Pre-prom photography advice

I figure a prom is sorta like a wedding, so I hope it's ok to post this here...

A friend of mine is in a bind. He was going to have someone take shots of his daughter and boyfriend before their prom TOMORROW, and they pulled out at the last minute, so he is asking me to do it as a favor.

Now... I'm a sports shooter, so as far as lens choice goes, I'm not sure what to do.

It will be outside, in a garden area, mostly green grass, with a white gazebo in the middle. The weather is calling for mostly cloudy skies, with massive rain holding off until later in the evening. I am meeting them at 4pm. So here are my lenses/bodies:

1D Mark IV
1D Mark III

70-200mm f/2.8 mark II
24-70mm f/2.8 mark I
50mm f/1.4
85mm f/1.2

This isn't going to be anything fancy, but I still want to do my best. I am thinking of one body and one lens, just to keep it simple, but I'd like some opinions. Who knows... if I like this sort of photography, maybe I'll keep doing it...

The forecast sounds promising, though you may need to watch for shadows in the eyes.

My recommendation is to take an Engagement Portrait Session approach. When I do them, I typically bring my 35 and 85 because we move around a lot and I want to keep myself very light and portable. In your case, however, you'll probably want to get wider than 50 at times and I suspect you won't move around as much, so I recommend putting the two zooms on your two bodies.

Search out engagement portraits for ideas on posing. I'm sure photos of a couple heading to prom won't be quite as intimate as these, but it's a good place to get some thoughts.

Shooting is the easy part. Posing and directing them are another. If you are not going to be in any tight spaces then the 70 to 200 will work fine and take the 24 to 70 just in case.

Thanks for the tips!

Turned out that the rain stopped just as I took the first few shots. I took both bodies and both zooms, but only used the 1D Mark IV and the 24-70. I know my settings weren't optimal, went 1/320 at f/3.2, but as I said, I'm a sports shooter, and was TOTALLY out of my element. I did some research on poses, so that helped. But I also know I need to work on backgrounds and such. I did the best I could with what I know...

Oh, and the funny thing (well, almost not so funny...), after I took the last shot and was quickly going through them in-camera, I noticed the colors were a bit off... I had the white balance set for Flourescent! I shot an indoor basketball game on Wednesday, and forgot to change it... but luckily I shoot RAW, so I was ok.

If these aren't so bad, maybe I'll look into it as an add-on for my jobs...

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/nmrm​NH

Turned out very nice.

rrblint wrote in post #16910049
Turned out very nice.

Thanks!! Not bad for a first-timer. Much to learn though...

Nice work.

How ironic. I'll be in your shoes in a few days. There will be a hired photog for couple shots, but I am asked to bring my camera for group/family shots. There will be about half dozen families. I am nervous as hell, as I know I'll have to deal with shadows, and must use shoe-mounted flash for fill. Gear-wise, I am covered, but knowledge/experience-wise, I am naked.