Prom-like shoot assignment, am I equiped!

OK. Enjoy shooting weddings, sr.'s, kids (not so much baby's... still getting use to that) and events.

I have over a year under my belt and am adding a new assignment type. A military Ball (just like a Prom). The way this contract is going to work is everyone will have their photo taken and they are getting a digital copy of the photograph. We are talking upward over 300 couples. Yes, math = 1.4 minutes PER couple, assuming they don't have a speech/dinner... which they will.

I will have an assistant with me. Plan is: stage the shot (two flags in the bg spread), probably a black behind there if the flags cover most. Have the assistant enter in the email address into a spreadsheet and in another cell... copy the file numbers.

I might hire someone else to help take names. We won't have to deal with money transactions so that's a plus. Shooting the couple as a 2/3rds shot.

Looked at this as an 'opportunity' to rent a 1D IV but now thinking that may not be a great idea (besides only having a day or two to play with it... i really wont get to experiment with the camera that day).

5D MarkII, 24-70 f2/8L, two strobes shooting through umbrellas at 45 degrees and slightly downward. long TTL cord and using canon's wireless flash to trigger the slave (580exII and a 430exII; 3 sets of batteries for each). Am I nuts? Should I grab some extra equipment?

**the assistant is bringing all his gear, pretty much equivalent but with an T2i**

I would seriously consider going full manual on the flashes (and camera). Manual will give consistent results once you get them dialed in. ETTL is going to vary exposure depending on what the subjects are wearing.

Also, for tracking images to emails it might be easier to simply have the subjects write their email on paper with a sharpie and take one shot of them holding up the paper and one without. Makes it easy to sync up and email out the images later without having to enter all the spreadsheet info.

oooooohhhh man, Dermit... THAT IS AN AWESOME idea! Might just do that!

I agree with the manual... sorry, I just call the cord a TTL cord.

And now that being said, I am noticing my Flash Exposure Comp, where i normally go up or down -/+ 2 doesn't seem to be effecting the output of the Flash. Shooting on Manual, tried center weighted and eval metering... any suggestions? [5D MII, 580ex]

Manual flash, you dial in the power. 1/1 is full power, 1/2 is half, etc. For the 580ex II I know you use the center button and dial in manual mode to dial it up and down.

Don't worry about the metering mode. Just set the camera to something like ISO400, shutter 1/160 and aperture to f/5.6 and set your flashes to 1/2 and 1/4 power. Then take a test shot. If it's over exposed you can stop down aperture if you think you also need more depth... or lower the power of the flashes, which will save on batteries (usually a good first option) or dial down the ISO. If the shot is too dark do the opposite. Also realize that you can move the flashes closer or further to effect exposure as well. But with the 5D MII I would not sweat the ISO until you start getting up near 1000.

With flash and camera all in manual mode the metering and exposure compensation will be non-issues. Once you dial in the correct exposure once then all your shots with the same subject to light distance will be consistent as well. The other nice thing is that any change you make to compensate for exposure will absolutely be seen. The idea is that you eliminate any camera 'auto' decisions that could be throwing you off.

Hope this makes sense.

Dermit wrote in post #11103978
Manual flash, you dial in the power. 1/1 is full power, 1/2 is half, etc. For the 580ex II I know you use the center button and dial in manual mode to dial it up and down.

Don't worry about the metering mode. Just set the camera to something like ISO400, shutter 1/160 and aperture to f/5.6 and set your flashes to 1/2 and 1/4 power. Then take a test shot. If it's over exposed you can stop down aperture if you think you also need more depth... or lower the power of the flashes, which will save on batteries (usually a good first option) or dial down the ISO. If the shot is too dark do the opposite. Also realize that you can move the flashes closer or further to effect exposure as well. But with the 5D MII I would not sweat the ISO until you start getting up near 1000.

With flash and camera all in manual mode the metering and exposure compensation will be non-issues. Once you dial in the correct exposure once then all your shots with the same subject to light distance will be consistent as well. The other nice thing is that any change you make to compensate for exposure will absolutely be seen. The idea is that you eliminate any camera 'auto' decisions that could be throwing you off.

Hope this makes sense.

+1 This the exact method you should use. Although I do have to say you might want a third light for a hair light. Flags will help provide some background separation as they are not a solid color, but if they go dark enough you might want a boost back there.

gonzogolf wrote in post #11104009
+1 This the exact method you should use. Although I do have to say you might want a third light for a hair light. Flags will help provide some background separation as they are not a solid color, but if they go dark enough you might want a boost back there.

Agreed. It looks like OP only has two, but if I had to choose one more piece of gear it would be the third light for hair/rim lighting.

Yeah, only have the two flashes. I know 'how' to use manual but as a run and gun kinda guy I love TTL
Ill I *might* rent a third flash for the hair light, great idea. Think I'm safe with the canon built in wireless trigger system?

Actually considered renting a 1D Mark IV to play with for this .

Now to figure out what is going on with the TTL

Did something like this about a month ago. It would take atleast 5 mins per couple and we had two different setups going at the same time.

If I were renting things I would rent a lightmeter if you don't have one. Also rent some pocket wizards (plus II) and use your flashes in manual mode like already mentioned. 1dmk4 not going to buy anything and event like this is last place to rent a brand new thing. I will also have couple more flashes with superclamps/A-clamps in case you need more.

nicodemusdog wrote in post #11106024
Yeah, only have the two flashes. I know 'how' to use manual but as a run and gun kinda guy I love TTL
Ill I *might* rent a third flash for the hair light, great idea. Think I'm safe with the canon built in wireless trigger system?

Actually considered renting a 1D Mark IV to play with for this .

Now to figure out what is going on with the TTL

I get the run and gun, but thats not what you are doing in a studio settting. Consistency is more important than recalculating each exposure using ettl. Imagine you shoot 4 of these shots in a row, but two of the couples have women wearing white instead of blue, or that one of the gentlemen is larger and the camera meters a bit differently based on this. It will throw your exposure off. This will hinder your ability to batch process and given the pace you have set for yourself you dont have much opportunity to double check the accuracy of ettl.

I second the all-manual thing, it's safe and fast. Automatic metering can only be that good when you have people dressed in back and white.
tip : make sure that when you test your setup, you have someone dressed in black and white in your frame. Will save you a lot of sweat later

hope 3 sets of batteries for each is enough to last. 300 couples shooting them 2 or 3 times is a lot of shots.
studio flashes would work better imho..

I am a 'ONLY SHOOT IN RAW' kind of guy. But this is a new venture for me... with plenty of set up time, I am thinking JPEG is going to be just fine. Thoughts?

Re: Batteries, I'm going to bring a set of non-rechargeable for emergency, also I'll have an assistant with me to go on a run if needed (he also is bringing his studio lights if needed). Keep in mind, it will also be probably 1/2 power and 1/4 power for the flashes. Great point though.

- With so little time with each shot, you probably won't have the time to check the exposure of every single shot. Chances are, some girls will end up wearing satin gowns. Satin can be wonderful to see in person, but it is a very reflective material at some angles, making it very easy to overexpose with a flash.
- Also, you'll want to be able to do some post-processing on skin - a powerful flash will make all skin defects very visible if makeup is not perfect, and JPEG compresses red more than other colors.

For both these reasons, I'd go for RAW.

nicodemusdog wrote in post #11173836
I am a 'ONLY SHOOT IN RAW' kind of guy. But this is a new venture for me... with plenty of set up time, I am thinking JPEG is going to be just fine. Thoughts?

Re: Batteries, I'm going to bring a set of non-rechargeable for emergency, also I'll have an assistant with me to go on a run if needed (he also is bringing his studio lights if needed). Keep in mind, it will also be probably 1/2 power and 1/4 power for the flashes. Great point though.

Whatever you think your battery consumption might be, triple it. Its one of those areas where you can control a potential pothole by just dealing with it up front. Having someone available to make a run, is not really planning. Be ready to chuck a set of batteries well before they are totally drained so that you can keep your recycle rate up.

Shooting this sort of thing in .jpg is fine, as long as you are dead on with white balance, and exposure (hence the suggestion to shoot in manual). If you miss on those two things then .jpg gives you less lattitude to fix things.

Thanks for the suggestion guys, I'll bring an extra set of batteries just to be sure.

Because im an idiot... can I throw this backdrop in the dryer to knock out some of the big wrinkles? I'll have a steamer with me also though.