I have been asked to shoot portraits at an upcoming dance for a club I am in. I have the lights, and a backdrop holder. The only size seamless paper that I have is 53". Is this wide enough to shoot a couple, or should I get a 107" roll?

Comments about setup are also welcome. I will be shooting with a 5D and 24-107. Lights are 2 500 watt tungsten through umbrellas, one high on each side.

Thank you in advance

It will be okay for a couple close up but if the girl wants a full dress shot you'll be struggling. Also when I do this I get lots of groups of four that want a photo too. Go with the 107". Lighting setup should be fine, I usually bounce into the umbrella but to each his own. Don't put the umbrella's too high or you'll get too much of a gradient and shadows. Just enough to kill reflections of (most) glasses should be okay, typically about six feet up and 45 degrees either side of the camera works for me.

LIghting will look best if you use one light on either side (right or left) and the other on, or near, the camera axis for fill. The key light to the side should set the coverage and light direction you want for the appropriate look, closer the better. The fill light will need to be pulled back on (or near)the camera axis somewhere between 1.2X and 1.4X the distance of the key light to get a decent ratio. The closer the fill distance the flatter the look, the further the fill distance the stronger the look.

If you don't have room and you need to keep the light distances EQUAL, try shooting through the umbrella for the main (key) light and reflect for the fill. But either way keep the fill on camera axis or just next to you on the opposite side of the main.

Positioning of the main (key) light is not arbitrary. It should establish a natural, flattering quality and path of light. The fill should be subservient to the key and simply lift the shadows, not impart shadows of it's own.

Consider how your subjects will be posed and use a test subject to position the height and angle to give the most pleasing look before adding your fill. Then adjust fill forward or back to get the most pleasing fill ratio. Then bang them out and keep them moving cause you are going to roast like turkey by the time you're done with those hot lights.

With the lights set up, I would not hesitate to adjust my ISO on a 5D to get the exposure settings I needed to give me desired results. Noise from the 5D is much less of a concern than getting DOF and ambient right.

Be sure to check out Chuck Gardners tutorials for more in depth info on simple 2 light set ups and posing.

If you want to make life easy for yourself after the shoot, do a white balance to start. When I do these shooting galleries I nail exposures and output to JPEG only. The less time in post the better. Grip it and rip it!

Good luck

Carmen and camey,

Thanks for the help. I was planning on having the couples 90 degrees to each other, +/- 45 degrees to the camera. In this case equal lighting seemed to be the best trick. Is this generally the best pose? Would reflectors somewhere help?

I will be picking up a 107" seamless on Friday. Probably go light gray since the dresses will be various colors.

I have done a lot of single portraits, and a few couples, but was going for artistic rather than the commercial look. Having only a few minutes rather than hours is a lot different. Luckily it is a rather small group, and they will be full of wine! (The event is for the OC Wine Society.)

Key and fill techniques can be appropriate if you have enough control over the posing but I tend to agree with you that when shooting couples in particular you really want both lit the same no matter how they are standing. I'm not a big fan of lighting people from straight on anyway, especially if they've been dancing and are getting sweaty (read: more reflective).

I'm photographing over a hundred groups on a single night, so you really have to work fast. Posing the people is still very important as is establishing some sort of rapport with them (a lot of these people I see year after year). I tend to rely on my timing and hit the shutter the second I see them relaxed and in a nice pose, I definitely don't have time to do individual lighting setups for each couple.

Getting flattering light on faces pretty much distills down to getting good light in both eyes and avoiding a large, dark and distracting nose shadow. The former is relatively easy, the latter can be far more difficult especially when there are two faces in the photo with noses pointing in opposite directions.

Simply pointing two lights on either side from opposite directions might seem to be an ideal solution, but its not. Crossing lights causes the two lights to cancel each other creating muddled modeling with patchy highlights and unfilled low spots where neither light reaches (smile lines, corners of the mouth, base of the nose).

The solution to the problems created by crossed lights and sideways nose shadows is to: 1) place the key light where the shadows from both noses will not be seen, directly behind the nose, and; 2) overlap instead of crossing the two lights. It is a strategy commonly used in glamor shots to emphasize the eyes and mouth by making the nose in the middle less distracting known generically as "butterfly". It isn't flat lighting. The key light is raised over the camera high enough so it creates flattering downward modeling on the cheekbones while at the same time putting good light in the eyes and hiding the nose shadow beneath it. The trick to making it appear soft is to overlap the key light on top of even fill rather than having the two collide like a head-on car crash shortening each others shadow transitions in the same way the cars get shorter. But since you are using hot lights with shoot through umbrellas you should be able to manage nicely with a single umbrella over the camera, preferably with both lights blasting through it.

The centered butterfly lighting will flattering lighting on both faces of a couple or every face in a group shot. The advantages of that strategy in a production line situation are that the lighting is a no-brainer allowing you to concentrate on the poses and expressions, and the same lighting will work for couples and groups. You might not be planning on shooting groups, but wherever groups of people congregate sooner or latter someone will want a group shot and then everyone will want a group shot. Also keep in mind you are taking one or two shots of each couple, not 100 you can edit to pick the best one. All good reasons to be prepared with risk averse lighting strategy which can handle a wide range of situations. Will it be great lighting in every shot? No. But more importantly there won't be any unflattering lighting on any face in any shot which is far more important in that type of situation.

I'd suggest since you say don't have a great deal of experience shooting couples and have different ideas of what might work you round up a couple friends and try the different approaches and evaluate the results. For posing tips click the WWW button below and look for the tutorials on posing groups and the "feet up" posing method.

Also something to consider with your hot lights is where you can safely set up and whether the power outlets at the venue can accommodate 1000W of hot lights. Flash would be better both in terms of light output and logistics.

Chuck

I just got some "inexpensive" Britek PS-300 lights, but without experience in using them I was planning on using the hot lights. I realize these are not the best lights, but Chuck said flash would be better. I have the Sekonic L-358, and have done some strobe work in the studio at school, so I know some about setup and metering. They came with relective umbrella only, but I have the translucent umbrellas that came with the hot lights. They also have a barn door that could be used to light the backdrop with the third light.

I could spend some time on Friday night practicing. There will not be a lot of pictures shot on Saturday. It is a small group, and I doubt if all will want portraits. They are also friends, so it won't be a full "production line" type of evening.

I really appreciate all the help! I have been reading Chuck's tutorials, but practice is the key to understanding. This should provide an interesting learning experience.