Upcoming shoot of my daughters - need some portable lighting

[theantiquetiger]

I am planning a serious photo shoot with my daughters in a month or so.

This is a room in the Nottoway Plantation I shot last week. I've done talked to them about shooting in this room with my daughters and it is OK, I just can't bring in huge equipment (that I don't have anyway). I will be using a soft box over my speed lite, but I want a couple small, battery powered lights to help curb any shadows. I am thinking something along the lines of a powerful flashlight with a soft box on them. Is there something like this or something I could make?

Here are some test shots I took of the room today. I set a custom white balance to the wall of #'s 1,3, & 4. #2 was the other end of the room, so the WB is a little off. These were taken at high noon. The windows are East #1,3, & 4/West #2

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8549/8747390651_5b2c27a398_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/8747390651/)
whiteroom1 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/8747390651/) by Theantiquetiger (http://www.flickr.com/people/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7293/8748512658_e063dce5d3_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/8748512658/)
whiteroom2 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/8748512658/) by Theantiquetiger (http://www.flickr.com/people/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8537/8748512192_6c8645ea13_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/8748512192/)
whiteroom3 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/8748512192/) by Theantiquetiger (http://www.flickr.com/people/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7323/8747389453_b127132cd7_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/8747389453/)
whiteroom4 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/theantiquetiger/8747389453/) by Theantiquetiger (http://www.flickr.com/people/theantiquetiger/), on Flickr

[theantiquetiger]

Sorry Bambi, I just bought more equipment!!! :headslap:
(But luckily I just had a sell on ebay for nearly $100 that I only paid $2 for).

I bought two of these. Anyone use these? Worth a damn? I check their website, they are sold out, so I had to buy on ebay.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r198/theantiquetiger/Snapbucket/F198B73D.jpg

[Marko]

If you want reliability, you will need to control the room with your flash. This means that you may need to overpower the existing light. This shoot is not simple. It requires good basic familiarity with controlling at least 2 flashes imo. Flashlights are unlikely to be useful as fill as their intensity and light quality won't be great. (then again - I have no idea of your macgyvering skills) . As a cheap fill I recommend another flash bounced flash off these white walls or bounced into an umbrella. Shoot will require at least 30 min setup. It might be more equipment than they will be happy with.

This looks like a biggish room - depending on your composition and your desired aperture, I do not think you will find this task easy with just 1 portable flash.
(unless you are shooting shooting near a window to capture a small portion of the room versus capturing the whole room as is shown in this image) .

And that flash in a softbox....that's off camera right?

Whatever setup you plan to use, test it fully first. This is not easy stuff - Have you ever shot with 2 flashes before?

[theantiquetiger]

I am talking about a Promaster Softbox for mounted speed lite like the one below. Like I said in my last post, I bought two of those battery powered 212 LED lights. I plan on making or finding some kind of softbox for them as well.

The shot I have in my head is the girls in linen white dresses (sundress like) no shoes and big white bows. I'm afraid the lighting will be low, so I plan on setting these two portables up to rid any shadows on their faces and use my speed lite mounted on my camera with the softbox below for fill light. I want a very soft white light.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r198/theantiquetiger/Snapbucket/786DB0F0.jpg

[Marko]

Where in the room do you want the girls posed? what elements of the room do you want shown?

[theantiquetiger]

Where in the room do you want the girls posed? what elements of the room do you want shown?

I'm not sure, but I have an image in my head of maybe one of them sleeping on the love seat, or them sitting in the two chairs, or just sitting on the floor. I will try some poses all over, fireplace, windows, mirror, etc.

My wife wants them in "pageant" dresses, but I disagree. I think a casual white linen dress for this formal setting would be better than a formal dress in a formal setting.

[Marko]

I'd likely put them in a corner near the window.

Given the equipment you are showing, u might well have a hard time with the flash.
For one, If the diffusing on camera flash thing stays on camera, will it be your main light?
IMO, it should not be the main light. If it is not the main light, then your main light needs to be more powerful than the on camera flash. I doubt this is possible with what u purchased.

Not sure what your ultimate goal is here. Is it shooting the scene with flash or just shooting a nice scene?

How much experience do you have using flash? Have you ever used one off camera?
If the answer is no, then this project (with flash) might be too big for you . Set up a smaller version of this shoot in your home and get comfortable using , multiple flashes on and off camera.

Personally I'd spend 100 bucks and get a second flash and bounce that flash into an umbrella if I decided I needed to shoot flash.

I'd say depending on the light level in the room on that day - I might just shoot this with window light and a reflector.

[Realist]

I would agree with marko, that if it's during the day use a reflector. Mixed light can turn ugly real fast.

[theantiquetiger]

I think the shot above is a long exposed shot. I have a feeling the room is not as bright as it looks

[Iguanasan]

First off, I think you'd be surprised how much light you can get in that room by bouncing a flash off the ceiling though it is a big room. Honesty, though, and your vision may be much different, I'd much rather make a strong use of the window light with maybe a reflector. Those huge windows look like they let in a lot of light. What side of the building are they on?

I like the sundresses idea as well though I don't want to be used as ammo against your wife :)

[JAS_Photo]

I vote for cute sundresses as well. I would concentrate on just a small portion of the room at a time for your shots, i.e. the settee at the window, the fireplace, the two chairs etc. Check out some wedding photography, you will see windows used to great advantage. Also from my own experience photographing rooms at the club with lots of windows, knowing what kind of light you are going to get would be a good idea as well. You are not necessisarily going to get the smooth even light you see here in real life.

Also for just $25 for a month, you can watch any of the many experts at Kelby training do what they do. Yeah, I know, I push the kelby training a lot but any of their courses would cost a couple of hundred bucks to go see live.

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[theantiquetiger]

I added some test images of the room that I took today.

[Realist]

Looks like the white might prove to be difficult to control. If you shoot in RAW you wont have to worry about white balance while you're shooting though.

[Marko]

Beautiful location! I still vote for window light though

[mbrager]

I must say I find your idea intriguing. The room is wonderful, so white, bright and light. Taking the leap to asking if you can use it and then having a trial shoot is excellent. Your models will look good dressed both ways, and I would try both costumes if you have time. In my limited experience the one most important thing you can do to improve your shots is get your flash off the camera and onto a light stand, using a remote trigger. This will give you a way to decrease the shadows without the complications of the LED continuous lights. Also it will help a lot if you can use a tripod for your camera. But my take on your whole project is that it will ultimately get you some excellent photos, no matter how you decide to proceed. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.