No Time To Learn Gotta Wingit Here Please Advise....

[YoBenny]

The excuse I used to finally buy a camera is my better half's daughter is getting married and the groom's Mom insists on using her "friends" for all the necessary parts such as flowers, photographs etc.
My better half stated the florists' taste in flowers was akin to asking one of the Clampets to decorate the Country Club....

Anyway I went ahead and bought a three point 900 light system and a speedlight sb-400 flash to at least try and get some decent photographs of the gal in her dress for her Bridal Shower this week.
Once I set the lights up I realized I have no idea what to do with them, how far from subject how high or low etc etc.

I bought a light meter and no idea how to use it....

Can you guys help me here? She is coming this Thursday or we are taking pictures then, I have all these tools and feel like a monkey @ toys are us.....

She has a couch and a piece of furniture that she wants her to pose with and we are going to arrange some plants in the back yard to make it look New Orleanzy so I guess I have those three to try and figure out how to get light right in.

It's a Nikon 3200 with 18-55 1;35-5.6G and a sigma 70-300mm 1;4-5.6

Thanks for any help!

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Jesus Christ dude..

Just keep it simple and bounce your SB 400 off the ceiling.

 

[amolitor]

I would search the web for lighting tutorials ("basic portrait lighting setup" seems to pull up some links) and read 'em.

Practice with yourself and the self-timer.

 

[cgipson1]

If you bought constant lights, you wasted your money! Throw 'em away (or return them if you can).. and use flash. The trouble with the SB-400 is that is is very weak, not much better than the pop-up flash... and won't work with CLS remote for OC flash. you would be better off with cheap 3rd party flashes like the Yongnuo 560's or Vivitar 283's. Even better the the Flashpoint 320s from Adorama.

Nothing like waiting until the very last minute.....

 

[YoBenny]

OK well thats what I get for buying crap and not knowing much about it but she (the boss) threw this on me like I can learn this in 4 days or something so I tried to compensate with gear. (I know that doesnt work, it doesnt work in other stuff either, you cant play a $4,000 guitar if you can't play a $100 one)

This kit had a tripod in it that is prettly lame I want a good one any advice on that appreciated.

I thought that the SB 400 was way weak to get some light into this dark old house when I tried it thats why I bought the flourescents. I realize you can compensate for low light but I was told you have got to have some light to work with and for this it just didn't seem that you could pull that much out of that little flash. (Im thinking the 400 is useless not the flourescents)

 

[pixmedic]

as far as lighting goes, for the money, you might have been better off buying a better hotshoe flash and a softbox or other diffuser and maybe a bounce card. Get a flash with a swivel head. we use sb-700's and they are great. you could even get away with a sb-600 or an off brand equivalent.

 

[Ernicus]

what charlie said x10

ya need at least a sb600 for flash

you might be a bit dissapointed with the 3200 and that lens as far as quality goes. if you have no budget issue pickup a 50mm 1.4 or at least a 50mm 1.8 and use the setup you have and you'll be sorta happy with it.

the kit lens is a great lens, and I advocate it often, I will admit though, it is not great for portraiture....I had it and loved it and did well with it, but not on people.

 

[unpopular]

You may want to tell your ... uhm? Sister in law? No... uhh.... anyway ... that you are uncomfortable doing this, and that you'll try, but really strongly advise hiring a professional.

hell man, point her in the direction of some cheap fauxtographer, offer to split the cost and when **** hits the fan let him or her take the fall.

 

[cgipson1]

OK well thats what I get for buying crap and not knowing much about it but she (the boss) threw this on me like I can learn this in 4 days or something so I tried to compensate with gear. (I know that doesnt work, it doesnt work in other stuff either, you cant play a $4,000 guitar if you can't play a $100 one)

This kit had a tripod in it that is prettly lame I want a good one any advice on that appreciated.

I thought that the SB 400 was way weak to get some light into this dark old house when I tried it thats why I bought the flourescents. I realize you can compensate for low light but I was told you have got to have some light to work with and for this it just didn't seem that you could pull that much out of that little flash. (Im thinking the 400 is useless not the flourescents)

Those fluorescents??? you have three lights at 300 Watts each, right? 900 watts total? That is 900 Watts per SECOND. So let's say you are shooting at 1/100 of a second... how much light do you get?

 

[Derrel]

You may want to tell your ... uhm? Sister in law? No... uhh.... anyway ... that you are uncomfortable doing this, and that you'll try, but really strongly advise hiring a professional.

hell man, point her in the direction of some cheap fauxtographer, offer to split the cost and when **** hits the fan let him or her take the fall.

Yes, DIZ-ACTLY the right course of action. DIZ-ACTLY!!!

 

[SCraig]

Are you really going to try and stuff a several years experience in a 4 days??? That was a REALLY foolish move. You'd be a lot better off returning all the equipment and hiring a photographer.

That camera doesn't have a commander mode, the lights wouldn't understand it if it did, and they aren't powerful enough to do anything. Your best bet is to take all that lighting stuff back and get an SB-700 and a bounce card a lot larger than the one in the flash. Something like a Dembs. Put EVERYTHING in automatic; camera and flash, and hope for the best.

Either that or take it ALL back, get a D7000, two SB-700's, two light stands, and two umbrellas. Put a flash on a stand shooting into an umbrella on each side, but the camera and flashes in Commander mode, and hope for the best.

 

[Tee]

I'm not kidding...you have better luck using Instagram on your cell phone. What is it with people who let family hornswaggle them into into these types of situations? I think it's because they secretly want to do it. Grow a pair. Say no.

 

[unpopular]

Benny, really - I think that you should just hire a professional if you can at all afford it, think of it as a wedding gift for your step daughter. This is just a disaster waiting to happen that very well could have lasting negative effects.

 

[gsgary]

Looks like the **** is going to hit the fan in 4 days better start praying

 

[YoBenny]

The grooms mom did hire a professional, and the "florist" is a so called professional too, but when we looked at her floral arrangements and what they cost, we looked at each other and thunk heck WE could do better than THAT....

So the boss is thinking the photographer (also a friend of the groom's mom) will be no better, so she wants backup. (And also a photographer of her own to pull around by the nose)
So I don't have all that responsibility, and I guess I started learning and making mistakes when I started pushing buttons at Amazon. Welp the 900~1/100 makes perfect sense, I see that a real flash costs almost as much as the camera, well who woulda thunk it....
I have straddled a bottomless pit, I can see right now this is never ending, constantly upgrading, I might as well just try it with what I have and start learning from there.
If she doesn't like the Bridal Shower pics then SHE can buy me a decent flash hehehehehe.

I am just going to turn them on and do some shots on the couch and see if I can figure out how to make it work......