Q: How to light a big hotel lobby

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Tim
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Hi there, I've got to Photograph a huge hotel lobby area, and wondered how anyone else would approach this. I can see 3 options:

1. Shoot on 400-1600iSO and use available light
2. Shoot with 3 strobes using my Elinchrom Skyport system
3. Take the plunge (Ive been putting this off) and buy Elinchrom Ranger Quadra 1200W and fire it through a big as I can get octabox softbox

or another option I've not thought of! Your opinion very welcome!
 
Will it be empty or are there peeps moving about?
 
Probably several flash units positioned around the area. Or you can do it with just one flash fired repeatedly with the shutter on B.

The big softbox will change the quality of the light, but won't increase it. The problem is the large area needs a lot of light, one way or another, and quite likely in inaccessible places that are hard to light evenly from just one source.
 
Even if not empty available light could give nice motion trails of people going through which could look really effective.Strobes could be used to highlight certain parts of the lobby, but balance it out with natural light.

Hey if you need an excuse buy the ranger, might come in handy, without seeing the place it is quite hard to advise really
 
I'd be trying to go with a balance of natural light and strobed to highlight key areas, if it's that big you're just not gonna be able to light it through one box I'd guess. It'd be interesting to a few of us to see how you get on though, so please do post on here what you get?
pip
 
normally multiple flash units on remote does the trick

on a budget? as I have nothing on which to base your budget or kit
but filter, long exposure, available light and low ISO then shoot the flash at the offending dark areas :) get creative...heh


can't find the link I wanted to
 
3. Take the plunge (Ive been putting this off) and buy Elinchrom Ranger Quadra 1200W and fire it through a big as I can get octabox softbox
Click to expand...

I hate to be pedantic, but the Ranger Quadra is only 400w/s. You want the Ranger RX if you want 1200w/s, but it's also more than twice the price of the Quadra.

Either way, I'd seriously consider what you could do with available light first.
 
You could light parts and then merge it in photoshop, not sure how feasible that would be
 
If it's a BIG hotel lobby - then a tripod and available light is the best way - maybe a little fill flash here and there - but it depends on light sources too. If it's lit with tungsten - table lamps - chandeliers etc then flash will need to be colour corrected. Lighting the entire thing with flash will not be successful and you will not get it looking the way it does naturally.

Don't make it difficult - the natural way is easiest and probably best!
 
either natural with small strobes filling in the dark bits

OR

expose ambient for the windows and lights, fire a studio head at full power off the ceiling (maybe 2 depending on size of room) the big lights make it look natural as do the windows looking right I found shadows under things as while the light was soft it was still top down so used an speedlight on a trigger on the floor to give some fill to make those shadows look more real. Watch out for shadows from light fixtures if you intend to have any ceiling in frame
 
You're missing two key pieces of information; 1) what are the people doing (sitting still listening, or walking about chatting), and 2) what is your job - shoot the entire room, or capture the people?

Those two pieces are critical in deciding which light set-up to use.
 
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