Last-minute promo shoot - ideas welcomed!

divamum

Got asked to do a very last-minute promo shoot for three musicians who don't really want to be doing a shoot on a holiday weekend... :lol3

I have some ideas, but trying to figure out how to keep three BIG personalities on track when they don't really want to be there and I haven't been given a clear brief is going to be ... uh... interesting.

We'll be shooting indoors. I have my 7d, variety of lenses and 3x speedlights (finally bought a 3rd one). Any lighting/posing things I should know when working with 3?

This needs to be quirky/comic rather than family-style/wedding-y, and ALL ideas and tips are warmly welcomed!!!

Bryce Wilson

My thoughts for what they're worth...

Don't try to get overly elaborate with your lighting diagram. For a main, a single light, (octobox) overhead and pointing slightly down and just a bit to the left or right of camera axis will work well. Trying to get too elaborate with three subjects (side lighting etc) can give one subject or the other shadows if you're not careful.

Now, if you got lots of time, it's fun to play, but from your preamble it sounds like these gents just want to get it over with.

divamum

Great advice Bryce, and yes, you're right - they just the quickest in-and-out possible. However, it does need to be a bit more than just a static portrait, which is where it gets a touch challenging! That said, maybe I can set them up in a simple config, and then just get them to make daft faces or something ~thinks~ With speedlights, I think a HK setup is out of the question too (plus I'm not sure I'd have a background that would make that work)

I'm not sure my modifiers are big enough to go with one main - I have a 24x32" softbox, and a 45" softlighter; with those, I'm thinking I might need to go from both sides (or bank them behind me? Fortunately, one thing I will have is SPACE). And if I do go with one from above, do I use fill from below (either light or reflector) to avoid racoon eyes?

Bryce Wilson

My experience with large soft boxes is that if you have the middle point of the softbox at the top of the head or even slightly above, the wrap that it provides fills in the eye sockets rather well yet gives a bit of a shadow under the chin to hide any nasties in the neck line.

Two smallish softboxes stacked or side to side equals one big one!

divamum

Hmmm.... I wonder if I used the SB horizontally instead of vertically if that would catch all of them? (Just thinking out loud here). The light falloff would be steep, but we're interested in faces here, I think.

They may also have tophats as a prop/to wear, adding yet another complication.

This whole thing came out of left field this afternoon and I'm just trying to wrap my head round it all!

divamum

Anybody else? Thanks!

divamum

Done.

Things I learned this afternoon:

- getting there early to play with lights and location was a VERY VERY VERY good idea.
- I think I've finally learned how to kill ambient light and let the flashes do their work.
- Being short an umbrella mount really stinks (I KNOW I packed it.... but it wasn't there when I got there! :bash)
- An assistant to help position lights and check for issues (like one flash twisting off axis - sigh) would have made things hugely easier
- interesting people almost always make it easy to get interesting photographs one way or another.

Images later.