mbwakali Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Ok, this is going to be a tough one. I live in Central Asia, you know the stans, and I've been asked to do family photos for families at the school where I work. I have a 30D, 430ex, 50/1.8 and 17-85/4-5.6 We need to do the shots inside because of the weather. There is a large open area, like a meeting room, with white walls, more grey really. So...thoughts on what I can do to make a makeshift area to take these family photos? As far as materials, I can by cheap bulbs, brands aren't even an option, it's what you can get at a bazaar. So anything studio related is going to be dropped down to what you would put in your house. Any advice or thoughts on how I could get some decent shots would be great. I've never done anything like this before, my work is mainly down outside with natural lighting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stivchyk Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 In terms of bulbs if your options are that limited try an make sure that you get a consistent set so your light will be one color. I would also look for higher wattage household lights. If your able to find little clip on lamps the type sometimes used in home improvement jobs they weight little enough that rigging a stand for them would be pretty easy and if you have a bright enough bulb your good. For something really basic to diffuse the light perhaps try wax paper? Just some ideas for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrstubbs Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Hi Paul, only coz it's thursday..and thursday is photographers day..i'll have a go. Maybe...find a couple of mirrors and bounce the outdoor light into the ceiling or walls. Try and make enough light to get your 50mm 1.8 up to f8 or better (move up iso if needed) and use a tripod or something to hold the camera. And show us the shots. Sounds like great fun. I would only use the flash as fill...very gently (personal choice). All this assuming the sun comes out sometimes and it's not the monsoon season where you be or nightime when you shoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
re_photography Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Provided you can't arrange shots so that they can be naturally window-lit and look good, I would bounce the 430Ex off of a sheet of white something. If you don't have a formal reflector a large sheet of white cardboard will work. By bouncing the flash off of this surface you can get a difuse light source as you consider the entire area of the white surface to be the light source, rather than the small front of the flash unit. If you position the angle correctly, you will also get enough periferal light to bounce around and provide some fill. Either lens should work, but if you are doing a family together in a small group, you will likely want to use the 17-85 as you'd have to be quite far back to get in more than a couple of people with the 50mm which on the 30D has the FOV of a 80mm on a full-fram camera. I've bounced hotshoe-mounted flash off of a reflector many times. I've also lit a couple portraits by bouncing one of those cheap work lights off of a piece of white board, that warks as well, though probably not very well if all you have access to only common houshold wattage bulbs. Perhaps somewhere around someone has a shoplight you could borrow? At any rate, the hotshoe flash will work fine if bounced, just play around with positioning beforehand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
re_photography Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 As to my above post, this is an incredibly different subject matter, but the model was lit solely with the described method of bouncing hotshoe-mounted flash off of a reflector. The amount of ambient light present was generally from behind the model, so really didn't contribute to the lighting of her much at all, so the difuse quality of the lighting is due to the reflector use, not because shadows were negated by the ambient light.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.lewis.photo Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 I too would look for things to bounce you flash off of. I was going to say bounce it off of those white/gray walls you mentioned, but maybe bouncing it off of some sort of white panel would be better, using the wall to bounce fill light back onto your subject. You could place your subjects next to the fill wall, and place you flash/bounce material on the subjects opposite side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twmeyer Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 "There is a large open area, like a meeting room, with white walls, more grey really."... you couldn't ask for a better studio than that. Use your tripod and the zoom, it's all you'll need... t<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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