Portable studio help

[kelack]

Now, as we can see from this thread:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=401560

my pp skills are a little bit lacking. It's not just the pp though. I feel that if I had got the lighting and my settings right, I wouldn't have had to worry so much about the pp-ing

I am attempting another action portrait shoot this weekend. Netball this time rather than pole fit and would like to improve but unless I know where I went wrong with my settings. I don't know how to improve

This is where you lovely lot come in

Your mission should you wish to accept it is to make me feel that I haven't sodded up another shoot

This is the set up I have (excuse the very poor photo but it was taken on my mobile)

So what do you recommend I do

I have a 430 EX Flash on a 1D Mkiii with a 28-80 lens

 

[ACW]

Personally, I'd use the flashgun for the background (if you've got wireless triggers?), and then the three softboxes for the subject?

What kind of shots are you going for? I'm intrigued!

 

[kelack]

Oops. Sorry Adam. Must have lost the notification email amongst all the others

I did the shoot today. Only used 2 lights as the lights in the dance studio where I did it were quite good. Used my 430 on the hotshoe

I did 4 poses. One with the player just standing there, one standing with the ball. An action type pose and then one crouching with the ball. I was quite pleased with them actually. My settings seemed to be just right. Think it was more luck than judgement though

I'll get some sorted this week and stick them on here

 

[KIPAX]

Now, as we can see from this thread:

do those lights stay on? i thought they only come on when triggered?

I am a complete "know nothing" on studios and lighting BTW

 

[kelack]

Yes they stay on. They're continuous lighting

 

[KIPAX]

Yes they stay on. They're continuous lighting

Sorry to hijack but as the threads daed anyway due to the fact you already did the shoot...

Are they expensive.. what would the background and the three lights cost and what else would you need.. I definitely like the idea of continuous light rather than flash and flash working other lights for a sec...

 

[kelack]

Lol. It's only in a coma

I only got cheap stuff off ebay but I can dig out the details and pm them to you later. The background is vinyl and double sided too with black on the reverse. The whole set up does the job for me tbh

 

[KIPAX]

Actually its mainly the lighting..

I ahve 6 grandchildren now and everyone turns to me for pics.. I ahve been looking around and inspired by other peoples work.. I am confident I could do it... but its lighting...

right now i pop round.. have the curtains open and use that light.. works quite well... but I need to start setting them up and portable lighting would gurantee light..

its thinking process at the moment ?

 

[kelack]

Ok. I'll dig out the details later for you then and stick it in a pm

The lighting came from a different seller to the background

 

[Richard King]

the best you are going to do with this lot

1. swivel round one of the background lights, and use it as the background for a headshot, and use the other two lights to light the headshot
2. forget about lighting the background, use the lights to light the subject
3. get rid of a softbox, and make one of the lights a hard light source (gridded reflector for example)
4. Buy flash heads that are controllable and powerful enough to do the job properly

 

[kelack]

Thanks Richard. Will take all that on board for the next shoot. I'm not going to be buying anything more though. Funds just don't allow it at the moment so will have to make do with what I already have

 

[kelack]

Richard, with regards to the gridded reflector, what would you recommend?

And would you recommend that going on the back softbox?

Unfortunately, I really can't afford the flash heads and I'm really not convinced that they will charge quick enough for the type of portraits I will be shooting. I'm not going to be doing static portraits, the pole fit ones were not really that posed, they were more moving (if that makes any sense)