My Portrait Lighting Set-Up for Christmas 2009

[The Loft Studios]

Hi All,
Just thought I'd share my Portrait Lighting Set-Up for my Christmas 2009 Season. I will be shooting Families, Children, Couples, etc..... using this Set-Up. As you can probably imagine, a majority of the posing will be done lying on the floor utilizing the pillows, having a more "Fun & Intimate" closeness about it. But I have plenty of chairs and stools for those who are into more of the Traditinal type poses. I feel that I'm about 90% -95% done with the set... I'll still be adding a few more props as well as probably a throw blanket to the chair. I can also take out most of the "Holiday Props" and add general props for those who seek to do just a Traditional Portrait, there are many who have not done family portraits in over 10 years and who are looking to upgrade that 16x20 on their wall. I start photographing this Weekend and will also be shooting Thanksgiving Weekend as well as the Weekend after. I'm Booking in 1 hour increments starting at 10am and going until 6pm. That gives me about 48 Slots. Currently, I'm about half booked and calls and e-mails are coming in daily..... I will be offering Prints, Printed Christmas Cards as well as Website Size Images and Website Size Christmas Card Images for Clients to e-mail to friends and family.

All Lighting is done with Photogenic 1250DR Monolights and PhotoFlex Modifiers supported by Calumet Heavy Duty 12' Light Stands.....

[janikphoto]

That would be funny if you sent out the card without any family members in it, like the sample above. It would probably confuse quite a few people on your mailing list!

[andyz]

Seems like a really nice setup, complimenting your iPhone 3Gs, shown in your equipment. :)

Seriously, thanks for sharing.

[DoublyDan]

All I can say is WOW.

7' ? Damn that is soooo cool! I want one! How many individuals does this light (well) without too much variation?

Thanks for sharing!

[Daniel W.]

@Daniel, it'd depend on how they were positioned.

Thanks so much for sharing this!

[DoublyDan]

I was referring to the Main/Key light. I was wondering since its 7 foot how big of a group would that be good for? How many people it would light evenly (I know that you would have to adjust the light and the people...duh) but if he had used it for group shots what was the largest he had shot successfully with that particular light as his key.

The reason I was asking was because I was shooting some portraits yesterday with my largest key (its a 1000w and the softbox is 32x32) I am now worried about future group shots as this 32x32 may be small.

[spaniard]

Great Job Mark!! Love your setup. Really like the way the colors came together....

Where can I get a copy of the final Postcard action.

[The Loft Studios]

That would be funny if you sent out the card without any family members in it, like the sample above. It would probably confuse quite a few people on your mailing list!

LOL..... Yep, it would be HILARIOUS.

I was referring to the Main/Key light. I was wondering since its 7 foot how big of a group would that be good for? How many people it would light evenly (I know that you would have to adjust the light and the people...duh) but if he had used it for group shots what was the largest he had shot successfully with that particular light as his key.

The reason I was asking was because I was shooting some portraits yesterday with my largest key (its a 1000w and the softbox is 32x32) I am now worried about future group shots as this 32x32 may be small.

If you had the right amount of Power (watt/seconds) it could light a gym full of people. When it comes to groups, it's more about the power of your lights then anything else. We shoot all of our Proms and Homecomings with 2 - 45" Umbrellas with 500w/s Flash Systems up to 800w/s Flash Systems. And we'll shoot anywhere from an individual to up to 20 people on the set. I recently had to shoot a High School Faculty of over 300 Teachers in their school gym and I used NO MODIFIERS what so ever. What I did use were 3 1000ws Monolights set to FULL POWER (A Total of 3000ws of Power) just using the standard parabolic reflector on 12' Light Stands raised as high as they would go. I had to angle each light at a specific angle so that the Teachers in the front row received the same meter reading as the Teachers 50' away at the back top row. I shot at ISO 400 at an exposure setting of 1/60 sec. @ f/11. And using the Focus Rule of 1/3 In & 2/3's Out, I focused approximately 1/3 of the way into the crowd to maximized my Depth of Field. The Images came out beautifully and the Principle loved them so much, he ordered a 30x40 to be hung in the main front office of the school. I got a chance to see the year's before shot and it was HORRIFIC!!! The people in the front row was slightly over exposed the couple of middle rows exposure was good and the last 5-6 upper back rows at the top were so dark..... you couldn't distinguish one person from another. So, my point is sometimes it not always about the light modifier, but about your power, especially when it comes to large groups.

Great Job Mark!! Love your setup. Really like the way the colors came together....

Where can I get a copy of the final Postcard action.

I have so many Templates (Christmas, New Years, Easter, etc....) that I have made and also have ordered over the last couple of years, I'm really not sure. But if I had to guess, I believe this one came from Miller's Lab.

[Kev]

I like the setup.. hide the tags on the two pillows on the viewer's left side before your shoot just in case!

[J Eddington]

That would be funny if you sent out the card without any family members in it, like the sample above. It would probably confuse quite a few people on your mailing list!

OK I was confused, cause I thought it was a cool card. I would send it out in a heart beat. All it is missing is clients. AND that is exactly is what I would say to get them to come in and use the new set.

[darktiger]

This is a awesome setup Mark.

[darktiger]

So Mark, what is lighting the background? The main light or ambient light.

[The Loft Studios]

The Main Light is actually lighting the WHOLE scene.....
It's such a HUGE light source that I'm only losing about 2/3 stop of light from the Subject to the Background.

[Robin Binder]

I love the portrait family you did of this one. two thumbs up.

[darktiger]

Nice, I would love to build something similar for my home...