Portable light modifiers

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dancook

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I'm finally getting a plan together for Comic Con later this month, my wife will come with me and has agreed to assist with lighting.

I'm thinking of having one 600ex-rt on camera and have her hold the other.

It is by my own assumption the on-camera flash will be best for fill. The one Louise holds will be the main light - and I'm still playing with positioning.

I want some portable light modifiers to reduce hotspots, I was thinking about a couple of soft boxes - but would like some experienced input.

Cheers, Dan
 
I suppose an an alternative would be to have the on camera flash for main and the off camera for rim lighting - might be a good way to keep the subject separate to the noisy background :)
 
On the move, will have random 'noisy backgrounds' mostly

I'm thinking of two options at the moment

Creamy 1.2 background..
3-stop ND f1.2 1/200 ISO 100, hot shoe flash 1/128, rear side (kicker) flash 1/128

Or a black background with narrower aperture, but I feel I need some snoots - because there is a spread of light beyond the subject in some tests at home.
 
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for all of this it depends upon your lens surely.
so max open aperture to remove the background a bit. but I wouldn't open it up too much as these costumes might have detail out of DOF.

If you want single portraits I would have a bounced flash and then get your voice activated lighting to aim at the back of the subjects head from the rear/side angle.

or you can use a ring flash, but that doesn't work for pairs of course :)

if you want to get into comic con character, have your missus hide the lighting in a long coat and flash your subject :P
or actually dress her up as the flash ...:bonk: sorry!
 
I have the choice between 85mm 1.2 and 35mm 1.4 (MF lens) - leaning towards the 85mm as it makes a better portrait lens - but it does make it difficult to work in cramped spaces.

Can't bounce the flash in a giant hall.
 
I would think Depth of field at 1.2 will miss some costume detail although t could work well for some shots. I think going in with one idea is too rigid. Situations like this are always going to be suck it and see. I would suggest soft box as main on axis as fill personally, but unless you are on assignment. Go, play about with different ideas and enjoy yourself.
 
yeah, the 85mm is lovely, so I have heard, but you won't want 1.2 and you need I think a 50mm or 28mm perhaps?
just a catch light card on your flash then would do it. unless you mount a brolley on your head which I've seen done in a picture before :P)
 
Last time I went I got photos like this


IMG_1513 by dancook1982, on Flickr


Star Wars by dancook1982, on Flickr

The background is noisy and light is bland... that's using a LQ quikbounce on a bracket..

So I wanted to do something a bit more interesting.

So maybe 1.2 isn't the answer - but overpowering the ambient light and using 2 flash might be?


a 50mm would be a good length for this, but why 28 when I have 35? i won't be buying a new lens just yet
 
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I like those
it depends, for me, one your intent.
so head and shoulders portraits, the 85 looks great
I love the intense colours and the DOF...as you say, very creamy
I thought the 35mm MF wouldn't be as handy, a little wide and harder to shoot on the fly, so a 50mm is a great "standard" lens
I guess the 35 and 28 would be very similar, I just thought ofa 28mm as they get good reviews.
will be interested to see what you get from the next event :)

looking at these two examples, would you wish to try a soft fill light on axis and then your wife with a very soft diffuse light from the subject's left?
is there a good way to practice before the event?
 
After some playing around with a gridded shoot I found I wasn't happy with the light and lack of directional control on flash shoe or flash mount.

Thinking of two softboxes, one on flash bracket one hand held. As Matt was suggesting. Can anyone recommend a couple good size ones that will be suitable? Cheers
 
DizMatt said:
looking at these two examples, would you wish to try a soft fill light on axis and then your wife with a very soft diffuse light from the subject's left?
is there a good way to practice before the event?
Click to expand...

I bought a 22cm softbox for fill on axis, and a 38cm softbox for off-camera. Here's a quick test on a colleague


Test - Lastolite Combined by dancook1982, on Flickr

I am happy with this kind of result, just need to tweak it a bit.

Thanks :)
 
Ozei said:
Dan - do you find the 22cm softbox makes the camera slightly top heavy?

(PS. Link above to the other thread isn't working due to forum changeover - this one might work http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/comic-con-cosplay-photos.514013/)
Click to expand...

Thanks,

I had a ETTL cord to put the flash on the flash bracket, but the cord's cold shoe broke! It was fine whilst on the hotshoe though - I didn't notice any detrimental affect of having the fill to the side of the camera when in portrait.
 
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