Best Lights for Prom Portraits

I have been taking mostly team & individual shots for a local high school, and

they have just asked me to do the prom portraits. I don't have any studio

lighting, but I'm going to have to invest in some for this event. I'm shooting

with a Rebel XT and I have the 580EX. Can someone who is familiar with this

equipment give me some tips on what kind of studio lighting I need? I'm hoping

my budget for this can be around $300-$400.

 

Thanks!

Kelley

Hi Kelley,

 

If you'll have a look at our 'library' (type 'Prom Portraits' in the search box and enter!) you'll

find many responses to similar questions.

 

Have fun!

A trio of mono lights is the best idea for this type of work, but not for $300-400. Also it would be a real good idea to have back up cameras available.

Ideally you would want studio strobes. But on the cheap, you could put some cheap basic strobes like Vivitar 283 or 285 units bounced into umbrellas on light stands. You need to use them on full power manual and keep them in close to get a decent f-stop. I'm not a Canon shooter so I don't know how powerful the 580EX is but you might be able to use that as one of the units. You'll also need a backdrop, though prom committees sometime create their own for the photo setup. Another option is hot lights. You can buy Lowell TotaLights for about $100 each, bounce them into umbrellas (be sure to get ones designed for video so they don't catch on fire from the heat) and set your white balance for 3200. This does get into issues of heat, current draw at the outlet and increased hazards if somebody trips on them, so personally I would stick with the strobes.

Buy a used set of lights (I prefer Monolites-but packs work fine too)-you can often find lights

with very little use if you look around-stick with name brands and you will be fine-but you

will have to spend $500-maybe plus a little---JOE

Oh, and if you buy used-get the seller to set them up and show you how to use them-and

get a used light meter-Minolta 4fs are all over for about $100---JOE

Look at http://strobist.blogspot.com for ideas on doing this on a small budget.

Rent a set.

 

Rent it for a couple weekends to learn how to use it, before the prom.

 

And bring sandbags (available to rent as well) and a BIG roll of gaffer tape, so no one knocks over the lights or trips on cords.

Hey Kelly, I shoot many proms, dances, and yearbook contracts. Rent some lights get your set up down and get good backgrounds, My competition uses a pack with 45 degree copy light set up for their proms. I go full out and use three to five lights for mine and awesome backgrounds. You need redundant systems, and a lot of help for crowd controll and posing. I love shooting volume events, but the start up cash to shoot them is hugh. We average about 1500 units per prom. Here is a shot from a winter homecoming dance, not a prom from last month.

<p>Hi Kelly I, like you generally shoot high school sports. This year I was asked to shoot the "Pre Prom Fashion Show", fortunately for me I also do a little portrait work and had some equipment on hand. I use the Canon 6D & 50D. I started with two 580 EX II's and a 4'X6' white reflector & two 43'" translucent umbrellas. Figured out I needed a hair light & a background light to really get what I wanted so I purchased two Yongnou 560 II flashes (built in slaves) for $59.00 ea and an "Expoimaging" Rouge Flash Bender Master Lighting kit (has a neat grid and two modifiers that are great for controlling background and hair lights). It worked out so well I just purchased two more Yongnou's (560 III & 565 EX) four Yongnou 622-C ETTL triggers, four Yongnou 603 triggers and six Yongnou battery packs; total for all the Yongnou equiptment $741.00 The Yongnou Flashes have the same guide number as the Canon 580 EX II the 560 series are fully manual adjustable to 1/128 power, the 565 is ETTL capable ( but I use it on manual for portraits) of course you'll have to add stands and backdrops (I already had mine) to your cost but this can work for you. Check out Yongnou Products on Amazon. com they may surprise you. If you want to go cheap (inexpensive) monolights check out Adorama's "FlashPoint" series</p>