Indoor Photo Shoot Advice

shutterflight · Dec 10, 2012

Hello all. I'm new to the site but not to photography. My experience is mostly in outdoor travel photography but I'm planning an on-location fashion shoot and could use some advice from the photography community.

The location is a very old, very small (400sq.ft.), and very vintage style coach house. The house has no natural light, just a few ceiling and wall lamps. I figure I'm going to need to bring in some lighting, and may choose to rent a different lens (my primary on this cam is 24-85). What would you recommend in terms of lighting/strobes? Can I get away with using an umbrella/softbox or two without whiting out the character of the room? I'm happy to rent whatever strobes/flashes/softboxes/umbrellas I may need, and can grab a more suitable lens if need be. What lighting and lens should use in this setting? See below photo for an idea of what I'm working with. (Excuse the crappy photography on this photo!)

TheKenTurner · Dec 10, 2012

What camera and lens are you using? I assume a Nikon, but there are a couple 24-85mm lenses.

-Ken Turner

shutterflight · Dec 10, 2012

TheKenTurner said:
What camera and lens are you using? I assume a Nikon, but there are a couple 24-85mm lenses.-Ken Turner

Sorry, I forgot to mention full frame Nikon D600.

TCampbell · Dec 10, 2012

While one could normally create soft light by "bouncing" the light off the ceiling, this particular ceiling isn't neutral. It'll put a yellow color cast on all your photos. This means you'll have to light your subjects more directly.

Off camera lighting would be great. Two lights will create some cross-wash so that neither has a particularly strong shadow, but softened lighting (softboxes, umbrellas, etc.) would be even better to create a soft edge from the shadow/light transition.

Not sure how much experience you have with flash. You don't control the exposure via shutter speed. The shutter speed needs to be at or below the flash-sync speed (often 1/200th and sometimes it's a good idea to go a notch below that such as 1/160th). You can cut the flash power using controls on the flash OR by using the f-stop on your camera to reduce the light.

Flash disperses based on it's distance from the subject. If the subject distance is consistent from shot to shot then your exposures will be consistent. If the subject distance varies from shot to shot then you'll have to compensate by adjusting the flash power or the camera f-stop or you'll get inconsistent results.

With a prime lens you can quickly get a feel for the distance of the subject based on the "framing" of the shot. E.g. if you are capturing a head & shoulders shot then the subject is close ... perhaps you need to use f/16. If the subject is framed for a "half-shot" (waist up) then you drop a stop to f/11. If the subject is framed as a 3/4 shot (roughly knees up) then maybe you drop to f/8. If the subject is framed for a "full body shot" then you drop to f/5.6. The greater the subject distance (and really it's the distance from flash to subject, not camera to subject -- even though I use camera framing as an example it implies that the camera is at a consistent distance relative to the flash.)

I, of course, made those f-stops up for purposes of the example because every flash will be different based on the power of the flash and how much the light modifiers (umbrellas, soft-boxes, etc.) are dispersing the light. The "inverse square law" dictates how light dissipates as distance increases. You really need to have the lights in advance, work out the distances (and how it relates to the f-stop you need to use) before the shoot.

Lastly... there's no need to guess. If you own a light meter that does flash metering, you can place the meter at the subject distance, fire the flash, and the meter will tell you what to use as an exposure... and it'll nail it every time. A light meter isn't practical during a live show, but if it's a studio fashion shoot then the meter is a huge asset.

Tony S · Dec 10, 2012

Multiple lights with gels hidden to light the scene and then light the main subject separately. I would use about 8-10 lights to bring out all the hidden details and light someone in the shot. Fewer than 4 lights and you get hotspots and contrasty dark shadows everywhere, or worse yet, flat even boring light.