HELP! crash course in studio photography... hehe...

help!

i've been seriously shooting for about 3 years now, mostly concerts, events, travel and landscape. i know a fair bit now (thanks to all your posts here in the forums) but i've never done any studio work. i know close to nothing about studio lights (especially setting them up) but i've been watching videos on youtube. haha...

i just found out a few days ago that i was 'volunteered' to do a shoot with a local celeb. the pics are mostly full body against a white background. the company needs these pics as stock so the can be photoshopped into other backgrounds later on for flyers, promo materials, etc.

the equipment i have on me right now are:

2 canon 30D bodies
tamron 28-75 f2.8 (razor sharp and has not let me down during events)
tamron 17-50 f2.8 (borrowed from a friend)
canon nifty 50
canon ef-s 10-22
canon 28-135
canon 420ex speedlite
macbook pro 2.2ghz

i've been given a decent budget and so far i've gotten a quote from a rental place and i'll get these for the shoot:

elinchrome style 500w
chimera bank softbox 90 x 120 (is this ok for full body shots? it's the biggest they have)
canon 580ex
reflectors

here's the setup i plan on copying (scheme number 5):

http://uk.fotopunto.co​m …ained-lighting-schemes_60

i'm working in a rectangular room that is about 12 meters by 10 meters that has white walls and a white ceiling that is about 5 meters high.

i'll try to get IR triggers and mount the 580ex on my camera then have the 580ex pointed up to bounce of the ceiling. the softbox to my left to provide the main lighting, reflector on the right near the subject, and maybe my 420ex to provide backlighting. there is also a large window to my right that provides a bit of natural lighting, though i don't think this will affect the shoot much. i'll have my camera connected to my macbook pro with DPP on so i can see the results as they come. i'll shoot RAW the whole time as well.

can you guys provide any more suggestions? comments? anything missing from my shopping list?

thanks in advance!

Dennis

One more question... if I have the softbox synched to my camera via cable, will the 580ex mounted on the cam hotshoe still go off? And can that trigger the 420ex remotely so all three flashes go off at the same time?

Ask them to set them up for you so you can (1) see what works the best & (2) make sure that everything works together! I learned the last part the hard way.

Optical triggers work well indoors, too: Post #10:
Simple "every-day-emergency" location lighting

And finally, since your camera will be connected & you can how the lighting is working, try my 1-cent flash "meter" for exposure (in images 5S & 6S.)
Simple 2 Light Portrait Set-up

Go back and read that article you linked once again...notice Scheme 1 results in GRAY background! Scheme 6 results in white background, and that is what you effectively need to recreate, if you are doing 'lighting by the numbers' without understanding the concepts.

Since you are shooting tethered you can check the background with the densitometer. Graphic artists I work with want to see the white read about 250 on each channel for dropouts. The densitometer makes it easy to check for even lighting on the background.