4-5 Business men around a conference table - How would you light that up?

Hi guys, I'm looking for some quick ideas on how to handle the lighting inside a conference room with 4-5 maybe even 6 people sitting around, having a meeting. It is an unusual set up where the people may be facing each other. I have to produce an image like that in a few hours and I don't even know where to begin. Do I use a flash and bounce it off the ceiling/wall (have to rent) behind me or use strobes (have two Genesis 400s)and bounce those off the wall behind me. Maybe use strobes with umbrellas and have one on each of my sides pointing diagonally toward the people. Any input on this would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hi PJ

It depends on the size of the room and ambient lighting for me. Assuming a small room I'd look for a couple of speedlights (+/- umbrellas dependent upon area to cover) to bounce off side walls ceiling and and back wall to create a backlight/rim light and then a large modifier (umbrella etc) to provide broad main light.

Good luck.

Hope it all goes well. Look forward to seeing the pics

Cheers

Shane

Hi Shane, thanks for the input. it is a typical average long conference room with a long table in the middle. I'd say it sits 12 people. I have 5 people that will participate in this. I was thinking of having them sit at the end of the table (two on each side and one in the middle) as shown and using my two strobes to bounce light from the walls behind my back. What do you think?

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/png' | Byte size: ZERO

4-5 Business men around a conference table - How would you lighten that up?

With a nice secretary?

pixel_junkie wrote in post #10867153
Hi Shane, thanks for the input. it is a typical average long conference room with a long table in the middle. I'd say it sits 12 people. I have 5 people that will participate in this. I was thinking of having them sit at the end of the table (two on each side and one in the middle) as shown and using my two strobes to bounce light from the walls behind my back. What do you think?

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/png' | Byte size: ZERO

Hi PJ

Sure. It could be good dependent on the environmental conditions of the room. My concerns would be in two parts. Firstly, if the walls are coloured other than white, then a colour cast may be introduced. Secondly, the technique would give a bigger light source but might make separation from the background more difficult.

Cheers

Shane

Thanks Shane for the input, MUCH appreciated!

What do you mean by "separation from the background"? My goals is to actually get maximum clarity and good exposure than separate the subjects from their background. I won't even try because of the way they are seated. All five of the people have to be in focus so ... I'm just not sure what would give me a better result - shoot through umbrellas pointed toward the subjects on both sides or bouncing light from the walls behind me without using any modifiers. No worries about color cast, the walls are white.

apersson850 wrote in post #10867333
4-5 Business men around a conference table - How would you lighten that up?

With a nice secretary?

I think... FTW for this thread.

Hang one from the ceiling in the middle of the table, aiming down. Have the other one at, oh, 1/4 power, just above the camera, pointing at their faces. Drop the camera low, just a hair above table surface fill the frame left to right with the subjects. Screw the background.

Hi PJ

I prefer to minimise any distraction from the background if possible. If you have just white walls then it isn't a problem. Any big lightsource will do for the simple shot you are after. My personal preference would be the umbrellas given what you have told us.

If you have enough time in the room preshoot...and a willing body, then you could rack off some test shots to see which setup you prefer prior to having the clients in the room. Setup time say 30 mins, 10-15 mins shooting, all over. Good luck. I hope it all goes well for you.

Cheers

Shane

not a pro so take suggestions with a bucketload of salt

are you going to go around firing shots or are you going to be shooting from identified angles/areas....i ask because if youve pretty much decided to shoot lets say from the other side of the table and the scenario is that someone at the head is speaking then all of them will be looking at him hence light falling on the other 4 people's faces will be secondary to the one falling on the lead subject. This should simplify your lighting scheme because you are pretty much just lighting 1 person with the others just taking a backseat role in the lighting dept.

If youre shooting from different angles you can tackle it 2 ways i guess
1) you can set up multiple lighting setups and turn them on and off based on where you are shooting from and the subject

2) (i guess this is where youre at right now) try to find some way to light them all at the same time

I think (1) is easier.

(2) for the second choice id prolly still setup multiple lighting setups and just make sure that they are all even in lighting so that you get some sort of balanced look (although a bit flat).

How about getting avery big bed sheet.... cut a square hole in the middle of that bedsheet this is where youll be shooting from and put speedlites behind the bed sheet (a bit far to spread out the light...you can even make some sort of VERY VERY BIG light tent with lights all around so, yes this is basically a very big light tent made out of white bedsheet and lots of speedlites at a good distance from the bedsheet to spread out and even out the lighting for everyone....so in your picture youll have bedsheets all around the people left side, right side, bottom....

apersson850 wrote in post #10867333
4-5 Business men around a conference table - How would you lighten that up?

With a nice secretary?

You win!

dave63 wrote in post #10868538
Hang one from the ceiling in the middle of the table, aiming down. Have the other one at, oh, 1/4 power, just above the camera, pointing at their faces. Drop the camera low, just a hair above table surface fill the frame left to right with the subjects. Screw the background.

That's how I would tackle it.
I'd use a large octa middle of table angled towards end of the table and a strip above/below/behind camera to control shadows from the octa.

ed. wrote in post #10869596
That's how I would tackle it.
I'd use a large octa middle of table angled towards end of the table and a strip above/below/behind camera to control shadows from the octa.

I agree. I was sticking with what the poster has available.

Cheers

Shane

Thanks everyone for the input!

The reasoning behind my suggestion:

1) Limited gear. You appear to have no light modifiers, so we'll work with that.
2) As others have mentioned, there could be a color cast from the walls, if you use the walls as a light modifier.
3) They're businessmen. Like most, they want to be seen as being powerful, whether they are obvious about it or not. Cater to that, and give them dramatic lighting, something they can envision themselves in and create a different kind of impression. They will want to be seen as something unique, and doing a textbook '5 guys seated around a conference table' image that might as well be in a company report, probably isn't going to achieve that.
My suggestion is not too specific because of all the unknowns... table surface, walls, clothes they'll be wearing, etc. With a little tweaking, you can get something close to what I like to call the 'Council Of Elders' look... something right out of a science fiction movie where the community elders seem to always be seated around a table in a vast, dark space, with minimal lighting on the table, casting dramatic shadows on their faces, yaddayaddayadda.
In your scenario, ignoring the background (imho) would give them more of a commanding presence; this is what we do, this is what we are, and everything else is irrelevant. No distractions, just five important faces at command central.