Help with Lighting Setup

[mcflickr]

Hi Everyone,

I have a small working space to do some holiday photos of children. These are for friends of mine, so nothing "professional" per se, but I would like to put my best foot forward with my setup. I shoot with the Nikon D7000, and have an SB-600 Flash. I have used it off camera before, triggered with Nikon's CLS system. In addition, I also have two Flashpoint 320M Lights. I'm very much getting to know this equipment, but am starting to get the hang of it.

I'm curious about lighting setups. The look I'm going for is something very natural. I really want the portraits to look as though they were naturally lit.

Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Overread]

Light Science and Magic - 4th edition. This is the go-to reference book for starting lighting control and manipulation. It's very accessible to the beginner whilst being detailed enough to have info for even more advanced users; its thus a very worthwhile investment to have on the shelf to read.

From that book you'll be equipped with enough general understanding of the principles that you can more easily pick up other books - photos - guides - articles and better understand and emulate their lighting methods. It might also give you a few creative ideas to try out with your lighting setup.

 

[tirediron]

Yep... the bible! ^^ A few common mistakes that I see which contribute to "flashed" looking images are:
-lights too far from the subject
-not enough diffusion
-lights output too high
-key (main) light too close to camera axis
-lights too low

 

[Derrel]

Well...naturally lighted images mean different things to different people. You have two, 150 Watt-second monolights, plus the SB 600. If you want a naturalistic look, I would try to crete a "big wall of light" by bouncing both of the 320M monolights off of a wall, so that a large area of wall and ceiling, or a corner of the wall/ceiling juncture, is well-lighted by using the standard reflectors, and the lights aimed "backwards" or "sideways and backwards" from your camera position. Then, on-camera, I MIGHT, and I emphasize, might, use the SB600 at very low power, say 1/16 power, just for a bit of eye sparkle. The SB 600 could easily be set to Manual power control mode, and the flash aimed straight at the kids and used to trigger the 320M's which would be set to slave triggering mode.

Using the on-camera flash, or not would depend on what kind of catchlight the monolights create. Which will depend on WHERE they are placed, and where they are aimed, and where the kids are facing, in relation to the lights.