Lighting an outdoor, full length dress shoot with speedlights

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My daughter is making a dress for her A level art project and she wants some high key photos of it for her portfolio. The dress will be mainly white and we have a white pebble beach nearby which she wants to use as a background but obviously we need to capture the details in the dress. Given the time constraints, weather, temperature, vagaries of teenage girls, etc. it is unlikely that we will be able to go at the best time of day for natural light so I am wondering what would be best in terms of light modifiers to go with flash guns. Inexplicably I have 4 flashes/triggers and a few stands but only the cheapest of cheap silver and white brollies which are nowhere near big enough for full length shots. The other factor is that this is not something I am likely to shoot very often, if at all again so I don’t want to spend a fortune on a full-length strip box or whatever. That said I can see me using something like a soft-box occasionally.

So, any ideas or suggestions for lighting an outdoor, full length dress shoot with speedlights? Am I just wasting my time with something like a soft-box for full-length shots? Also what’s the best position for a backlight for this type of thing?
 
I'd have thought one of the most essential tools for shooting a white dress in a high key environment would be a couple of tall black panels to place either side of the dress to make sure that the edges retain detail & stand out from the BG. As for lights, could you not just place them a little further away from the dress & balance against daylight?
 
I would start by using the natural light to backlight her, slightly to one side, and a large silver reflector, slightly to the same side but in front.

These are old ones (and actually have the reflector on the opposite side to the backlight) and I'm not saying they're the right way to do it but it might give you some idea what you might do:





A very large shoot through umbrella isn't terribly efficient but can be used to good effect outside, especially if you put more than one speedlight in it. Another old one - we also used a large diffusion panel to stop direct sun hitting her



All that said.. if you're going to let the sky blow anyway and you have white pebbles reflecting light everywhere then you may not need anything else:

Mary (Custom).jpg
 
Simons post above isspot on.

From your question though, I'm concerned that you require both 'high key' and detail in the dress.
 
Thanks all for taking to time to reply.

I'd have thought one of the most essential tools for shooting a white dress in a high key environment would be a couple of tall black panels to place either side of the dress to make sure that the edges retain detail & stand out from the BG. As for lights, could you not just place them a little further away from the dress & balance against daylight?

I understand what you are getting at but I wonder how much impact they would have? Also I didn't mention in the OP that it's a bit of a trek to the chosen location

I would start by using the natural light to backlight her, slightly to one side, and a large silver reflector, slightly to the same side but in front.

These are old ones (and actually have the reflector on the opposite side to the backlight) and I'm not saying they're the right way to do it but it might give you some idea what you might do:





A very large shoot through umbrella isn't terribly efficient but can be used to good effect outside, especially if you put more than one speedlight in it. Another old one - we also used a large diffusion panel to stop direct sun hitting her



All that said.. if you're going to let the sky blow anyway and you have white pebbles reflecting light everywhere then you may not need anything else:

View attachment 101592

Thanks Simon apart from a paler background those dress shots are pretty much spot on for what she wants I think. Time to buy a big reflector I think and hope for it not to be too cloudy.

Simons post above isspot on.

From your question though, I'm concerned that you require both 'high key' and detail in the dress.

I'm just the 'tog mate, the director knows what she wants ;). Seriously though I think we are going for high-ish key, bright, light, airy, a bit ethereal. Simon's shot with the flower and sun-flare above is probably the sort of thing
 
I'm just the 'tog mate, the director knows what she wants ;). Seriously though I think we are going for high-ish key, bright, light, airy, a bit ethereal. Simon's shot with the flower and sun-flare above is probably the sort of thing
Well that's intrinsically simple.

1. Choose your time of day based on the sun being low at your chosen location.

2. Point your camera at the backlit model

3. Add a reflector or extra light to taste (this will vary depending on your required background/ foreground contrast ratio)

4. Don't be afraid to get your light / reflector in close, if it gets into the shot...

5. Stay where you are, have the reflector / light removed and shoot a reference shot to make the PP removal simple.

The difficulty comes with waiting for the right weather for the light (it's not rare but you might need a bit of patience). Your biggest issue will be making all the other talent realise that they need to work round the light
 
If I was doing this to a professional professional standard then I would use the following equipment, as a minimum:
2 x 600Ws portable flash units, each fitted with a 2m x 27cm strip softbox, each fitted with a honeycomb, used as rimlights/backlights
2 x 600Ws portable flash units for frontal lighting, one fitted with a beauty dish and the other fitted with something like a 150cm octa softbox
1 x 600Ws portable flash unit, fitted with a standard reflector and a honeycomb, to bring out the detail in the dress
1 or more large reflectors.

But you haven't got that, and frankly what you have got is nowhere near adequate for lighting large softboxes, in fact these flashguns won't even light a shoot through umbrella, which is extremely wasteful of light, outdoors in bright sunlight.
And unless you have extremely powerful portable flash, the unique qualities produced by large softboxes are lost in bright light anyway, so my advice is to rely on natural light, some large reflectors and to use your speedlights without any modifiers fitted to them at all - at least, without any modifiers they should have just enough power do do SOMETHING.

With the resources available to you, careful planning, good composition, shooting with the ambient light in the right place (behind), a low shooting position and careful exposure of the dress detail are going to be the most important factors.
 
The difficulty comes with waiting for the right weather for the light (it's not rare but you might need a bit of patience). Your biggest issue will be making all the other talent realise that they need to work round the light
You've met her then? My big concern is that I suspect timescales will get quite tight and waiting for the best light might not be an option, hence why I was looking for options.

4. Don't be afraid to get your light / reflector in close, if it gets into the shot...

5. Stay where you are, have the reflector / light removed and shoot a reference shot to make the PP removal simple.
Thanks Phil, top tip, I wouldn't have thought of that.

at least, without any modifiers they should have just enough power do do SOMETHING.

With the resources available to you, careful planning, good composition, shooting with the ambient light in the right place (behind), a low shooting position and careful exposure of the dress detail are going to be the most important factors.
Thanks Garry, I bow to your experience but I have used these flashes outdoors in bright evening sunlight in the past and they do make a bit of a difference. The beach is fairly east-west so it should be possible to get the morning or evening light behind the model.
 
Well, from what you said earlier I assumed that you'd struggle to get the teenagers there early morning or late evening - although late evening may be possible if you tell them that they need to be there at dawn:)
But if you CAN manage to do the shoot at one extreme or the other then yes, it should work to some extent in a softbox. The point I was trying to make though is that unless you have plenty of power, the effect of modifiers in bright lighting conditions is far less than can be achieved in a studio setting.
 
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although late evening may be possible if you tell them that they need to be there at dawn:)
:D Evenings shouldn't be a problem. I do understand your point regarding power though and I'm going to have a play around and try out some of these suggestions, I've ordered a big reflector and I'll take it frome there. Thanks for taking the time.
 
:D Evenings shouldn't be a problem. I do understand your point regarding power though and I'm going to have a play around and try out some of these suggestions, I've ordered a big reflector and I'll take it frome there. Thanks for taking the time.

Just wondered how you got on?
 
Good detail on the material, do you think you will struggle to keep the detail in the highlights once you are outside? Or are you going to try to light your daughter with flash and ambient for background etc?
 
Good detail on the material, do you think you will struggle to keep the detail in the highlights once you are outside? Or are you going to try to light your daughter with flash and ambient for background etc?
Ideally ambient light behind and flash to light the dress but the given the vagaries of teenagers we will have to see. TBH the project seems to have gone off the boil a bit and it is now looking like the dress will be dyed a different colour...
 
Good detail on the material, do you think you will struggle to keep the detail in the highlights once you are outside? ....

That's the very issue I come up against! White dress and precious detail, I have managed it a few times more by luck than judgement.
 
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