Is this dumb?

[photofinish]

I want to play "Studio" this weekend cheaply to see if I like doing elaborate portraits at home. I've never done this before so I'm afraid to mess this up. My daughter's senior prom is Saturday and she is bringing over some of her friends. I would like to do some nice standing couples shots, head and shoulders, with them turned slightly pointing their left shoulders toward me.

I have two 4x8 foot 2 inch insulating boards painted flat black which I will set up "v" shaped, 8 foot tall. I have two aluminum reflector clamp lights, one large and one small. I will mount the large one with a 100 watt bulb higher than the couple and pointed down toward the couple's front. I will mount the smaller one with a 75 watt bulb low on the other side of the setup and pointed up at the backs of the couple. I will tripod my 20D with Lightsphere II with the cap on in the center of the setup and opt for a large aperture (2.8??) in aperture priority mode to blurr the background if possible. I will also use my cable release. I don't know whether to use my kit lens 18-55mm or my 50mm 1.8. What do you think?

I know this may be a crude setup, but will this work? Any help would be appreciated and spare the wrath of my daughter and wife.

[Jon]

The light arrangement sounds good. I assume that you were planning on using the flash as a fill, not as the main light. You're describing mixed-lighting conditions, so colour balancing will be awkward. Also, you're not using terribly powerful lights, so you'll be needing both wide-open lens and relatively slow shutter speeds. Think about getting some higher wattage bulbs, maybe 150 w R-40 reflector flood/reflector spot, and a third light & stand instead of the on-camera flash. That will improve your colour balance since all 3 lamps will be about the same temperature. Get your ratios by varying the distances of the lights (1 stop less is about 1.4x as far away at same light output). You'll probably need to use your 18-55 unless you've got a pretty large room to work in. You'd need to be about 13-15 ft. away to cover full length at about 6' height on the 50, and you want the background far enough away that it'll be thrown out of focus - another 3-4 ft. So you're looking at a 20+ ft. room. If you're just doing head and shoulders, the 50 would be OK, but that'll lose a lot of the effect of the gowns and that may be important to the girls.

[lostdoggy]

Just to be safe, not sure what type of clamp light you're using, but, make sure the lamp base can handle such a large lamp. Have you consider renting the lighting equipment???

[photofinish]

You may be correct about the light stand. I'll have to be carefull...Thanks for the help, guys, I'm feeling more confident already.:-)

[photofinish]

Jon,
Sounds like you are suggesting that both lights (and maybe the third if I go that way) should be the same wattage/type of light to keep the light and light color more even??

[Jon]

That's correct. The difference between 100 and 150 w. may not be significant, depending on the lamps in use, but there's also the differences you'll get between "cool white", "soft white", and all the other sundry types out there. Two or three matched (off the shelf same type) bulbs will make it easier.

[robertwgross]

Are you going to use the black panels for a black background, or what?

That might work. Otherwise, cover them with some dark, fuzzy fabric, like a velvet or velveteen. I got good results with black and with medium gray.

If you have the subject directly in the shot with the background behind, consider putting a light directly behind the subject so that it shines on the background at head level. That light could be above and shining down, or it could be behind the subject and shining up. Then, to that light, add some color. You can end up with a faint color glow behind the subject's head.

---Bob Gross---

[Curtis N]

Jerry,
No, it isn't "dumb." It's fun! Lots of people setup home studios on limited budgets, myself included.

My first thought is you're going to need more watts. Buy a few more of those clamp lights. Put BIG bulbs in them. Having more light sources will also "soften" the light a bit.

My second thought is that it will take a lot of trial and error to get it right. Set things up, find some victims, and practice. Review, adjust, and practice some more. You'll want to have everything fairly well set before the well-dressed teenagers arrive. Kids that age don't have a lot of patience.

Finally, shoot RAW so you can adjust the white balance later. If you're experienced with your 20d then you know the rest. Watch your histogram, expose to the right, and take LOTS of pictures.

Good luck!

[photofinish]

Thanks Bob and Curtis for the encouragement. :-) Do you think the ultimate goal would be to use only ambient light and no flash?

[Curtis N]

Do you think the ultimate goal would be to use only ambient light and no flash?
That depends on the ambient light. Just remember there's a reason studio photographers spend more on lighting equipment than they paid for their car.

There are always trade-offs and rarely a perfect solution. Using less light means either a higher ISO setting (which means more digital noise in the image - how much you're willing to live with is your call) or it means a slower shutter speed (sometimes you get lucky, just remember these are hormonally charged teenagers on prom night. Getting them to stand perfectly still will be a challenge).

[kjonnnn]

If you want to use light bulbs, you can pick up some 500 ones rather inexpensively. They wont be as warm as the 100 watt ones.

[Jon]

500 w lamps will likely be too much for his sockets and reflectors, although they'd be preferable for any serious hot light (as opposed to strobe) work.

[kjonnnn]

The holders aluminum reflectors only costs a few dollars too. Yea they're hot.