Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I am beginning a week long photo shoot, and one of my 3 X1600 burned up this morning. Does anyone know how wide the background reflector will reflect? I hope to call Mon am and order a new unit overnight mail, but I sure would like to be able to take photos Monday rather than cancel 7 classes. I was using 2 of the X1600 with umbrellas lighting a white backdrop and wall, and the 3rd unit has a large softbox which lights the kids. I am trying to light the background which is about 10 to 12 feet wide.
I am in a long narrow room, and can only shoot the short way... I have Canon speedlights, but I was not successful in getting enough light on the background. Any suggestions? Does anyone know if same day shipping is possible?
Thanks, Diane

If you use one of the umbrellas to light the kids in place of your softbox, you'll get more spill onto the background from that light. Maybe then you could use your second light to even out the background - maybe placed low and behind them instead of to the side.

You might even try putting both lights with umbrellas in front of the kids. If you do, put the kids closer to the background than you might have otherwise. That way, there will be less fall-off and the backdrop will stay relatively white. You should be able to eliminate most/any visible shadows with two umbrellas illuminating 12 feet of space. If you wanted some directionality to the light you could vary the power between the two lights but you'd get the same gradient on the background which might not suit your needs. You could try angling both umbrellas in one direction with lights on equal power and maybe get a more subtle gradient depending on wall color/reflectivity.

If a white backdrop isn't a necessity, just light the kids with the softbox +/- umbrella for fill and let the backdrop go to gray or black. It would be easiest to avoid lighting the backdrop if you use the softbox alone. You could accentuate that by moving them farther from the backdrop - especially if using the umbrellas.

How do you trigger your speedlites and x1600's? When you say you couldn't get enough light from the speedlites, were you using them alone or along with the X1600's? To combine them more successfully, you'd want to use the largest aperture that would still keep everyone in focus, push ISO as high as you could without adding unacceptable noise, and reduce the relative power of the X1600's so the speedlites can keep up.