Indoor Family Photo

[colleen_gillespie]

<p>Greetings,</p>

<p>My friend has asked me to shoot a family photo for her. She wants the photo indoors in their dining room. I am just wondering how you would light a shoot like this. I shoot with a Nikon D200 and have 2 Norman ML600's, an SB800 and an SB600. I have an octagonal soft box that nicely wraps light around a subject, so I was thinking of exposing for the back of the room then using the soft box to fill. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thank you! </p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>How big a group are we talking about, here? What color are the walls and ceiling in the room in question?</p>

[bob_sunley]

<p>Hope it's a big dining room. have you even seen the room? Without knowing anything about it, advice is almost impossible to give.</p>

 

[marc_david]

<p>4 lights is enough to do an indoor portrait. They key is to not overlight it. Do you have any other modifiers apart from the octa? I'd use that as a mainlight, another octa or umbrella as a fill light and one speedlight as a background light. You could use the 4th speedlight as a hairlight/kicker. To keep things simpler and eliminate the need for background/hairlights, you could shoot in front of a window but you'll have to watch for reflections from your modifiers, especially big ones such as octas. Remember: angle of incidence = angle of reflectance.</p>

[colleen_gillespie]

<p>It is a huge dining room with light, grayish-green colored walls. The ceilings are quite high, and there will be only four people. Dad sitting in a fancy traditional chair with his family surrounding him. Thanks!</p>

[marlon]

<p>Like Marc said don't over light it, or over think it! Use your octa a key, and you could use one of your other lights with an umbrella for fill (if needed). If the walls are light and their hair isn't getting lost in the background then stick with that. If you feel like you need a separation light then start with one and if you need more then stick another one.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>This sounds like an ordinary group portrait. You put dad in the chair, arrange the rest of the family around him. Big softbox as main light with one Norman in it, other one in an umbrella or other softbox at stop or two dimmer for fill. One of the Nikon as a hairlight with small softbox or grid as hairlight, other one on the backgroud if you want. Are you using a backdrop or just the wall? I assume you're going to drag the dining room table out of the way, or is that supposed to be part of the photo?</p>