off-camera lighting for a party

<p>I'm shooting a graduation party tomorrow night for a small private school. There will be about 30 students at the dinner—a setup very similar to a wedding reception, but very small. And there's a dance afterwards. I'm not worried about the dance. What I'm trying to do is figure out if I could improve my skills by lighting the dinner with off-camera lights and radio triggers.</p>

<p>Three notes for the record: First, this is a volunteer gig. I was asked to do this because I've done a lot of other photography for the school and people know that I shoot weddings. So of course I want to do a great job, but the pressure level here is fairly low—I will have time to punt if I need to. I will also have time before the dinner to do some setup and testing. Second: I'm not committed to doing this yet. If I don't feel reasonably comfortable about it before tomorrow night, I will just leave it alone and work in the way I'm used to (with flash on the camera, bouncing whenever possible). And third: I've played with this a little at home with only modest success but I was winging it.</p>

<p>That said, I'm not really sure how to begin. Well, I have an idea. I have five flash units but, alas, only three radio receivers. I could use optical triggering but I am almost certain it would not be reliable in this situation. So I'm guessing I'd want to find a way to fix three of my flash units UP somewhere, so I was illuminating the room from 3 different directions. But I'm not quite sure if I should point the flashes into the center of the room, or point 'em backwards so the flash bounces off the wall and out into the room. I'm not quite sure how to think about "crossfire." Should I place units on opposite walls? Or should I aim the units so that no two are pointed at one another?</p>

<p>And would 3 flashes be enough? Remember, it's not a large room and certainly not a large group of people. There will be six or seven tables. I will be doing table shots.</p>

<p>Finally, HOW do you get your units stuck up where you want them to go? Tape? Clamps (which I don't have)? Something else?</p>

<p>If you want to tell me this is a bad idea, I'm open to that too.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>Will</p>

<p>It's a bad idea if you have a space that is conducive to just on camera bouncing. White, small to medium rooms make great giant light tents that produce beautiful, creamy light. It could be a bad idea if you aren't used to working with multiple lights, although you say there isn't a lot of time pressure (particularly for table shots done without much choice of position).</p>

<p>Two lights plus on camera flash are usually enough, although it depends. No way of knowing what the best positions are (cross, bounced against walls, pointed up, down, etc.) unless we know what the place looks like and the color of the walls, ceiling, plus existing light. Also, what kind of tables--round or long, rectangular ones?</p>

<p>If I don't use light stands, I use clamps, mini stands, or bungee cords. Tape is too risky. Got to think about liability. You don't want one to fall on someone's head or in their soup bowl.</p>

<p>I wouldn't suggest not to experimenting at the gig, even though it's a gratis event and just cover the same way you would a wedding reception.</p>

<p>What is your location like, William?</p>

<p>There is no one correct answer to your question because like nadine asked, we don't know the location you're shooting at. Specifically, how high the ceilings are? how wide the spaces are? are there columns that could block light flow?</p>

<p>In an open space with not so high ceilings, you can get away with just two speed lights, if you crank up your ISO and slow down your shutter speed. But again, I'm just inferring.</p>

<p>I disagree with David, since it is gratis, it is a good opportunity to try out different lighting scenarios on a real life gig, just make sure that you shoot the "insurance" images first and then do the experiments after.</p>

<p>Lastly, in a tight spaces, using light stands are a big No-No because guests have a tendency to knock them over. If you are allowed to clamp (that is there is something to clamp on to) I say clamp away. If you don't have any clamps, you oughta have some clamps anyway for future event gigs =)</p>

<p>But if clamping is not allowed or is possible, because of venue constraints, the safest bet I can think of is to mount one speed light unto a monopod as your main light and another speed light on your camera as fill. You can support the monopod with one hand and shoot with other (it's a bit cumbersome, but you'll get better results).</p>

<p>Hopefully, your trigger is capable of firing the remote flash while you have an on-camera flash.</p>

<p>Anyhow, my suggestions are just shoots at the dark, the more specific details you provide about the venue, the more solid advice we can give you.</p>

<p>Best of Luck</p>

<p>I appreciate David's advice not to do it, I really do. That's why I said I WON'T do it if I don't achieve a certain confidence level before tomorrow night and even then I'll be prepared to "punt," that is, switch to shooting with on-camera flash at a moment's notice. Still, I did want to try it. There are some things that I just do not see how you can practice if you don't take advantage of a real event. </p>

<p>Sorry I didn't describe the venue earlier. I wasn't sure. I've now found out that the dinner and dance will not be where they have been in the past (I've shot this event before), which was on a nice outdoor patio with a nice, white-painted overhead roof about 12' high. No, this year, it's going to be in the school gym. I reckon ceiling in there is 25'-30'. The gym has been bisected by temporary curtains hung on rods. These are only 8' or 10' high and are black. Might work as backgrounds for individual posed portraits, but are certainly not going to be good places to bounce lights from! The walls of the gym, at least from about 8' on up, are light colored. So my lights would have to be, I guess, on the 2 in-use sides of the gym. Here's a rough diagram.<br>

<img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_E63StVg0FS8/S9KNvAqXjjI/AAAAAAAAc78/6QkfV8lUQ74/gym_lighting.png" alt="" width="753" height="440" /><br>

Quick description in case my diagram gets lost in the future. I think the gym must be about 120' long and about 60 ft wide. A barrier will be placed across the middle of the gym to block half of the gym off completely; that part won't be used all night. Another barrier bisects the half that is being used, with the dinner tables on one side, and the dance area and stage for the band or DJ on the other side. At some point, this smaller barrier will be removed.</p>

<p>In my diagram I've shown where I think I would try placing my lights, at least for the dinner. I think I'd point the light on the left not quite straight out into the gym. The light on the bottom side I'd point at about a 45° angle to the left. In other words, I don't want the flashes to flash right at one another.</p>

<p>I don't have clamps but I could get some tomorrow afternoon. Not sure what I would be able to clamp the lights to. Suspect I could find something. I also suspect the whole idea would work best if I were able somehow to (a) bounce lights off the walls but (b) put a large reflective barrier, like a white poster board, ABOVE the lights like a big bounce card, to minimize loss of light up to the ceiling. But I don't see how I could rig that, and of course having never tried anything like that I'm not sure it would even work.</p>

<p>Make ANY SENSE at all?</p>

<p>Will</p>

<p>I'm assuming the ceiling is light colored too? If it were me, I'd try to bounce each flash into the ceiling. This is because you will otherwise run into two problems. The first is harsh light on the tables that are closer to the lights. The second is uncontrolled shadows on those tables. You might get nice highlights on the center tables. You could adjust exposure as you near the tables that are closer, though, but harsh light and shadows is something you can't change.</p>

<p>Most gyms have sloped ceilings (?)--at least a lot of the ones I'm in do. The slope makes a difference when bouncing, so looking at your diagram, I'd try two against the curtain side (the short curtain) in the corners, pointed up at the sloped ceiling (assuming the slope goes from highest at curtain to lowest at door entrance. You may want to adjust your zoom on the flash head to make a nice spot on the ceiling--probably a tele position. Point each one on one half of the sloped ceiling.</p>

<p>If you are thinking about separation highligting for each table shot, that would be something you'd have to almost do for each table.</p>