Christmas Family Portrait help

[chhall]

Hi everyone. First post here. I'm new to photography. I aquired an old Canon T70 35mm a couple of years ago from my father (he's been into photography for awhile now). I became familiar with the basics of photography - shutter speed, aperture, etc - but never went very far with it. I'm trying again. I just picked up a Nikon D3000 DSLR at the suggestion of my dad. He hooked me up with an 18-300mm lens, to slave flashes, some remote firing things for the flashes, the controller for the remotes that sits in the hot shoe, some light stands, and some diffusing umbrellas. He went over all of it and explained how it all works.

Anyways, I want to take a Christmas portrait of my wife, child, and myself in front of the christmas tree. I'm wanting to learn how to do all this stuff, but want to try and get a good photo for Christmas cards, and am afraid I won't be able to get everything right on my own in time. So I'm looking to you guys for help. I have the two studio lights setup, a christmas tree and 3 people I need a picture of. I'm looking for a softening of the tree (low depth of field??) behind us, with the tree lights as bright as possible. Can anyone provide me some suggestions on how to use the equipment I have to get the best picture possible? Only natural light I care about is from the tree.

[toverman]

To have your subjects sharp (the three of you) against a slightly blurred tree, you'll want to have some distance between your subjects and the tree. The typical term is a "shallow" depth of field, which isolates a subject from the background. Also, if you have room to set it up this way, using the longer end of your lens will enhance that effect, as well as using the widest aperture possible. Then you'll want to drag the shutter (slow the speed below the maximum sync speed), which will let the ambient lights from the tree shine in the image.

It can be a little tricky getting the lighting the way you want, but with a DSLR you have instant feedback. If you have the right connectors and software, you could even tether your camera to a computer to make sure you have exactly what you want before calling it a day.

[chhall]

Thanks! Can you elaborate on dragging the shutter? Not sure what you mean by this. I've got photoshop elements and have worked with photoshop for many years, tinkering and learning how to use it, so I'm comfortable with doing a little bit of post processing.

[toverman]

Your camera has a maximum sync speed with your flashes. Dragging the shutter means to slow the shutter below that speed (sometimes well below it) so that you can capture more of the ambient light in your image as well. Because your camera will have to be on a tripod/steady surface anyhow, you might see what slowing the shutter to 1/60th or slower will do. You might have to reduce power on the flashes, but playing with all of it will be half the fun.

How hold is your child? The squirm factor and possible loss of patience are the biggest challenges with some kids, especially at particular ages!

[chhall]

15 months, so yeah. That is a concern. I'll see what we can pull off! The remote flashes go down to 1/16th power and i was already planning on setting them there. Also pointing them towards the ceiling. So looking at 100mm zoom or so, f/3.5, and 1/60 shutter. I'm assuming ISO 200 (not entirely sure how that works yet but understand that the higher, the less quality but more light sensitivity, so I've been told to keep it low).

[toverman]

Biggest thing with higher ISOs is the "noise" (called "grain" in film) that occurs, especially in dark or underexposed areas. It can show up as little dots on your images. Definitely, start as low as you can go and work your way up.

The latest mid-range and top camera bodies are getting better and better at handling and reducing noise at high ISOs. The Nikon D3s shoots at more than 100,000 ISO (as does the Canon 1D Mark IV). My older digital SLRs go up to ISO 3200.

[chhall]

Thanks so much for your help! I'll be sure and post any good pictures that come out of the session!

[toverman]

You probably already thought of this, but with a child that young, test your lighting and composition with just your wife serving as the model. Practice joining the image and see how much time you have to adjust (unless you have a remote). Then add your kid!

[David Whatley]

Chris, take a shot with just the tree lights on, and see what your settings are. if at night, I'm gonna guess, iso 400, 1/30th 3.5
If that is the case, try adding 1 light and you might want to make a "snoot" to reduce the light to just the tree and subjects. Set the light to low power and you may need it say 15' from the subjects. The idea is to add just enough "kicker" light to get to 1/60 or 125 sec and maybe iso 200 and still have the tree lights on.