Lighting Family Portraits

[martha a]

Over the last year or so, I have built a nice little business doing

natural light, on location (usually outside if weather permits),

black and white photography of kids, shooting with a Canon 10D.

Lately, I have been getting more requests to do family pictures

along with the kid shots. Typically these pictures are of the mom

and dad plus 2-3 kids but occasionally they extend to multi-

generational groups of 15+ people. My multi-part question primarily

has to do with lighting the �standard� family group but also touches

on the �jumbo� size. I am a total neophyte regarding flash and

studio lighting, although I have been voraciously reading postings

by people with similar concerns.

 

Where possible, I shoot portraits in the client�s yard or in a

nearby park. However, as I live outside Chicago, in the fall and

winter I am often forced inside the client�s house by rain or by

freezing cold, nasty weather. While I feel that placing the subject

right next to the window, using a very large aperture and/or turning

the 10D�s ISO way up can produce very pleasing pictures of a single

child, I feel that these methods are confining and inadequate for

producing more formal family portraits. As for the larger, family

reunion- type pictures, I have yet to accept such an assignment this

dark and gloomy time of year. Therefore, I am ready to buy some

lighting equipment. Believe it or not, I don�t even own a flash.

All I own is a tripod, a 38� round reflector with a light stand, and

(on order from B&H) a 60� round reflector.

 

My equipment requirements are as follows: 1) must provide sufficient

power to light a family of 4-6 people in most in-home conditions 2)

must be easy enough for me to set up and use in clients� homes

without an assistant 3) must be lightweight and durable enough for

me to lug in and out of my car, although since my use of the

equipment will probably be relatively part-time and seasonal,

durability is somewhat less of a concern 4) must be simple enough

to learn how to use without a Masters in electrical engineering 5)

should cost less than $1000.

 

It would be nice if what I purchased would be adequate to shoot the

super-big groups, although this is not a 100% requirement because I

see this as a small portion of my business and I either can continue

to turn down the business or learn studio lighting by renting

equipment and then rent as-needed. Also, and to throw in a curve,

it would be nice if what I purchased could be used as the first

pieces of a home studio set-up, if I ever decided to go down this

path (I am lucky enough to have both a large finished basement and

attic in my home).

 

My questions:

1) I am sorely tempted by the ease and portability of a wireless

system (a couple of 550Exs and an STE2) but from what I have read so

far, I have gathered that my money would probably be better spent on

a monolight or two because of greater power/flexibility. Am I

correct that thinking that while a wireless system would definitely

meet my 2nd through 5th requirements, its ability to handle my 1st

(and most important) is somewhat iffy, and meeting my two �nice-to-

haves� is out of the question?

2) If I decide to purchase monolight(s), would one (I am thinking

Alien Bees 800 although I am open to 400 or 1600, or another brand

altogether ) be sufficient, in conjuction with my large light

reflector for fill, to meet all 5 of my requirements? How would it

do for the large (15+) family groups?

3) If I need to purchase two monolights, any suggestions?

 

Apologies for the length of this post and thanks in advance for your

generous help. I have learned so much from photo.net over the last

couple of years and hope some day to have enough knowledge to share

with others!

[kevin_kolosky]

Martha

 

I can highly recommend Photogenic Powerlights. I have used a pair of them for many years and they just keep working and working and working. I also use a Photogenic Photomaster system (especially when I want to put a light on a boom arm or use a backlight)

 

You will need a good light meter. I have owned and used the Minolta III, IV, V, and now the VI. The best meter is ever used was the Minolta V.

 

It is very tough to tell someone else how to light portraits and expecially family groups. That is becasue there is no one formula for success. Each session will present its own problems because you need to take into account the direction and itensity of the ambient light that is already present, both from an exposure standpoint, and from an aesthetic standpoint. Suffice it to say, in all of the weddings and family groups I have done, I like to use a couple of monlights with umbrellas.

 

One thing that you really have to be careful of when doing larger groups is to watch so that your light isn't being blocked by anyone in the group. In general portraiture one often has the light at a 45 degree and sometimes more degree angle to the subject, with either a fill or a bounce on the shadow side. But with groups you need to be really careful about having your light at that much of an angle because oftentimes you will then have one of the people in the group cast a shadow on the person next to them in the group.

 

the other thing of course is to note the direction and intensity of the ambient light. Obviously if there are windows in someone's living room you don't want it to look like the main light is coming from the opposite side of the room from the windows as that will look entirely unnatural to the client. the same way when you are outside and using fill flash. You have to be careful not to blast the shadow side with so much light that it looks unnatural, and furthermore you have to be careful that you don't have a situation where some of the photograph is washed out from too much sunlight because you metered for the shade.

 

One final note. If you do not want to use studio lights for your work (and I highly suggest that you do) then I can also recommend Lumedyne Equipment. It works great for those situations when you don't want to use equipment that you have to plug in.

 

Kevin

[twmeyer]

Having used ac strobe systems (pack and head type) for many years, I have recently placed my emphasis on high portability, an overabundance of power, simplicity and light weight. <p>I have posted (too?) many times here my affinty for Lumedyne equipment for exactly the type of work you describe. I use one head in a "softbox", 400 ws of controllable power, and a reflector on a stand. I have lit groups from 3 to 25 with this set up, both indoors and out. the packs accept two heads, but when I do carry a second head, it's just for a backup/failsafe. <p>I use a Quantum 4i Radio slave, not because I think it's better, but because I got it used for $200. It works great. Look at my personal page for a couple of pictures of the kit as it packs up. <p>I have added a Lumedyne auto module that lets me cut my power manually to as little as 3 ws, or go with the auto function if I use the flash on the camera. This would have little value under the conditions you describe, so you could use my other method of intensity and color balance control, which is to carry a set of gels (in a paper cd envelope)that are cut to fit the cover that snaps onto the Lumedyne head. The power pack goes down to 50ws and I can gel it down pretty quick to whatever I want. I also frequently gel it to a tungsten output and change the camera to a tungsten WB, which is very handy when doing portraits indoors. <p>There are other threads on portable strobes in this forum in which I have posted examples of these techniques. Here is a large group I did a couple of weeks ago with this system... t<div></div>

[wayne_seanard]

Wow I'm impressed, you people should consider writing novels.

[johnmarkpainter]

Martha,

Short answer...

Alien Bees 800 with 10' Stand, a Big White Umbrella and a Big "Brolly Box" which is

basically a Shoot Through Umbrella.

 

A Softbox isn't nearly as portable or quick to set up as a Brolly.

You are used to available light....adding a Flash and simply bouncing it off a wall or

ceiling would do wonders.

 

jmp

[wayne_seanard]

I'm sorry but I could'nt resist the last comment. Seriously though, you shoot digital so theres no reason for a flash meter. A good flash meter costs more than a cheap laptop and if you don't already have one you need one for digital. You can see your results immediatley. No guessing. As far as lights a pair of

White Lightning Monolights for group photos are what you need. I have X1600s and they're great. About $600 each with stand and umbrella. You only need 2 lights for large groups. If you want to go cheaper then Alien Bee's. whitelightning.com and alienbees.com. Check around the web and you'll see that they are the best.

[wayne_seanard]

I forgot, You don't need a wireless system unless your shooting where other flashes are going off. If you controll the light as in portraits you have one light on a sync cord and the other set on slave.

[picturesque]

All of the mentioned units above are excellent. I just want to add that I have photographed many in-home portraits with just a Norman 200B and umbrella, combined with on-camera flash and from time to time, other battery-powered units (even the cheaper Vivitar 283/285). I also use the Norman outside, in addition to natural light. I bought it used for about $325 and have used it for years. It is heavy but not heavier or bulkier than corded units, although a little less powerful than some. It is cheap, portable, and reliable, and while corded units would be better for starting a home studio, the Norman (and the Lumedyne mentioned above) can be used anywhere.

[twmeyer]

Even though I'm using digital capture, I still use my flash meter frequently, especially in a shot like the one I posted above. I take my wireless trigger and meter into the image area, and check light output at the extremes of the composition. With the meter and the trigger I can fine tune the direction of the flash head to give even illumination to a wide image area. Doing this off the LCD screen on the camera using the histogram would take 10 times longer and still not be as accurate... t<div></div>

[bob_macdonald]

Quick question Tom....Were the softboxes positioned vertically, in the

large "family" shot?

 

Thanks.

[martha a]

Thanks for all your expert advice. I went ahead and ordered one Alien Bee 800 and plan on messing around with that and my large collapsible reflector while I figure out what I am doing. Will probably order another Alien Bee a little down the road to handle the large groups and further play around with the idea of a home studio. Also, I ordered a Sekonic 308BII light meter off of ebay, based on excellent reviews I had read elsewhere on photo.net. One last question: anybody know anything about the Kid Panel, a light diffusing panel offered on lightingmagic.com. Sounds interesting but have never seen first-hand feedback. Thanks!!!!

[twmeyer]

Bob: No. One 50x70 at camera right, horizontal and pointed at the person on the left end of the group. And one 45" Westcott Apollo (which is round), camera left, pointed at a cream colored wall like the background and giving 1.5 stops less than the big box. The bounce idea was a last minute ad lib that worked... t