Off camera lighting for reception

[kiva]

Chris, what direction do you have the lights with umbrellas facing? What I mean is: are you shooting through them or how exactly are you finding success with the umbrellas when you do decide to use them.

 

Also, I've been reading that others worry about people knocking light stands over. I can greatly reduce that worry with the light stand I had a local welder put together for me.

I explained to the welder what I wanted to accomplish and he built it to per my request: I wanted a hook on it to hang a battery pack and also wanted a screw in thread to tighten down on the light stand that is inserted in the approx. 16 inch high stand.

 

I took the tripod legs off the post of a cheap, old yet made of metal light stand that was 1 inche in diameter and had the welder make the base then weld the metal tube which was 1 1/4 inch diameter. The metal light stand is inserted in the stand you see at the bottom of the photo and the hand screw is tightened down... the hook on the opposite side is to hang a battery pack on or any other equipment.

 

This unit can not be knocked over! "Johnny" can bump into it a dozen times and it's not going over. It does have some weight to it but it's not as if it's going to be moved around dozens of times using Chris' system and others who say they locate their stands in strategic locations and fire away for the night. Actually they're easy to pick up and carry, not a problem. But, more importantly it Eliminates the worry of it being knocked over. Price for parts AND labor: $30. I had him make two of them so I could try it out. They are solid and when "Johnny" runs by after sipping some champagne he'll probably step on the bell shaped base and his body will move AWAY FROM the actual pole and if he hits it then the light stand still won't go over. Oh, the cheap (steel) tripod light stands I took the legs off (removed one screw!) cost about $7 because no one uses them anymore because of all the lightwieght cheap junk they sell now.

 

There may be doubters and naysayers but this stand WORKS! and solves the "worry" .... solving the worry is more about the bride and groom and thier guests than about the couple of minutes to carry in two stands from the vehicle .. the "security" can be worth a lot imo.

 

Just a thought on a project in progress ... still need my Pocket Wizards and I'll let y'all know how it works in the real world ... I've put to action here in the home studio and it's muliple times better than any light stand I've ever seen or used.

 

Without the light stand pole in it the thing is only about 16 inches in height.

 

Picture here (I hope):<div></div>

[picturesque]

Elaine--not sure the bounce/mirror idea would work enough to light up as big an area as you are describing, but might help you if you are using an LS. Also, if you can put lights on the landing (aimed down at the floor), that would be a good place for one or two. Are you giving up on the extra lights idea for lack of triggering? You could use an auto thyristor flash on-camera instead of the 580EX and the slave eyes on the ABs, if you can tolerate everyone else's flash setting off your ABs. Would be a pain, but you'd get some photos with multiple lights that way, and if you used them for formals, you could control the others' flashes to some extent by flexing your professional photographer muscle.

 

William--great idea. Maybe talk some lighting manufacturer into making them...