Indoor shoot, need some help.

[Bru]

I've been asked to do an indoor Christmas shoot TODAY in the sanctuary of a church, and I need help on 2 things: lighting tips, and some "posing" inspiration that doesn't look canned.

I am using:
Nikon D3100
Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED AF-S VR
Nikkor 18-55mm VR Lens
Vivitar 285HV (I have a sto-fen for this and a softbox)
Tripod

I literally just got my lighting equipment in yesterday...I'm much more used to natural light photography, so I'm very nervous about this.
TYIA

 

[tirediron]

As far as posing, really depends on the size, shape, and decor of the venue as well as the number of people. Given that you're shooting with slow lenses and a non-TTL flash, your bet for lighting is going to be to go early and work out your exposure by trial and error; there should be a scale on the back of your flash which will give you the appropriate aperture to use at a given camera-to-subject distance at your camera's sync speed (allowing probably 1/3 - 1/2 extra exposure for your modifier). I would definitely use one of your diffusing modifiers.

 

[Bru]

There will be 4 people (2 adults, 2 children), the venue is fairly large, there is a Christmas tree behind a piano and plenty of green garland everywhere. I think i'm just going to have to hold my breath and pray for the best on this one @.@

 

[flyingember]

and some "posing" inspiration that doesn't look canned.

canned is fine. go look at old paintings and modern photography, they all use the same basic poses because they work. make triangles with the people. if someone holds a child have them hold off to the side, not immediately under their chin. turn people slightly from dead on, have them sit on the edge of the seat. check on hand placement. stuff like that

off center them slightly from the tree. make sure the point doesn't come out of anyone's head

put one light at about 20 degrees behind you as the brighter key light, the other at 30-40 degrees the other direction power it down about 10-20% from the power of the key light and at a slightly different height

watch for glasses reflections if relevant and raise/lower your lights to compensate (different bounce angles than straight into the lens) but reflections are fine as long as it's not covering the eyes

set your aperture to 5.6 or smaller so zooming doesn't change it, your shutter to 1/60 and adjust your lights for exposure of the subject,

if you want the background sharper than is turning out go for a smaller aperture and add more light

the shutter speed should get more ambient light to get the environment and you can focus on correct exposure and compensation on the group and not worry as much about the background.

 

[Christie Photo]

and some "posing" inspiration that doesn't look canned.

canned is fine. go look at old paintings and modern photography, they all use the same basic poses because they work. make triangles with the people. if someone holds a child have them hold off to the side, not immediately under their chin. turn people slightly from dead on, have them sit on the edge of the seat. check on hand placement. stuff like that

off center them slightly from the tree. make sure the point doesn't come out of anyone's head

put one light at about 20 degrees behind you as the brighter key light, the other at 30-40 degrees the other direction power it down about 10-20% from the power of the key light and at a slightly different height

watch for glasses reflections if relevant and raise/lower your lights to compensate (different bounce angles than straight into the lens) but reflections are fine as long as it's not covering the eyes

set your aperture to 5.6 or smaller so zooming doesn't change it, your shutter to 1/60 and adjust your lights for exposure of the subject,

if you want the background sharper than is turning out go for a smaller aperture and add more light

the shutter speed should get more ambient light to get the environment and you can focus on correct exposure and compensation on the group and not worry as much about the background.

This is all good info. Mostly.

Yes. Pyramidal posing for sure. And f5.6 is likely to be a good place to be for a group like this. But you will have to determine the shutter speed according to the ambient lighting... too fast and the background will go very dark... possible black if it's deep enough. I would guard against anything slower than 1/15 or so as some "ghosting" may result from subject movement.

I would place the lighting differently, putting the fill light close to the camera and up a bit... maybe right behind you and just over your head. I agree the key (main) should be about 40 degrees off to one side, but in closer... and feather it in a bit to achieve even lighting. Again, adjust the shutter speed to bring up or down the background exposure.

Good luck!

-Pete