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Ken Fong
28th of June 2004 (Mon), 13:35
Hello all,
Okay, I'll be shooting a wedding this weekend for a sister-in-law that did not want to hire a professional. I've been getting a lot of great help from the forum these last few months to prepare (THANKS). For portrait work, I was wondering if anyone can critique my setup. I'll be practicing on my wife these next few days.

subject: bride or groom with various members of the family...anywhere from 1 to 7 people, maybe more if light coverage allows.

location: indoor church 'parlor', backdrop is TBD

setup time: I have about 10-15 minutes, probably more if needed

equipment setup:
- Canon 10D with ST-E2, 1.4 50mm (1.4) lens or 2.8 24-70mm lens
- tripod with remote release (but I might consider hand holding?)
- 550EX (Main), 420EX (Fill)...ST-E2 is set for a 3:1 stop ratio
- both flashes mounted on stands at subject's eye level and reflecting off umbrellas (with option to shoot through as a softbox).
- Main reflector is 60" diameter, fill reflector is 45" diameter.
- Main reflector will point 'hotspot' just over subject's head
- Fill reflector will point 'hotspot' just below subject's head.
- Reflectors will be 90 degrees apart relative to subject ~6 feet out, and camera will be centered between the reflectors
- I plan to use the camera's metering on the wedding dress (a Sekonic incidental meter is available, but I wasn't planning on using it unless someone highly recommends it.)
- lots of AA batteries from Costco
- EOS3 with NPH 400 film as backup

pose:
- subject body will face the main, but head will look towards the camera - or some variation of this. 3/4 body coverage and closer.

packing:
- I will probably bubble wrap my stands, tripod, and umbrellas and place them in a long duffle and check them in at the airport.

robertwgross
28th of June 2004 (Mon), 14:09
One more thing:

If you have a small group posing like that, get everybody to shift their feet so that the "outside foot" is slightly forward and pointed at the camera. Which is the outside foot depends on which side of the group they are on.

---Bob Gross---