Advice on Lighting Set-Up for Family Portrait

[subseasniper]

Hey everyone,

I am looking for advice on setting up and taking a decent looking portrait of my 5yo daughter and our new born baby girl.

I have a Canon EOS 40D, a cheapo old school Centon flash, radio trigger for the flash and a large rectagular white/silver reflector.

I am hoping this kit, along with natural light, will allow me create a high key effect with blown-out white background.

I was thinking some kind of white material as a background, with a window providing the main light. I would then use the radio triggered flash to burn out the background. I may also use the 40D's internal flash with some home made diffusing material to provide a wee catchlight in the subjects eyes.

What do you think?

If anybody can think of a better set-up to achieve a high key effect please let me know. I am hoping to get some good pics and can have as many tries as possible to achieve this.

All advice gratefully appreciated.

Cheers,

subseasniper

 

[Garry Edwards]

What you want to do isn't high key, it's a white background but moving on...

Yes, it will work fine, provided that your flashgun has enough power to burn out the background, which it may not have if there's a lot of light coming through the window. Try it and see.

If there is too much window light, try taking the shot as the light fades, or cover the window with a sheet or similar

 

[subseasniper]

Cool, cheers. I am still a bit in the dark about this but I guess I am going to have to mess about to get the best effect possible.

Any other tips?