Will this lighting plan work? feedback please.

Hi fellow members,

I am planning a shoot in the next couple of weeks and i have devised a basic lighting plan, I am looking for any advice as whether or not this will work and any tips you can provide in order for me to acheive the result im looking for.

The Theme:

I want to capture an image of a Japanese woman in traditional clothing (Yukata) which is a light weight summer type Kimono. In addition to that i want to create a feel of a Japanese festival at night by placing various paper lanters around the model which i will light with candles. The setting is a traditional Japanese room with a tatami floor (straw matting) and a rustic but dull Japanese wall as a background. I hope this will inspire a feeling of traditional Japan and colorful lighting.

My Objective:

I want my model to be well lit, enough so that her facial features and clothing are depicted clearly with just the right amount of shadow etc. However, i do not want my strobe lighting in anyway to wash out the ambient glow of the lanterns scattered around her on the floor. I realy am aiming to get a soft and intimate feeling with lighting, Looking for the perfect balance! the back wall i want to illuminate with a work lamp, i will use a heavy thick Jel (homemade to cast a pink or green light across the back wall.

Unfortunately the space i have to work with is not very big as depicted on my attached lighting plan, So am i right to be concerned about have to much power from my strobes, I am realy worried that my strobe may wash out the pink hue from the background light and the ambient glow of the lanters.

Anyone who can give me some tips and or advice in regard to ISO , F stop etc is greatly appreciated. In fact any comments at all would be great.

Thanks in advance,

NicholasBB

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Anybody?

NicholasBB

Will you have room for the setup in that area? Less than 9 feet of space for you, the gear, and the model?

The distance you have from subject to wall could be an issue I would think. Light fall off from your flash will be minimal which will cause the background to wash out a bit. Turning your whole setup lengthwise in the room would help with that. But I would think it's possible to accomplish.

How are you planning on tripping the flash units? ETTL? What camera body? Some are better at high ISO. And what lens will you use?

How long can your model stand still?

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your reply. to answer your question i will be using a 40d body and my 24-105 /f4 lens. i do have an 85mm/f1.2 but i dont think ill need it for what i have in mind. I have a canon speedlite transmitter to trip my flashes. i will have my model sat on the floor in a semi tradditional japanese pose. All of my gear does fit in the room. below is a pic of the room i will use which was taken about a week or so ago. I plan to take the photos after the sun has gone down.

I was thinking a high F stop and low ISO might be what i need to illiminate any excessive light, and get the glow from the lanterns. but i am probably wrong.

Anyway here is a pic of the room, i hope it helps. Oh and i will be shooting from the room adjoining so i will be at a distance of about 3 meters from the model

NicholasBB

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Will the lanterns be visible in the shot? Full body shot or 3/4?
The way the diagram looks, the strobes will light the lanterns AND the subject causing possible shadows on your subject.
To avoid spill from your strobes, you'll need to control the light by placing them very close to your subject, and/or by using grids.

Another issue I see is with the work light on the background. If it's not on a dimmer, it could control the entire exposure. If it's too bright and you don't want the wall blown out you may not be able to keep the shutter open long enough to allow the lanterns to burn in. There's a few issues, but nothing that can't be overcome.

This is how id tackle this.

First, meter for your ambient so you can get a good exposure from the candle lit lamps. Then... with your strobe, id get rid of the umbrella, the spread will be too much and will spill on to the background. Id take some white foamcore... bounce the flash into that(v shaped)... and then have two more pieces of foam core to flag and direct your light onto the subject. i hope this makes sense... try not to mind the brilliant illustration. you could bounce/flag the same with the second strobe also.

Yes plan to have the lanterns on the ground around her. full body shot similiar to as shown above. the photo above was cropped on all four sides, so i should be able to get more into the frame.

I dont have a grid, perhaps i can knock something up, and or reduce my flash output down to a minimum. Lanters in the forground in a crescent pattern somwhat. My lite-dome is very small and i ntend to point it straght at her face, hopefull that will avoid spilling onto the lanterns, but i suppose the brolly fill will cast a wider light.i guess i should have the lighting around her very tight? or maybe one flash with some reflector fill?

Thanks,

NicholasBB

Thanks Splithesky.

I see what you mean.

Nick

If she's sitting, things should be a little easier. Get your lights in as close as possible. It might take a few tries, but I still think your other big issue is the background light. Can you substitute the work light for a strobe?

You are going to want to reduce the necessity for the flash to a minimum. That would require higher ISO and lower f-stop. I would use an f-stop that I knew would just cover my DOF - f4.0 perhaps. At f4.0, 24mm, 5 feet distance your total DOF is just over 2 feet which should work.

Post some results - this is an interesting challenge.

Yes, I'm also looking forward to seeing what the shots look like with that kind of lighting!

Hi Everyone,
Well here is the results of my session today with the wife. Im affraid the result was not what i had hoped for. A couple of lessons learnt.

Candles in the lanterns were way to weak to produce any kind of glow. In retrospect i think some kind of small LED lights in the lanterns would have been much better.

Second problem; The homemade gel i used for the worklamp to light the rear wall almost caught on fire after about 12 shots into the session. I had to abandon the gell and work-light and thus lost the effect i was trying to achieve.

Of the few shots i managed to get i have attached what i guess is the best one. I dont think it is a terrible shot, but still its not what i had imagined.lol

After this i improvised with a plan B, moved to the room next door, set up my soft box and umbrella at 45 degress and then used the work lamp behind a shoji screen (Japanese Paper sliding door) to light my background from behind. In regards to the plan B i am happy with the shots i got, but still dissapointed that i couldnt get what i originaly set out to do.

So in summary a bit of drama, but some valuable lessons learnt. Some other time im going to try this scenario again. I think ill need one more strobe with a gel for the background in the future.

Thanks to everyone who offered some input.

NicholasBB

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Very interesting - but not unexpected. Time to break out the tripod and take some long exposures of the lanterns and merge them with a properly exposed image of your lovely wife.