{"id":1911,"date":"2021-02-02T23:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T23:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/taratwphoto.com\/?p=1911"},"modified":"2023-04-28T04:21:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T04:21:10","slug":"screenshots-2-0-a-primer-for-an-online-photoshoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taratwphoto.com\/screenshots-2-0-a-primer-for-an-online-photoshoot\/","title":{"rendered":"Screenshots 2.0: A primer for an online photoshoot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new frontier in socially distanced photography?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is (literally) the most laid back I’ve ever been on a photo shoot! Photo by Jack Zahora.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When the photo editor at The New York Times gave me the option of carrying out an assignment remotely, I was naturally curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three people I was to feature were worried about having their location disclosed for security reasons. It might <\/em>have been possible for me to get to them, but I had never tried a remote photo shoot, and with all of us trying to minimize travel because of COVID-19, I wanted to give it a shot. In order to do it right, I spent a good amount of time researching different options. Now that the article has been published I wanted to share what I learned.<\/p>\n\n\n

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So how to actually, practically, do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Research<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found a lot of tips and articles for people who did remote work in places like NYC<\/span><\/a>, or where the people being photographed<\/span><\/a> had good equipment<\/span><\/a> themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we were going to be working with minimal tools – my subjects only had Android phones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day before I set up pre-interviews with the subjects and I did a lot of tests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried my DSLR shooting the screen<\/span><\/a> but I got too much of a Moir\u00e9 effect, so I decided against that. Some other people have had success using film cameras and shooting their screens which you can see here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then tried my iPhone 12 Pro in the same way, which was better because it has a ‘live’ function so some of the photos didn’t have the Moir\u00e9 effect. But the quality still wasn’t as good as a screenshot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another option would have been an app where I could remotely control their camera phones. But both of the subjects had Android phones and I had an iPhone – and there aren’t any apps<\/a><\/span> whch I found that work for both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also have your subject share their screen on a Zoom call, then start their camera, but you still need to get someone to press the shutter or have it done remotely. To me, it really only makes sense if your subject has a remote control clicker<\/a><\/span>. So all those ideas weren’t possible this time around. Maybe for the next shoot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, if we’d both had iPhones we could have used an app like Closapp<\/a> <\/span>or Facetime<\/a><\/span>, which was recommended in other articles<\/a> for remote shoots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, one of my subjects, Somayeh, needed to use a translator, so there were three people on the call and Facetime wouldn’t have worked because it limits your phone video if you have more than two people on at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what did we do? I decided to take screenshots<\/a> <\/span>because when I compared all the different pictures in Photoshop, that was the clear winner in image quality. And we did what millions of people in lockdown have been doing every single day. We used Zoom<\/strong>. 😂<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fatemeh and Nic at home. Photographed remotely for The New York Times.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Shoot<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE: Taking screenshots works as long as you don’t have to blow up the pictures too big.<\/span><\/strong> This would NOT<\/em><\/strong> work if you were doing a billboard advert! You can see from the article the pictures aren’t the best quality, but they are workable for what was needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the larger the screen you have, the better the quality of screenshot you get (literally the definition of dots per inch), I used a 15-inch laptop on my side of the call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither Fatemeh and Nic, nor Someyah, had laptops, so we had to work with their phones. Phones tend to have better cameras than laptops typically, but a laptop would have been helpful if we could have set up the shot with the computer, and then they could have taken a physical photo from the same place with their phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Somayeh Ramoz, at a friend’s house. Photographed remotely for The New York Times.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Get your subjects to help you scout for the best light in their location.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Tear sheet from The New York Times print edition.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

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You can also note that the quality of the photo with Someyah isn’t as good as with Fatemeh and Nic. I think that is because of her phone, but also because of the connection where she was. We tried to use both her phone data and wifi, but neither was great. The best I found was to have her stay very still because then the video software can stop guessing at her movements and the image became crisper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I figured out how to change my screenshot to a .tiff to maximize the file size, and how to save screenshots to a folder of my choice so it didn’t overwhelm my desktop. If you’re interested in that check out the video below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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