Mech Tech Shoot!

shutter 1/60 sec
f/ 5.3
ISO: 800
focal length112 mm

1 - The available was not used as the main light in the end. 2 speedlights were used at two stops above the ambient at the subject. One was used to fill in the face while the other was used to add some punch to the hands. The ambient at the subject was at f / 4 whereas it was f / 5.6 in the background with the same settings.
2 - Switched to a longer lens to get the background out of focus. To do this, I had to change the crop of the shot. But I think the image works better with the tighter crop.
3 - I wanted to use the lowest possible aperture I could. Considering the lens I was using. At 112 mm, the lowest I could get the aperture was 5.3. So I went with that.
4 - Shutter speed stayed consistent at 1/60 sec. Enough to grab the ambient light and not blur the subject. Since the model was not moving, I was able to use a shutter on the lower spectrum for shooting a person.
5 - Ambient light was cooperating for the shoot.
6 - Speedlights were the right choice. They were even dialled down. The light would have been too strong with monoblocks.
7 - Nope
8 - Working on the photo in post, I noticed that the light on the subjects right hand was a little hot. Also, I repositioned the lights from my original diagram ever so slightly.
I also find the photo to be slightly out of focus.
9 - I gelled my speedlights. Colour was pretty accurate.
10 - Had all I needed except a better camera & lens!

Assignment 4 - pre light!

1 - The available light will be the main light in the shot. The background and the machine will all be lit by the available light.

2 - I want the background to be thrown out of focus. I pulled back as far as I could which allowed me to go up to 55mm. The machines directly behind the subject are pretty crisp, but everything beyond that is out of focus. I'll try shooting at 3.5 the day of the shoot and see if I can keep my subject sharp enough with that and if the trade off is worth it.

3 - Oops, I just covered the f-stop. My bad. Overzealous?

4 - I'm going to shoot at 1/60th sec. My light meter gave me a reading of 1/80th with the my chosen ISO and f-stop, but I know my camera shoots darker than the meter suggests. If I end up shooting at f/ 3.5, I may be able to get away with 1/80th. Even if it's dark, it won't be too dark that it cannot be fixed in lightroom.

5 - The settings were chosen with the ambient light in mind.

6 - The settings are pretty high. So I'm using speedlights instead of strobes. The spread of the speed lights is easily controlled so I can really focus the light on the subject's hands. And I have fluorescent gels to balance the colour temperature.

7 - Definitely not much light. Not an issue in the mech tech lab.

8 - My main problem with the shot, which is probably the same as many other people, is the lack of wiggle room. Not much space to move around.

9 - A shot with a gray card and then balancing my speedlights with gels should keep everything happily balanced.

10 - On the day of, I shall have with me:
Camera
24-70 mm f/ 2.8 lens
memory cards
Camera batteries
tripod and clip
3 light stands
3 Nikon speedlights (if I can't get my hands on a third, I'll borrow a non-Nikon flash and a peanut slave)
many AA batteries
SU-800 wireless trigger for flashes
3 umbrella mounts for speedlights
Laptop for viewing
card reader (because my old camera doesn't get along with lightroom
lens cloth
clamps

Assignment 3 - Final Product

On the day of the lighting test, the wireless trigger wasn't working, so I used a speedlight instead of a strobe. On the day of the actual shoot, I tried first with the strobe. But it turned out to be way too strong given the available light. So I went back to the speedlight, which worked well.
The available light was enough to be the main light. The speedlight was used exclusively to create the highlight on the face.
Following Val's comments, I used a longer lens to get a shallower depth of field. The final settings were ISO 250, 1/125th second, f / 6.3.
For the shoot, I used a reflector to punch some light into the upper body, but it wasn't really necessary. I ended up dropping the exposure around the face in lightroom anyways.
I think I caught the mood of the shot. I could have shot a little faster and dropped the f-stop to 5.6 to have a slightly more shallow depth of field. The real challenge in the shot was reproducing the light on the face. It was a question of finding the right positioning of the speedlight and zooming it in to it's most focussed range. All in all, happy with the shot.

Outdoor Shoot

The photo was shot with the following settings
62 mm ISO 400 1/125 sec f / 4.8
At ISO 400, the ambient light reading was 1/125 sec f / 5.6
The speedlight was set to 1/8 power and gave a reading of f / 8
1- The available light was used as the main light. A speedlight mounted on a light stand was used as a kicker. The light achieved was good. But I would like to see more in the face. For the final shoot, I will have a reflector on hand to punch more light into the subject's face.
2 - a focal length of 62 mm was used. I wanted to use a "normal" lens. With the subject right against the wall, there's no need to achieve compression.
3 - Shot at f / 4.8. I wanted to throw the background out of focus while keeping the subject in focus. Looking at my source image now, I wonder if the blurring of the background was done in post. The subject could be sharper. But the fall off of focus works. For the actual shoot, I will shoot at a higher f-stop and do some blurring in photoshop.
4 - The choice of shutter speed was a combination of the available light and shooting a person. Kept it high enough to avoid blurring. I would have gone a bit faster if the available light permitted. But I didn't want to boost the ISO any higher.
5 - The camera settings were a response to the available light. I would have preferred shooting at ISO 100. But you can't always get what you want.
6 - The strobe lighting was fine. A speedlight was used dialled down to 1/8 power.
7 - There could have been more light and the shot would have been fine. Maybe even better since I could have shot at a lower ISO.
8 - I think I may have to blur the background some more in photoshop.
9 - Shoot with a gray card to have a reference point. The light from the strobe is minimal, contrasty and concentrated. It's balanced for daylight. Should it show in a overcast day, it won't be hard to correct in Photoshop.
10 - Equipment list for the shoot.
Camera with 24-70mm lens.
Tripod
Boom stand
One strobe
Wireless transmitter and pc cable in case transmitter fails again
speedlight as backup to strobe
vagabond power pack
gray card
laptop and card reader
Reflector

Assignment 2 - report & analysis

We kept the available light as the main. It worked well in creating a nice lighting for the shot. However, available light only got us so far. We added an umbrella coming from the left to kick light into the front of the sandwich and then had a bald light coming from the top right to bring out some contrast in the salad.
We tried a couple of apertures, but finally settled on f 9 to keep the front half of the sandwich in focus. ISO was 200 and shutter speed was set to 1/5 second.
The cook did a great job of putting our sandwich together. Lots of extra bacon in it. Truly brought it to life. Our lighting test sammy was good but needed a bit more content. When we ordered the real plate, we only asked for more filling and to keep the rest the same. But having not mentioned the angle of the cut, we ended up getting a sandwich cut on the opposite angle. No biggie. Worse things have happened to better people.
If I could shoot again, I would have put an item on the left side to fill a bit of the empty area. A glass of water, for instance, would have filled that space without taking away from the food. Or maybe even salt & pepper shakers. Looking at the cover now, there's too much space under the O and the U of gourmet. The Sandwich could be moved over on the cover, but I felt like it messed too much with the text.

Assignment 2 - lighting test

We stuck with ambient light for the shot and it worked. The light on the background created a nice gradient with the red. We need to change the angle on which the sandwich is cut. It needs to be going the other way. We'll be bringing lights to the actual shoot to punch some light into the front of the sandwich and the salad. Otherwise, we're sticking with a simple set up.
We shot very close to the sandwich, around a foot away, at a slightly wide angle at 40mm.

Assignment 1 - the shoot!

When we did the original shoot, the only issue we has with it was that the face came out a little dark. We had used a reflector originally to kick in a little light in the eyes. But it wasn't enough. So on the day of the shoot, we added a speedlight with a small shoot through umbrella to add some light to the face. With that light, we no longer needed the reflector. So we got rid of it. Aside from that, the lighting setup remained the same. Not mentioned in the original write up, the ambient light at ISO 200 and f8 required a shutter speed of 1 second. So it was a non-factor.
The main problem we faced in the shoot was that the blinds where we originally had set up were not cooperating. Fortunately, we had an identical setup 20 feet away. Not usually going to be the case.