Lighting for Group Photos

[Headshotzx]

Hi guys, just wanted some comments and advice on how you'd light group shots.

Recently, I had to shoot the rehearsal of a school play at the Arts House. Once the rehearsal was done, I had only 5mins to setup and shoot a (few) group photographs.

I had three flashes: 580EXII (Reflective umbrella 43"), SB800 (2x2' Softbox) and 430EXII (direct flash), plus quite bright ambient warm stage lighting so I could balance the flash with ambient. 580EXII to camera right, SB800 camera left, 430EXII from behind (wanted a hair-light). All on full power 1/1. Triggered by radio transmitters from Ruby.

For the first shot, I was to shoot a group of 34 people (cast and crew). It was a really really small space, so my umbrella was 4-5m from group, softbox was 3-4m, and the direct flash hairlight was 3m from the back of the group.



I quite like how it turned out, but i've gotta be picky with how the light was. The balancing with the ambient was correct to me, but the group was sort of unevenly lit by the key flashes, with the extreme sides being underexposed at least 2/3 stops. The hairlight proved to be too near to the group, and I couldn't have another flash for a second hairlight.

So my question here is, assuming I can't move the flashes any further back from the group due to space restrictions, how would I get the group evenly lit. From how I angled the key flashes, they were mostly pointed about 2 to 3 people away from the middle on their respective sides.

Also, assuming I can't get a second hairlight flash due to budget constraints (school wouldn't even spend a bit for me to rent a 5D classic, even though I said I would be able to shoot even better i.e. 70-200 on FF in confined space = awesome), how would I get the entire back row to have at least a bit of a hair light so that their hair doesn't blend into the dark background? I have a 5in1 reflector, so maybe I could've bounced the direct flash off the reflector and into the back row?

Other group photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/headsho...7618312700916/

Any help here would be good (:

Cheers,
Zexun

[blurry80]

I'm not sure but here goes the stage has some lights can that be used for hairlights?

[Headshotzx]

Originally Posted by blurry80 I'm not sure but here goes the stage has some lights can that be used for hairlights?

OMG why didn't I think of that.

[reachme2003]

as TS said that he had 5 mins to setup, i cannot imagine how you could make use of the stagelights for "hairlight effect"?

personally, i think you are trying to 'overachieve', given the constraints of the shoot. one umbrella, one direct and one softbox used. wow! you actually make it more complex with your 'overachieve' effort.

[blurry80]

I was thinking like a holler to the lighting control guy to turn on the flood lights of some sort(depends though i believe the stage should have them) and use 2x speedlites to light from behind with umbrellas should be fast and simple.