what to do in this limited situation

[jamiew]

Ok.

 

My primary photography is daylight sports so I do not have much

experience dealing with mixed lighting.

 

I have been asked to do a shoot that has no equiptment budget so I

will only be using what I already have. I have only the following

equiptment:

 

Canon 10D

Canon 550EX Flash (only one)

Canon 50/2.5 (80mm equilv.)

Canon 17-40/f4 (28mm-60mm equilv.)

 

I will be shooting in a reletively small room (no more than 25 feet

from primary subject) in an office building taking pictures of a

moving subject. The room is a pretty uniform light pastel

blue/grey. The only existing lighting is office florecents, and the

wondow lighting (through typical large office building tinted

windows with blinds).

 

Here is what I am looking for advice on:

 

How to best get natural light, while still keeping my shutter speed

in the 1/100 - 1/250 sec range (in other words I do not think I will

have enough natural light for the higher shutter speeds)?

How to emphasize the subject against the background?

How to balance the temperature of the light(s)?

How to set WB in this situation?

 

Any help would be most appreciated.

[mendonphoto]

Small room? Is the ceiling white? If so, put your fancy-dan 550EX flash on the camera and point it at the ceiling for bounce. Set your shutter speed (flash sync speed) at the fastest possible (1/150th??) As long as the ceiling isn't too high, the flash (which should be the same color temperature as the light coming through the windows) should wash out the green flourescent lights. So, you can keep your white balance set for daylight. Also, the soft[ish] overhead light being bounced off the cieling should look reasonably natural. Use a wide aperture (f/4.0) to throw the background and foreground as much out of focus as possible.

[michaelging]

Turn off the fluorcent lamps, the strobe and the outside light will then be balanced.I would also shoot raw ,doing this will let you correct any exposure-color problems. In shooting RAW you do not have to set a WB.

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I>How to best get natural light, while still keeping my shutter speed in the 1/100 - 1/

250 sec range (in other words I do not think I will have enough natural light for the higher

shutter speeds)?... to balance the temperature of the light(s)?...How to set WB in this

situation?</I><P>Decide which is the

primary existing light source to color balance

to: the view out of the window or the fluorescents? if it is the fluorescent lighting, then

you'll need a small piece of Rocsco Tough Plus Green gel to put over your flash so it more

or less matches the color balance of the Fluorescent lights - you then do a white balance

or shoot .crw files and white balance in Adobe Photoshop CS.<P>

 

<I>How to emphasize the subject against the background?</I><P> framing and

composition and a little light from the flash.<P>