lighting locations with speedlites.

so I've got a gig coming up to do some promo work for a band and I've got to light them in an old empty building using speedlites (1x580ex2, 1x480ex). Ive got the speedlites hooked up with skyports but I'm not really sure what to do to light the whole group.
I was thinking of popping one into my portable softbox on a stand to light the front of the group and then pop a cutter on the other and use it to light the background or somesuch.
Anybody worked in a similar situation? any advise?

how many people are in the band?

If you have a large umbrella I would use that on the front as its less directional and a little broader coverage than a softbox.

jeromego wrote in post #8639385
how many people are in the band?

There's four of them in the band, I've used speedlites etc for lighting portraits but never larger groups.

Hadn't thought about using an umbrella instead, good idea.

Mit2k wrote in post #8639693
There's four of them in the band, I've used speedlites etc for lighting portraits but never larger groups.

Hadn't thought about using an umbrella instead, good idea.

and just make sure they're not right beside each other, alternate them to avoid casting a shadow unto the next person.

If you really want to play with it; layer multiple exposures. Shoot each band member individually in the same scene and merge them together into one shot. This is would be very similar to a "multiplicity" type set up; only with different people. This way you won't have to worry about too much spill from trying to light them all at once.

Nice idea

Here's some with a speedlight in a 16" ebay beauty dish as main and a bare light for hair/kicker. Only problem with one main is that you have to keep it back to light everyone, and as mentioned, watch the shadows. An umbrella would work as well

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DerekW wrote in post #8641410
Here's some with a speedlight in a 16" ebay beauty dish as main and a bare light for hair/kicker. Only problem with one main is that you have to keep it back to light everyone, and as mentioned, watch the shadows. An umbrella would work as well

Hey Derek,
Thanks a lot for that, its exactly the kind of situation I'll be dealing with! Great shots by the way
Mit

Jeromo has a good point with the shadows... nice photos derek.. is that type of PP called the dave hills look or no?

Post #8, shot 2...is anyone else bothered by the obvious dual 'main' lights from camera left and from camera right, on opposited ends of the group?!

For larger groups, you can take advantage of the fact that softboxes have some falloff at the edge of the box, so you use that falloff to prevent overexposure of the near end of the group, as shown.

FiveFPS, yes, 1 and 3 are Dave Hill-ish, I tried a couple different PP things.

Wilt, thanks for your input. I definitely should have used a bigger modifier (umbrella) for the group, but for time and convenience I had just the Beauty Dish and the bare flash.... Short time window, 120 degrees out and 90% humidity... trespassing.

The beauty dish was camera right and in front of the guys, maybe at a 40+ deg. angle. The other kicker was at more like a 15-20 degree angle camera left.

I now have Bees with a vagabond so I am looking forward to trying more pics with the bigger modifiers.