Banquet hall lighting

I have a Nikon N90s and a Nikon SD-28DX flash unit. I use a

Stroboframe Pro-RL bracket to mount them. I do a fair amount of

wedding photography in banquet halls. To enhance the performance of

my flash in especially darker environments, I am considering getting

some sort of slave/wireless set up, but I have no idea of what I

need exactly. I am thinking a strobe of sorts that will sit on an

extendable tripod/base that would be placed close to the ceiling

height, then the set up for the camera/flash to synch with the

strobe. A couple of questions regarding this: 1. What equipment do I

need to make all of this work properly? 2. Am I on the right track

as far as considering this set up to supplement my flash?

I appreciate any responses.

Scott Anderson

have you try iso 800 or 1600, open up the aperature, use slow shutter speed, and bounce your flash?

I look at your work and it seem like you use flash direct on. This is one of the reasons why your background is darker than your foreground.

The setup above you mention is messy and expensive.

Flash exposure is only determined by aperature. The only limiting factor relative to shutter speed is the sync of your shuuter to the flash. This limiting factor of the shutter is only due to FP type shutters.

With that said you could do several things. Set up remote flashes and run them with a cordless system such as pocket wizard.

Work with the shutter to expose more or less ambient light with the shutter speed. The slower the shutter the more ambient light you will get into your picture. When doing dancing images the slower shutter will show movement and can set a moodiness to your images.

Here is just one example of using remote flash. Is it better than on camera flash? My clients like the extra effort it takes to get an image like this. It's up to you.<div></div>

Re-reading I also should have mentioned that flash exposure is also determined by the output of the flash, distance to the subjects.

If you can try creating some images with "TV" which means time value with your camera, if you have such a setting. Then work the shutter and watch what happens.

Best to you in '06.

Thanks to both of you for your responses.

I have not tried using ISO of 800 or 1600. I have experimented some with the bounce flash, but I dont particular care for the top of the picture looking considerable brighter than the bottom. I usually use 200-400 speed film with my shots, but I will experiment with the higher speeds to see how they work.

AS for the shutter speed, I have read alot about using rear-synch and slower shutter speeds to get more of the ambiant light. I definately prefer to use natural light to flash. Again, something else for me to experiment with.

I anticipate a need though to have the strobe set up as a pre-caution.

I sincerely appreciate the feedback.

Well I had the same problem but Gary Fong light sphere did the job for me.

It looks very ugly but it works. It gives a nice light to the subject and the the background.

You don't need a low ceiling for this and if you want you cant set multiple flashes around

the hall and trigger them wirelessly.

And also tray to use rear synch curtain mode.

www.garyfong.com