Hotel/Bedroom Shoot

Hello All

I have a Shoot soon in a Hotel Room ... Which is taken up mainly with a Bed ... Like Most
Hotel's, I'm Shooting 2 Brunettes who will be Topless,

My Problem is ... I've never done a Hotel Shoot before ... So I'm asking if anyone knows
of a Practical Setup to Achieve overall Good Picture's,

The Camera Will Be a Canon 40D with a 24-70mm L F2.8 ... Plus a Manfrotto Tripod if needed,

My Light's Consist of ...

3 x 150 Watt Lamps with Flash in each (Interfit)

1 x 60x60 Softbox

2 x White Transparent Brollys

1 x Reflector Brolly

550 EX SpeedLight which can be Flash Remotely on Stand or on Camera,

3 x Lightstands

1 x 3 Foot Lasolite Reflector

The Bed which I'm going to Presume is King Size need's to be Well Lit ...
I was thinking of a Softbox to the Left of the Camera at 45 Degree's as a Key Light ...
Another Lamp to the Right with a Transparent Brolly instead of Softbox for a Fill In Light
and position them near the Foot of the Bed ... While I'm a bit back from the Lamps in
The Middle ... I was'nt going to use Flash ... But if I was ... Which Lamp/Lamps would
benefit from it? ... Also would just using the 550 EX on the Camera with the Light Bouncing
Off the Ceiling Work instead of using the Lamps built in Flash?

So ... With the Lighting Equipment I've got ... Is there a Setup that anyone could suggest?

Could I just take an off Camera Flashgun Mounted with a Brolly and that would Work?

I obviously want to take the Least amount of Lighting equipment as I can

I've never done any of this before so any Help would be Appreciated
And Apologies for the Long Post ... I just have'nt got a Clue

Also I have no idea of Natural Light ... I have'nt seen the Room and the Shoot is late afternoon
so the Light would'nt be over Good Here in the UK

Many Thanks for Reading

John

Things you will need to know is how large is the room and what equipment will fit in as a lot of hotels that I have stayed in in the UK were very small
Make sure that the room you have reserved is the type of bed that you wanted as many hotels in the UK and Europe are 2 single beds and not one queen or king.

I have shot many glamour type sessions in hotels. The problem is the average hotel room is really small.

I always try to book the largest suite the hotel offers, it is usually not that much more cost, and the suites will tend to have a larger living room type area. Use online travel sites like Priceline.com or Expedia to get good prices on luxury suites. These higher price suites also have better furniture and fixtures. Hotels near casinos usually a good deals.

A hotel room will have many lamps. Go to Home Depot and buy a dozen "daylight" balance bulbs, they are not expensive, you can get a dozen for about $15. Go around the hotel room and replace every bulb with a daylight balanced bulb. Then you can turn on every light in the room, and it will look natural with any speedlights or strobes.

hotel rooms usually have low white ceilings. Use that to your advantage. Bounce strobes off the ceiling for soft light.

Before the shoot starts, try to unclutter to room with everything you don't want in the shots, like food menus, directories, even place the phones and clocks out of site. Less stuff in the room looks better.

Make sure you tip the bellhop for carrying all your gear up to the room

KurtGoss wrote in post #13160137
A hotel room will have many lamps. Go to Home Depot and buy a dozen "daylight" balance bulbs, they are not expensive, you can get a dozen for about $15. Go around the hotel room and replace every bulb with a daylight balanced bulb. Then you can turn on every light in the room, and it will look natural with any speedlights or strobes.

Or you can gel your flashes to tungsten instead. Depends whether the outdoor lighting is important though.

KurtGoss wrote in post #13160137
I have shot many glamour type sessions in hotels. The problem is the average hotel room is really small.

I always try to book the largest suite the hotel offers, it is usually not that much more cost, and the suites will tend to have a larger living room type area. Use online travel sites like Priceline.com or Expedia to get good prices on luxury suites. These higher price suites also have better furniture and fixtures. Hotels near casinos usually a good deals.

A hotel room will have many lamps. Go to Home Depot and buy a dozen "daylight" balance bulbs, they are not expensive, you can get a dozen for about $15. Go around the hotel room and replace every bulb with a daylight balanced bulb. Then you can turn on every light in the room, and it will look natural with any speedlights or strobes.

hotel rooms usually have low white ceilings. Use that to your advantage. Bounce strobes off the ceiling for soft light.

Before the shoot starts, try to unclutter to room with everything you don't want in the shots, like food menus, directories, even place the phones and clocks out of site. Less stuff in the room looks better.

Make sure you tip the bellhop for carrying all your gear up to the room

Thanks All for the Answer's

I'm not actually renting the Room ... I'll be travelling there not knowing what it will look
Like ... and it Will Probably be Small ... The other Problem is that most basic Hotel's Here
in the UK only have a Bed Lamp and a ceiling Light ... There also usually fixed to the Ceiling
like a Strip light ... So Filling the Room with Daylight Bulb's Can't be Done

So I still throw the Question out there ... With the Light's I own ... What would be best to take? ...
The Shoot is this Friday and I want it to go well ... thats without How
Nervous I am lol,

Thanks
John

Tungsten Gel sounds Good to keep the Light balanced ... Thanks for that Tip

John=

The most critical factor to your success here is to practice in your own bedroom before your travel. I would keep everything as simple as possible:

1) Start with f2.8 and 1/125th and WB=5600K with no other lights in the room on.
2) Use 1 Interfit strobe with the 60 by 60 softbox in front to the right of your camera position aimed directly at the models. Adjust power and position to get exposure right.
3) Get a grid for 1 Interfit strobe to the back and left of the models aimed at the back of their head as a hair/side light. Adjust power and position to get exposure right. You should see some white light to the hair and sides of the models.
4) After you your basic photo ready, you can experiment with adding room lamps or other lighting.

Keep your setup really simple. Shoot with shallow DOF at f2.8 to bring the models in sharp focus and let the room details fade out of focus. Shoot from as far away as possible to get the most flatttering look. Focus on the models position, pose, and expression. Here is a sample picture of this setup-http://scottspellman.s​mugmug.com/photos/1080​101837_bjUVp-M.jpg

Have fun-
Scott

jrdphotography wrote in post #13164227
Tungsten Gel sounds Good to keep the Light balanced ... Thanks for that Tip

Many hotel rooms now use Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs to save money on energy costs.

Wouldn't you like to be these guys!!!!

http://fstoppers.com …15000-per-night-penthouse

I'd say try to make use of natural light. It all depends on your style. I'd try to borrow or rent some primes so that you can better utilize available light.

I'd start with Google and a telephone.
Search for the hotel, find a phone number and call them to find out about room sizes etc.
With luck they may even have some pictures of various rooms on their website.

I've stayed in a lot of hotels around the UK and Europe and the room sizes vary all over the map.

Two people on a bed with your light gear will be a challenge. If the light is close to one person it will fall off and leave the other person under exposed.

You may want to consider bouncing the lights into the corners of the room. Use a color checker or digital gray card to get a white balance reference for use in post. SHOOT RAW! You can create soft light bouncing and also keep the fall off under control.
And it the final product is likely to look better.

If the walls and ceiling are really ghastly colors, bring along gaffer's tape and tape sheets to the walls.

You can probably use a relatively high ISO on your 40D as well.