Portrait Lighting Suggestions

[dennykyser]

I am going to experiment with some lighting this weekend and would like to see what you guys think. I had a book on this but can't find it anywhere. My subjects this weekend will be my kids.

My light set up is Canon 550ex off camera, 420ex off camera using TTL adapters and slave. I also plan on using my medialight for a background light.

With main and fill, what is the ratio you use?
I have several umbrellas, should I use them on both?
What locations should I place the flashes?
I can’t use my setup in Manual because the 420ex won’t fire if the 550ex is set to manual. Can I get away with the medialight on background with out throwing off the E-TTL setup, or should I start of trying to compensate for it.

[edistophoto]

What effect are you looking for? For a simple portrait set up place your main light at the rear of the camera, to the right at over head height. Use one strobe to fill from left side and the other as a backlight from behind subject but in from of backdrop. Place backlight facing up 2-3 feet off of floor. Results should be good. Use f5.6-f8.0. Meter shutter accordingly. Use your reflectors on main and fill light. Set backlight to 0.5 power. Works fine for me, shoot lots of school portraits. Key is to have all strobes at the same temp. Good Luck