Help needed to shoot a family portrait

ndwgolf

ndwgolf

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Neil Williams
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Guys
I have been asked to do a family portrait (2 adults 1 kid 3 dogs) at there home. I am assuming it will be on there sofa so my question is where should I place the lights.
I have 2 x B1 heads
Beauty dish
Octa box
4 x 3' soft box
I x regular head with grids
Any help would be much appreciated
 
Keep it simple, set up the large Octa above the camera.

Several lights at different angles will look 'odd', the easiest and best way of avoiding shadows clashing is to work with one light (or 2 side by side) then you jst need a little care in positioning your subjects.
 
3 dogs... hmmm i assume they have a garden then.. get a nice day ( not to sunny harsh shadows in bright sun and portraits dont mix. but a warm maybe slightly overcast day and maybe shots in the garden would be a better more natural option. i guess it depends a lot on the dogs ( what size they are for starters and how the behave in front of camera indoors with hot lights and flashes going off.
also if it has to be indoors, size of room, position of sofa, colour of walls, how much distance you can get between subject and background ( and yourself ) to get the shot in with some nice background blur ( unless you plan on taking along some kind of portable backdrop.
then the sofa's position in relation to natural light coming from whatever windows there are as well. i would suggest to go along too the location and talk to them about what they want and where they want to be seated. check out the rooms colour scheme and layout then come back with a diagram of the room and then maybe a better answer will be forthcoming
 
Hi Dean
Sorry for the lack of information and agree 100% without such info then not really much chance of getting help. Unfortunately I have just arrived back in Nigeria for a month so no chance to pop around and suss the place out but I gave just asked her to send me a picture of where they want the picture taken then we can take it from there. I gave a nice 24 f1.4 if it is in limited space and with the option of HSS with the B1 head could get some nice blurred out background. Phil mentioned one light so I like that idea and I gave a boom stand so like Phil said place that above my head. I will post up the room picture when I get it.
Later
 
I should have added the rationale for a central light, which is ISL. the difference between the nearest person to the light and the furthest will create problems if you're looking to do something dramatic, lighting from one side. Which would then lead to overcoming that problem by adding more light, which would lead to the problems I mentioned.

The simpler alternative is outdoors if you can, in open shade.
 
Thinking out loud I am not sure if a wide angle lens like the 24 will work well with a portrait? Hopefully I can get them all in with my 55mm
 
ndwgolf said:
In that case what about the soft box 45 deg left and the octa box 45 deg right and me in the middle
Click to expand...
That would overcome the obvious ISL problem but would create another one that's at least as bad, because you would be using two conflicting 'suns' - and there is only 1 sun on this planet, which means that it would look unnatural.

Which is why most of us use one key light, which does 80 - 90% of the heavy lifting, and we put it in a place that creates natural shadows - frontal and high pretty well matches the position of most natural lighting. Extra lighting is then added ONLY if necessary, and is used to mitigate shadows if they are too deep.
 
ndwgolf said:
In that case what about the soft box 45 deg left and the octa box 45 deg right and me in the middle
Click to expand...
forgive me if im wrong but would assume you would still have similar issues. the central people would get the effect of both light sources, but the people on the outer would only get the benefits of 1 light source. with only 2 adults and 1 child i doubt this would be to much of an issue but with 3 dogs thrown into the mix ( depending on what size the dogs are ) it may make things trickier.
plus without knowing as yet what natural light source there will be its a difficult one to call.
i guess it depends on the "style" they are looking for as well. a "formal" posed shot , or something a little more relaxed and fun which may allow you to be that little more flexible and creative with lighting and positioning of the subjects. . dont know if this will be much use but several vids here some of which cover indoor family and family and pets
http://www.howcast.com/guides/1168-how-to-take-portraits/
 
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