Beach shoot group portraits - Modifiers of choice?

I'm doing a family portrait beach shoot in two weeks, and I'm having trouble deciding what modifiers to use because I've never done anything quite like this before. The largest group will be 17 people. There will also be individual photos and small groups that are subsets of the above large group. It's going to be right on the beach, overlooking a bay (so somewhat calmer than an ocean beach). However, I'm sure wind will be a factor. I have quite an assortment of modifiers, and I'm wondering what others would bring and why. Here's the list you're choosing from (for Elinchrom strobes):

- 2 7" reflectors
- 1 10" high-performance reflector
- 1 22" Kacey beauty dish
- 1 27" Mola Setti beauty dish
- 1 27" mini deep octa
- 1 39" deep octa
- 1 53" octa
- 1 74" indirect octa
- 2 60" softlighter II's
- Assorted 24" square softboxes and several strip boxes of different sizes

I have heavy duty Avenger stands and sandbags and portable power. It's the modifiers where I could use some help, if anyone has done this sort of shoot on a beach before. Thanks.

I dont live anywhere near an actual beach, but we have some wind here in Illinois. Provided that the weather isnt extremely volatile I would suggest going with the softlighers. Its a nice compromise for the group shots, big enough to have an effect, but not so big as to be unmanageable. For the smaller groups you can switch to the beauty dishes if you like, but I am biased towards the bigger softer source.

You could use a few smaller shoot-thru umbrellas too. The 60s may become kites unless you have someone to hold each stand. or... you pack a mule with a lot of sand bags.

I bought 2 kits of 33" eli umbrellas. I got a white shoot-thru and silver reflective in each kit, so now I have 2 kits I can use. Nice small size, and decent price.

Eli 33" umbrella kit

To be honest, I was leaning against using umbrellas of any kind because of the wind factor. I guess the Softlighters might not be as bad with the diffusion panels on the front. Without them, seems like they might just fly away into the sunset! I'd also really like to try to use what I have and not pick up more gear for this, if possible.

sdipirro wrote in post #16088000
To be honest, I was leaning against using umbrellas of any kind because of the wind factor. I guess the Softlighters might not be as bad with the diffusion panels on the front. Without them, seems like they might just fly away into the sunset! I'd also really like to try to use what I have and not pick up more gear for this, if possible.

Thats why i suggested the softlighters, but you have the struggle between size and softness and harder light but less wind prone. If you want to be safe grab these http://www.ebay.com …ain_0&hash=item​3a7cd907db At that price they are practically disposable.

Or this
http://www.ebay.com …ain_0&hash=item​4173efc391

well, sandbag the heck outta the 60s, and pray for calm winds.

This was done near the beach. Einstein with a mid-sized PLM with diffusion panel so essentially the same as your softliter.

I think it was less than half power late in the afternoon without any direct sun.
Not too much wind obviously. Then we did other smaller groups around the yard. Same setup with light closer or farther away. In both I doubt if the light was closer than 20 feet.

You could try speed lights

no modifiers... shoot bare bulb. Expose for ambient then fill with your bare bulb. (back light them with sun) We use this setup to shoot a 200 kid high school team track.
...and don't forget to white balance first.

PhilF wrote in post #16089691
no modifiers... shoot bare bulb. Expose for ambient then fill with your bare bulb. (back light them with sun) We use this setup to shoot a 200 kid high school team track.
...and don't forget to white balance first.

thats the way I would go as well.

an assistant or two should be on that list

^past 2 post are what id do.

Bare with reflector/barn doors and DEFINITELY an assistant. worth the extra $$

Maxilite from 16'.

Hmmmm, I'm not sure if you guys are helping me converge on a solution! I figured there would be multiple ways to do this. Another photographer I talked to suggested I used two lights with my 7" reflectors. I had planned to pose everyone with the sun behind them (or off to the side a bit), expose for ambient or possibly 1-stop below ambient, and then use the strobes to try to light everyone uniformly. It looks like everything from a bare bulb to a 7" reflector to a Maxilite to a 60" softlighter or umbrella could work! A special thanks to windpig for getting me to order the Maxilite I've debated for some time. Maybe I should just decide which modifiers to leave at home!