Advice on strobe/camera setup for indoors

[efuhs]

Hello everyone,

I need some advice… I’ve been asked to photograph two models in a bedroom. Since most of my experience is with outdoor shoots, I would like to know some basic settings for my strobes and camera so the images look natural and not too “studio”. I have one White Lightning X1600 with a beauty dish as my main light and one Alien Bee B400 to illuminate the background. Ambient light will be minimal. What is a good starting point for setting up my camera @ ISO 200? At what power should I set my strobes?

[That_Look_Photo]

I think you have so many options here it would be hard to give you settings.

Why iso 200 ? 100 iso if you have it is what I would do.

How big is the room ?

How much of the room will be in the shot ?

I seem to light the models at f8. The background could be anything. It depends on the look you want. I would use more lights then just two but that's just the way I like doing it. I would spend time before the shoot and test diferent setups in the room.

[efuhs]

Yes, I can use ISO 100. The room is approx 20x30, a large bed on one side and a jacuzzi on th other. The room isn't too big so I guess I will concentrate on the model and the area in her immediate surrounding (bed, jacuzzi, chair, etc.) All I have are the two strobes and two reflectors (36" and 4'x6').

[srwatters]

You're asking for someone to condense possibly several years of experience into a forum posting. The images of Erin Marie that you asked about in PM were shot with two strobes. The key was a 3'x4' softbox with grille on a Norman ML-600R. The kicker light was a Hensel Integra Pro Plus 500 with a 16x48" strip box. Standard 1 stop delta from key to fill glamour ratio. You can see the catch light in the model's eyes to figure out the angle and height of the key. The camera settings are in the image EXIF.

Best of luck and enjoy the journey...

[efuhs]

I understand that a single post on this forum cannot sum up years of experience from a seasoned photographer. I really do appreciate your help and intend to learn from all information that is provided in these types of forums. Thank you!

[jimmyd]

I'd use that second strobe to accent-light the models and forget about lighting the room no matter how sexy that room might be.

[PhotoDave1]

You didn't mention having one but a flash meter is key to photographing with indoor lighting especially monolights. You simply can't guess at the lighting because the flashes fire way too fast for any guess to me accurate.

The nice things about the White Lightnings you have is that you can vary the power at the head so you aren't having to move the light backwards and forwards to control the amount of light that hits your subject.

Depending on your camera it will synch with the strobes at either 1/60, 1/125/ or 1/250. Once you determine the synch speed aim for an f-stop of either F5.6 or F8 depending. If you want a greater depth of field you can close down or if you want a shallower depth of field you can open up as you need.

The critical factor in this is the use of a flash meter. Good luck and remember to post the results for us to see.