Fun Easter Bunny Shoot at Children's Centre

[Fortkentdad]

On Saturday I've volunteered to take Easter Bunny Photo's at a preschool Children's Centre.

Pardon my crayola style drawing but I think it gives you the idea.

My givens - I have an SB700, Metz 58 AF2 (roughly = an SB900) and a LED Camlight PL-88D which says it puts out 600 Lumens.
And the pop-up on my D610

I also have a gold / white reflector pop open I can use to add some more light. Thought of pointing the SB700 at the gold side and bouncing that back as the background light. Thinking it may help add some tone to the white fur of the bunny. I can also also a orange cover to the SB700 but not sure I should.

I'm using the Nikon CLS control system. (only alternative is optical slave off of the pop-up).
Setting the two flash lights in different groups and A (Metz) will be 100% and B (SB700) will be -1 (or more?) lower.
Plan on using the TTL setting on the controls.
Control will be via the on board commander which pops up the pop-up flash, thinking that one will be dimmed down to -3.

Camera will be tripod mounted.

For the lighting this is my idea based on what I've googled up about three point lights.



There will be a pastel coloured childish background on the wall behind the bunny.
There are high (2 story and vaulted wooden) ceilings so bounce off the ceiling not an option.

The Camlight LED will be behind a shoot through white umbrella (about 33"). It is bright enough for fill but not main.
It is constant lighting and can be plugged in if the built in rechargeable battery does not last the three hours of the shoot.
(depending on plug in location may have to flip the set up left to right).

The Metz is more powerful and will be the main or Key light. I'm thinking it is at 100% or even +1 on the commander settings.
The SB700 is the 'hare' light and could have a snoot (beer can cooler foam wrap with bottom cut out). or not?

The Metz can be bald or have a Gary Fong Whale Tail, or a small (12x18") tie on soft diffuser - I do not have a dome for that one - I do for the SB700.
I'm thinking the Fong only because I want to get some use out of it. And it looks cool.

I can tether to an ASUS Tablet and run the DSL Dashboard to control the camera or use a IR remote or cabled remote. Or just press the shutter button.

I also need to pick a lens - see my signature for all options. I'm tossed up between the old 28-80 Nikkor F90 Kit lens or my new 50 1.8. Maybe the 60mm?

I've read to avoid shooting wide open - no point in blurring the background but I want the kids and the bunny in sharp focus.
The bunny suit is white fake fur with pastel costume.

No money is changing hands and parents will be emailed their images. Some may be printed and pinned up at the Children's Centre with parental permission.

I'll see if I can get permission to post some results here.

This is last year - borrowed the suit to take an Easter picture of my grand daughter. That shot was done with one off camera flash and the umbrella up and to the left of the bunny. Shot into a bay window.



Any help will be appreciated.

This gives me a chance to try out an idea I have for a retirement career because I'm 60 and still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up.

 

[carguy]

Sounds like a well thought out plan. I'd just simulate the setup at home and dial in your exposure so you have a great idea where you'll be once you setup on location

 

[Fortkentdad]

Thanks Carguy.
I actually can come to the Centre the evening before the shoot and set up and test which I really should do.

Another thought. I considered using bracketing to ensure good exposure - but I am already shooting RAW and use Aftershot pp which allows for complete control of exposure so is RAW and bracketing redundant?

 

[FastGlass]

First thing that came to mind is how are the three lights comparable to Color temp?

 

[Fortkentdad]

First thing that came to mind is how are the three lights comparable to Color temp?

No idea.
The Camlight says it produces up to 600L of 5600K which I believe is the colour of the light. Intensity can be dialed up to 600.

The SB-700's spec on colour took a little more google effort. Best answer: "Somewhere in the range of 5400 to 6000°. If you leave your WB set to auto, the flash will tell the camera the appropriate color temperature to use. Your manual explains this. If you want to do some artsy stuff, you can change the WB to make things warmer or cooler."

A quicker answer on the Metz where I found a site that claimed the 58 AF-2 delivers "light at a daylight neutral 5600k colour temperature"

So I think all is good.

IF I were to bounce the one flash off of the golden side of the reflector then of course that is a drastic change in the colour of that light.

Curious why the need to be comparable - I'm thinking a contrasting gold background glow could be interesting. Must experiment with this before the shoot and decide whether to bounce that background hare light or just shoot straight.

 

[FastGlass]

No idea.
The Camlight says it produces up to 600L of 5600K which I believe is the colour of the light. Intensity can be dialed up to 600.

The SB-700's spec on colour took a little more google effort. Best answer: "Somewhere in the range of 5400 to 6000°. If you leave your WB set to auto, the flash will tell the camera the appropriate color temperature to use. Your manual explains this. If you want to do some artsy stuff, you can change the WB to make things warmer or cooler."

A quicker answer on the Metz where I found a site that claimed the 58 AF-2 delivers "light at a daylight neutral 5600k colour temperature"

So I think all is good.

IF I were to bounce the one flash off of the golden side of the reflector then of course that is a drastic change in the colour of that light.

Curious why the need to be comparable - I'm thinking a contrasting gold background glow could be interesting. Must experiment with this before the shoot and decide whether to bounce that background hare light or just shoot straight.

Yes most flash units, strobes also produce a daylight color temp. The light that caught my eye was the LED. Having an odd color temp aiming at a background would be no big deal but having two of diff temp aimed as main and fill would produce quite a diff effect. Having your WB in camera set at auto doesn't even out any differences between strobes.

 

[Fortkentdad]

Ah I see - and the plan is to use the LED as a fill as it is not as bright at the flash unit - but it it delivers the 5600K as promised it should be close in colour to the Metz which is the main light. I hope to get some time today to set up and take some test shots. While this is just for fun it does give me a chance to play at being a photographer.

Bought the LED from Vistek.ca and as far as I can tell it is sold as a professional photographer light, it is not a standard household LED.



Obviously not a common product in English speaking countries - all reviews of it have had to be processed in Google Translator before I could read them - but what I did read were positive. "A piece of sunshine in my pocket" as one far east blogger put it.

 

[Fortkentdad]

One of the parents whom has worked for me in the past kindly gave permission to use my photo's of her son for illustration here.

The photo shoot went well. This is my second in as many weeks - next one scheduled for July so two in two weeks is really odd. I've done this only a few times in the past - always children (Santa and Easter Bunny). In July it will be an elder's birthday with the whole family gathered - and that is to be my first paid shoot. So far all volunteer at the children's centre.

The lighting worked well enough. I have a lot to learn yet about lighting. Will need to study this topic much more, experiment in my basement where I can set up a mock shoot to learn from. I did see that the last few shots were different - Someone (one of the children probably) moved my SB700 to face in rather than bounce off the gold reflector and it cast harsh side shadows. I noticed the difference - not sure the parents will.

The Cam-Light charge lasted the full three hours. I had power just in case but did not need it. And it did make a difference. It was turned off during one of the Bunny's Cool Down Breaks (those costumes are very hot - glad I did not have hot lights on her). Forgot to turn on the cam-light LED's when we resumed - noticed it pretty quickly and it did make a difference in fill light.

This was a very bright shoot with bright white costume and bright pastel background. I used my 3D Matrix metering and Nikon's CLS TTL for flash control. The on camera pop up was down 2.0 and the SB700 down 1.0 - the Metz was the primary light and was at + .3 I had the exposure comp at + 1/3 White Balance was manually set using the white dome style lens cap.

Used my 60mm AF-S 2.8G and shot in Aperture Priority at F/9 (Wanted full detail, no background blurring). ISO 400. Using a prime meant moving the tripod back and forth when changing from sets with one child to whole families. I also didn't tether it to my ASUS which I had thought of doing - good thing as I moved that camera around a fair bit.

About 40 families went through in two hours and a bit. A few of the children were too frightened by the bunny so we did family portraits without the bunny afterwards. My dear wife was volunteered to be my lovely assistant and we signed in every family, and I shouted out the number range of the pictures to match the photos to families later. We are emailing out the photos and printing up a complimentary 4x6.

I was in a side room, there was a full Easter party going in other parts of the centre.

It was fun and I learned a lot.

And I did get asked to do that one photo shoot for a family reunion this summer. Maybe when I retire I'll do this to fund my NAS.