What would be best?

Aaron Wilson

I always shoot out doors but I have a client that want to shoot in a real nice hotel room.. low light setting as it will have a fire place. I figure a flash would over power it (i have a 580ex) but was thinking more of a larger flash. Would like 2 soft boxes be the best thinng to use as there always on and you can see how the light is effecting the photos with no flash over powering the shoot? She wants no trace of a flash light on her body to make it look all natural. I looked at some of the ailen bee lights.. would you recumend?

HiSPL

I recommend a tripod....

Icebear

Slow sync
Tripod

ziggy53

Is the fireplace the only source of ambient light you want to use?

If so, how much contribution from the fireplace do you want? (Is the fireplace part of the background or the principal light source?)

If you want the fireplace as part of the background then you need to balance and control the light you use on the subject. That means you need to actually measure the light from the fireplace, which can vary considerably from unit to unit.

If the fireplace is to be used as a source of light, remember that it is relatively low to the ground and so the direction of light may not be conducive to other than lying or sitting positions.

Is the room itself part of the shot or do you want a limited reveal of the environment?

At any rate, you need to actually either rent the room for the purpose of testing, or create a similar "set" somewhere to practice and test setups. Anything else will be pretty frustrating and time consuming.

The number of variables here are enormous, depending on the posing and room, so no one can give you very precise advice unless we know a lot more about the shot requirements and the room.

dangin

off camera directional lighting from a strobe with an warming gel set to 1.5 - 2 stops less for just a little bit of fill.

Aaron Wilson

thank you
The light needed would mostly be a fill light to keep me from having to go high in the ISO. The fire would be in the background and if able to just give the room a light glow feeling.

ziggy53

If you want an authentic "warmth" to the flames, you'll probably need to use manual WB and stay near daylight. Like Dan said, I think it would be best to use some filtration over some of the flash light to shift it closer to Tungston, but I'm not sure that all of your light should be filtered because you'll need some "normal" flash to keep skin tones within range.

If the flames are to be part of the background, then they need to be exposed as though they are a subject. I think you'll find that you also need some additional light for your person in the shot, appearing as though it's coming from the fire. That light should probably be filtered since you are just augmenting the light from the fire, so it should match color balance, at least a bit.

I think you will also need another fill light on the side of the person away from the flames and that light should probably be less filtered or possibly not filtered at all. The fill would probably need to be 2-3 stops under the fire-lit side, depending upon the effect you are after.

I would also suggest a hair light to provide some hair separation from the background, which will probably be fairly dark. Possibly a rim light would work instead.

Normally you don't include the light source in a shot, but the fireplace is definitely a light source, just probably not enough alone for a human subject.

Is this making sense?

As an example, here is a shot of a natural wood fire (at a Boy Scout outing, nothing special).

ISO 1600, F2.8, 1/4000th, WB 5400K



Adjusting for ISO 100 it would be an exposure of 1/250th at f2.8. A gas fired fireplace might be more or less exposure, but you could use this as a starting point.

I think that the color and basic exposure for the flames are fairly close or maybe a half stop over. It all depends on the effect you're after.

Note that even though the sky still has a little light left, the people are very underexposed. Of course a fireplace would allow a closer proximity, but you still may not get enough light for a proper exposure of your human subject.

Good luck!