First gig with a good light

Nikolai · May 30, 2005

As you guys probably remember, a couple weeks ago I bugged the forum for an advice about the lighting gear, setup, etc. I got an amazing number of resonses - and so, I ordered some lights and stands and last Saturday I drove to a friendly sity of Diamond Bar, CA.

Place was pretty tight and dark, and with zero experience it took me almost an hour to set my gear up. Since I could not find a vacant corner or any other "low-traffic" area, and I knew from the previous trips (I did shoot wedding and birthday for this family as a friend) that there will be tons of kids running around at a full speed, I dropped the idea of having loop or rembrandt ligthing and set it up for the butterfly. This allowed me to set both tripod and the main lightstand together, so it was easier for me to "guard" it. Besides, I used "local resources" and surrounded the whole thing with chairs, thus creating visual obstacle and preventing tripping:

The party lasted from 7 pm until after midnight. At first almost nobody approached me except for the primary family members, but later some words were spread, some PA annoncements made, and after 10 pm I was shooting almost non-stop.

I took 200+ shots, almost 200 were technically acceptable. About 70 required no PP at all, about 70 required very minor touchups, mostly due to the fact they were trying to get 5-6 people into the "group shot", and my 8'x16' backrop was not wide enough, so some border areas had to be "painted" with the backdrop pattern.

Since I opted for the battery powered setup with radio triggers I was able to move my light quickly between "portrait area" and the main stage, where I managed to score several nice shots, like this one:

However, my main goal was to obtain studio-quality portraits in the field environment. Here are few samples which I think came out nice:

On this one I decided to try a side light:

Well, just wanted to thank everybody who helped me to choose the light - and I hope you don't mind me sharing.

Questions, comments and critiques are welcome!

Cheers!:1drink

lynnesite · May 30, 2005

Shots look great, Nik, good thing you had pro lighting, the rest of the room's looks awful!

Nikolai · May 30, 2005

Thanks, Lynn!

lynnesite wrote:

Shots look great, Nik, good thing you had pro lighting, the rest of the room's looks awful!

You don't say.. I was trying to take decent pictures in the restaurants for years, and nothing helped (Sony cameras are not good in low-light). Lighting turned out to be the missing element..

Cheers!

Shay Stephens · May 30, 2005

Great Job Nik
Awesome! Gives your camera a new breath of life huh? Amazing how lighting can add so much quality to a photo. And the singing photo looks great. Well done for your first mobile studio.

So are you excited about more work like this? What would you have done differently (if anything)?

Your setup time will go quicker the more you do this too, so don't worry about that.

Nikolai · May 30, 2005

Thank YOU, Shay!

Shay Stephens wrote:

Awesome! Gives your camera a new breath of life huh? Amazing how lighting can add so much quality to a photo. And the singing photo looks great. Well done for your first mobile studio.

Thanks! It was realtively easy. The only difference (as I quickly found out) is that for the "portraits" I had to use 1/64 power flash, f/3.5, 1/125sec and ISO 64, while for the stage (5 - 6 meters) I had to go full power, f/2.2, 1/60 (to get all possible ambient light) and ISO 100.

Poketwizard worked great!

Shay Stephens wrote:

So are you excited about more work like this? What would you have done differently (if anything)?

I definitely am! I hope this gig actually gave me much needed exposure, so hopefully will be others:-)

Things I'd have done differently.. Great question, I should've asked it myself...:-)

Well, to start with, I definitely need a better background support. One 10' light stand simply can't hold this load. I actually had to extended it all the way to the ceiling and kinda put some pressure on it simply to avoid it falling at the most inconvenient moment.

Batterfly light was perfect for this crowd, I think.

I need to be more aggressive with telling my subjects what pose to assume. (I was kinda shy in the beginning, and it was really interesting when I finally gain enough self-confidence and actually started telling them what to do:-)

For the stage environment one light is barely enough... Need more light and/or higher ISO ( = better camera)

And another thing - I DO need a light meter.. I spent about 20 minutes doing test shots.. Not sure if I always have that luxury... Oh well, maybe this gig will pay back some..:-)

Shay Stephens wrote:

Your setup time will go quicker the more you do this too, so don't worry about that.

I figured that much:-) With the proper backdrop rack I think it will take like 20 min top.

Thanks again!

Cheers!

wxwax · May 30, 2005

Very nice, Nikolai.

That looks like a lot of fun. I'm learning a bit about this with Patch's help.

david_h · May 30, 2005

Hey Nikolai, as a beginner to event photogrphy myself I think you have done a very nice nice job especially looking at how little space you had to work with.

I like your picture of the singer best, the lighting is super. For the portraits, you are hampered by not having much distance between the subject and background.

Studio type lighting is a mystery that I'm slowly unraveling. I've learned a lot from the Lighting Techniques forum over at dpreview. If you haven't been there already, check out some of the posts from Rodney Blair and Chuck Gardner.

Oh, for background supports, look at places like Amvona.com. I've bought some low cost but robust stands and supports from them that work pretty well.

jwear · May 30, 2005

They look good Nik

good job I would like to help but

if the lights on the car go out or if the wiring is bad in the house call

pic's look good

and next time with out the worry it will be fun

bfjr · May 30, 2005

Excellent work

Would have no problem hiring you to shoot my next wedding, if there ever was going to be one, NOT

Nikolai · May 30, 2005

Thanks, Sid!

wxwax wrote:

Very nice, Nikolai. That looks like a lot of fun. I'm learning a bit about this with Patch's help.

It was fun, too. Lot of work, but also fun.

Nikolai · May 30, 2005

David, thank you!

david_h wrote:

Hey Nikolai, as a beginner to event photogrphy myself I think you have done a very nice nice job especially looking at how little space you had to work with.

Yes, unfortunately, this is true. I was hardly pressed for space...

david_h wrote:

I like your picture of the singer best, the lighting is super. For the portraits, you are hampered by not having much distance between the subject and background.

Yep.. Hope it does not prevent me from being paid:-)

david_h wrote:

Studio type lighting is a mystery that I'm slowly unraveling. I've learned a lot from the Lighting Techniques forum over at dpreview. If you haven't been there already, check out some of the posts from Rodney Blair and Chuck Gardner.

Thanks, I did and I will more.
However, you'd probably agree that at some point you simply have to stop reading and start shooting..

david_h wrote:

Oh, for background supports, look at places like Amvona.com. I've bought some low cost but robust stands and supports from them that work pretty well.

Thanks, man, I will check it out!

Cheers!

Nikolai · May 30, 2005

Thanks Jeff!

jwear wrote:

They look good Nik good job I would like to help but if the lights on the car go out or if the wiring is bad in the house call pic's look good and next time with out the worry it will be fun

Thx 4 watching!

Nikolai · May 30, 2005

Thank you!

bfjr wrote:

Excellent work

Would have no problem hiring you to shoot my next wedding, if there ever was going to be one, NOT

I would keep my hopes then, cause one never knows:-) (jk):D

Mitchell · May 30, 2005

Great job, Nik. These shots came out great. Your lighting is well done even with your simple setup.

I'm curious now about how you are going to present these shots to them. Smugmug? Give them a disc? Set of proofs?

Are you going to print these for them?

Just curious about the next step in the presentation of your nice work. Don't let down now on the professionalism after your high quality shooting is completed.

mitch

Nikolai · May 30, 2005

Mitch,

Mitchell wrote:

Great job, Nik. These shots came out great. Your lighting is well done even with your simple setup.

I'm curious now about how you are going to present these shots to them. Smugmug? Give them a disc? Set of proofs?

Are you going to print these for them?

Just curious about the next step in the presentation of your nice work. Don't let down now on the professionalism after your high quality shooting is completed.

mitch

Thank you for you kind words!

Delivery-wise:
I simply prepared the gallery at the SM in advance, printed a nice flyer with the URL and all other info, made about a hundred copies and was giving them away for each shot. Since it was a friend, I didn't charge in advance, hoping to get my pay from prints..

In any case, I got awesome experience - and, best of all, I have to keep the gear:-)

Cheers!

ian408 · May 31, 2005

Your shots came out wonderfully. Even with the one light, the shadows
are complimentery. Especially the side lit shot.

Thanks for sharing your result!

Ian

wholenewlight · May 31, 2005

Nikolai,

So what did you actually end up buying? I looked at the other thread and this one and i'm wondering what's in your lighting package - I can sort-of see from the 1st shot but not really. What flash, wireless, reflector, background? And haw did it fit your budget?

I like your shots!

Nikolai · May 31, 2005

Ian,

ian408 wrote:

Your shots came out wonderfully. Even with the one light, the shadows
are complimentery. Especially the side lit shot.

Thanks for sharing your result!

Ian

Thank you for your advice and for your attention! Appreciate it a lot!

Cheers!

Nikolai · May 31, 2005

John,

wholenewlight wrote:

Nikolai,

So what did you actually end up buying? I looked at the other thread and this one and I'm wondering what's in your lighting package - I can sort-of see from the 1st shot but not really. What flash, wireless, reflector, background? And haw did it fit your budget?

I like your shots!

Thanks for stopping by!

It took a while to make the decision, especially taking into account the $-factor.
My initial attitude was to get the cheapest package possible and maybe upgrade it later. However when I started to look into details the sheer number of cords and wires pushed me toward all-wireless (the vision of a dozen 3..6 y.o. kinds roaming freely at 120 mph above the speed limit helped a lot).

So I ended up with Sunpack 555, PocketWizard transmitter and receiver, brollybox, umbrella (I didn't use it, but got it "just in case"), two 10' light stands (I used one as an el cheapo backdrop support), umbrella adapter, and two 8'x16' backdrops (gray and white, I got the white one for other plans, did not use it here). I think 8x16 was an overkill for this place, I would probably went away with 5'x7', but I was not sure, besides I knew I would use it in a different circumstances.

Brollybox came with a broken spoke, but AlienBee was very easy to reach on the phone (unlike B&H) and they shipped a replacement overnight free of charge.

Money-wise: if you remove all the extras (umbrella and second 8x16 backdrop) it will be almost exactly one grand under normal delivery (it was getting late and I opted for a 2d day air that added some pennies:-)
Just as Shay said: "it's expensive and complicated". But I'm so satisfied with the results (even though I see certain flaws simply due to my inexperience with using it) that I have absolutely no regrets.

The very next day I used the same setup (without the backdrop) at my friends BBQ party. This time setup took me less than 10 minutes, I already knew the drill and all the numbers:-).
All in all, I'm so glad that I got it!

First gig with a good light

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