Hi, I will have a bridal ware shooting in a hotel room tomorrow. It is going to be cloudy, rain and the light from outside is low during daytime here in Helsinki. We are going to be on the 9th floor and it is no balcony outside.

The lights I have:

1 pcs Elincrhom Ranger RX
3 pcs Canon Speelite
reflectors

I thought I will use my tripod and use a shutter speed of 1/60 s so I burn in some ambient light. Use my powerful Elinchrom with a softbox and set it up close to the windows, bounce one speed light up of the ceiling.

Do you have any other suggestions or do you think it could work?

Hi Robert...is this a fashion shoot or are you covering a fashion show, like a runway show?

How will you fire the Canon's in conjunction with the Ranger?

You might not want to use the tripod much it might constrict your movements in shooting...the model will probably have a set of "moves" she'll cycle through...The tripod may hinder you, but definitely try it...

Post some pics when you have a chance?

Goodluck!

Paul

Sounds like a nice plan to simulate window light.

Paul, it was a bridal story with models, not a real wedding. I used tripod and sometimes not. It was a tricky task to do, outside it was clowdy and dark. I triggered my Canon flashes with ST-E2 transmitter.

My pictures looks quite off from camera, wb off exposure off and so on. I used a handheld meter, took new reading from every scen and set custom white balance.

I am not satisfied with my shooting. Hopefully I will find some pictures that I can use.

Best

Robert

Robert,

What spefically were you unhappy with? The window shot was tough because you were dragging the shutter to get some of the ambient light in the room. You'd have to shoot faster to record any detail from the bright [albeit cloudy] outdoors. At that point it is either a tradeoff or a situation where you shoot the scene without the models at a different exposure and create a composite image in post.

I liked the bed shot but the legs on the brunette bother me. Try having her turn her ankle out a little more to create a more flattering line.

At that point it is either a tradeoff or a situation where you shoot the scene without the models at a different exposure and create a composite image in post.

Thanks Stephen, I will have that in mind to next time. If my God are with me I might get some pictures submitted in a wedding magazine for the April issue, so I thought white in the window looks better when it is cloudy outside. But I think I cannot live up to the expectation of what the supported companies are expecting to get. You see, a designer have made the dresses, an model agency have provided me with models, a jeweller was there with jewelries worth of $25.000, florist send the flower and a retailer send us a champagne bottles and the hotel let me use the suite (one night $700), stylist was there, a makeup artist as well and a journalist - all for free. And my pictures doesn't look that luxury.

The mistake I made is that I should have moved around more with my models and changed scene more often then I did. I was so concentrated on getting light and the mood in the pictures right so I forgot to move around.

I also should have let the bride change to an other dress that we had with us, even if the stylist did'nt want that. So now with two outfits there are only pictures for two pages

I really like that you help me with some suggestions but today I have the pictures I've got. It will help to the next time.