diy studio lighting how to set up (help)

[scott stokes]

I need lots of help my wife wants me to do some portraits,before i leave to newmexico in 2 days.how would you go about this.I will have to use hotlights for now.I have 2 light stands with 2 500watt lights on each and 3 other single 500watt lights.I have 10D 420ex. photos are of a 2year old and 1 month old.have two rooms i can use 1 is in basement and is 16x24 with 9ft ceiling,the other is 18x24 with vaulted ceiling 20ft to peek.thanks for any help.scott

[robertwgross]

I would start with a camera-to-subject distance of about eight feet, but that depends on the lens you use. Then there will be a subject chair. Then about another eight to ten feet behind the chair will be the backdrop, which should be a dark gray fabric or something similar that will not be very reflective.

Your camera will be on a tripod at about eye level to the subject. There will be one major hot light to the left of the camera about three feet and about one foot up. There will be one minor hot light to the right of the camera about two feet, then back about a foot or two (so that its light hitting the subject is dimmer). Those are your two big lights.

Then you may choose to have a hair light or a shoulder light. You may choose to have a light on the background, appearing on the background roughly behind the head of the subject.

That should get you started.

Set up a custom white balance on your 10D.

---Bob Gross---

[Perfect_10]

Bob
Would this placement work substituting two 285HV flashes instead of the hot-lights ??

[robertwgross]

Would this placement work substituting two 285HV flashes instead of the hot-lights ??

Well, yes. All I wrote there was Portrait Lighting 101.

For a complete beginner, continuous lighting is easier since you can continuously see what you are doing without looking at the camera results, so it applies to film and digital. With film, you can't quickly look at your results, so you need to be more accurate.

You could do the whole thing with two strobe flashes set on Manual, but you have to make sure that one stays slightly brighter than the other (probably via distance to subject). You can also do it with two Canon flashes using the Canon wireless flash system, and you can control ratios with the system.

---Bob Gross---

[scott stokes]

thanks. for info. I did not get to take photos before I left for new mexico,I just got back a few days ago. I will try this one day this week.

[chris.bailey]

dont forget you will need to do a custom white balance setting using Halogen lights.