Tips for shooting full length portraits?

[eurotrash]

so this weekend im scheduled to shoot a number of models modeling some kind of Italian dresses and suits. there will be a MUA, but i have to bring my lighting and backdrops to their dance studio. i have been successful with partial length and headshot stuff, but i might have some trouble with full length. My questions are: our white backdrop is a little crinkled and old, and with the other stuff its easy to get nice background blur, but with full length its touch and go. Also with the lighting i usually use 2 AB800's with octaboxes...dont know if that will light the whole body. any tips in general would be great.

[srwatters]

Remember that light from the octoboxes will spread the further you place them from the model. You get more coverage, but at the expense of softness and wrap of the light. I have the same issue with my 4x6 softbox. It's great for 3/4 length portraits, but in my shooting area, I can't back it up to get more coverage. Last week I rented a 54x72" box and was able to place it as close as 3' from the model and still got full head to toe coverage in VERY soft light. So there you have the tradeoff. If you have to keep the light close to the subject, you can stack both octoboxes to get the coverage. I've done that too. YMMV.

[eurotrash]

Originally Posted by srwatters

Remember that light from the octoboxes will spread the further you place them from the model. You get more coverage, but at the expense of softness and wrap of the light. I have the same issue with my 4x6 softbox. It's great for 3/4 length portraits, but in my shooting area, I can't back it up to get more coverage. Last week I rented a 54x72" box and was able to place it as close as 3' from the model and still got full head to toe coverage in VERY soft light. So there you have the tradeoff. If you have to keep the light close to the subject, you can stack both octoboxes to get the coverage. I've done that too. YMMV.

thanks scott. i might have to try to stack the boxes... keep em commin.

[dorkn]

Maybe try using a 7 foot tall diffusion panel with black spill panels. That way you have a tall narrow panel to diffuse your light and the black panesl to keep light spill down.



http://www.lightingmagic.com/difpanel.htm

[Digital Prophet]

You know, whenever I see big diffusion panels I think that myself "That is a job for hot lights." I don't know, it just seems that continuous lighting is an easier thing to work with in these conditions. Especially when you are using a huge panel with multiple lights.

Maybe it's just me. I don't know. But considering the reasonable price of shop lights, PVC and fabric I can't see what the harm would be. But hey, what do I know?

- Digital Prophet -

[eurotrash]

thanks guys. i ended up using my alienbees, one octabox and a 4' x 6' chimera softbox.

turned out pretty well i think. check the "people" section for my thread with the resulting images.

"jumping models"

[eurotrash]

Originally Posted by sango

My apology, I posted in a wrong thread.

no problem