I have been asked to photograph a charity event, including photos of the attendees in front of a backdrop and candid shots. I am comfortable with the candid shots but I'm not sure about the lighting needed to do the portraits in front of the backdrop. Does anyone have experience doing this? This is an example of what they had done last year:
I have about 2 months until the event, so plenty of time to research and buy/rent the right equipment if I need to. Thanks for any input! :)
Pull them away from the background, they are too close to it here. If you can pull them away, the shiny part won't be so obvious. I would have them be at least 4-6 feet away from it.
Can you visit this place before shooting and see where this backdrop will be standing? You need to know what lighting is around or above them.
You could do it with one light and one large reflector. Or you could get two lights, one to be the keylight (although the backdrop is shiny and that might not work so well) and light up the background and one light at a 45 degree angle to them (with a softbox) and a reflector to bounce it of of on the other side to get some nice directional light going so it's not flat lighting.
OR if you have an external flash you could simply bounce it off of a reflector. But honestly it just depends on the lighting and surroundings where these pictures will happen.
Based upon the picture above, I'm thinking you could likely get away with a speedlite if you have something to bounce it off of, like a wall or seam of a ceiling and wall.
http://strobist.blogspot.com/
You also follow Brendan Maunder @agima Why not ask him, being the lighting guru he is. I'm just delving into this myself, been concentrating on macro lighting but am picking up bits and pieces of kit to explore more options. I'll be interested in seeing the responses you get. Congrats on the gig!
can you point out the challenge in using that backdrop and ask if they can get one that is less likely to reflect light? bet they want those photos to look good and for people to want to put them on display ;p
got access to lights and a couple of soft boxes for the photos in front of the back drop, might help give you good light without the shiny factor...also if it's only you you won't need to muck about with reflectors ;-)
I was asked to photograph an event similar to this -- but I didn't accept the shoot -- my camera is not made for indoor shooting without the correct lighting. I was afraid they wouldn't end up with the shots they wanted. Congratulations to you for being able to accept this job --maybe someday I will be confident enough to do that. Lucky you.
I must say that who ever picked a shiny background for this type of thing should be flogged... What were they thinking.... Shish.
How many of these photos do you need to take?
Is this going to be set up like a red carpet or more like a photo booth/studio shot? What I mean by that is can you put whatever lights you want where you want?
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Can you visit this place before shooting and see where this backdrop will be standing? You need to know what lighting is around or above them.
You could do it with one light and one large reflector. Or you could get two lights, one to be the keylight (although the backdrop is shiny and that might not work so well) and light up the background and one light at a 45 degree angle to them (with a softbox) and a reflector to bounce it of of on the other side to get some nice directional light going so it's not flat lighting.
OR if you have an external flash you could simply bounce it off of a reflector. But honestly it just depends on the lighting and surroundings where these pictures will happen.
Based upon the picture above, I'm thinking you could likely get away with a speedlite if you have something to bounce it off of, like a wall or seam of a ceiling and wall.
You also follow Brendan Maunder @agima Why not ask him, being the lighting guru he is. I'm just delving into this myself, been concentrating on macro lighting but am picking up bits and pieces of kit to explore more options. I'll be interested in seeing the responses you get. Congrats on the gig!
congrats on landing the gig!
How many of these photos do you need to take?
Is this going to be set up like a red carpet or more like a photo booth/studio shot? What I mean by that is can you put whatever lights you want where you want?