"Prom" lighting

[nsaplayer]

Hello!

So I am doing "Prom" pictures for a church charity valentines day dinner/dance on friday and I am a little intimidated by studio lights. I am looking for some advice on the set up. The only thing I have done with two lights before is put one up at the right and one at the left for some quick tennis team photos.... and I wasn't a fan of the way the light fell.



Here is what I have in terms of lighting:
SB600 (2) that can both be triggered wirelessly
3 lightstands (though only two umbrella brackets)
1 shoot thru umbrella
1 umbrella that can convert from shooting into it to shooting thru it (has a cover that comes off)
1 44" reflector with a stand (one of the 5 in 1 ones)
The on camera flash (of course)
2 lightspheres
a set of gels
some crazy lightbulb optical slave flash thing

I will be shooting on a tripod with a remote shutter release.

Here is what i know about the set up:
-insert cricket chirp here-....
there might be a black background?

I am going to the location tonight with the setup crew to do a sort of dry run so I will have more information later, but I want to get some ideas on what I should try out. I am bringing all of my equipment so that I can take my time and play around with my lighting setup and get it perfect so there are no holdups on the actual dance day (friday).

Any tips would be great!!

[OsmosisStudios]

Set the lights up on the stands, 45 degrees from perpendicular from the background, with a 45 degree downangle. Use the umbrellas as shoot-through and try a few things out. It helps if you have a model.

To get the background black, meter off your subject (ie the people). That way the flashes will expose for the subject and therefore underexpose the background.

[nsaplayer]

Thanks! I can only shoot with the flashes in manual (the wireless transmitters I have are cheap) so it will take some guess and check.

Haw far shoud the couple be from the backdrop? I am concerned that the set up people will just hand a sheet on the wall or something as a backdrop and then the floor will be exposed. I was assuming that full length shots are expected for "Prom" style photos... but I may need to change that depending on what the floor looks like.

I looked back at my old prom pictures and they were definitely full length.

Alot of unknowns right now, but i like having ideas going into the dry run. I will be able to provide some more details later tonight.

[zona5101]

post more info tonight then we can get more specific.

Some things to look for...how far back from the backdrop can you get the couple? How far away from the couple will your flashes be? Are you expecting only couple or will there be group of 4 or 6 in the shots? How are you planning to identify each couple so you can show/see them their pictures?

[nsaplayer]

Ok, I have more details now. my space is limited....

Below are some images i took. In the first you can see how I set up the lights . The one set up on the left of the camera is set to just under full power (I think) and the one on the right is 1/2 or 1/4 power. I will be standing right about where the white table (the one near the girl sitting down) is.




Below you can see a side view to see how much room i really have. I have the subject maybe 5' from the backdrop (basically on the edge of the furthest black matt from the wall)



And here is a test shot with an actual person in it. the backdrop still needs work. The sides of the curtains will be tied back with a red ribbon thing and the floor will have a solid black fabric covering it instead of the floor matts only partially covering it. I will also have the camera on a tripod and the angle will be a bit better i think... I don't like that I am angled down here...



Anyways, thoughts on the setup? What can I do to improve it?

[candleman]

how the heck did you get your speedlight in that position?


see this video for what it should end up looking like.
YouTube - Strobist Preliminaries

PS.
I'd personally shoot in manual mode, and that way variances in the dresses & skin tones won't screw around with your exposures.

You COULD also use one bare as an edge light ...EG keep the left stand where it is, and the right stand move it behind and to the rightof your model.
(probably won't work well for group shots)

[nsaplayer]

Originally Posted by candleman

how the heck did you get your speedlight in that position?

Lol, I am using a cheap wireless trigger. When I put on the flash foot it adds a good 3-4 inches to the height of my flash. the bottom of that trigger part then can slide onto the shoe on the umbrella bracket. When I put the umbrella in, it just seems that the added height of the flash is too much, so I lay the flash down on the shaft of the umbrella (there is an adjustable bracket that attaches the trigger shoe to the body of the trigger piece). It also makes be very nervous having such an unstable stack up of parts on the top of my light stand... I have killed one flash before because it was too wobbly and fell. By laying the flash on the stem of the umrella like that am not illuminating enough of the umbrella? I also felt like when it was standing up with the added height the flash head did not point to the center of the umbrella.



Definitely shooting in manual mode. I have the white balance set to flash, 1/160 shutter, F4.5 and iso 100

You COULD also use one bare as an edge light ...EG keep the left stand where it is, and the right stand move it behind and to the rightof your model.
(probably won't work well for group shots)

Would it then serve more as a hair light? my concern is that i have limited space on the right of the model. We can't move the setup really any farther to the left because there is a big ugly lighted sconce on the wall (its actually behind the umbrella in the first image and out of frame in the second, so you can't see it. On the right of the model we have a bookcase, that I don't think i can move. How far would this light need to be from the subject? and what effect would it achieve?

Thank you so much for your input!

[candleman]

it just adds a bit of drama,
set the flash zoom to fairly wide and it can be fairly close and still cover full length quite easily.

like this,

my edge light was coming from high and left.. slightly behind.


this shot had two edge lights and one fill


It's probably a "safer" move to go with th set-up you have there.. just incase a group ask for a shot together.

[nsaplayer]

I like the look for sure, but i think you may be right that it would be safer to keep the two umbrellas set up. I would worry about the hard edge light on couples too.... one casting a shadow on the other?