arena lighting

[jmedford]

I have a new challenge and have found little or no help. I will be shooting an equine event in a large indoor arena. I have multiple strobes, so I feel I will have plenty of lighting capability but need to get recommendations on strobe placement. I have a 16 channel remote.

Thanks ahead of time

[zona5101]

Hi and welcome.
Multiple shoe mount strobes? Or like Profoto monoblock strobes?
It would take a lot of light to fire up the whole place - i am thinking about basketball and ice hockey where the strobes are mounted in the rafters - there are a lot of lights mounted and it doesn't even cover the entire playing area. If you can't get on the field, the distances in horse events are going to be very long. Is shooting without flash something worth contemplating? Bumping your iso to get the speed and fstop you need??
If can you get all your shots when the competitors are in one area so you can flood just that one spot with light?

[jmedford]

If you are familiar with the gymkahana format, you have multiple setups in the arena. There is some Natural Light coming in along with flourescent lights, all making for some tough white balance problems.

In some events, I can be in the ring, in others, a little dangerous. I can't get in the rafters to setup the lights.

My light stands can reach 12 feet.

comments?

[zona5101]

Shoe mount flashes? If so there maybe some challenges in shooting at distance. If you can hook up more that one flash to fire at a time you can increase output. The combined guide number will be Gc=sqrt"N"GA where Cg is the combined guide number of all flashes, N is the number of flash unit and Ga is the guide number for a single flash - that will at least tell you your range and fstops and distance combination available before you even get on site. If you have monoblocks then power out put probably won't be as much of an issue.

I am unfamiliar with gymkahana but horses are big so nice even lighting will nice to obtain...umbrella, softbox etc. Of course that cuts into your light output and having them at a distance also cuts the light reaching the subject.

I might be inclined to set up in a single stop where I could capture at least a portion of the event well with the external flash and shoot the remainder as I could - maybe run and gun with a shoe flash.

Ideally if would be nice to have the day before to do some tests.

[SusanH1970]

Maybe it's just me, but I'd be wary of using strobes with horses. I grew up around horses - they're big and can spook easily, and that's not the safest combination to me. I shot a woman with her horse and just the white reflector alone freaked the horse out at first; I don't even want to think of what his reaction would have been had I fired a flash at him.

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

Maybe it's just me, but I'd be wary of using strobes with horses. I grew up around horses - they're big and can spook easily, and that's not the safest combination to me. I shot a woman with her horse and just the white reflector alone freaked the horse out at first; I don't even want to think of what his reaction would have been had I fired a flash at him.

excellent point and something I would not have considered. Cows, on the otherhand, don't seem to mind

[lputman]

If any of these horses have competed in an indoor/covered arena before and there was a professional photographer, the likelihood they were flashed or strobed is extremely high...there shouldn't be a problem with your lighting and I wish I could help out in how to actually do it. Check out this gallery...Equine - Free online photo gallery at PhotoCamel.com.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by lputman

If any of these horses have competed in an indoor/covered arena before and there was a professional photographer, the likelihood they were flashed or strobed is extremely high...there shouldn't be a problem with your lighting and I wish I could help out in how to actually do it. Check out this gallery...Equine - Free online photo gallery at PhotoCamel.com.

That's true....and equine sports photography from a distance is considerably different that up-close-and-personal portrait photography.