Urgent request: Some questions about studio family portraits

[StormGirl_LP]

A community organization I work with is going to offer family portraits for free at an event tomorrow. They were going to use the available florecent lighting and the person doing the photography hasn't had much experience with photography.

So I offered to help. I have never shot studio portraits before.

I rented a 2 light travel kit (lights stands & umbrellas). As for setting up the camera & DOF, I'm having some last minute doubts. I'm using a Canon 40D w/ 50mm 2.5 Macro Lens.

1. How far from the backdrop should the family be seated?

2. If there are windows, where should I position the back drop for best use of the natural light flooding in?

3. What F stop is best? worried about faces out of focus.

4. DOH! I forgot to reserve a meter. Will the onboard center weighted meter, taken inches from the subject be best?

The back drop was painted by an art teacher and I have not seen it. It could be an interesting day. We are photographing 100 families with just one camera.

[jorgemonkey]

Sounds like its gonna be a fun day!

What type of lighting kit did you rent? Is it hot lights (lights stay on all the time) or are they studio strobes?

1. How far from the backdrop should the family be seated?
Depending on the size of your background and the size of the families I'd try for 2-4 feet. Get there early to get everything setup, then have a test subject stand on the set and see how close they can get before there are any shadows on the background.

2. If there are windows, where should I position the back drop for best use of the natural light flooding in?
Depending on the layout of the room and your lighting exposure you may not need any extra sunlight.

3. What F stop is best? worried about faces out of focus.

Last time I did some group/family stuff with a background I used 2 strobes and I was shooting at about f5.6-8 and I didn't have any problems with people being OOF.

4. DOH! I forgot to reserve a meter. Will the onboard center weighted meter, taken inches from the subject be best?
Use your camera in manual mode, take some test shots, and just check your histogram and you'll be find. I haven't used a lightmeter in a long while.

[StormGirl_LP]

I went with hot lights and umbrellas (not soft boxes). I've never worked with strobes, and I decided they'd take more practice than I had time to invest for this event.

I may not have a choice on avaible sunlight. This will be done in an elementary school classroom and they often don't have window covers. So I may need to arrange my lighting based on how many windows there are and where they are located. The positive is that it may act as a bonus 3rd light.

[freygr]

You should be using a lens with equivalent field of view between 75mm and 100mm in a 35mm film camera.

You what the back drop out of focus also.

[StormGirl_LP]

You should be using a lens with equivalent field of view between 75mm and 100mm in a 35mm film camera.

You what the back drop out of focus also.

Well there ya go. Since I'm using a Canon 40d (1.6 crop factor), so my 50mm lens has an 80mm effective focal length. Though I've been told that the 50mm macro is actually an excellent choice for portraits. I bought it for the purpose of doing macro work and for photographing the artwork of local painters.

[StormGirl_LP]

So I am setting up the lights this morning.

1. They setup the mural in the hallway. There was no way to turn off all of the overhead florescents. Okay, that will be interesting.
2. The lights are strobes, not the hotlights I ordered. I've worked with hotlights before...never strobes. I decide I can try to wing it.
3. I cannot find anyway to attach the umbrella to the lights. Goodness gracious! It isn't brain surgery! After about 20 minutes on the phone, we realize that the reflector mounts were not included in the kit.

A good turn. Calumet refunded me for the rental. On top of that they offered me a free class. Heeeey. I signed up for Intro to Lighting , so I could learn how to use these darned strobes. It appears they are now the sh**. 21st Century here I come!

[Franglais]

When using strobes you have to remember that the strobe lighting will probably overpower any room lighting. The camera will only meter the room lighting and won't tell you anything about the flash lighting. Here's what I suggest:

1. The only lights that count are your strobes. Set them up on each side with the camera in the middle so you get an even illumination of the subject
2. Set your camera to Manual exposure 1/125s f8 100 ISO light balance = flash or daylight
3. I guess you've figured out how you're going to set off the strobes? If not, use the camera's built-in flash at 1/8 power. With modern strobes this should set the strobes off automatically. Don't try to use automatic exposure with the camera flash - the chances are the built-in flash does a pre-flash to judge the exposure and this will set off the strobes. Result = no strobes on the picture (had it happen to me)
4. Do a test shot and look at the histogram. The chances are it will be way off. Adjust the power on the strobes and do more test shots until the histogram is correct. If the strobes are at minimum power and still too powerful then move them further away, or change the aperture to f11
5. If you're feeling really daring and confident then set one strobe to put out half a stop less light that the other, which will give you better modelling
6. Do the shoot. Don't change anything until the end