How to light an Outdoor Night Birthday?

Hi POTN,

So I've agreed to photograph a night birthday that will be held in an open air outdoor terrace at my clients house, and I'm now terrified thinking about how I'm going to light the event. It will be an open air event with no walls or ceilings to bounce off. There will be minimal external lighting, maybe a small lamp to create 'mood' lighting, but either than that, the only light available will be my OCF.

In terms of my gear, I'm planning to take my two 5D3's, one with a 24-70 II mounted to it, and another with a 70-200 2.8 IS II mounted on it (I'll be using a Blackrapid DR-2 to carry both). I'm planning to use 4 x 600 EXRT's mounted on light stands around the terrace/glass balcony, and a 600 EXRT mounted on each camera (so 6 x 600 EXRT's in total)

Now my question is, is there a need for me to use any diffusers? I'm thinking of using the bounce card on my on camera flashes just for fill (pointing the flash vertically), and just using simple bare flash for the OCF (pointed vertically). Is this ideal?

Alternatively, I can use my Gary Fong Collapsible on one of my on camera flashes (most likely to the 5D3 with the 24-70 II mounted to it), but I haven't touched this diffuser in quite a while! (I'm usually a big fan of bare back bouncing).

I will primarily be walking around the terrace taking random party shots of the guests, so there will not be any one particular part of the terrace that everyone will congregate in. There will be roughly 100 guests attending this event.

If you have any other recommendations, it would be greatly appreciated. Right now I'm just pulling my hair thinking about what to do.

If it makes any difference, I have shot a few engagements,receptions in the past using ETTL OCF with my Speedlights, however, I've primarily been bouncing light.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks POTN

Pointing the flash vertically and using the bounce card will do absolutely nothing but waste light if there's nothing to bounce off of.....the relative size of the light source wouldn't really change from just using the bare flash. Personally, I would probably just use a flash mounted to a flash bracket and drag the shutter at a high ISO/wide aperture to capture some ambient light while the flash would properly expose and help freeze the subjects. One thing to think about is that you probably don't want to ruin the "feel" of the party by blasting light at it from all directions if it was planned to be a dimly lit evening event.

jra wrote in post #16376315
Pointing the flash vertically and using the bounce card will do absolutely nothing but waste light if there's nothing to bounce off of.....the relative size of the light source wouldn't really change from just using the bare flash. Personally, I would probably just use a flash mounted to a flash bracket and drag the shutter at a high ISO/wide aperture to capture some ambient light while the flash would properly expose and help freeze the subjects. One thing to think about is that you probably don't want to ruin the "feel" of the party by blasting light at it from all directions if it was planned to be a dimly lit evening event.

Thank you for your reply. To be honest, my client was a bit vague, but I'm preparing for the worst, which is why I assumed they wanted to have a dimly lit evening event. I usually don't like dragging the shutter, as the results can vary quite a bit (I'm quite anal about having sharp images). Yes, the downside of this is that the backgrounds will be near black, which is why I thought I could somehow use OCF. What if I was to add a stofen diffuser to each OCF 600EXRT to replicate a lampshade effect? Will that work? Or will I still have the problem of having a relatively small light source?

You can put some shoot-thru umbrellas on the OCF to soften the light, and you can lower the power if you want to maintain the ambiance. You may also want to gel the lights to match any tungsten lighting at the venue. Alternatively, you can keep it simple and just use something like a Flashbender or Demb Flip-it and drag the shutter. I wouldn't use Gary Fong if there was no light or neutral color ceiling or walls to bounce off of.

sportmode wrote in post #16377150
You can put some shoot-thru umbrellas on the OCF to soften the light, and you can lower the power if you want to maintain the ambiance. You may also want to gel the lights to match any tungsten lighting at the venue. Alternatively, you can keep it simple and just use something like a Flashbender or Demb Flip-it and drag the shutter. I wouldn't use Gary Fong if there was no light or neutral color ceiling or walls to bounce off of.

Thank you for your reply. I'm not too sure how shoot through umbrella's will work, as it may ruin the overall 'feel' of the event. Keep in mind that the event will be held in a terrace which is maybe the size of half a tennis court.

What are your thoughts on using the drag the shutter + rear curtain sync flash technique?

I don't think the host would want all that lighting gear to ruin the mood. Besides, the guests will likely get annoyed rather fast.
If I were you, I would use a shoe-mouted flash, probably at less that 100% power, and frame the shots very tight to eliminate as much of the dark background as possible. If there are any kind of lighting in the background, I would shoot at higher ISO, the capture those. There has to be at least one wall there. I would hang around there and invite guests to pose near the wall as to also eliminate the black backround.
Disclaimer: I am not a pro at this, but have been in that situation a few times.

make everyone carry a tiki torch.

Go out tonight and try with other people as practice. Learning by doing is sometimes the best way.

you have 2 5D3's. They are very good High ISO cameras. Put it at 3200 - 4000 iso, shoot fast F/3.5 or less with a slower shutter speed ( 1/50), put a diffuser on your flash and lower light power level on flash a lot and shoot direct at low power with a diffuser attached. You will need just a little fill. You dont want it to look flashy .

hes gone wrote in post #16381686
=he's gone;16381686]make everyone carry a tiki torch.

Too many hot spots...

Thank you for the replies everyone! ☺

Sibil wrote in post #16381617
I don't think the host would want all that lighting gear to ruin the mood. Besides, the guests will likely get annoyed rather fast.
If I were you, I would use a shoe-mouted flash, probably at less that 100% power, and frame the shots very tight to eliminate as much of the dark background as possible. If there are any kind of lighting in the background, I would shoot at higher ISO, the capture those. There has to be at least one wall there. I would hang around there and invite guests to pose near the wall as to also eliminate the black backround.
Disclaimer: I am not a pro at this, but have been in that situation a few times.

umphotography wrote in post #16381874
you have 2 5D3's. They are very good High ISO cameras. Put it at 3200 - 4000 iso, shoot fast F/3.5 or less with a slower shutter speed ( 1/50), put a diffuser on your flash and lower light power level on flash a lot and shoot direct at low power with a diffuser attached. You will need just a little fill. You dont want it to look flashy .

Yeah my plan of attack is to shoot tight, still use my ocf and point a shoe-mounted (stofen diffused) flash directly at the subject with about -1/3 FEC.

In terms of my settings, I usually hang around the 3200 ISO, f.2.8 and maybe 1/125 of a second, but I might need to slow it down to about 1/50-1/60 or so - I'm now just wondering whether there is a need to use rear curtain sync on my flash.

If i was to make an analogy, imagine a pier with a water/faint city view, which is why I was stressing (given the lack of walls/ceilings to bounce off)

BufordFZ1 wrote in post #16381795
Go out tonight and try with other people as practice. Learning by doing is sometimes the best way.

The event is tonight, so I’ll see how I go. I’ll be going in about half hour / an hour early to test my lighting, so hopefully I can make something happen ☺

Just came back from the event! I think I did quite well considering it was my first open air night time event.

My 4 x 600 EXRT OCF speedlites definitely came in handy! Placed my light stands in various corners, pointing directly at the crowd, and used a stofen diffused on camera flash (pointed directly at the subject) for fill.

Thank you POTN for your recommendations/feedba​ck, it is much appreciated

Can you post a sample pic or two?

mrdunu wrote in post #16382787
Just came back from the event! I think I did quite well considering it was my first open air night time event.

My 4 x 600 EXRT OCF speedlites definitely came in handy! Placed my light stands in various corners, pointing directly at the crowd, and used a stofen diffused on camera flash (pointed directly at the subject) for fill.

Thank you POTN for your recommendations/feedba​ck, it is much appreciated

What exactly do you think your stofen did for you?

jcolman wrote in post #16382908
What exactly do you think your stofen did for you?

to be honest, not much versus direct flash.

good news is that I managed to find some ambient from the down lights of the house (ie the house was in the background).

Sibil wrote in post #16382892
Can you post a sample pic or two?

This is SOOC, i.e. completely unedited

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …s/varunkalra/10​368444075/