Need tips for shooting at this location

[HiSpec]

I will be doing some casual shooting for my friend's charity event. The event will be to show off some culture based clothing. The event will be at Regency Palace, and this will be the first time shooting at there. I know some members on here have done wedding photography at that restaurant.

Here is what I will be available to me:
D90
30mm f/1.4
18-55 f/2.8
70-200 f/2.8 VRI
SB-900

Can anyone give me some tips on how to shoot at Regency Palace that will yield decent results?

[dragonone]

gel and bounce the sb900. balance ur flash with the ambient provided, both in power and white balance. see if the walls or ceiling you're bouncing from are colored. get an assistant to hold the sb900 in a portable softbox on an arm. read neilvn's blog.

might want a macro lens to show off details or jewelry on the clothing...

[Mitsu3000gt]

Get a Demb Flip-it for that flash, it makes a HUGE difference:

http://www.dembflashproducts.com/flipit/

TTL mode will be fine on the flash. Set camera to M mode for sure to make sure you never have too slow a shutter or too small/wide an aperture. WB is super easy to fix in post - just grab a shot of a grey card under each light condition if you want something easy to use later.

Once you have things dialed in, it'll be pretty much point shoot unless your subject or surroundings change significantly.

Bring extra flash batteries & memory cards (or have a backup device).

Don't be afraid to use available light as well.

Anyways those are kind of general tips, I've never been in that restaurant myself. Good usage of that flash will be by far the most important thing IMO.

[HiSpec]

When do you use your flash as a fill for the ambient? And when do you use your ambient as the fill?

I've read a bits and pieces about lighting ratio between flash and ambient. And would like an example if anyone can provide me with one.

Is it normal for me to see that photos that used TTL to look slightly overexposed?

[AccentAE86]

Ok, here is the low down on Regency Palace.

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/beyond/regency/193317_2996-1.jpg

As you can see above, the lighting is very even throughout the restaurant. All lighting is overhead. There is good, and there is bad.
The good is that if you are shooting guest candid photos, the exposure will be pretty consistent through the whole place if you are shooting available light.
The bad is that it is mixed light. There is indirect fluorescent lighting mixed with direct tungsten lighting. This means the light will be a disgusting pukey greenish yellowish colour.

If you are shooting available light, you gotta be aware that part of your light source is a cycling light (the fluorescents), therefore you need to be mindful of the shutter speed you select. Shooting at 1/125 or 1/60 is ideal and will give you the most consistent colour shot to shot. If you decide to use something like 1/200 or above, your colour temperature is going to be all over the map and it will be a while balancing nightmare. You want your shutter speed to align with the frequency of the power grid, which is 60hz in Canada/US (50hz in Europe and Asia I believe). So 1/125 will capture one full cycle of light, and 1/60 will capture two full cycles so you will get consistent colour. 1/30 is great too, but it's a tad slow for candid photography.

Another great thing is that the ceiling is rather low, making it a great bounce surface for flash. But because it's low, you also have to be mindful that the light will have sharper falloff across your subject, so the top of the head will be brighter than the chin, especially if your subject is standing up. The low ceiling bounce can also create darker eyes. I like to pull out the white bounce card on my flash only a touch... like 1cm. This will provide a tiny touch of fill light for the eyes, but still will allow the ceiling to be the primary light source. Flash is all about BALANCE. If you pull that white card all the way out (or use something like a fongdong or flip-it) then the light can easily become too frontal and harsh. Balance balance balance. Also, if you are shooting someone at close range, point the flash head to fire slightly backwards. I never had one of the new SB900's but I'm sure it has the ability to be pointed slightly backwards without twisting the flash 180 degrees first. This will put the bounce surface slighting infront of them instead of directly above them, which will also help with the dark eyes.

Another thing to balance is the ambient light with the flash. I prefer to cut down the ambient light to get a better colour temperature, and less potential for motion blur. So I'd speed up my shutter speed to cut out light, likely so the ambient is underexposed about two stops. The faster shutter speed won't really affect the light temperature anymore, because your flash is now the primary light source.

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/beyond/regency/202235_3012-1.jpg

Now the head table (above) is different. There are a bunch of tungsten performance lights to light up the front, which is actually quite nice. The angle is good and there is somewhat reasonable power. It's slightly brighter than the rest of the restaurant. You can shoot the head table with ambient light if you wish, and get excellent results.

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/beyond/regency/193821_0080-1.jpg

Though I found a lot of the action still moving too fast for 1/60, so I whipped out the flash. Again, the ceiling is low so it doesn't kill your flash batteries. Overall I found I preferred using flash for the head table over the ambient. Normally I set up remote flashes for the head table, but I didn't need to at the Regency because the ceiling is ideal for on-camera bounce flash.

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/beyond/regency/202248_3013-1.jpg

The ambient light for the guests was around EV3 when I was last there. So looking at your equipment, that would be around

1/60 F/2.8 ISO3200
1/60 ISO 800 F/1.4
1/125 ISO 1600 F/1.4

Remember to try and stay at 1/60 or 1/125. I shot half the night at 1/80 because I accidentally clicked the wheel one step and there was a very slight colour variation between shots. It wasn't bad, but it was a bit annoying.

http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/beyond/regency/223024_0242-1.jpg

The first dance is a free for all. They turn down the lights so it's totally up to you what you want to do. I prefer to use remote flashes to light up the scene, like above. One flash was high and to my left with a CTO gel, and a bare flash behind them.

Hopefully that helps a bit.

[HiSpec]

Thanks AccentAE86, that was really useful! The information was simple enough for me to have a general idea of what to expect and what to start out with!

Although my shoot will only be about 15-20 minutes, this will definitely get me started.

[dragonone]

Originally posted by AccentAE86
Ok, here is the low down on Regency Palace.



dude, write a blog. i'll be sure to read it often. very insightful!

[AccentAE86]

Originally posted by dragonone


dude, write a blog. i'll be sure to read it often. very insightful!

Actually I do have a blog but it's for client work and not for photography tips. I am hired a lot do photography teaching, but mostly at the level for experienced pros who want to take it to the next level. I've been doing a lot of boudoir teaching lately for some reason; it's gotten really popular.

[HiSpec]

Originally posted by AccentAE86
[
http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/beyond/regency/202248_3013-1.jpg

The ambient light for the guests was around EV3 when I was last there. So looking at your equipment, that would be around

1/60 F/2.8 ISO3200
1/60 ISO 800 F/1.4
1/125 ISO 1600 F/1.4

[/B]

How were you able to calculate that it was EV3 overexposed?

[AccentAE86]

Originally posted by HiSpec


How were you able to calculate that it was EV3 overexposed?

This was one of the rare times I used my Sekonic L385 light meter. I wanted to measure the consistency of the ambient light around the room to see if it was a good choice to shoot available light. It's something I rarely do except for cases like the Regency where everything looks pretty even, so I use the meter to verify.

The last time I tried to do this, I couldn't. The batteries in my light meter were dead! It had been such a long time since I had used it last.

[dragonone]

Originally posted by AccentAE86


Actually I do have a blog but it's for client work and not for photography tips. I am hired a lot do photography teaching, but mostly at the level for experienced pros who want to take it to the next level. I've been doing a lot of boudoir teaching lately for some reason; it's gotten really popular.

i'm an amateur at most, and i was approached by a beautiful girl (not a model) on modelmayhem for a boudoir shoot. as much as i wanted to try it i knew i had to do lots of homework and planning before thinking about it. it just seems so hard to make it look classy. i mean... i didn't want it to look like a softcore shoot if you know what i mean. lol

[HiSpec]

Originally posted by AccentAE86


This was one of the rare times I used my Sekonic L385 light meter. I wanted to measure the consistency of the ambient light around the room to see if it was a good choice to shoot available light. It's something I rarely do except for cases like the Regency where everything looks pretty even, so I use the meter to verify.

The last time I tried to do this, I couldn't. The batteries in my light meter were dead! It had been such a long time since I had used it last.

Please correct me if I have this wrong. But I will need to be shooting at ISO 3200 1/60 @ 2.8 with the 70-200mm under available light? I don't know if my D90 can produce photos at ISO3200 w/o being too grainy.

[AccentAE86]

Originally posted by HiSpec


Please correct me if I have this wrong. But I will need to be shooting at ISO 3200 1/60 @ 2.8 with the 70-200mm under available light? I don't know if my D90 can produce photos at ISO3200 w/o being too grainy.

That's what I was metering the last time I was there. But some of the lights may be on dimmers so it might be brighter, or maybe darker. And grain isn't too bad of a thing... grain has never bothered me.

I think the stage/dancefloor up front is brighter though, and if that's where the action is then you're probably good.

But like I said, the ceilings are low so it's easy to bounce flash, so you'll be fine. It's definitely one of the easier places to shoot! :)

[AccentAE86]

Originally posted by dragonone


i'm an amateur at most, and i was approached by a beautiful girl (not a model) on modelmayhem for a boudoir shoot. as much as i wanted to try it i knew i had to do lots of homework and planning before thinking about it. it just seems so hard to make it look classy. i mean... i didn't want it to look like a softcore shoot if you know what i mean. lol

Yeah, making it classy is the hard part. I have found Boudoir to be one of the hardest forms of photography around. Tougher than portraits, weddings, models, or nudes. It's too easy to make someone less than ideal, and what works for one girl will not work on the next one. Every shoot is a total challenge. Which is probably why I've been traveling a lot lately to teach advanced boudoir techniques.

Anyhow, if you want some ideas, my boudoir website is at:

http://theboudoir.nightanddayphoto.ca/ (posting of this link is mod approved)

If you have any questions in regards to boudoir, it would probably be better to start a new thread than hijacking this one.

[HiSpec]

Your tips worked really well! I was shooting at 1/60 and 1/125 (depending on action) along with my flash and even though I had to do minor adjustment with LR, exposure came out pretty decent off the camera!!

But the 70-200mm does get pretty tiring after a while...

[AccentAE86]

Glad it worked out well for you!