Figure Skating Portaits

I have been offered a job shooting the group and individual portraits for my daughter's figure skating organization's upcoming ice show around the May time frame. The photographer last year really blew the shoot and after doing a small re-shoot for my daughter and a few of the other girls I have been given the opportunity to try my hand at it this time around for the entire show.

I currently have two Genesis 200's with shoot through umbrella's that I used with a black muslin background last year, but for this time around I really want to go for a blown white look using seamless paper with some white tile board or vinyl layed down where the skaters will be standing. The other option for the floor would be plexi but the tile board is a lot cheaper and since the skate blades will scratch the heck out of plexi right away I'm thinking the tile board might just be my best bet.

Any help or advice you guys can give would be great. I've done a lot of searching and research to get myself down to the above questions but if I've missed a pertinent post by all means please shoot me a link. Thanks in advance!!!

In any case, I know that two lights won't be enough to do what I want so I'm looking for some opinions as to which of the following would be the best option to achieve what I'm looking to do.

Option 1: Purchase another Genesis 200 2 light kit and use two on the background and two for the subjects.

Option 2: Purchase two strobe lights (Vivitar's) and the stands/umbrella's/flas​h mounts etc.. and use those on the subjects with the Genesis 200's on the background.

I like option 2 because I would have two more strobes to take with me when I go out to do daytime portaits and what not at locations like parks or places without easy access to an electrical source (right now I just have my 430ex). I am also a little concerned with option 2 because I'm not sure if they'll keep up with the monolight's and/or be enough to cover a group of up to nine or so people. My last concern with this is whether White Balance will be an issue.

http://www.zarias.com/​?p=71

watch all of the white seamless tutorials... seriously....

i was able to use 1 tile board and my white primer painted garge wall and got some favorable results... if you find you need some more lighting to render a white background there are strobes avaliable for rent.....

When you render a white background you're not blowing it out. A blown out background implies clipping and that's far beyond the correct amount of light to render a background white. This is a common misconception. There's no reason to throw any more light at the background than is necessary.

Here's a configuration that's worked for me. This is a 'clipping style' setup designed to blow the background out. Like the setup in the link posted above the backdrop I use is 9 feet. By using black backed umbrellas you can avoid the need to have those closet doors. It is essential that you point the umbrellas parallel to the set straight back. If you point them towards the center of the backdrop, you will have spill at the subject position. You want the seam of your floor material to be within the light spread of the background lights so that it will be blown out. The subject must be forward of the background lights effect, but not so far as to shoot off of the front of the flooring. One of the tricky things is to balance the light on the subject so that the floor in the foreground renders white and not gray. Inevitably it must be darker than the backdrop, but not too dark.

There would ordinarily not be a reason to clip the background... I use a muslin... therefore clipping is required to blow out wrinkles. Muslins are much easier to transport.

Here's a couple that I did from over the last year with my daughter using a 4' wide roll of seamless white. These were both done with my Genesis 200's set up on camera left and right at 45º angles from the subject. I'm much happier with the white on the second one but probably could have pushed the first one in PS to get almost the same look. Basically I'm just trying to plan for what this will be like on a larger scale with up to nine or ten people in a group.

I did use the umbrella on the main light as a shoot through on the second picture which probably contributed to the better lighting. I just really want to have that nice, clean, white look for the event photos.

Redrocket, I read through that site earlier today and learned a great deal. My number one concern now is just whether the power of the Vivitar's can keep up with the 200's or if I should just buy another set of 200's and call it good. Thank you all for the help and feedback so far.

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111t, for a group shot would it be better for me to put the two subject lights at even 45º angles on the left and right for even lighting across the whole group, or stick with something like you did in your diagram using a main light and fill?

You could always use just one. It would evenly light the group.

I know this thread pretty much died a week ago, but I had a question for TMR Design. In another thread I read a post you made that referred to white tile board as being brittle and chipping very easily. Based on what I'm planning on doing, even if the plexi scratches do you think it would hold up better from the skater's blades or would I be relatively safe with the tile board? I'm thinking that even if the plexi scratches at the very worst it will just look similar to the ice after it's been skated on a few times which wouldn't be all that bad of an effect.

A background idea!

See: http://www.prophotolif​e.com …a-large-white-background/