Shooting in a ballroom with low light: Some advice please

TMR Design wrote in post #6215042
Hi Hermes,

Thanks for the reply but in this type of shoot there are no choices or posing. The guests are where they are and that is how they must captured. Monolights or off camera flashes do bring up the ambient room light level but from what you're saying I gather that the best I can do is to reduce and soften shadows on the walls, but not eliminate them.

My subject were not up against the walls and at times they were as much as 6 to 8 feet from the wall, and obviously when they were further away I did get softer shadows but sometimes they were standing 1 or 2 feet from the wall or chatting with a group in a corner.

Reducing output with a softbox won't affect me much. I was never at a loss for firepower and was shooting comfortably at ISO800, never boosting FEC by more than +2/3 stop and using an 85mm f/1.4 lens between f/1.4 and f/4.

Regarding the red eye... am I correct in my conclusion about also getting the flash up higher away from the lens?

Robert, the higher your flash (on a bracket), the lower the subjects' shadows will be. With a good bracket and softbox on the flash, in most cases the shadows will be pushed down out of shot, or at least softened and distanced from the subject enough that they will no longer be a major distraction.

Yes, getting the flash away from the lens axis will reduce red-eye, as will enlarging the light source.

TMR Design wrote in post #6214661
Thanks Bobby. I'm going to have to check that forum out. I'm a big fan of Monte Zucker. Not to go off topic again but since Monte is not with us, is that forum just another forum but with his name on it? I'm sure there are great and talented people there but is it any different from other lighting forums?

It is quite slow but some useful information.

Hermes wrote in post #6215077
Robert, the higher your flash (on a bracket), the lower the subjects' shadows will be. With a good bracket and softbox on the flash, in most cases the shadows will be pushed down out of shot, or at least softened and distanced from the subject enough that they will no longer be a major distraction.

Yes, getting the flash away from the lens axis will reduce red-eye, as will enlarging the light source.

Thanks man. When using a small softbox on a bracket, do you direct the box straight forward or do you use it as you would a softbox in the studio that is used as the main light source by raising it and angling it down towards your subjects face?

TMR Design wrote in post #6215151
Thanks man. When using a small softbox on a bracket, do you direct the box straight forward or do you use it as you would a softbox in the studio that is used as the main light source by raising it and angling it down towards your subjects face?

I find that it's best to use it the same way as a studio softbox - that way it will add shape to the subject's face in a way that on-camera flash can't, and really make your shots stand out compared to the P&S-ers'. If the ambient light is soft and neutral, you can use it as fill, if it's directional, you can use it as an accent light - with a bit of practice you can pretty successfully recreate the lighting patterns you'd aim for in-studio.

Be warned that if you're using a softbox big enough to make a real difference, this whole rig (bracket, flash, softbox, ttl & power cables) will initially be awkward to work with but the results are well worth it IMO.

Thanks again. Fortunately I can eliminate the TTL cable since the Nikon CLS system works so well without any additional hardware or cables.

I may move in this direction but I'll first let the amount of work and the need for it dictate that. Considering that I'm aware and concerned about shadows and 99% of the customer don't even know what shadows are (lol) I'll work on improving my techniques with what I have and slowly add or change hardware for better results.

Congrats Robert.
Glad you nailed it, I look forward to seeing some of your images.

Culled from "how stuff works:"

Regarding Red Eye in photos:

The flash on a camera is bright enough, however, to cause a reflection off of the retina -- what you see is the red color from the blood vessels nourishing the eye.

Many cameras have a "red eye reduction" feature. In these cameras, the flash goes off twice -- once right before the picture is taken, and then again to actually take the picture. The first flash causes people's pupils to contract, reducing "red eye" significantly. Another trick is to turn on all the lights in the room, which also contracts the pupil.

Hmmm, what do you suppose is nourishing his eyes? https://photography-on-the.net …php?p=4242300&p​ostcount=1

Titus213 wrote in post #6215936
Hmmm, what do you suppose is nourishing his eyes? https://photography-on-the.net …php?p=4242300&p​ostcount=1

Not a predator like what we are I'd say he doesn't have the forward-facing eyes/pupils that create red eye, so what we're actually seeing is some other unique part of his optical chain reflecting the light. Crazy effect though.

http://en.wikipedia.or​g/wiki/Red-eye_effect

The fundus perhaps?

That's almost creepy.

i didnt think our flash guns produced red eye? well, i have yet to archieve this on a bigger flash gun anyways compared to my P&S

If the angle and light is right, any on camera flash can and will produce red eye. Fortunately I only had 6 images out of 1300 that had red eye, and that was just because I didn't always have my wits about me at all times. A quick fix in Lightroom or Capture NX took care of it zip zip zip.