Creative lighting with strobes and a cry for help...
After purchasing my SB800 I entered the wonderful world of cretive lighting and am now hooked! Already I am eyeing two more SB-600s (as soon as the credit card bill is paid off!) and am looking forward to putting them to good use. I recently ordered the book Light Science and Magic, and have spent a good deal of time on Strobist.com and Dave Black's website learning how to make these strobes worth their price.
If anyone here has any good 'required readings' on the subject please let me know. Ive breezed through many books at the bookstore but a lot of them are based around pro studio lighting with soft boxes, spots and reflectors, and although I would love to get into that eventually, for now I am looking for a more portable and quick solution, (just setting up strobes on lightstands and using a command option or pocket wizards).
Now the cry for help...
I recently got a part time job/internship as a photographer for a local minor league baseball team, the Orem Owlz, and one of my responsiblities for the summer will be to take a team portrait. Now this could be easy enough, but after seeing the shot taken last year (a basic shot in harsh daylight with most of the teams faces shadowed by their baseball caps) I became determined to do better! Obviously I will have very little time to work with, setting up the team, taking test shots etc, and coming away with a perfect product! Does anyone have any good advice on doing some creative lighting in this situation? It will be taken in the stadium with the lighting on. If possible I'd like to underexpose the shot and then bump up some lighting from a few strobes positioned around. Can anyone give advice on how to set something like this up for a big group?
Thanks,
Mark.
If anyone here has any good 'required readings' on the subject please let me know. Ive breezed through many books at the bookstore but a lot of them are based around pro studio lighting with soft boxes, spots and reflectors, and although I would love to get into that eventually, for now I am looking for a more portable and quick solution, (just setting up strobes on lightstands and using a command option or pocket wizards).
Now the cry for help...
I recently got a part time job/internship as a photographer for a local minor league baseball team, the Orem Owlz, and one of my responsiblities for the summer will be to take a team portrait. Now this could be easy enough, but after seeing the shot taken last year (a basic shot in harsh daylight with most of the teams faces shadowed by their baseball caps) I became determined to do better! Obviously I will have very little time to work with, setting up the team, taking test shots etc, and coming away with a perfect product! Does anyone have any good advice on doing some creative lighting in this situation? It will be taken in the stadium with the lighting on. If possible I'd like to underexpose the shot and then bump up some lighting from a few strobes positioned around. Can anyone give advice on how to set something like this up for a big group?
Thanks,
Mark.
Sounds fun Mark.
If you are going to be doing large group outdoor portraits I have a trick that I used, it takes several assistants, but it will get rid of the dark shadows under the baseball caps.
First, don't shoot on a bright, harsh light day if don't have to. Pick an overcast day. If you are shooting out of doors and have the ability to do so pick a day just after a light rain. The rain washes everything and brightens the colors of the surroundings.
Go to the hardware store and get 2 7 ft. lenghts of stair rail. It is basically a large dowel with a flat side. Then go to the fabric store, preferably one that specializes in appolstry fabrics. Find the widest bleached muslin. It's very inexpensive and washable. I usually did about 15 yards or so. Use heavy duct tape the entire length of the raw ends. Then take the ends of the fabric and duct tape them to the flat side of the stair rail and then use a staple gun to tack it well. Wrap the fabric like a scroll/ roll of film making sure that you wrap it straight and even. The easiest way is to hammer large headed nails in the ends of the stair rail and hang it by eye hooks with a length of wire and rings on the end at shoulder height and then roll. This makes it easy to store. I used to have several different colored dyed ones that I used for seamless backgrounds and as light reflectors. When you are out in the field you can have assistants roll out as much length as you need to bounce light into your setting. I used to do a lot of site work with stainless steel products and needed to avoid reflections of surroundings and color casts so I came up with this for shoots. It will pay you back the first time you use it and lasts forever. If you unroll from one end you can just roll up the soiled fabric on the second roll. When you get done you can remove it from the rails, wash, dry and reattach. If you take the time to wrap it right it stays pretty wrinkle free, and what wrinkles you get can be removed quickly with a little hand steamer.
If you are going to be doing large group outdoor portraits I have a trick that I used, it takes several assistants, but it will get rid of the dark shadows under the baseball caps.
First, don't shoot on a bright, harsh light day if don't have to. Pick an overcast day. If you are shooting out of doors and have the ability to do so pick a day just after a light rain. The rain washes everything and brightens the colors of the surroundings.
Go to the hardware store and get 2 7 ft. lenghts of stair rail. It is basically a large dowel with a flat side. Then go to the fabric store, preferably one that specializes in appolstry fabrics. Find the widest bleached muslin. It's very inexpensive and washable. I usually did about 15 yards or so. Use heavy duct tape the entire length of the raw ends. Then take the ends of the fabric and duct tape them to the flat side of the stair rail and then use a staple gun to tack it well. Wrap the fabric like a scroll/ roll of film making sure that you wrap it straight and even. The easiest way is to hammer large headed nails in the ends of the stair rail and hang it by eye hooks with a length of wire and rings on the end at shoulder height and then roll. This makes it easy to store. I used to have several different colored dyed ones that I used for seamless backgrounds and as light reflectors. When you are out in the field you can have assistants roll out as much length as you need to bounce light into your setting. I used to do a lot of site work with stainless steel products and needed to avoid reflections of surroundings and color casts so I came up with this for shoots. It will pay you back the first time you use it and lasts forever. If you unroll from one end you can just roll up the soiled fabric on the second roll. When you get done you can remove it from the rails, wash, dry and reattach. If you take the time to wrap it right it stays pretty wrinkle free, and what wrinkles you get can be removed quickly with a little hand steamer.