Comments on my lighting?

From last night's 5th-6th grade school dance, obviously a Western theme. No, those last 2 aren't REALLY small 5th graders! At the end, I threw my own little girls up on the saddle, before tearing down. I posted a couple of these in another thread, but got no responses. Maybe they are that bad:o I was hoping to learn a little about lighting from this.

I'm more of a PJ style of photographer and this was my first try at a semi-studio-style setup. I had to keep the lighting general enough to 'keep 'em coming through' without having to make any adjustments to the lighting. Contructive comments?
#1

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howdy,
purdy nice there tex! I recon that them thar youngin's were downright grateful for such lovely pics.

The pictures are slightly flat, but they look good! Perhaps they could have benefitted from being moved further away from the background. Of course I assume that space is always an issue.

I think I'll take that as a compliment

Ruffneck,

Yeah, they are a bit flat... Thats probably because I had to keep the lighting rather uniform for some of the larger groups and the lack of a hairlight (I just had a reflector back there and off to the side).

Space was an issue as I was set-up right in the main entrance to the school...so everyone was walking behind me and in-front of my table... not the best set-up. So, it limited the distance the subjects could be from the backdrop. How much further away would you recommend when shooting f9-f11?

thanks,

you know a strobe set up behind the Hay would have likely done the trick...created that separation for you...

Cheers,

Yes, I think you're right. Next time. Hopefully, their parents will be happy with these though. I only charged $4/5X7.

symes,

If you were to put a light back there, what would you use? Drop another speedlite back there or something like an A.Bee 400, or something else? The set-up I used consisted of only speedlites and umbrellas with one reflector. I'd like to keep my set-up very portable, because I mostly do location shoots, but I realize there are limitations with using speedlites (and expensive).

I am by no means a pro so I really can't say what would work...but you might have enough with the speedlight behind...It depends what you need as portable...I have a portable power kit but it was bloody expensive, I know that...

If I were you I would experiment a little with the set up before hand...you seem to have two lovely daughters that would fit the bill as models...

Cheers,

Very nice work. The background is a bit dark. I wonder how much of that might have been caused by the bright reflections off the saddle work? I find lighting the background a problem too. Your backgrounds came up nicely with some shadow/highlights adjustment.

Photos look great...
looks like the little girl in the white shirt in number 2, reflected a lot of your flash, maybe try placing her or the flash in a different position.

Good point...while positioning them quickly, I didn't even think about the white shirt and changing her placement.

thanks!

keeping it in perspective... you are only charging $4.00 for a 5x7. I think these look great when considering that and the space constraints as well. I think they are good regardless.

Overall, I think you got pretty good results. Like others said, lighting the BG will be better. How many speedlites did you use?

I used 2 speedlites, one on each side shooting into a silver umbrella about 7.5 ft up. I had another speedlite on camera, but only to trigger the other 2. The one on camera was set to not flash.