Infant help - first time

brvheart

Hi guys -

I am shooting an infant on Saturday, I was lucky enough to get a friend to lend me one soft box (light, stand and modifier), a white back drop and red/black back drop. I know the poses that I want. however I was curious on the palcement/setup of the flash, softbox in relation to the backdrops as well as the natural light that comes though the back door (I am shooting at my house). I started playing with the setup today and must say - I now know why "understanding light, is understanding photography"

I do not have a sync cord on the 60 nor a remote, so the flash will trigger the light - not sure if it is a strobe or a hot light - but it flashes when the flash goes off?

Any help anyone can provide would be great.

Art Scott

brvheart wrote: »

Hi guys -

I am shooting an infant on Saturday, I was lucky enough to get a friend to lend me one soft box (light, stand and modifier), a white back drop and red/black back drop. I know the poses that I want. however I was curious on the palcement/setup of the flash, softbox in relation to the backdrops as well as the natural light that comes though the back door (I am shooting at my house). I started playing with the setup today and must say - I now know why "understanding light, is understanding photography"

I do not have a sync cord on the 60 nor a remote, so the flash will trigger the light - not sure if it is a strobe or a hot light - but it flashes when the flash goes off?

Any help anyone can provide would be great.

"The 60" both camps...Nikon and canon have models with 60 in them......What camera and flash do you have?? It will help us to help you.

It is a flash......a hot light will not flash unless it is ready to die then you can see the current pulsing thru at 60cycles per minute...sometimes.......

I am not giving creative lighting here but functional old school baby studio set up ...simple and easy

Ok simple set up is like Walmart, Sears, JCpenny..etc ..etc.....Flash directly above you/camera pointing down at subject.....do you have a baby poser?? Are you shooting on the floor.....
If you cannot shoot with light above you and camera set it off to the side a bit.....can you cut your on camera flashes power, if so cut to it minimum (mine is 1/128 power) ...if the head will swivel turn it pointing back over your head...this keeps it from influencing your shot......do a ton of experimentation before session to find basically what power you want flash power you want and camera settings: shoot in manual, start at f5.6 shutter at highest sync speed and lowest ISO........if you are shooting at ground level it is even better cause that actually gives more head room to shoot from under the flash / softbox ..... this is the simplest way to do it........their are tons of lighting scenarios if you Google for portrait studio lighting...but you do not have time to Google and study and experiment....

Good Luck

brvheart

Thank you

Sorry I did not put this info in the original post -

I am shooting a Canon 60D and a 580 EX II and the strobe.

So I now have read some say use the lights, some say dont - last night I was using the wife as a model and simply just playing with the lights - yes indeed the off camera flash was firing the strobe - one thing I noticed is my 580 took some time to get ready to fire again. Not a real big deal since I will most likely not be firing consecutive shots but rather taking and then chimping, readjusting etc.

I am NOT getting paid for this, it is a friend of my wife's that I said I would give it my best shot is all.