Light setup for a corporate group shot

Sara Anderson

Sara Anderson

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Hi,

I have a corporate group shot of around 12 employees against their new company sign/Logo fixed on the wall. The office is surrounded by cieling high windows and walls only to saperate the window. The new sign is hung on one of those walls which is between to big windows. The client wants his staff to be standing against the sign. Hence the background would be two big windows and a wall of 1.5mtrs width in the center.
The shot will be in the morning around 10 and my worry is i'll have excess light coming from the window which will darken the staff. I am thinking of two soft boxes on the side to balance it out but I have never shot a group before and I am kind of worried about the results.
Any setup suggetions? I am looking for a soft light ideally.
Thanks.

23degree.jpg
 
Can't really answer that question without knowing a few more things ?

1) What do you own lighting and modifier wise that you could use ?
- Can you borrow anything ?
- Do you have budget to rent, or have approval to add rental items to your fee ?

2) How much space is there between the wall with the logo on it and desks, walls, other fixed objects in the room ?

3) Are there any sensitive electronic devices in the room ?

4) Are there any blinds on the windows ?

5) Do you have public liability insurance in place ?
 
What's the ceiling like?

First preference would probably be light into the ceiling. A lot.
 
What lights do you have? A number of flash guns... a few studio flashes...
As you rightly suggest, it is a case of at least matching the light from outside and pref slightly overpowering it to bring the focus of the image back to the logo and staff. This might be a problem for flash guns (depending on the location of the sun to the windows) unless they are powerful and you have a quantity of them?
 
Thanks everybody. My bad missed few details. I have a set of 3 300wt strobes n 2 flash guns. The ceiling is not very high so bouncing light off the ceiling is not a good idea as it may over expose my subject(s).
 
Sara Anderson said:
The ceiling is not very high so bouncing light off the ceiling is not a good idea as it may over expose my subject(s).
Click to expand...

I don't quite understand that. But in that case, 2 lights above your head and behind you with rectangular softboxes on. Put the boxes so close together that they touch. Aim the top edge at their heads and bottom edge at their knees (this will determine size of boxes and distance).

Be prepared to touch softboxes out of the glass.

If you want outside detail as well then lock off on tripod. Take shot without people or lights and comp.
 
It's really not complicated, meter for the daylight through the window then overexpose that by around a stop (I'm assuming outside will be a mess,) stand on a stool so people are looking up to you, put both lights at around 45 degrees, point at ceiling away form subjects, take picture.


300w strobes should be plenty.
 
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