 William R. Box |
Portrait of High School Orchestra I have been asked to take a portrait of a high school orchestra that has 60-70 members. The orchestra will be on a stage with a black background. I plan to use two AB 800 strobes, placed high and about 1/3 from each end and pointed towards the back of the opposite side. I plan to use 64" soft silver parabolic umbrellas. Alternative is to use the reflectors with no modification. The strobes will be 10-20 feet from the first row. I can also use my Nikon 700 speedlight to fill in the center area, if needed. I plan to shoot from a ladder with Nikon D700 with a 24-85 zoom, using shutter speed 160 or greater, adjusting f-stop and ISO to give good DOF. I will need to check White Balance with the stage lights and the strobes. I might be able to turn down the stage lights just before I shoot. I will ask for an opportunity to test out lighting prior to the event. My concerns are: if the strobes will give adequate light, shadows in the orchestra and on the background, best position for the strobes, do I need light on the background, etc. I will appreciate any suggestions and comments. Thanks - Bill
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Bill, Interesting question! If your umbrellas are truly parabolic, do NOT use them. A parabolic umbrella is designed to throw a big spot, which would be very bad for lighting a large group. I did a test on my silver parabolic umbrella and it really does throw a spot. You might test yours by shooting against a large white wall. A 45-inch standard silver umbrella might work well for you, and you can get them cheaply. Next, have you successfully synced your Nikon Speedlight with the Alien Bees in the past? If not, you may find that this is difficult to do. Just the reflectors on the Alien Bees will probably work pretty well. I would use the stage lighting with the Bees. Change your shutter speed until you find one long enough to allow the tungsten stage lighting to fill the shadows and warm up the shot just a little; I would guess around a 15th to a 30th, rather than the faster speed you mentioned. Shoot in RAW, then you can adjust for a pleasing color balance when you convert to JPG. Good Luck! John Siskin
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Consider doing composites of smaller groups of people. Or if lighting the entire area poses too much of a problem, you can light smaller sections and move the lights light other sections. Then put them together. A lot of photos of large areas are done that way.
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William R. Box |
Hi John and Gregory - Thanks for your responses. Paul Buff company make standard umbrellas in a white or silver. Would you recommend a shoot through or bounce or will it make much of a difference? If I use the reflectors would you recommend the standard or a wide angle reflector. I had not thought about the falloff of the light using the parabolic umbrellas and what I am wanting is uniform lighting over the whole group. I have been able to sync the speedlight but I find I have to test fire it if there is to much time between shots. I'm hoping I will not need to use the speedlight and the strobes will provide enough light. I would like to shoot at a faster shutter speed to eliminate blur due to either me moving since I am going to be on a ladder or the kids moving. I always shoot in RAW to give me flexibility in post processing. Unfortunately, I'm not very skilled at stitching photos together so I am hoping to get everyone in one shot. Eventually I am going to have to take a photoshop course. Thanks again and any responses will be appreciated. Bill
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Bill, I’ve spoken with Paul Buff on a couple of occasions. Great guy and a great company. More to the point: good products. I often recommend them in my classes here at BetterPhoto. Anyway, you can get umbrellas from Paul’s company, or a lot of other companies, umbrellas are almost always interchangeable. For this situation I would get a silver umbrella, as it will put more of the light on the subject. I really think shooting through an umbrella is a BAD idea, as it reduces your control over the light. With a silver umbrella you can only bounce light off the umbrella anyway. I would use the regular reflectors, if you can back them up far enough to give you even light over the orchestra. Keep in mind your Alien Bee’s are only making light for 1/1100th of a second at full power, so the strobes will stop the movement. If the shutter is open a little longer to get ambient light this won’t create much blur because it is only a little part of the image. In addition I think you be using a normal or wide-angle lens, so problems with blur should be minimal. Still, I would try to hold still.
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William R. Box |
Hi John - Thanks for the information and comments. Paul Buff has a reversible white/silver standard umbrella that I will purchase for this project. I may also purchase the wide angle reflector to reduce spill and put all the light into the umbrella. I am fairly new to using strobes and forget that the strobe lights the subject (stops movement as you said) and the shutter can be adjusted for the background. I plan on taking your course on Portrait Photography Lighting - I have some experience with studio and on location portrait work. However, would you recommend starting with you introductory course then followup with the Portrait Lighting course? I also plan to take Ibarionex Perello's courses on portrait photography. Thanks again for your feedback and comments. Bill
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John H. Siskin |
Hi Bill, I’m sure the white/silver umbrella will be useful. Any umbrella that doesn’t let light through can be more useful than a shoot through. When you have light coming out the front and back of a light source you lose a lot of control. I don’t know why you need the wide-angle reflector, as it will give you more spill light rather than less. I certainly like it when people start with the introductory course. I try to explain why lighting tools work in certain ways and how to use them. I also go over what gear will work for your particular purposes. The portrait class assumes you know at least some of this stuff. The intro class will help you to light anything, which is a good goal. I’m sure you’d enjoy Ibarionex’s class as well. He is a great teacher!
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William R. Box |
Thanks John for your input and comments. Bill
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Bruce A. Dart |
Hi Bill, John is right about the umbrellas as well as the Paul Buff Co. With a large group (and I have done as many as 150 on a stage similarly) it is infinitely easier to take advantage of the ambient light and use your umbrellas to fill shadows and balance color. Stage lighting is often uneven so you can't depend on that entirely. That number is very doable. And when buying equipment you have to consider other uses as well and not just one time. Shooting from a ladder gives a nice angle but unless it is essential to even get the shot, I would prefer the tripod to steady the camera for slower shutter speeds. Black curtains can be tough as they absorb lots of light and if the member on stage are dressed in black, as they often are, that presents another problem. If you can shoot and process raw files that will be a big help. Good luck.
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William R. Box |
Hi Bruce - Thanks for your input. The stage is elevated and to get the faces of the back rows I need to be up high- the orchestra does not use risers so they are all on the same level. I always shoot in RAW to give myself flexibility in processing the images. I try to be judicious in purchasing equipment (which my wife greatly appreciates) Thanks again for your comments - Bill
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