Well, this could be interesting...(Lighting/Fashion photography help needed)

[Mot]

I haven't shot this kind of thing before but it would seem to me that the photographers should be as unobtrusive as possible, this in my opinion would mean avoiding flash. Looking at some professional catwalk shoots I can't see any that use flash. That may be the reason why at fashion shows there is always hot debate over what white balance to use; they have to use available light. You might also ruin shots for any other photographers that might be there if you're popping your flash 3-4 times per model.

Of course this doesn't mean you can't use flash, there will be times where it is used, but I think in the majority of cases it's a matter
of dealing with what you've got.

In reality it shouldn't be too difficult: stick your camera on a monopod, set the ISO as high as you deem appropriate, work out a decent exposure and set it on manual. You should also work out what kind of shots you want ie. full body, torso, detailing of clothes, front/back of clothes or even headshots.

 

[rexbobcat]

I guess it kind of depends on how it's lit. Will it be a full-on spotlight? Or will the whole room be lit to a certain extent with brighter lighting along the edges of the runway?

These photos are with no extra lighting other than the spotlight. I didn't use strobes or anything because.....why? It would just make proper exposure THAT much more difficult. But that's just how I saw my situation. Your lighting will probably be of higher quality than this show was. I do think, though, that it CAN be done. My biggest concern would not be light, but instead focus.

The last one had the spotlight turned on with a blue gel, and there were a few surrounding yellow lights flooding the stage, but it was still very dark so I had my ISO up to 6400 with an aperture of 2.8. The lens and camera I used was a Canon 60D and a 70-200mm f/2.8

So it IS possible. It might not be the easiest situation, but there's no reason you shouldn't get some great images even with minimal gear. After you get the initial metering set, you basically don't have to change much of anything else. You might have to tweak exposure a bit, but if it's a runway show then the lighting should (hopefully) be fairly consistent.

I'm with the crowd that says you should forego the flash. It would just make things over-complicated without a very concrete positive outcome, unless you've been doing this for years and have acquired that pompous and snooty air about you.

 

[DiskoJoe]

Runway shows are not that hard. The models walk down a catwalk and are completely visible with nothing in their way. They walk slow too so you can use manual focus. Flash would help but if they have spot lights you might only need to wait for them to step into the right spot. Plus they always pause before the turn back off stage.

For fashion you want to get full length shots in addition to what ever else you might want to do.

But would I say you should do this?

HELL YEAH!

Hot chicks. Maybe some free drinks. They will probably have a wrap party afterward. You're a college student. Even if you screw up every picture you have nothing to worry about. You told them you did not have experience in this area. So things can only go up for you. You would be stupid not to make the most of the opportunity.

 

[DiskoJoe]

I guess it kind of depends on how it's lit. Will it be a full-on spotlight? Or will the whole room be lit to a certain extent with brighter lighting along the edges of the runway?

These photos are with no extra lighting other than the spotlight. I didn't use strobes or anything because.....why? It would just make proper exposure THAT much more difficult. But that's just how I saw my situation. Your lighting will probably be of higher quality than this show was. I do think, though, that it CAN be done. My biggest concern would not be light, but instead focus.

The last one had the spotlight turned on with a blue gel, and there were a few surrounding yellow lights flooding the stage, but it was still very dark so I had my ISO up to 6400 with an aperture of 2.8. The lens and camera I used was a Canon 60D and a 70-200mm f/2.8

So it IS possible. It might not be the easiest situation, but there's no reason you shouldn't get some great images even with minimal gear. After you get the initial metering set, you basically don't have to change much of anything else. You might have to tweak exposure a bit, but if it's a runway show then the lighting should (hopefully) be fairly consistent.

I'm with the crowd that says you should forego the flash. It would just make things over-complicated without a very concrete positive outcome, unless you've been doing this for years and have acquired that pompous and snooty air about you.

Okay. Wow. I have not seen this side of you before rexbobcat. You would fit in great down here in H-town.

 

[rexbobcat]

I guess it kind of depends on how it's lit. Will it be a full-on spotlight? Or will the whole room be lit to a certain extent with brighter lighting along the edges of the runway?

These photos are with no extra lighting other than the spotlight. I didn't use strobes or anything because.....why? It would just make proper exposure THAT much more difficult. But that's just how I saw my situation. Your lighting will probably be of higher quality than this show was. I do think, though, that it CAN be done. My biggest concern would not be light, but instead focus.

The last one had the spotlight turned on with a blue gel, and there were a few surrounding yellow lights flooding the stage, but it was still very dark so I had my ISO up to 6400 with an aperture of 2.8. The lens and camera I used was a Canon 60D and a 70-200mm f/2.8

So it IS possible. It might not be the easiest situation, but there's no reason you shouldn't get some great images even with minimal gear. After you get the initial metering set, you basically don't have to change much of anything else. You might have to tweak exposure a bit, but if it's a runway show then the lighting should (hopefully) be fairly consistent.

I'm with the crowd that says you should forego the flash. It would just make things over-complicated without a very concrete positive outcome, unless you've been doing this for years and have acquired that pompous and snooty air about you.

Okay. Wow. I have not seen this side of you before rexbobcat. You would fit in great down here in H-town.

I do like to feel pretty. I'm the one on the bottom if you can't clearly tell.

In all seriousness though, the money from the show goes to a scholarship fund for graduating high school seniors. Heh.

 

[Austin Greene]

Buy, rent, borrow, or steal a strobe and a set of triggers.

^^^that

Well, TPF has done it again when it comes to slowing draining my college student budget. Sure enough I go on Amazon checking out flashes last-night and I came across the YN565. At $145 its right at the cap for my budget, but its a possibility. I wouldn't be using it this go around (wouldn't get here in time), but it wouldn't hurt to have around. I saw a recent thread posted about it here on TPF and it seems to be a decent piece of kit for the price, I think I'd appreciate the ETTL at first as well. However, I am curious, because at the same time I could pick up two YN560's for roughly the same cost and then I'd have an OCF for future portraiture experiments. What do you all think? One YN565, or two YN560's?

It appears that the YN565 would also work with my T3i's wireless transmitter, but could anyone confirm that? I'd hate to start yet another thread with the all too common "Which flash should I choose?!" title.

 

[gsgary]

Have you got a handheld light meter or can borrow one ? if so ask if you can walk the catwalk and take some incident readings to find out the position where they are best lit

 

[Austin Greene]

Have you got a handheld light meter or can borrow one ? if so ask if you can walk the catwalk and take some incident readings to find out the position where they are best lit

Unfortunately, I don't, but I think I may be able to snag one of those from the photolab, they arent in quite as high a demand as the speedlights.

Thanks again to everyone for the fantastic help, I really appreciate it. I told them this morning and they agreed to let me set up my tripod along with marking an X on the runway for consistency among the models turning. The plan right now is to just set up shop (sans flash), get it metered properly, and then just click away when the model comes into acceptable focus. As for an after party, thats always a possibility

Since that is all taken care of, I would still really appreciate any advice you all would have as per my previous post asking about the 565 or the 560 (x2). I personally am leaning towards the 565, but I'm curious if anyone has any glaring reviews I should know about besides whats on Amazon.

 

[gsgary]

Don't use a shoot through brolly it will reduce the power of your flash too much, a silver brolly should give you more power and spread for a bit more leeway and f8 will give you leeway on focus because you won't need to blur the background because it will be dark and experiment with different iso's,

 

[Austin Greene]

Well, I did it.

I now have a YN565, snap on diffuser, some Eneloop rechargeable batteries/charger, and a 43" 5-in-1 reflector on the way. Should be interesting to learn a new style of shooting once it all gets here.

Portraiture mode, activate!

 

[Austin Greene]

Hello again,

So the fashion show was tonight, and man was it a learning experience! Unfortunately, the lighting was worse than expected, and the only spotlights they had created deep shadows across the faces of most all the models as they walked down the runway. Between everything being blown out below the waist, and shadows turning beautiful girls into scarface look-a-likes, I didn't get many shots I was even remotely happy with.

However, in the end it was a great experience, and I appreciated the challenge. I ended up shooting slower shutter speeds than I should have, but I wasn't too keen on going past ISO1600 or shooting wide open. So by that, I got a fair amount of motion blur, but I suppose its a lesson learned.

Anyways, with it being my first try at any kind of portraiture, I tried to make the best of the situation. So here are the shots I came up with. As always, any and all CC is welcome/appreciated

1.

6 by TogaLive, on Flickr

2.

1 by TogaLive, on Flickr

3.

2 by TogaLive, on Flickr

4.

3 by TogaLive, on Flickr

5.

4 by TogaLive, on Flickr

6.

5 by TogaLive, on Flickr



Thank you all for the great advice you gave me, and I hope next time I'll be able to remedy the poor lighting somehow and really bring back some decent shots

Best,

Toga