Lighting a dungeon

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nuttyhannah

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A friend of a friend has asked me if i could take some shots of her in a Dungeon. I am not a professional photographer but i have been practicing it for a while. But i would like to give it a go.

I have the canon 450 and i just purchased a 580 flash and a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 lens.

I'm guessing that the dungeon will be completely dark..
So I'm wondering what i could get to light it up.. and what kind of lens i should be using if not my own.. ?

Someone recommended trying out a 500 watt decorators lamp..
Any other suggestions or tools guys??

(i will be doing a practice run before i turn up lol, so any ideas are really helpful)
 
What sort of lighting do you want to achieve?
You could bounce your flash around and get something pretty even, or you could buy/make some light modifiers to give you some different lighting effect.
I'd guess that your sigma lens will be right for the job.
 
cyclone said:
What sort of lighting do you want to achieve?
You could bounce your flash around and get something pretty even, or you could buy/make some light modifiers to give you some different lighting effect.
I'd guess that your sigma lens will be right for the job.
Click to expand...

Hey thank you..
Its for Fetish modeling..
So prehaps dramatic lighting im thinking..
I could bounce my flash around..?
I just got it today.. And im not sure what you mean by that..
 
I've done a couple like that! lol. My fist paid wedding was actually a pagan handfasting ceremony held in a fetish club! lol

Have a look through some shots you like and a visit to the premesis is highly recommended (only to scout it you naughty lot!)

That will establish what the lighting available to you actually is. Then you can work out where to go with it in terms of what you need. 500w decorators lamps are OK if you can use them from the next county! There is no control over the intensity or shape of the light. Colour temperature is something else you will need to pay attention to. You'd be better off with a couple of lamps with daylight bulbs in them. Take care mixing lights of different colour temperatures though. They will give odd colour casts. Saying that you can get some mega effects shooting in tungsten WB on camera!

Quality and direction of light is paramount so check out what there is first.

Edited to add, bouncing flash means aiming it off the walls. Don't use it direct, especially with rubber or latex, the reflections will be awful!
 
AliB said:
I've done a couple like that! lol. My fist paid wedding was actually a pagan handfasting ceremony held in a fetish club! lol

Have a look through some shots you like and a visit to the premesis is highly recommended (only to scout it you naughty lot!)

That will establish what the lighting available to you actually is. Then you can work out where to go with it in terms of what you need. 500w decorators lamps are OK if you can use them from the next county! There is no control over the intensity or shape of the light. Colour temperature is something else you will need to pay attention to. You'd be better off with a couple of lamps with daylight bulbs in them. Take care mixing lights of different colour temperatures though. They will give odd colour casts. Saying that you can get some mega effects shooting in tungsten WB on camera!

Quality and direction of light is paramount so check out what there is first.

Edited to add, bouncing flash means aiming it off the walls. Don't use it direct, especially with rubber or latex, the reflections will be awful!
Click to expand...

only just saw this message.. thank you.. all really helpful tips..
This is going to be challenging.. but fun i hope..
 
You will have fun trying to fcus in the dark/dim gloom....you want to introduce some atmosphere....I would suggest a lamp (oil? candle lamp?) to give a glow from a corner say, this will give you some light to work by too.

Flash is going ot overpower the whole dungeon ethos if you aren't careful. I would try -ve flash exp by about -2 to start with. A tripod and long exposures by candle light with flash just to sear the subject into the film and reduce ghosting.

Use a flashoff camera and totally backlight her - so she is a silhouette against a ball of light in a stone corridor...hands on the walls either side or something like that?
 
Lensflare said:
You will have fun trying to fcus in the dark/dim gloom....you want to introduce some atmosphere....I would suggest a lamp (oil? candle lamp?) to give a glow from a corner say, this will give you some light to work by too.

Flash is going ot overpower the whole dungeon ethos if you aren't careful. I would try -ve flash exp by about -2 to start with. A tripod and long exposures by candle light with flash just to sear the subject into the film and reduce ghosting.

Use a flashoff camera and totally backlight her - so she is a silhouette against a ball of light in a stone corridor...hands on the walls either side or something like that?
Click to expand...

oooo.. that sounds intersting.. thank you.. x
 
Whereabouts is the shoot planned for?

If you are lucky, you might get someone to give you a hand, and if you are really lucky they will bring along some more appropriate kit for the job.
 
if you are using the 580 on camera it will give you a focus assist beam which will let the camera autofocus in the dark, won't work in servo mode though so try one shot AF.....

Your sigma should be fine you might want something longer but in a confined (I assume) dungeon there probably won't be the room.

I would recomend at least trying the light off camera with some ebay triggers (should be fine in a small space and they're cheap in case you never use them again) to try the silouetting idea above, or just to give you more flexibility. Bear in mind you may not be able to use autofocus without the beam so either manually focus or use a torch to give enough light then switch it off (if your shooting manual - and you will have to be to light off camera, then the torch won't affect the metering).

Good luck and come back with pics

also bring back details if you recce the place so we can further advise
 
EdBray said:
Whereabouts is the shoot planned for?

If you are lucky, you might get someone to give you a hand, and if you are really lucky they will bring along some more appropriate kit for the job.
Click to expand...

Love to Ed, but we are at opposite ends of the country (again):bang:

Why are all the "interesting" shoots I'd happily lend a hand at always so blooming far away? :thumbsdown:

Good luck with it Hannah. :thumbs:
 
You might want to consider lhaving the images warm colour if your using oil or candles, people will expect some warmth in images that seem lit that way.
Can you make some of those fake flaming lamps that they used to have on the walls in old films?. I saw some made with big sticks for handles, a bit of wire mesh around the top, and fire lighters for the flames, they burned for a reasonable time, the guys just added a few more bits of fire lighter when the went down a bit.
Gave off a fair bit of light actually.
They will give off smoke and fumes though, so you will need decent vetilation
 
sounds like great fun for a shoot
if I was doing this I'd use a standard prime but your sigma 2.8 should be perfect really and very versatile.

I would bounce the flash off the wall behind you, even with a difuser on it.
remote triggering would be best. can you get hold of a ST-E2 or whatever they're called for the shoot? I would mount the flash behind, above and to the side of you on a tripod or shoot with an umbrella if you have something similar.
I take it that you're not doing high key happy shots anyway, so some nice contrast and shadow will be helpful. shoot in RAW of course for something like this.
The nice thing is that a dungeon wall will be very random and not too reflective.
 
AliB said:
Love to Ed, but we are at opposite ends of the country (again):bang:

Why are all the "interesting" shoots I'd happily lend a hand at always so blooming far away? :thumbsdown:

Good luck with it Hannah. :thumbs:
Click to expand...

where are you based AliB?
 
I'd lend a hand if you were in exeter but tbh i'd be less useful in the extreme (potentially dribbling)
 
Me too, I'm about 8 miles from Manchester. Nowhere near you, which is unfortunate. :)
 
Might be a silly suggestion but you can get those Fake LED flame lights might not be bright enough but could be worth a look if not what about Uplights through some sort of home made softbox ish arrangment around the edges.

Would play around bouncing off things could work.[am no expert just sounds like fun]
 
Remember, if you are bouncing light around, whatever it bounces off....the light takes that colour. Bouncing light off dark stone walls is not going to do much to help. A white sheet placed behind you pinned to the wall....different matter!

Optical slaves will work perfectly well in dark conditions like that - for many many yards. You don't need fancy triggers unless you are putting remote ligts more than about 30 yards away - ordinary optical slaves will work at that kind of distance, even through a windscreen.
 
Am I the only one that can't work out where the OP or the shoot is?:shrug:
 
No, you are not alone. I have no idea where she is or where she is going. I can't seem to work out how one poster knew she had an f2.8 Sigma either. Maybe I just missed it in one of the posts - blind as a bat you see. I take pictures by radar!:razz:

Seriously, I wish I knew how to work these wretched confusers.
 
Down south? Must be the Falkland Islands, stuff that.
 
Lensflare said:
No, you are not alone. I have no idea where she is or where she is going. I can't seem to work out how one poster knew she had an f2.8 Sigma either. Maybe I just missed it in one of the posts - blind as a bat you see. I take pictures by radar!:razz:

Seriously, I wish I knew how to work these wretched confusers.
Click to expand...


The sigma bit is in the OP :-)

But I am utterly baffled by the "down south" bits. Although the concept of "optical slaves" being used in a dungeon shoot appears to be spot on :clap:
 
random, but I think I assumed that from her Flickr (if I got the right person), which is based in london, eastbourne and brighton
then again, these are quite nice landscape shots, sunsets and lightplay in london
which I quite like....but it could be someone else entirely...so nevermind :clap::shrug::bonk::help:
 
Flickr...now you have lost me. Where is flickr mentioned?

I must go and find out what this flickr thing that keeps being brought up is all about.
 
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