lighting tips for party tomorrow night?

[gregneil]

Hi y'all! I'm going to be shooting a party tomorrow night, and would love some tips on lighting for this scenario... I've got some off-camera flashes, stands, and pocket wizards, but I'm not sure the best way to utilize them for an event like this. I'm sure I'll do a little trial-and-error setup when I get there, but I'd love some ideas on a good starting point so I don't waste too much time...

It's a small room with a white ceiling, probably about 9 feet. The surrounding walls are light green. Here's a picture from the summer party, which was shot by a friend of mine: (Summer party was "pirates". The winter party is black tie.)

http://brownmouse.smugmug.com/photos/187450546-M.jpg

Anyway, I'm wondering if in a room this small it makes sense to try to set up off-camera flash bouncing off the ceiling, or should I just stick to my better bounce card off the ceiling? I'm assuming with the green wall on one end and the windows on the other, I won't have much luck bouncing off a wall most of the time. (although I could occasionally bounce off that white screen, I suppose...)

All I know is most of the pictures from the summer party were from this room - maybe the winter party will be totally different, I don't know, but I'd like to be as prepared as possible going in!

Thanks for any ideas y'all might have!

[Mr. 2H2O]

Greg,
I have a similar delimma for Saturday. Here's my plan:

1. Set up remote flash on a stand toward a corner and trigger with remote.
2. On camera flash at 2 stops lower.
3. Shoot to get cross lighting.
4. Adjust as necessary.

I have a black inifinity ceiling so no bouncy for me - I use my DIY better bounce reflector with the hood over top on the remote flash on the stand and just use direct for my flash mounted on the camera (actually on my flash bracket). I am assuming I can get some interesting lighting and if I want more punch into the lens, I can jack up the flash attached to the camera.

- Mike

[gregneil]

Thanks for the suggestion, Mike! That sounds pretty similar to what I'll probably try. I'll probably point one flash in a corner towards the ceiling, and have one on camera that I'll point straight up with a better bounce card on it, using FEC to adjust the balance of the lights. Who knows, maybe I'll throw two lights in the room in separate corners!

I think I'm going to gel the lights with 1/4 or 1/2 CTO to try and get a more natural white balance, assuming those overhead lights are tungsten...

I'll post some pics after the event and let you know how it went, and what I came up with.

[SloYerRoll]

One thing you'll want to consider is making sure you completly overpower the existing light. This way you won't have images of your friends partially lit w/ incandescent bulbs and you'll have mixed light temps.

Shooting in a room that small is a nightmare though. If I was shooting it. I'd set up strobes in opposing corners that shoot into white brollys pointed towards the center of the room. It looks like the side of the room that this shot was taken from since the other side has too much gear. So I'd set this strobe on the same side as you higher than the other strobe.

The reason I don't say ceiling bounce is your light gets spread to far and you'll get color off the walls when the light bounces off it. Shooting into brollys will help minimize this.

Like you said though. You're going to need to go in there and play around before hand. Make sure you check for lens flare as well. Don't want to have a bunch of great shots destroyed by that.

Another thing to consider is using fast glass. This will help you narrow down your DOF so you don't have all the background clutter showing up in your shots. This will also help you keep the power of your strobes down so you cycle times will stay higher.