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Archive 2014 · A family member's Bat Mitzvah (reception) question

  
 
Eric Gottesman
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · A family member's Bat Mitzvah (reception) question


Sorry it's not a wedding, but I think the question can be answered the same.

I'm doing my niece's Bat Mitzvah and I already secured my friend to be an assistant. Here's the list of available pertinent equipment before my actual query.

Me: 6D, Sig 24-60 2.8, 70-200 2.8, 85 1.8, and most importantly, 430 EXII and 600 EX-RT

Him: 7D, Tamron 10-24, 85 1.8, Sig 50 1.4, 70-200 2.8 and most importantly, no flash.

I don't have much flash experience, but I will practicing from now until May when the event is. My question, is how do you recommend dispersing the lighting duties between us? I initially think that me using both flashes (600 on camera and 430 slave) would give at least one shooter the best lighting scenario for the reception/party afterwards. I'd have his gear as backup or even use the second body with a different lens so I'm not switching back and forth. I'm not as concerned with having a second person shooting the event as I am the lighting situation. Correct me if I'm wrong here. I mentioned the gear if any of you have more creative ideas than I do. I thought that if lighting is poor, I would ask him to hold the 430 on a pole as I shoot walking around the party. If that's the right idea, do I just set it full bounce on the ceiling?

Also, I have 3 sets of rechargeables (all relatively new). I guess it's prudent to use an auxiliary battery pack for the 600 and keep the 3 sets rotating in the 430 (two chargers) and have some alks for emergency use. I'll probably get a couple more sets of rechargeables since at least I can use them for other things outside of photography. I don't plan on doing this more than the occasional favor (I know you hear that a lot) so I don't want to go too crazy on the battery pack. Any recommendations? Would the Bolt CBP-C1 or Canon CP-E4 be sufficient for a few hours to boost the 600?

The reception room is obviously going to be low lit (cave), and the ceiling is rather low so bounce will have a good effect. I do have 2.8 and better speed and great 6D ISO in my favor. Since the lighting will be fairly constant I thought shooting with both flashes on manual and using an A/B group with separate settings might work. I started getting in the 600 settings and played with the manual settings for master and slave. I can't believe what these things can do! Oh, if ETTL is recommended instead, please let me know.

Thank you for your time reading this and any helpful suggestions you have!



Feb 19, 2014 at 12:06 PM
JandALight
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · A family member's Bat Mitzvah (reception) question


I'd see if you could get him to be the dude on the light stick full time. It's not an entirely thoughtful job anyhow, it takes skill to place the light to give good rim/hair lights. I'm fairly certain you'll have better results if one of you shoots white the other one lights.

What you describe is basically how I work events/receptions with my wife or other assistant. I use yongnuo 622C's, and either Manual or TTL (1:2, on camera bounce:off camera rim) to control the lights situationally. I covered a lot of this in this thread in the people photography forum:

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1271845/0

in a small hotel ballroom: http://www.jandalight.com/marylous-birthday/

You can get a lot of different looks depending not the situation. The guy on the stick can act as just rim/hair light while you bounce the key, or turn off the bounce in the same situation and short light your subject, or come around and be a very directional key light with a lot of contrast to broad light. It's nothing earth shattering, but the fact that you can basically run and gun with dramatic, soap-opera-y hair lights is fun for awhile. :-)

Hope this isn't too late to help.

-Joseph



Feb 24, 2014 at 04:18 PM
ryansandsphoto
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · A family member's Bat Mitzvah (reception) question


I shoot about 20-25 mitzvahs per year and I can tell you depending upon how big the party is and how many kids there will be you don't want to overcomplicate things. Use your Canon 6D with your Sigma 24-60 (although if I were you I'd rent a Canon 24-70) and use your Canon 600ex-rt on camera and bounce your flash all night long. Honestly you won't need to change your lighting the entire night and you can do a fantastic job this way. Use your 7D with your Canon 70-200 to grab reactions during the candle lighting ceremony and any speeches and you should be fine. Don't try to screw around with off camera flash on a monopod if your not used to it.


Feb 28, 2014 at 07:38 AM
scottam10
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · A family member's Bat Mitzvah (reception) question


Have a few practice runs before the event and see if you can get good results with the light-on-a-stick setup; if not I wouldn't bother with it.
My preference would be one flash on each camera and just bounce it, you can get good results that way and both of you can shoot at the same time



Mar 03, 2014 at 04:43 PM





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