Need overnight posing help, oh talented 'togs!

divamum

Oy. Sometimes my worlds collide....
A colleague and I are doing a recital for the college where we teach (so far so good). The concert isn't until the spring, but they have announced at rather short notice that they want some nice promotional shots of us as a duo. We of course have our individual headshots, but several people said, 'Oh gee- Diva can take pictures - let's have some fun ones of you two as a duo!" Colleague and I (pushovers that we are) decided to try and do a quick shoot at my house tomorrow, since that's the only day in the next month that we are both available (wouldn't you know this would come along when I'm already really busy!).

(I know that some of you will think this is madness and to just say "no" but, while I'm getting myself a little worked up over it tonight as I'm drawing a total BLANK on ideas, there's really zero pressure other than the self-imposed kind, and if we don't get anything decent, we can just use our ordinary headshots - really, the worst that will happen is my colleague and I will have a fun morning shooting and talking through our potential program, so it's a no-lose situation for me, despite the challenges!)

Thankfully I've done all those zilliions of SPs and have a long USB cord so I can shoot tethered which hopefully will aid framing and result in fewer tossers on that score. I'm also VERY happy I did those shots of my hubby last week, as I'll be using the same space - definitely good that I've had that experience already (phew). And I just get one of those "popup" backgrounds - one side white, one side black - so I've got that covered, too.

I'm now trying to figure out the best way to do this with only two speedlights... and with two people in the shot. I'm thinking of using my larger (45") umbrella as key so there's a fair bit of soft wraparound light, reflector (or filtered window light) for fill, and 2nd flash as a background and/or separating hair light? Thoughts?

Also, I would be eternally grateful for any posing ideas from you wonderful people: sadly, I've never done shots with more than one person in the frame. I have a couple of rather banal ideas, but any great posing suggestions for two dark-haired gals, one about 5'2", super-petite and fine-boned, and one 5'9" and curvy? Links to examples would be great if you have or know of any (any kind of shots at all eg wedding, family shots, artsy shots, corporate... whatever - I just want to look at some stuff that y'all know works). We can go for any "look" we want - formal, classic, vaguely album-cover, artsy... anything goes - I just need some ideas to get my brain moving!

Thanks in advance.....

(ETA: I am of course googling away right now looking for examples myself, too - I just trust you guys more than google!! )

Swartzy

Back to back...shoulder to shoulder....face to face....Ok....think OPERA.....think of a cool 2 person scene.....do IT! Dress up a bit like your Avi....get funky...pose Hollywood style....use sunglasses as props, hats, scarves, boas...What your spazzin about is something that you already have in the bag...let your personality and humor come out.....it's art, it's expression of who you are. Two people in the frame make it that much more fun!

Try taking full body shots as well so each of you can be animated....remember, if you think you are animated, do it more as the camera will make those big poses come alive!

2 speedlights...yea, use the 48" for one but lower the other pointing up.....use it for a rim light or side light. Try both lights without the 48" and create dramatic lighting, harsh lighting if you will.

Why do you live so far away.....I have a zillion ideas...man, this would be a rush!

divamum

Swartzy, **I** wish you were closer, too!!!!!!!!

You're a genius, though - you've already got my brain firing on more than 1/2 a cylinder (just home after a frustrating rehearsal for current show, which kind of knocks one's creativity right out the door....)

If you think of any visual examples you have (or have seen) for the kinds of ideas you're thinking, throw me a link (read: lifeboat )

I think I'd enjoy it all more if I didn't have to think about my hair and makeup as well as fstops ...

Keep those cards and letters coming folks - I need all the inspiration I can get!

(PS the avatar is the 11 year old daughter and her clothes don't fit me... !!!!)

kidzmom

Divamum! I'm shy on experience, but I just wanted to give you a pep talk! You are awesomely creative and can do this. I think the key is just relaxing and focusing (no pun intended) on the fact that if this works GREAT, if not....FINE! I find in life when we take ourselves too seriously things never work out!

BTW I posed 2 people yesterday...My two middle children..who are about 1 foot apart in height. I did a FUN back to back pose which I think worked great. I will post those now. They had a really laid back feel to them...

I can't wait to hear how things go. JUST HAVE FUN!! I agree that the more props the better...Depends on the feel you want for the shot but arms crossed with right fist under chin...and the other person with arms crossed and left fist under chin (underlining the team idea) is fun (at least it is with kids! !). Sort of ends up making a triangle with the arms out of the pair (probabally impossible to visualize w/o a pic-sorry!)

HAVE FUN!!!

divamum

Thanks Kidzmom! I think I'd be less frazzled if it was just a last-minute shoot of somebody else - it's the being stylist, makeup/hair artist, photographer AND subject that kind of overwhelms me.....

Anybody else? I have till 11 am

And now to go and set lights....

adbsgicom

Just good luck, and looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Have fun with it!!

lilmomma

well I got nothin'....but good luck and I hope you post them when you're done!

divamum

Anybody have a DOF rule of thumb when working with two folks? Not less than 5.6? Not less than 6.3? Bring it on....

Thanks folks - no idea what we'll get, but it's going to be... ummm... an experience!!

adbsgicom

What focal length, and how far front-to-back apart will they be?
MariKris posted this link a while back (in case you don't get a rule of thumb in time)

http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

-a

Mitchell

A slightly angled back to back shot with some attitude would work nicely. Maybe with the arms folded?

I'd shoot this at f8.

Good luck!

Swartzy

Yea, meter your lights for f/8.0.

divamum

Well, phooey - that's why 6.3 let me down when we moved too far apart (duh) I'm so used to shooting at 2.8 and 3.2 for the shallow effects I like that anything over 5.6 seems practically like infinity to me....

So yeah, done. We had a blast! I can't say that I got exactly what was in my head which obviously requires both more experience AND more gear than I have (note to self: get 3rd flashgun and some real lightstands. SOON!), but we definitely got some useable shots, even if they're more conservative in style than I'd like (you got me thinking about hard light and grids last night, Swartzy, and I was all fired up and rarin' to go!)

In the meantime, if I don't get my tax paperwork to my accountant by close of play today he's gonna KILL me, so I guess I have to go and do that instead......

Here's a barely-processed teaser, however, which is the first one that jumped out at me from the shoot. Sadly - since the shots around it look entirely different - it must have been some kind of a flash misfire, so I have NO IDEA how it was lit! :bash I'll work it up properly tomorrow when I have time again (and yes, I see her dress loop needs cloning - I'll get to all that when I do it "for real").

kdog

divamum wrote:

Here's a barely-processed teaser, however, which is the first one that jumped out at me from the shoot. Sadly - since the shots around it look entirely different - it must have been some kind of a flash misfire, so I have NO IDEA how it was lit! :bash

Did the flash fire at all on the bad ones? I'm guessing you had a slow recycle time due to batteries getting low. I hate when that happens. Plus, you probably couldn't see the flash-ready lights. If the flashes were firing, then I'd blame it on the vagaries ETTL. On a setup like that, manual flash is actually better. I'm guessing you were using your ST-2, and unfortunately it sucks for manual flash.

Pic looks great though!

Cheers,
-joel

heatherfeather

kdog wrote:

Did the flash fire at all on the bad ones? I'm guessing you had a slow recycle time due to batteries getting low. I hate when that happens. Plus, you probably couldn't see the flash-ready lights. If the flashes were firing, then I'd blame it on the vagaries ETTL. On a setup like that, manual flash is actually better. I'm guessing you were using your ST-2, and unfortunately it sucks for manual flash.

Pic looks great though!

Cheers,
-joel

That is big on my wish lish for the next generation of Canon speedlights.... battery level indicators. Whoever didn't design that into the flash needs spankin's.:toni

The shot looks good diva, and I get those misfires that turn out fun all the time! Usually it is when I have the battery pack on that it sort of freaks out like that. You are going to have to do a lot of clean up on the dust in the background that your hairlight caught, but otherwise looks like a fun photo.

Zanotti

You are both so pretty when you smile, at least a hint of one is almost manditory.

Perfect lighting and focus - lets see more personality.


Z

angevin1

Nice Rembrandt Diva~!

I don't think you need more flashguns....you can use reflectors, eh?

But looks like you have enough light...and yeah, those f#'s....You did have a lot on your plate for this shot!!
Cute shot!

divamum

angevin1 wrote:

Nice Rembrandt Diva~!

I don't think you need more flashguns....you can use reflectors, eh?

But looks like you have enough light...and yeah, those f#'s....You did have a lot on your plate for this shot!!
Cute shot!

Thanks Angevin! Yeah, I use reflectors like crazy when it's one person, but with two I found it hard to situate. Maybe if one of them hadn't been me I might have done that better (and I DO have a 3rd flash.... sort of. I just need to get an optical slave for an oollldddd flash from film days. Crappy piece of gear, but to light a white bg it will do just fine once I can figure out how to fire it remotely)

Z, we didn't seem to get as many of the smiling ones... at least not where we were BOTH smiling! There's this one, however, which I've been playing around with (yes, at 1am. Following a rehearsal. I'm nuts, clearly )

Is this just too cheezy? I haven't really done much with textures before, but somehow the plain white bg moved me to try.... Goin' for that "brochure" look.

(and yes, probably need to process the actual image a wee bit more. In the morning. When I can see straight )

angevin1

Ooh! I like the depth the processing gave it!

Must be hard to operate on both sides! Nice work~:D

kidzmom

GREAT shots! SEEEE you pulled it off! I think these are both clear winners...and I really like that texture! Not cheesy for me at all. What did you use for that? I'd love to learn to add textures myself. Anyway, REALLY nice! You pics are great and you managed makeup and hair too! :ivar I like the angle of that 2nd shot and I could definately see it as brochure material. Hope you can figure out the flash issue. But at least you got these! Definately great work. You must be thrilled!

adbsgicom

Really wonderful job. Congratulations!!

I like your PP'ed image, but I'm just a little bothered with your hair going into the border. On the right hand side is some more sparse border texture, perhaps that could go along the top, or just enlarge the image by a couple of percent, or, I don't think you need the black border, the texture background looks great.

divamum

Thanks guys. Oh, and HF, meant to thank you too for drawing my attention to the dust!! And yeah, battery indicators would be useful. I'm sure it was a misfire of some kind - both flashes fired, but the power output on them is definitely different in a couple of shots. Weird. But a happy kind of weird!

I'm working up a couple of the shots more seriously and will post in a separate thread a little later. They need them today (actually, they needed them LAST Thursday even though they didn't ask me until THIS Tuesday! While I'm fast, I'm not actually retroactive ). Geez. Next time, I want to do this with a little more time to think about it!!! More in a little while.....

Zanotti

Pretty!

Z

Prezwoodz

In my head I was picturing theatre costumes, with some jumping and excitement in the photo with a white background. I am not exactly sure how I would put it together but interaction between you two in the picture would be great I think.


Course after reading the rest of the thread I see the second picture and like it, I think I had a view of something different going on in my head!