Lights for school photography

[Cargodogs]

Hey guys,

Long story short. I'm setting up a company for school photography. I've already been promised jobs at two schools after summer. In my studio at home I use the brilliant Elinchrom D-lite 4it (2x400 w/s with 26" softboxes). They serve their purpose very well, but my studio is not huge. Now, when I start doing shots of the whole class, say 20-30 kids, will these lights be powerful enough to use with an F-stop around 11? I have a feeling the answer is gonna be a BIG resounding "NO". So, can you guys recommend other lights in the Elinchrom range (or another brand that would be compatible with my current light ie. the skyport trigger system)? If I need to buy other lights, I'd like to be able to use them with my existing lights in a 4 light setup.

Other questions:

1) What kind of w/s will I need to light the whole class.

2) Any recommendations for good, portable backdrops that are big enough? Or would you just use a clean wall as a background? That's what they did when I was in school.

Any other thoughts on school photography in general will be much appreciated.

I'm not sure this post is in the correct place, but I'd like some response from PRO's out there, so this seemed an appropriate place.

Thanks in advance....

[dan123]

Hi, i remeber when i was at school the company that did it, used hardly any lighing, the Group shots are normally taken out side or in a hall light by natural light, and for the single portraits the soft boxes will do, i suppose the best thing to to is find out what shots the school want to you to be taking aswell,

Dan

[wavemachine]

I am with Dan on this for group shots, my daughters school had a class shot done recently and it was done outside in natural light I have to say though it would have definately had benefited from some sort of fill flash though as all the eyes were a tad shadowy.

They seem to use a two light set up for the individual portraits probably 2 soft boxes looking at the photos.

With regards to a background you would probably want a fairly narrow one to fit in most rooms something like this should do the job nicely as it will go from 1.4m to 3.8m wide and has good height.

With regards to backgrounds you could go with cloth or muslin but that can be tricky to keep clean and crease free (depending on the material) or the other option is to get paper rolls as these are easy to transport and can be torn off when it gets creased or mucky.

I got my white paper roll from the same people (Creative Backgrounds) that do the light stand, the background support I use is a cheap ebay one that cost me about £50 and it is good enough for what I use it for.

The other option is something like this

[Kerry Holt]

Also if the strobes aren't enough you could just try balancing them with the ambient to get a smoother look.-just an idea!

[Cathus]

I don't do this type of stuff but at my daughter's awards evening in a local ballroom the photographer was about 30-40 yards back from the stage, behind the audience & had one hell of a strobe mounted on a stand above the camera. It was about twice as big as most normal studio lights, have no idea of the power but it must have been 1000W or more judging by it's size & intensity.

He got perfectly lit shots from really far away with a single light. (But these were presentation shots of 2 people rather than group shots)

[Cargodogs]

Thanks for all your input, guys. It's much appreciated. I highly doubt (and certainly hope) that I won't be shooting group shots outside. I forgot to mention, that I live in the Middle East, and temps of 100-120F are not unheard of for the first few months and last months of the school year. That leaves me with a school meeting room or the gym, I guess.

@ Kezpock: That's actually not a bad idea. I'll try and figure out how best to do it. The good thing is that "local tradition" pretty much guarantees that there's be some pretty strong normal ceiling light available. Bad thing is, it's pretty harsh, but maybe I could use a few stands to spread out a thin diffusing fabric, and then fill in with the flash heads.

@ Dan: You're correct. I think the key point is to find out what kind of shots the school expects, and more so; what kind of quality they're used to in this region. And, yeah, the softboxes I have now will do great for the individual portraits.

@Wavemachine: The backgrounds you've linked in your post will not be big enough for a whole class. However, I really like the HiLite from Lastolite a lot. That will be perfect for the individual shots. Thanks for the links.

@Cathus: The big softbox you're mentioning (I think it's an octabox) is a very nice piece of kit, but you're right, it's a ot of juice in order to get the 30-40 feet distance your talking about. I don't that suit my purpose right now. BUT, if this takes of, it'd be perfect for graduations.

Finally, sorry for the late reply from me, but I thought I was supposed to get a mail, when someone replied. Nevermind, thanks for taking your time to share your input. It's much appreciated.

[Cathus]

no, it wasn't a softbox it was a raw single strobe & was from 40 yards so probably much more than you'd need.

[Cargodogs]

Aaahhhh, ok. I misread your initial description. I would've thought the light would be fairly unflattering, but I guess it works, since the guy use it. Either way, as you say, it's much than I'll need. Thanks again...

[wavemachine]

Originally Posted by Cargodogs

T
@Wavemachine: The backgrounds you've linked in your post will not be big enough for a whole class. However, I really like the HiLite from Lastolite a lot. That will be perfect for the individual shots. Thanks for the links.

Sorry should have been clearer the intention of those links was for individual shots.

I think for group shots it will be very tricky to set up a background big enough for a whole class shot and evenly light it, I would be inclined to go for outdoor shots in front of the school or in one of the halls.

Have to say the lasolite looks like a really nice bit of kit also.

[Cathus]

The Lastoliote Hilite is awesome for the completely white background effect. Putting it away is a real art though