Tricky warehose photo

[AegisSailor]

Hi All!

First time poster here but I've been lurking quite a while and learning a lot from you guys.

Tomorrow I have been tasked to take a group photo of everyone in our office (11 people). The kicker is that the boss-man wants our inert rocket motor in the picture which will require us to take the photo in the warehouse. (We're a company that launches sub-orbital rockets as military targets.)

Here is a test shot I took today while trying to figure out the camera setting I will use tomorrow:



My main problem here is the warehouse is large and seems to have a previously undiscovered black hole somewhere in the ceiling that sucks up light from a camera flash. Someone better tell NASA about it.

I have a single SB-800 but it seems inadequate as an off-camera flash when tasked with such a huge lighting job. I've found I'm getting better results with it on camera.

In this picture, the SB-800 is on my Nikon D-80 and pointed at 45 degrees. I took the diffusion dome off but I did flip down that clear plastic lens thingy that usually slides in above the flash for storage. What ever it does, it seemed to help.

The camera was set to 'P' mode with auto-ISO and exposure comp at -0.3. I have an 18-135mm lens.

In this photo, I'm guessing the lighting is about as good as I can hope for with the equipment I have. I thought I would ask you kind folks for help in case there was some better way of doing this.

Also, the facial details don't seem that sharp to me. Is this related to the lighting? I used the auto-focus but perhaps I should switch to manual for this?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Roger

[tomw]

Well, I would say first look at your EXIF data, the data that came with the photo that recorded your f/, shutter speed, and ISO to either copy or modify that tomorrow. What you need to do is make sure the little marker in the light meter is right in the middle for a perfect exposure, and take many using different exposures. Your best bet would probably to be in Av or A mode and set your f/ to the lowest that the lens can go. A mode means you can control the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed based on the light meter reading.

The other thing I was going to say is if you have a large white sheet you could try to rig it up as a background, as the equipment in the background isn't too flattering, as well as that large black door that reflected your flash. However, from what I can see, the faces of the models are perfectly exposed.

One last thing: make sure to tell everyone that you are taking the picture when you are. My senior class had their class picture taken a while ago and it was horrible because the yearbook kids didn't tell us when they were taking the photos.

It also made me angry that they didn't know the first thing about what they were doing

Anyways, good luck and always ask questions here! oh and show us your final result. I'd love to see it.
-tomw

[ELAY]

Hey Roger --

Two comments:

First, everybody's favourite lighting blog has a piece on group shots, here.

He uses two strobes, but one is only for backlighting so I think the discussion is still relevant to what you are doing.

Second, does that garage door thing to the right open up to the great outdoors? If so, why not open it to get some light in that way, and then add some flash in from camera left? I think that would do nicely. (And if not, I think a single flash either camera right or left would do it.)

Good luck,

EL

[jiminyClickit]

AegisSailor, Welcome

If your boss is reasonable, you might suggest to him that 11 people are going to make the rocket motor invisible or insignificant in the composition. If he agrees, you might suggest a non-conventional overhead shot with six people on one side of the rocket motor, five on the other (think "giant hamburger, side view"). This allows a closer look at those faces, all of the motor, none of the distracting background, and an attention-grabbing image. Also, seeing you on a lift or a ladder usually gets more smiles.

[ELAY]

I suppose everybody could jump onto the rocket too, Dr. Strangelove style.

On second thought, that may send a bit of an odd message...


EL

[windrider86]

My thought was close to Jiminy's. have a few sit on it and the rest on either side. Would they let you do that?
or you could shoot it at an angle so your could still see the fins of the rocket and then stagger people on either side/
Is there another background you could move it in front of?
Please be sure to post the one you did, I'm sure we are all interested ins eeing what you came up with!

[Digidave]

Forget the Employees!! I want to see Babes in Bikini's sittin' on that thing!! Sorry, just a fantasy of mine.

[Taallyn]

I like Jiminy's idea for the top down composition. It would help to simplify the background. Opening the pod-bay doors would also give you another light to work with here.