Need advice for photo shoot

[Ratpack]

A friend of ours is having a birthday party for her 6 yo DD and the party will consist of the girls getting their nails done and hair and so forth. Well, she doesn't have a good camera so DW offered me up to take photos of the girls as they put on a "fashion shoot", basically standing in front of a white sheet and using a fan to blow their hair and so forth. The equipment I will have is the Nikon D50, Sb-600 flash, tripod, 50mm 1.8 and 28mm 2.8 lens. I really want to get some good shots of them so the girls can have some keepsakes from the party so any advice is welcome especially setting the camera.

Thanks!

 

[handicap18]

If you can, get a diffuser. It really helps to soften the light. If not, then maybe rigging up some lights to light the sheet to help with shadows from the kids. You'll probably find using the 28mm might be better as the girls will probably want a lot of full body shots and the 50mm will be much to tight with the crop factor, but will be great for head shots.

Maybe, when doing the shots with the fan, playing around with the shutter. Try some slower ones to get the effect of the hair blowing in the wind.

Sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

 

[Lachesis00]

I look forward to seeing some of your shots!

 

[tinksdad]

It would really cool if you could borrow another strobe or two from a friend????

If not, then use some lights on stands or something high to put the light about 18" above the eye level of your subject. Make sure that you consider the white balance of the different lights. If you're using your strobe and incandescent lights you will have some lighting temperature differences.
Some light fill panels would help as well. Maybe some white panels or sheets hung up on the side to reflect some of the light for fill.

If all of that sounds light too much work, use a diffuser on the strobe and bounce it off the ceiling. That will give MUCH better shots and light distribution than a direct flash. Remember to watch the background, don't want it to busy.

Another tip, if you can get them to turn the body away and slightly tilt the head towards the camera the shot look more interesting.

 

[fairestoneofall]

If you do not have access to additional lighting, is this something you could shoot outside? Maybe in open shade by throwing the white backdrop over a fence or something?

Just a thought. It won't be ideal, but neither really is shooting indoors with a flash against a white background.

 

[Miss Kelly]

If you do not have access to additional lighting, is this something you could shoot outside? Maybe in open shade by throwing the white backdrop over a fence or something?

Just a thought. It won't be ideal, but neither really is shooting indoors with a flash against a white background.

Unfortunately, I agree. Been there, done that, turned out awful! If you want the all white background, you really need some strobes. On this photograph, I used 3 strobes. Is this the type of look you are going for?