A few basic light/flash questions...

[sigler]

Greetings,

I'm a proud 10d owner. I'm pretty good with Photoshop, but I'm by no means a pro. (Video is my money maker.)

My sister is getting married and she is on a very tight budget. I will probably shoot her pictures with my 10d (for free :) )

What should I get to light up with formal pictures in the church? I need to purchase a flash...I hear the 550 is better than the 420 (?), is this true?

Also, what about studio lights? How difficult would this be? I would also like to get studio lights for my home...we have a new baby boy.

"Lighting" is a complex subject...can anybody help a lighting newbie?

Thanks,

Rob

[jhankins]

Firstly, I'm a newbe at this as well so I would say first do a search on studio lights in this forum which will turn up some good discussions relative to this.

I can say with the limited time I've had them, I'm elated with my Alien Bees B800's. I purchased a 4 light package from alien bees http://www.alienbees.com, I think it was called the traveler bee.

I do some day look forward to doing some weddings but my schedule does not permit dedicating that much time to it. I've started with a home studio. In fact I'm taking a break from giving the room a fresh paint job. :)

Best of Luck!

[rdenney]

sigler wrote:
Greetings,

I'm a proud 10d owner. I'm pretty good with Photoshop, but I'm by no means a pro. (Video is my money maker.)

My sister is getting married and she is on a very tight budget. I will probably shoot her pictures with my 10d (for free :) )

What should I get to light up with formal pictures in the church? I need to purchase a flash...I hear the 550 is better than the 420 (?), is this true?

Also, what about studio lights? How difficult would this be? I would also like to get studio lights for my home...we have a new baby boy.

"Lighting" is a complex subject...can anybody help a lighting newbie?

Thanks,

Rob

You are correct that lighting is a complex subject.

Classic lighting for portraiture involves a main light, a fill light, a background light, and a hair light. Deciding where and how much to use these four basic lights is well beyond the scope of a forum post, but there are a number of good books on the subject. My favorite seems to no longer be in print, unfortunately, but is an old Kodak book on portrait lighting.

But if you know what you want the four lights to do, then you can think about alternatives. For example, a reflector panel can be your fill light, and ambient room lights can be your hair and background lights. But the one thing you can't get around is this: Your main light has to be well to one side of the camera.

With that requirement established, there are several ways to meet it. The cheapest is to use a camera mounted flash, pointed to a reflector that is at one side of the camera as the main light, with another reflector as the fill light. The 550 swivels as well as tilting upwards, and I have bounced the light from it off adjacent walls so that the light reaching the subject is coming from one side rather than straight on. The 550 isn't cheap, but you'll need the swivel and the power of it. At least the 550 also doubles as a regular portable flash. I would get the remote cord and put it on a bracket so that if I needed to I could pull it off the bracket and hand-hold it pointed at the reflector.

You could also spend more and get the remote wireless transmitter, which will maintain E-TTL. For portraits of one or two people, this probably isn't necessary, but for portraits of groups, the flash won't be powerful enough to reflect off a panel sufficiently far from the subject and camera to light the whole group. You'll need to put the flash where you want the light coming from, and that will require the remote transmitter.

Or, you can get a stand-mounted monolight and a long sync cord. This is probably cheaper than the 550, and certainly cheaper than the 550 plus the remote transmitter. But it isn't portable. If you aren't going to do studio-type portraits a lot, it may not be worth the cost and the time it takes to learn how to use it effectively.

Whatever course you take, make sure you practice with it extensively before the event. You don't want to be making it up as you go between the ceremony and the reception, unless you want pictures of angry people.

Rick "who has made do with hand-held flashes more than once" Denney

[Morden]

I have the ST-E2 remote transmitter, and along with a couple of flashes (one 550EX and one 420EX) - as well as a couple of brollies & reflectors - all sorts of lighting effects can be created. For a while, I had only the ST-E2 and the 420EX. To confirm something that Rick said, this 'one light' setup was fine for one or two people, but for larger groups the second flash was needed.

[hommedars]

First of all, you really have your work cut out for yourself--you are about to capture images for a once in a lifetime event with very limited knowledge of lighting. So my first suggestion would be to study you butt off in the short time you have.

For equipment, my first low-budget option would be to buy an ST-E2 transmitter with 2 550EXs. B&H has a deal on this setup for $799, see here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh2/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=226523&is=USA

Next option would be to rent pro strobes from you local camera dealer. The downside there is that you may not have enough time to become really comfortable with the equipment.

Even in a small church, you will need all the flash horsepower you can afford to create great images.

If you go with the ST-E2/550EX option, invest in a LumiQuest ProMax System (about $50) and you should be set to do a decent job and end up with a really nice flash system for the future.

Joe

[sigler]

THanks for the info!

What kind of stands would I need for the 550's? And should I use umbrellas with them?

Thanks!

Rob

[hommedars]

If you use stands, and any stand should work, you will need a hot shoe adapter or tripod mount adapter to allow the 550EX to be mounted. There are adpater made specifically to use a flash and hold an umbrella, but keep in mind that an umbrella may be overkill and actually cost you flash power. Experiment for the desired effect if possible.

An alternative to stands, is just to use a couple of cheap tripods to mount the 550s. The small plastic flash stands that are included with the 550s are threaded for a tripod mount. Nothing more to buy this way.

Joe