Help! Shooting family of 14 indoors at night!

[amykillianphotography]

I am shooting an extended family of 14 on Thanksgiving night around 7pm. This is the only time that everyone will be together and available. It will be dark outside so we are obviously shooting indoors. They have a large house but I am by no means an expert on lighting. I have a 430EX flash along with two umbrella lights. Any setting/arranging/lighting tips are welcome as this is a huge client for me and I don't want to screw it up!:confused:


Thanks!

[Michael_Lambert]

Your umbrellas? What kind of lighting are they? What lens are you planing on using and what camera?

[amykillianphotography]

I just have the Rebel XT with a Canon L series f/2.8 24-70mm lens. I don't know the specs on the lights. Here is a listing on ebay for the set I have:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=110194969293&Category=3860&_trksid=p3907.m29

[RedHot]

How long have you had these umbrellas? Doesn't sound like you have much experience with them if you are asking how to use them. If the room has a normal white ceiling with white-ish walls, you might be able to do it with a flash diffuser like the lightsphere or omnibounce.

[Mark_Cohran]

The light kit you mentioned are hot lights (photofloods) and they will need a tungsten white balance. Your flash provides quite a bit cooler light (flash and daylight are close in White Balance). Mixing light sources isn't a great idea. If you use the umbrella kit, use just the kit. If you decide to use the flash, then use just the flash.

Mark

[BDDigitalImages]

I would use the kit and no flash, shoot raw or flash and no kit, shoot raw. Or get some daylight bulbs for the kit and use both the kit and flash, all will work. Have fun with the shoot.

[amykillianphotography]

Thank you all for your help! I think I'll pick up some daylight bulbs tonight and do a test shoot at my house to see which combination works best. I really appreciate the advice! :)

[Mark_Cohran]

Thank you all for your help! I think I'll pick up some daylight bulbs tonight and do a test shoot at my house to see which combination works best. I really appreciate the advice! :)

Be careful using the flash and the light kit together. Three basic rules for portrait lighting (From Learning to Light by Roger Hicks) are:

1.There should only be one set of shadows and they should all point in the same direction:
a. The most basic rule; dangerous to break (you must either be a genius or have a very unusual subject0
b. If you have no choice (an interior shot as an example), try to keep the conflicting shadows as soft and unobtrusive as possible.

2. Wherever possible, the background should be far enough from the subject that it can be lit separately:
a.Common problem with amateur portraits is awkward shadows on the background, usually because there is not enough room to adequately separate the subject and the background.
b. Although portraiture usually calls for longer focal lengths, if required by the confines of the room, a more professional look will be achieved by subject and background separation than with a longer focal length, so use a wider angle lens if necessary.

3. Whenever a shadow is unavoidable, it should be treated as part of the composition:
a. Composition is a matter or light and dark tones (or color) and a large shadow can't be ignored when composing the shot.
b. Sometimes the shadow can be made a principle part of the composition.

[amykillianphotography]

I decided to nix the lights and just shoot with my external flash bounced off of their white ceiling. I was quite pleased with the results. Now if I could just get everyone to be looking at the camera in the same shot! Ah well, thank goodness for Photoshop. :)

I'll try to post the image once I finalized the editing.


Thanks again for everyone's advice!

[Mark_Cohran]

Great. Glad it worked out for you. Do we get to see an example? :)