Beginner Lighting help

[saul01]

Hi All,

I've been asked to shoot a friend's family event in a local community hall. The hall is quite dated, no windows and has a very high quite dark ceiling.

I don't think the bounce off ceiling idea will work. Would I be better off using a shoot through umbrella directly pointing at the stage or bouncing off a make shift white background from behind me?

I only have the one speedlite and am restricted on where/how to place. My kit consists of Sony A7mkII, Tamron 28-75 f2. 8 and a Godox TT685S and the X1 trigger.

Thank you in advance.

 

[J Veitch]

What are the walls like? Can you get in before to test your options out?

 

[saul01]

What are the walls like? Can you get in before to test your options out?

Tbh the hall could do with some TLC. Either they are cream or dirty white. Where the stage I presume it's too far away to bounce off the wall approx 2-3 meters either side.

I was thinking of mounting the flash onto a stand next to me and either shooting through an umbrella or using a white card to bounce the light back.

 

[Bobsyeruncle]

Do you have a reflective brolly rather than a shoot through?
Might spread the light more.

 

[saul01]

Do you have a reflective brolly rather than a shoot through?
Might spread the light more.

Just looked through all my bits and bobs. I have a reflective brolly (silver) and also a Godox 30cm X 30cm softbox.

 

[Scooter]

You mentioned a stage - what is it you're taking pictures of?

 

[saul01]

You mentioned a stage - what is it you're taking pictures of?

Just family pics/portraits nothing fancy. It has an elevated stage area, quite an old community centre

 

[swanseamale47]

Are you shooting up off the floor or can you get level with the stage? I personally wouldn't want to be shooting at an up angle.
For small groups the light you have will probably work if you can place it where you need, it, if it's a stage full you might struggle.

 

[saul01]

Are you shooting up off the floor or can you get level with the stage? I personally wouldn't want to be shooting at an up angle.
For small groups the light you have will probably work if you can place it where you need, it, if it's a stage full you might struggle.

I'll have the camera mounted onto my tripod to level up the height difference and I'll probably be using a small steps tool or something. It's about 2ft high.

 

[Deleted member 34016]

could you not shoot the family OUTSIDE?

Les

 

[Scooter]

Just family pics/portraits nothing fancy. It has an elevated stage area, quite an old community centre

Oh ok, well if it's just the people in the room - not something on the stage, just use bounce flash in TTL - point the flash backwards and upwards and off to one side (ie point it roughly towards where you'd like the light to be *coming from*). You'll be surprised at just how far you can bounce it - and yes it will pick up colours from the surroundings but it's not the end of the world. Look out for white shirts as well and make use of them as bounce targets. If the walls are really far away, zoom the flash head in all the way.

Flash in TTL, camera in manual, lens wide open at about 1/80th with auto-ISO (so an auto-exposure really). Or use aperture priority wide open, with auto-ISO. Adjust flash exposure comp to suit. You may need something to flag off the light from hitting your subject directly - I use a piece of back foam and a rubber band.

Some articles from the king of bounce = Neil van Niekerk - be sure to check out the related stuff at the end of each article.

https://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/bouncing-flash/
https://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/bounce-flash-examples/
https://neilvn.com/tangents/tutorial-bounce-flash-photography/

 

[saul01]

Oh ok, well if it's just the people in the room - not something on the stage, just use bounce flash in TTL - point the flash backwards and upwards and off to one side (ie point it roughly towards where you'd like the light to be *coming from*). You'll be surprised at just how far you can bounce it - and yes it will pick up colours from the surroundings but it's not the end of the world. Look out for white shirts as well and make use of them as bounce targets. If the walls are really far away, zoom the flash head in all the way.

Flash in TTL, camera in manual, lens wide open at about 1/80th with auto-ISO (so an auto-exposure really). Or use aperture priority wide open, with auto-ISO. Adjust flash exposure comp to suit. You may need something to flag off the light from hitting your subject directly - I use a piece of back foam and a rubber band.

Some articles from the king of bounce = Neil van Niekerk - be sure to check out the related stuff at the end of each article.

https://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/bouncing-flash/
https://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/bounce-flash-examples/
https://neilvn.com/tangents/tutorial-bounce-flash-photography/

Thank you for the advise, will read through the links. Just a quick question, is it not good to use the flash off camera via a softbox/shoot through umbrella next to me pointing directly at the stage? I'll probably be shooting aperture priorty around f8 and have the iso on auto.

 

[Scooter]

Thank you for the advise, will read through the links. Just a quick question, is it not good to use the flash off camera via a softbox/shoot through umbrella next to me pointing directly at the stage? I'll probably be shooting aperture priority around f8 and have the iso on auto.

Erm - so you are photographing something on a stage, at an event? What is it you are taking pictures of ? If it is just portraits or 2-3 people in close - then either will be fine. I use one flash in a white shoot through all the time for "environmental head-shots" ie head-shots with some sort of environment in them rather than a plain wall. Put the flash with the brolly off to one side around 45 degrees on to the subject, and angled down a bit, with the centre of the brolly just above their eye-line, so most of the light comes from above. Get it as close as possible. You can do this to add a bit of direction to the ambient for groups as well, but don't expect it to act as the sole light source.

Couple of examples here at f/1.8 ISO 64 and 1/60th in this well lit office. This is one TTL speed-light in a white shoot-through brolly off to the left and just out of shot (you can see it in the eyes). I definitely had a reflector down below in the 2nd shot, and maybe in the top one too - I just can't see it in the eyes. If you want f/8, then this is roughly 4 stops so you'd be on ISO 1600 or thereabouts in the same light. For larger areas - say a larger group of people on a stage, I'd go with the bounce off the ceiling above and slightly behind you. It'll give you a larger light source, that's further away. You need plenty of the ambient in there though, and if you really do need f/8, the Iso will be high.

 

[Phil V]

I'll probably be shooting aperture priorty around f8 and have the iso on auto.

Don’t do this^
Shoot M and set a reasonably high ISO (800)
You know what aperture you want.
You know what a comfortable shutter speed is
You know that a higher ISO means you can get a bit of extra power out of your flash.

So there’s no help you need from auto settings which just might guess your intentions incorrectly.

ETTL flash otoh will possibly guess a correct flash exposure, so having nailed down the M settings for the ambient you can leave the flash to auto expose.