Shoot Planner | Joshua Ball

Joshua Ball

Shoot Planner

Answer a few questions and get your five decisions built around your shoot.

The camera doesn't decide. You do.

Most shoots go wrong before the shutter.

Not because of gear. Not because of settings. Because the decisions that should happen before you raise the camera never got made.

The Shoot

The Edit

Reference

Improve

Tools

If you didn't decide, you guessed.

Question 1 of 6

Question 1

What are you shooting?

Pick the type that fits best.

Question 2 of 6

Question 2

What light and conditions are you expecting?

Pick the closest match.

Question 3 of 6

Question 3

What are you shooting with?

Question 4 of 6

Question 4

What focal length and aperture are you working with?

This shapes the settings guidance.

Question 5 of 6

Question 5

What feeling do you want the finished image to have?

Question 6 of 6

Question 6

Are you using any filters?

This affects your settings decisions.

Your five decisions

0 of 5 decisions confirmed

All five decisions confirmed. You know what the photo is about, how the light works, what to remove, what settings to use, and what the edit needs to feel like. Go shoot.

Edit Reminder

Before you open Lightroom

Your edit intention

Your mood note

The editing order

1. Balance the light
2. Shape the contrast
3. Correct the colour
4. Refine the finish

Before the shoot

White Balance

Set your starting Kelvin before you shoot.

What is the light source?

What mood do you want?

Starting Kelvin

Settings reference

Exposure

Tell me the situation. I will tell you where to start.

Is your subject moving?

How much depth do you want?

What is the light like?

Shutter speed — decide first

Aperture — decide second

ISO — set last

After editing

Reflection

Close the gap between what you intended and what you produced.

What did you intend?

What did you actually produce?

Where did the gap come from?

What to focus on next

Past reflections

Practice

Shoot Brief

A specific constraint to shoot with intention.

What are you shooting?

How long do you have?

Which decision do you want to focus on?

What is your biggest challenge right now?

Your brief

Success condition

Before you leave

Gear Check

Tick everything off before you get in the car.

0 of 12 checked

You are ready. Everything is checked. Go shoot.

On Location

Read the Light

Three questions before you touch the camera.

Question 1

Where is the light coming from?

This tells you where to position your subject. Side light shows texture. Front light is flat. Back light creates separation and rim light.

Question 2

Is it hard or soft?

Hard light has sharp shadow edges and high contrast. Soft light has gradual transitions and low contrast. Hard light suits graphic subjects. Soft light suits texture and detail.

Question 3

Where does it fall on the subject?

This tells you whether your current position will produce the image you are imagining. If the light is falling on the background instead of the subject, move.

Your light reading

Your shoot plan light decision has been updated with this reading.

After the shoot

Edit Checklist

Four decisions, in this order, every time.

Your edit intention from the planner

0 of 4 steps done

Edit complete. You followed the order. Light, contrast, colour, finish. That is the method.

When it went wrong

Decision Audit

Find which decision was missing.

Tap each decision below. For each one, ask honestly whether it was actually made before or during the shoot. Not thought about. Made.

What was missing

Over time

Consistency Tracker

Log which decisions you made on each shoot.

Log a shoot

Your shoots

Plan History

Every shoot plan you have generated.

Exposure reference

Histogram

Describe what you see. Find out what to do.

Where is most of the data sitting?

Is there clipping?

What this means

What to do

Settings reference

Focal Length

What do you want the image to do?

What relationship do you want between subject and background?

What perspective do you want?

Recommended focal length

What to watch for

Edit reference

Colour Cast

Name it. Decide whether to use it or fix it.

What colour cast do you have?

Does the cast serve the mood you intended?

What this cast comes from

What to do in Lightroom

Before you arrive

Location Scout

Work through this before committing to a shoot.

0 of 10 checked

Notes for the planner

Location assessed. Open the shoot planner and use your notes to build your plan.

Settings reference

Depth of Field

How much will be in focus?

Focal length (mm)

Aperture (f/)

Distance to subject (metres)

Sensor size

Near limit

Total depth

Far limit

Hyperfocal distance

Focus at this distance and everything from half this distance to infinity will be sharp. Useful for landscape photography where you want maximum depth of field.

Before and during the shoot

Shot List

Plan the frames. Check them off as you shoot.

0 shots planned

Add a shot

All shots captured. Every frame on your list is done.

Film reference

Reciprocity Failure

How long do you actually need to expose for?

When exposures go beyond about one second, film loses sensitivity in a non-linear way. The exposure your meter suggests is not long enough. This calculator gives you the corrected time to use.

Film stock

Metered exposure time (seconds)

Metered time

→

Actual exposure

Before the shoot

RAW or JPEG?

The right format for your situation.

Will you edit these images?

How critical is the exposure?

What is the final output?

Recommendation

One thing to know

Print reference

Print Calculator

Is your image sharp enough to print at this size?

Print size

Your image resolution

Viewing distance

Result

Minimum resolution needed for this print

The Photographer's Method