First modelshoot in abandoned castle : lightning & lens choice?

There is no electricity but the natural light is reasonable (if the weather/light is fine), still I want a good lit face so will use flash.
I don't want to make it too complex as I want to concentrate on the shoot and not the material.
I think I will use only flash (with 2, one as a hairylight I need to move 2 tripods constantly through the castle, stairs,.... and I need to check if it's not in the image).

I can choose between my Jongnuo 600EX-RT in combination with :
-32inch softbox umbrella silver (with diffusor cloth) and shoot backward
-33inch white shoot through umbrella
-60Inch white shoot through umbrella
-15Inch beautydish
-on camera flash with the rogue flashbender

Which lightning setup would you choose ?

As lenses I definitely will use 16-35 f4 (to have both the model in relation with the castle in the picture).
Which prime(s) would I take with me not to be loaded too much, Sigma 35 Art - Sigma 50 Art - Canon 85 1.2L ?
The 70-200 2.8LII would probably be a bit exagerated in the rooms, don't you think?

I would prefer the reflective umbrella softbox.

Compared to the shoot-through umbrella, the reflective umbrella has less of a center hotspot, and less uncontrolled spill. I have 42" reflective umbrella softboxes, the 32" should give about the same look. With some effort, you can light a full body with it.

Maybe take the flashbender too, and do a little experimenting with bare flash off-camera, using the flashbender as a snoot or flag to keep unwanted flash out of the environment.


I personally like the 70-200 so I can get a face portrait and a full-body shot without having to move feet or switch lenses. But, maybe the 85mm would be a good choice here.

I have a big problem with shoot-through umbrellas. That is the fact that a lot of the light bounces back away from the subject and then that light bounces off the surrounding surfaces (walls, objects, etc.) and in addition to being light coming from uncontrolled directions, it may have its color changed.

If I'm using an umbrella, it will almost always be a satin white umbrella with an opaque black cover behind it and the rig would be using the light reflected off the interior of the umbrella.

If I want more area and/or "softer" light, I'll use one of my softboxes.

One thing I don't care for when doing portraits is a catchlight that has a multi-sided circular shape with ribs in it. If one doesn't paint the catchlight image in post processing, that type of catchlight is going to be there when using umbrellas. That's another reason that I use softboxes most of the time for portraits.

I forgot to mention, the big 60" white shootthrough umbrella has a black cover to make it also a bounce back umbrella (white inside), but I don't have a diffusor cloth for this.
http://www.kamera-express.be …rg-ke_be&JumpTo=OfferList

Would this be better than the 32inch softbox umbrella silver with diffusor cloth?
I read somewhere that bigger softboxes/umbrella's would be better.

CanonYouCan wrote in post #17412371
I read somewhere that bigger softboxes/umbrella's would be better.

Not true. They're different, for sure, but not necessarily better. There's a time and a place for all kinds of different light modifiers.

The size of the light source, relative to the size of the subject, will determine the hardness of shadow edges. Sometimes you want hard edges, sometimes you want soft edges, sometimes you want no edges.

If the light source is very large, relative to the size of the subject, the shadow edges can become so soft that there effectively aren't any shadows at all - the light becomes flat, and you lose interesting depth/shape.

Placing the light far away from the subject will make the relative size of the light smaller. For example, the sun is really big (well, bigger than any of the modifiers I own, anyway) but it's also very far away, so its relative size is very small. The sun makes hard, crisp-edged shadows.

I use a small, hard light source pretty often - even for portraiture. What kind of look are you going for?

More a glamour look but with a lot of half and some full body shots.
I also have a 40cm (15") beautydish but that's just for the face, I think i'll replace this one with a 70cm portable beautydish as I plan more locationshoots.
Would a 70cm beautydish be usuable for half/full bodyshots?

You're asking a lot of questions about particular light modifiers, etc, but really you should set up some lights at home or in your yard and test with any person, or even a doll, to see what effects you get and have some idea of what you need before you go on location.


A 70cm beauty dish can be used for full body, remember that it gets a sharper shadow quality as you get it further away from the subject. Again, test it before you go on location, you'll see the effect.