Portraits in front of window - any hints or tips?

[friendship7]

8 individual head and shoulders shots to do.
In an office with floor to ceiling glass with super views across the city, the idea is to have each person stand with their back toward the glass and cityscape. unfortunately it's going to be early evening light (warmth of light not guaranteed, could be grey). I have d7000 and 50mm 1.4.
My thoughts are to use a white reflector instead of lights (I have a large softbox light I could possibly use, though it may be too disruptive to the office)
Spot metering on face or using a grey card for metering - not sure??

Appreciate your tips on handling these conditions

[SusanH1970]

Meter for the background and use flash. Otherwise you'll end up with either a well-exposed background and underexposed subjects, or well-exposed subjects and a blown out background. A reflector probably won't throw enough light on your subjects in this case. If they're hiring you to do these headshots, tell them you need to use your lighting equipment in order to get the photos right - I'm sure they'd rather have it be a bit disruptive than to end up getting poorly exposed photos.

[Rentham]

Dicey assignment. Reflector may not be enough light, or may cause you to blow out background if you expose for skin tones. Lighting the shot will almost certainly give you reflections in the windows. Good luck.

[friendship7]

Many thanks for the feedback,
Sadly the reflector doesn't sound like it's going to be enough.
Might help if I tweak the positioning and use the large softbox to the right of the subject to avoid the reflection.
Appreciate any extra thoughts on this


cityscape.jpg

[zona5101]

You'll probably use the reflector to bounce some of the softbox light back for a touch of fill and even the lighting a bit on the folks on the far side away from the strobe. This is a group shot? Not nly need to watch for the reflection in the glass but also shadows on faces caused by light being blocked by the person stand next to them...

[friendship7]

Thanks for the reply Zona5101, they will be all single person shots. Tricky one for sure.

[friendship7]

Giving more thought toward post production, maybe comping each portrait onto the one background image is the way to go. Its' a pain but the result may be better

[zona5101]

Originally Posted by friendship7

Thanks for the reply Zona5101, they will be all single person shots. Tricky one for sure.

single person? then you should be golden. Watch reflections a Rentham says and expose for the ambient, match the flash to the ambient fstop as Susan described.

[i speak in math]

Shoot slightly from the side (not straight at the window), otherwise you might end up with a big glare from the flash on the window. Shooting straight at a window isn't going to work with a pop-up on-camera flash.

[JFSanders]

Early evening? On the dark side of the building or with a setting sun in the window? Pray for a north facing window. Good luck!

Jim