education in proper use of flash. Even before I saw his
work, I knew my skill with flash was not high enough. But
for me the pain on peoples' faces as soon as they see me is
more than enough to convince me to never burden my body with
a flash unit again. If other photogs have conditioned your
subjects to squint, you can probably decondition them with
some effort. But if you are planning to use flash, they will
only be mentally sitting in the dentist's chair, outwardly
calm, inwardly awaiting the drill. I like to explain I never
use flash, so I need their cooperation by sitting calmly and
being relaxed -- looking like themselves. Then I joke about
my collection of antique dentist's drills...

regards,
--le
________________________________
Lloyd Erlick Portraits, Toronto.
voice: 416-686-0326
email:
net: www.heylloyd.com
________________________________