Help with location shoot please

As a last minute thing I am going to a local stately home on Thursday to take pictures of a friend of mine dressed as a princess.

We're going early in the morning before it opens to the general public at 11 am.

She's specifically got in mind what she wants with regards to costumes and poses and stuff, so I just need to worry about composition and lighting, composition I'm fine with and have a few ideas myself of what I want to do with it, just want to get the lighting bang on.

I've got a 430ex and three yongnuos, various umbrellas, a large parabolic umbrella, an octobox and a medium sized softbox.

Any tips on how to light? I want it to 'pop' a bit, I was thinking of just using one light to light her, a reflector if necessary for fill and then strategically placing other lights to light the background (presume I should still use modifiers on these ones and not bare bulb?)

I was thinking I need to get the large umbrella as close to her as possible to make it nice and soft?

Anything else I should think about?

Any input will be gratefully received! TIA

I'd get there as soon as you can get in to scope the place out if you have the whole house at your disposal. Since you will be there early, I'd include low level sunlight coming in the windows as maybe your fill or key light so you will want the earliest pictures on the east side of the house and maybe outside on a porch too. The sun can add a 4th light to your tools.

define early in the morning... to some that means 6am and you have sunrise, to others that may mean 9am and the sun is high enough in the sky to be a key factor. I'd suggest backlighting her with the sun, use your umbrella or softbox of choice and start with your desired ambient light reading. Once you have ambient where you want it, then add flash to taste. unless you have a rainy day, the ambient should be sufficient with a single light to create a very nice image.

if you are inside, same thing- find your desired ambient, but you might have to be more selective on the window light to avoid shadows and really harsh light. Watch your backgrounds... guillotine lines that chop off her head, etc.

Thanks, getting there for 7 (damn early for me!)

I suppose it's balancing ambient and flash well, using flash seems to 'lower' the ambient? How would I balance the white balance when combining natural light and flash?

Just had a practice with my wife standing in (not a model ), just trying to balance the background light and foreground - not that the background particularly needs lighting here, just for an example.

What do you think? What should I do differently?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/mU56​hP

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/mU55​bv

your flash should be close to daylight on the white balance scale. The issue is more inside if you used tungsten bulbs in fixtures and balancing against flash. Balancing ambient and flash is more of how light or dark you want the background, not the white balance. More ambient= slower shutter speed. more flash contribution=smaller fstop.

You might want to move the flash/umbrella left or right, as you have pretty flat lighting on the second image. Generally, start around 45deg off camera axis ,with the light above the subject so the catch light is in the 11 or 1 o'clock position

hawk911 wrote in post #16818512
your flash should be close to daylight on the white balance scale. The issue is more inside if you used tungsten bulbs in fixtures and balancing against flash. Balancing ambient and flash is more of how light or dark you want the background, not the white balance. More ambient= slower shutter speed. more flash contribution=smaller fstop.

Cool, thanks. I thought the white balance would be an issue. Also had a go at balancing sunlight and one flash as mentioned earlier. Man my windows are dirty!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/mU9q​n3

hawk911 wrote in post #16818516
You might want to move the flash/umbrella left or right, as you have pretty flat lighting on the second image. Generally, start around 45deg off camera axis ,with the light above the subject so the catch light is in the 11 or 1 o'clock position

I do usually start off around that position, but it seemed crazy dark on the other side, daughter was no good at holding the reflector, suppose I could add another light

you don't have to have the subject at a parallel plane to the backlighting, you can angle her too. Then you have some light hitting the shadow side of the face, while you main contributes more to the light side.

hawk911 wrote in post #16818531
you don't have to have the subject at a parallel plane to the backlighting, you can angle her too. Then you have some light hitting the shadow side of the face, while you main contributes more to the light side.

Makes sense. Tried adding a second light to make it a little less flat. Not sure it looks much different!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/mUae​ED

what shutter speed are you at? The second light shouldn't be the same power as the first, otherwise you just flattened the light again... same ratio. Lower the power on the second... create a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio for the second light.

You can turn off all lights, and use ambient to see how much you are getting from the window, too. then decide if you have to move your wife into the room more to reduce ambient. Start at iso 100, too

Shutter speed was 1/125 on that last one and ISO 125.

Second light was loads less, maybe even 1/128, main light was about 1/16 from what I remember.

I'm not horrendously far off it being ok I hope?

Try pulling the second light back just a little. From what my crap monitor shows, the main is image right, and 2nd light is image left. I see a slightly less bright cheek image left. The last image is better than the first 2 images. but you, and the client, may like a more dramatic look. Turn light #2 off completely, and post. Also, dump the iso to either 100 or even L if you can

Thanks. I really appreciate the help!

I think the images above are ok, but they are a little flat as you say, more dramatic will be better. Like I say she dresses as princesses and wants it for advertising, it doesn't particularly need to be massively 'dramatic' lighting, but it's getting a balance between boring and having a little interest.