How to shoot in low lighting with very high ceilings?

[sylvester88]

Hi guys,
any advice to shoot crowds in a hall with low lighting & very high ceilings?
does gary fong lightsphere helps me to achive good photos in those environment?
or what other accessories can i fit with my speedlight for this type of shoot.
cheers!

 

[Chris Lim]

you can try to +ev on the flash and bounce the flash away from the subject and in the direction of where your subject is facing.

 

[catchlights]

high ceiling is equal to no ceiling, bounce you light and the light will not return.

shoot direct flash and aim the flash head to a further area, this will feather the light and get more even illuminated on near and far areas.

if don't understand, Google "feathering the light, photography"

 

[zac08]

Direct flash (with lowered EV) or bounce it off the walls....

 

[Snoweagle]

I use my WhaleTail, works all the time.

 

[nixontkl]

use a bounce card simple. best is that your bounce card is adjustable (demi pro bounce card) else DIY. my bounce card is a variable angle DIY white PVC bounce card. help diffuser light abit while allowing me to adjust the amount of light i want to push forward at my subject and how much to bounce off ceiling.

whale tail is combination of bounce card and omni bounce diffuser (works well in almost all situation but drain your batts faster as it work your flash harder, but hey if it works and u got many spare batts its OK )

 

[JoshSiao]

Depends, I have shot in such a condition in an auditorium with a 2.5 storey high ceilling that was white in colour for some ceremony (College Day) but I didnt keep the shots, its with the school. Its not true that the light wont bounce back. I just set my flash to the vertical position, and manually set the zoom of the flash to the highest focal length and upped the firing power by +2 EV. Light went up and bounced back down. I also had a white bounce card to force some light forward. In this case it worked becasue the background stage lighting was not set too bright that the background light and the light from my bounced flash evened out nicely. The area infront of the subject is the main auditorium which has the lights very very dim.

 

[Snoweagle]

use a bounce card simple. best is that your bounce card is adjustable (demi pro bounce card) else DIY. my bounce card is a variable angle DIY white PVC bounce card. help diffuser light abit while allowing me to adjust the amount of light i want to push forward at my subject and how much to bounce off ceiling.

whale tail is combination of bounce card and omni bounce diffuser (works well in almost all situation but drain your batts faster as it work your flash harder, but hey if it works and u got many spare batts its OK )

I've ever taken an event with my WhaleTail on my flash and lasted 928 shots until batts become completely weak.

 

[nixontkl]

I've ever taken an event with my WhaleTail on my flash and lasted 928 shots until batts become completely weak.

WOW 928!!! u using just the 4x AA or a battery pack?

well my flash (SB600) used to run out of battery quite fast when I was using my D80, many a times the flash is fired off at full power, but now on D700, the higher ISO help cut back alot on the flash power needed to achieve the require lighting, extending my flash battery quite alot, some times even no flash LOL.

 

[Clown]

if you're shooting CROWDS in general, get a large aperture ultrawide angle lens. flash isnt gonna cut it unless you have set the place up with strobes bouncing off the ceilings covering the areas you wanna shoot.

 

[Snoweagle]

WOW 928!!! u using just the 4x AA or a battery pack?

well my flash (SB600) used to run out of battery quite fast when I was using my D80, many a times the flash is fired off at full power, but now on D700, the higher ISO help cut back alot on the flash power needed to achieve the require lighting, extending my flash battery quite alot, some times even no flash LOL.

Just by using 4 x AA (Sanyo Eneloops) in ETTL mode on the speedlite. Batts used are fully charged from use and then fully depleted.