Speedlights indoors for small groups

[wooster]

Hi

I'm new to the forum so hello to everyone.

I have been asked to photograph a small family group of two parents and two children tomorrow ( short notice, sorry ) at their home.

I will be using one camera and an off camera Speedlight.

I have used Speedlights a fair few times at weddings in reception halls, churches and outdoors for fill but I'm not sure what I should do to use them for groups i someone's home. My main concerns are to avoid the white walls creating a diffused boring flat look, and to allow each group member to have their share of the light. I'd like to creat interesting shadows and highlights but to allow each person to be equally well lit.

I have some modifiers ( shoot thru umbrella with the means to use it light a softbox wiht a front cover aand some reflectors ) at my disposal.

Anyway a few tips would be much appreciated.

Thanks for reading

Wooster

 

[Designer]

You could shoot the flash through the white umbrella. Keep the light off axis with the camera. About 45 degrees should do it. That small group the light can be 4 or 5 feet from them.

Select or create a good background. A plain wall will work.

Position the children's faces within the same plane of focus as the adults, so everyone will be in focus.

If there is a plain white wall near the setting, you can bounce the flash off the wall. Don't do this if the wall is not white.

 

[mattbaume]

Regarding the white walls -- are you concerned about them creating a "diffused boring" look on the subjects' faces, or on the background? For purposes like a wedding portrait, I would think that a diffused look would be what the subjects want. Obviously some shadows & highlights are good but they wouldn't want to have any hard-edged shadows on their faces, would they? Do you have any examples of the degree of shadow that you're trying to achieve? Maybe something like this?

Designer's tips above seem to be dead-on to me.

 

[IgsEMT]

I had a small wedding recently... was hired for two hours for formal portraits.
The restaurant, where the event was taking place, doesn't have outlets along the walls (I'm there pretty often) so it was a portable-light gig all the way.

My lighting for the job consisted of two speedlights (sb900s) at 1/2 power on the stands w/ reflective umbrellas ( about 10 feet from the subjects.

Cam1 settings
ISO 400
1/250 sec
F/ 5.6


Cam2 Settings
ISO 100
1/250 sec\
f 2.8

By mid of next week I'll start editing but preliminary view (during quick clean ups, the job looked ok).
--------------------
For some gigs, I don't bring my ABs, I bring my vivitar 283 and 285 as room lights. At lower power settings (1/16, 1/4) recycling time is about 3 seconds; At higher power recycling time is ridiculously long and even though I love the light quality that comes out, darn recycling time.
--------------------
Few months ago I was doing a wedding with another photog who was shooting Nikon as well. At the request of the other photog (studio) we had to keep low profile... I set up my sb600, sb800 and sb900 using Nikon CLS and another 900 on camera as the master. He, also shooting Nikon set up his 4 - sb800s in similar fashion. We both covered large room w/ 7 lights (just had to switch the channel).
-------------

Granted, bigger lights are nicer for portraits, smaller units do very good job when set correctly and in accordance with the camera and its settings.

Good Luck

 

[wooster]

Hi and thanks for the replies. I was worried the light would look flat and boring, yes. I suppose group photos are always a bit of a compromise though. I've a softbox type accessory for the speedlight and this should do the trick. I can feather it appropriately for single person images but for the whole family groups it isn't really feasible to do anything tricky.

Thanks again

W

 

[IgsEMT]

If flat is your concern then dont light flat. But speedlights come with little diffusers. Adding builtin wide angle diffuser with supplied omni bounce on top gives you a LOT of softness... move the lights fjrther back, add a little more power and u r set (camera exposure is important too ).
Flash softbox is one way, bouncing flash against the wall is another. Bring a big white sheet of artboard from arts/ctafts store, duct/gaffer tape and bounce the light into it.
Good Luck

 

[wooster]

Thanks again chaps. I managed to get what I needed to get so panic over