Photo Backdrop Shot - Lighting and Settings - Help/Suggestions!

[Zeeshan0518]

Hey everyone,

So I do event designing for local parties and events held here in the SF bay area. And each year a local Indian community comes up to us and asks us to set up a backdrop, a front entrance and a photo drop. They would like us also to take pictures.

So heres what happens, people/families would line up and take pictures and in the rear is our backdrop. Normally, they really don’t care for the preference of quality in the picture as long as it was a high mega pixel camera. Fortunately for me, SLR is the way to go! And I think it would be a better investment for our company. So this year I got the Rebel XT and a great tungsten light kit from b&h which is here: Impact Tungsten 3 Flood Light Kit - consists of: 3 Floodlights, Umbrellas, Light Stands -http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=308806&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

Now as for the hall, it’s a huge hall with florescent lighting:
http://www.mrzeeshan.com/pictures/light_2.jpg

And all they give us is a small area which we put our photo backdrop, here is one we did last year. Sorry photo quality is bad; I had to get this from a video:
http://www.mrzeeshan.com/pictures/light_1.jpg

Now down to the whole reason of the post. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to position the lighting and camera settings? Should I close off the backdrop on the left and right side in order for the lighting to be in full effected? I’m pretty brand new to the lighting field, although I’m not stopping my research The normal Indian clothing they usually wear is bright reds, yellows pinks etc. http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/images/emoticons/confused.gif

Thanks

Zee

[tony fanning]

I had similar lights once and was suprised at how little light they actually push out. Strobes would have been a better bet. If you can enclose the posing area with white material you would probably have more light to play with due to it reflecting the light back.
I would put one light at about 30 degrees from camera axis both sides and one near the camera.This should light the subjects evenly and kill shadows.Not very creative but effective.

[Zeeshan0518]

Thanks Tony. Any suggestions on camera settings?

Zee

[PhotosGuy]

Any suggestions on camera settings? No one can possibly give you those. You need to shoot on "M" & read your histogram.
Gray Card…White Paper. What’s best? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=58677)
Example using white paper here: Simple 2 Light Portrait Set-up (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=128857)

[Zeeshan0518]

No problem. Hopefully when i get the kit, ill be able to play around with the lighting to get the best effect.