Lighting Advice

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computerbarry

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Hi all

I have a shoot next work for a lap dancing club, they need images of the girls and I was hoping to create some striking and seductive imagery. I have one hired bowens 500 and was wondering what would be the best to use with this, softbox or umbrella?

Also I have a sb800, what will the benefits be on using the bowens over my sb800 or should I use both? and what about ambient light?

Any advice would be great :)
 
In something the size of a lap dancing club (my guess, never been in one of course);) I don't think it will make any difference whether you use a softbox or an umbrella, unless the softbox is truly massive.

The advantage of your Bowens is power, pure and simple.

The SB800 will be useful for backlighting, to create an edge, or to create sidelighting, if it can produce enough power.

If you don't want to capture the ambient light just set the shutter to a fast speed, say 1/125th. If you do want to capture it, set the shutter speed to something like 1/15th - you'll need to experiment.
 
I'm not expert on lighting at all, in fact I've only done a couple of studio shoots where th lighting was all set up for me. If you want much better advice then Garry Edwards is the man to speak to on here.
EDIT: Speak of the devil!! Here's me suggesting Garry's the expert and he's there beating me to the post....... with much better advice of course.

If you are shooting the girls in action then I'd assume you'll need at least 2 lights, maybe even 3 to ensure they are evenly lit. I'd assume a softbox would give a more even light and possibly give better skin tones.

If you need any help with the shoot just give me a shout. I'd be more than happy to make sure the lap dancers look nice for you.
 
Thanks Garry, I've been in already quite a small venue low ceilings, very dark with a few blue and red ambient lights spread about to create that sex mood(if you get what I mean).

I'm going to need full length, close up head shots and a few group shots of about 6, I just want the images to be knock out, I need some high key obliviously, but I was hoping to create some low key really seductive, maybe with some sort of blue cast on them and maybe just light half the body and leave the other half in black, get the brain thinking.

I will need a series of shots so high key, low key etc, so do you think the big soft box will take care of all these needs and just reduce the power and angle for the low key?

Thanks again :)
 
Barry,

Can you define what you mean by high key/low key?
 
How long have you hired the Bowens light for and do you have a readily available back up (apart from the sb-800) should it die on you?
 
Can you define what you mean by high key/low key?
Click to expand...
High Key = full clear exposure of the subject, everything lit evenly
Low Key = just certain parts of the subject, example just showing half the face
If that makes sense, thanks

How long have you hired the Bowens light
Click to expand...
Just for the day, they have closed the club as well for a few hours

and thanks for the input rob :)
 
I think I'd be wanting a bit of time beforehand to make sure I knew exactly what I could expect from the equipment, not meaning to sound harsh, but turning up with "new" kit and learning how to use it in front of a client is a recipe for disaster....
 
Thanks FITP I've used lighting before, studio work etc, just been a while. Just want some more professional advice to be sure, plus I know all the girls anyway so everything would turn into a joke, no pressure i mean, I've shot in their before with my sb800 thanks.
 
I agree, hoping that it all works and that you get results right out of the box is ... optimistic. I would certainly want to have a good practice first, and more than 1 flash head.

For evenly lit shots (which doesn't have anything to do with high key which is why I asked) just use a softbox or similar directly above the camera with a reflective board laid on the floor out of shot bounce up 'spare' light.
There are other ways of doing it but that's a good starting point.
If the light is close to the subject it will be softer than if it's further away, if it's close the light will fall off rapidly and objects in the background will be much darker. Move the light further back to reverse this effect.

I wouldn't have thought that anyone looks at faces in lap dancing clubs but the principle's the same whatever you light..
Generally you would use a softbox or umbrella for soft fill and use a separate head with much more power to get the effect you want, but with just one studio flash and a hotshoe flash you may have to use your sb800 for fill. Get something like a 10 deg honeycomb, fit it to the standard reflector of your Bowens and use that in whatever position is needed to produce the lighting effects you want. Inevitably, in some shots the flash head will be pointing almost towards the camera, so the honeycomb will be needed to control flare as well as to reduce the circle of the light.
To get coloured effects, simply stick coloured gels over the light. Look on Ebay for 'Lee lighting filters' For the type of shots I think you have in mind you'll need vibrant primary colours, not the subtle colour correction gels.
 
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