Need help with difficult shoot lighting

Gavjenks · Mar 28, 2014

So I need to photograph some children doing a psychology experiment. This is for PR not for technical purposes, so it should be all nice and pretty.

Problem, is:
1) The room has no windows and only horrible blotchy looking fluorescent lights.
2) The experimenters want to actually get data out of the kid before the PR photos, due to an extreme shortage of participants (the reason why we want photos to advertise in the first place!), so I can't set up a bunch of distracting stuff beforehand, because it will bias the results.
3) The kids are usually pretty frayed out though after experiments, and I may only have a few minutes of them being willing to keep doing the game.

So basically I need some way of lighting the scene that is entirely portable, not super intimidating, is pre-calibrate-able on adults pretending to be the kid beforehand, and can take care of all of the lighting singlehandedly since I don't want any influence of those fluorescents.

My plan currently is just ceilling bounce flash, but the ceiling is also a weird yellow orange darkish color. Hopefully I can just fix it in RAW conversion. Also to overpower ambient completely the flash may have to be pretty distractingly bright and I don't know how the kids will tolerate it. One thing going for me at least is the table they play the game on is white-ish and should fill from below automatically.

So I think that will work... but any other better ideas that I'm just spacing out and not thinking of?

pgriz · Mar 28, 2014

Yeah. you're missing the gas that you pipe into confined spaces to "calm" the inhabitants.

480sparky · Mar 28, 2014

Gel your strobe to match the fluoros.

Robin Usagani · Mar 28, 2014

Higher ISO, slower shutter is probably what I would do. Using flash will be intimidating no matter what.

tirediron · Mar 28, 2014

First recce the space ahead of time; find out where the children are going to be, to a test set-up to ensure you've got your exposures dialed in and know where to put your lights.

Then (mostly already mentioned)

Increase ISO, gel speedlights to match ambient, aim the flash to the corner of the wall/ceiling and bounce back, and that should be pretty much done. I would also proably shoot 1/2 stop over & under as well, since this sounds like there is no 'do over'.

Derrel · Mar 28, 2014

Forget the ambient light's influence...it will be very small most likely. The fluorescent lighting ought to be wayyy below the flash exposure, and will not significantly contribute. Since the flash at ASA 400 will be exposed at f/7.1 at synch speed, the fluorescent will likely be around six to seven EV less. Set the flash low, and use a small forward-deflector, like a business card or white, plastic spoon taped to the flash, or if it does NOT affect the zoom head setting, use the built-in forward deflector for a bit of eye-sparkle.

What is IDEAL is actually a dual-head flash, like Metz and Nikon have made, like the SB-16 series; it has a very small, forward-facing lower flash, as well as the main, larger, bounce-able upper flash for ceiling bounce or bounce-card.

The Rogue Flashbender, or a "DIY craft foam flash bouncer" would be another good option.

I kind of agree with Tirediron's suggestion of a wall/corner bounce. Firing a single 200- to 400-Watt-second studio flash into a corner would light up the room nicely. I've done that before for parties, and it creates a wonderful room-wide light source.

Gavjenks · Mar 28, 2014

Okie thanks, I will definitely try out the corner bounce, don't think I've ever specifically tried that before on purpose. I may even be able to set up and hide a studio strobe gridded beauty dish pointed at the corner under the table ahead of time, without the kid noticing. Which would let me move around more freely with the camera.

Mid-high ISO is also a great point (I'm so used to not usually using high ISOs with flash! That's pretty obvious seeming once you say it)

pgriz said:
Yeah. you're missing the gas that you pipe into confined spaces to "calm" the inhabitants.

Scatterbrained · Mar 28, 2014

Is it a drop ceiling? What kind of equipment do you have to work with? One speedlight? Two or three? Remotes? Are the walls the same depressing color as the ceiling? If you have a two or three speedlight and remotes you could mount one in the ceiling for a hair light and use another bounced up into the ceiling for ambient/fill with a third on camera bounced into the wall behind you as key. This could be set up in advance and wouldn't be too obtrusive. Of course it all depends on the size and layout of the room. If you only have one speedlight and it has to stay on the camera you could just bounce it off the wall/ceiling behind you to create a very large light source. For example, this was done with on camera bounced flash across a dinner table with my back to the wall:

No light modifying accessories, just a white wall. You could shoot like that and just drag the shutter for ambient. Again though, it all depends on the room itself.

Scatterbrained · Mar 28, 2014

Gavjenks said:
......................

Man I could use some of that!

Gavjenks · Mar 28, 2014

The walls are white, yes, but I can't mix them with ceiling bounce, because it'll end up two different colors (nor do I have "heinous-weird-ceiling-colored" (TM) gels)
And I only have one speedlight (several monolights otherwise).

It might work to hide a monolight on a box in the back of the room or something bouncing off one wall, and speedlight bouncing off the other, for all side-based lighting that will match color and provide key and fill. I'll try that too, but I suspect it's probably better to not freak the kid out with "OMIGOD LIGHT ON ALL SIDES" and try to stick with only one (table provides passive reflective fill from the ceiling, at least)

sk66 · Mar 28, 2014

You'll have to drag the shutter in order to gel/color match with fluorescents; their color varies at higher SS's. If you do go with a slower SS then rear curtain flash as kids probably won't be still enough.
If it were me I'd just bounce it off the white wall behind me if I had enough power. Otherwise my go-to is a diffuser dome (stock stoffen type) in front of a large bounce panel (rogue flash-bender). If you up the ISO you'll get more influence from the fluorescents but require less flash... I'd be inclined to try to push the fluorescents down (to avoid their influence and having to drag the shutter).

Derrel · Mar 28, 2014

Yes...I simply do NOT UNDERSTAND all the talk about the fluorescents! Who the he(( wants to match with them, or even SEE them in the shot, or have anything to do with their awful, spectrally deficient blecchy output? As the OP mentioned,"I don't want any influence of those fluorescents."

Shoot flash as main light. This is an utter no-brainer. The FLASH is the only source to even remotely worry about. The fluorescent light will be utterly crushed at a smallish f/stop. The light colored table will be adequate as passive fill.

Here's a small sample gallery I shot eight years ago, all at ISO 400 in our old house's very large kitchen. Vaulted ceilings, 13 to 16 foot high, 15 x 20 foot open floor plan area, with the on-camera flash bounced up and back to the North-west most corner of the room, kids about 5 and 6.5 feet from the corner, at the breakfast table, which had a very light grayish-white formica top. The single flash created a very,very slight directionality, with light, low-density shadows under or off to the side of the faces, due to a LOT of fill light being provided by the table. These were shot at synch speed of 1/200 second at f/3.5, to cut the flash to half-power and speed up recycle times.

I titled this gallery , "Bounce Flash to Simulate Room Light" several years ago.

http://www.pbase.com/derrel/bounce_flash_to_simulate_roomlight