Kung Fu Portrait Questions

Long time reader, first time poster.

I will be doing portraits for my Kung Fu school for their annual class poster. It will be full body pose on seamless background (probably black). There will probably be 20-30 people doing portraits on one day with an opportunity to sell pics to classmates.

My previous lighting setup consisted of one 430ex. After at length research on this site and others, I ordered the Genesis 200. I have about 5 weeks to practice my setup and thought I would be able to do it at home. I got the genesis last night and starting taking test shots only to realize my 10 x 15 room was too small. I'm starting to second guess my choice and wonder how often I would have the need for the genesis. I considered a 580ex setup, but it was much more expensive and I was worried about changing batteries all day. (i have read the threads on the DIY battery packs).

Do yo have some suggestions on posing action shots for the school. My original thoughts were to keep the background dark and use a contrasting flash ratio to keep it edgy. Also anyone have any tips on monolight setups in a small space (ie their home). I need the practice.

Thanks in advance.

I'm confused as to why your room is too small for the monolight? I'm not familiar with the genesis strobes. Is it that your overexposing b/c there's too much light? Does the monolight take up too much room?

I was looking at this thread and it seems that alot of people are really good at setting up in small spaces.
http://www.calumetphot​o.com/item/CF0502K1/
I think it may be that my backdrop is too big (9ft) and it's almost as wide as the room. I'm having problems keeping the background dark. it think it's because I can't get my lights far enough to the side.

The lights are the Calumet Genesis 200 2 light kit and seem pretty popular on this sight.

I tried setting exposure with a sekonic meter, had key light on right side and fill light above and behind me on axis with the camera (3:1 ratio). I metered key light at f11 and fill at f8 separately and then got both lights on and metered f9 for the final exposure. Am I missing something? this is my first time using strobes and a meter.

Not really an answer to the original post but you might get some inspiration for some sensational Kung Fu shots at http://blog.chasejarvi​s.com …e-jarvis-raw-kung-fu.html

If light from your main is falling on the backdrop it going to show up gray. The easiest method is just put the subject farther away from the backdrop. Probably cant do that in a small room but I would think you could in a dojo.

Blackshadow, I lost track of my own thread and didn't see your link. That's a great video. I'll talk to the sifu about bringing in buckets of water and flame throwers into the dojo next weekend!