Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

Hi,

I'm thinking of purchasing two Einsteins with two large PLB's for a shoot in NYC.
It's only for one photo but its a photo of 200 people for an event in central park.
I was thinking of getting the vag mini's (one for each) setting them up high on c-stands and cross lighting them from a bridge looking down onto the group.
Does anyone have any suggestions or see any problems with this?
Will the two lights be powerful enough? I'm shooting around sunset, maybe a little bit before, and have a 5D mark II, so I don't mind pushing the iso to 1600 - the largest print will be 8x10's as a party favor.

Thanks for all your input!

I believe you can do this with PLMs. How far will the lights be from the group?

probably about 80 to 100 feet from the first row. I was thinking 7 to 10 rows of 20 people. Shooting from up on a bridge so I'm thinking I can get away with 2.8 or 4 on a 24mm. I'm bringing a 17-40 just in case but will avoid anything wider due to distortion.

Do the PLM's make more sense than standard umbrellas?

Have you seen Rob Galbraith's PLM review where he used them to shoot team photos? http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-10046-10396

PLM™s out put 4 times (New Soft Silver) to 16 times (Extreme Silver) as much light as standard umbrella or softboxes. From 80-100 feet you won't even see the light from a standard umbrella or softbox without 5000WS power packs. Only a tiny portion of it will light the subject . . . the rest will be way wider than your lens and light the periphery and be wasted.

You could also consider 11" Long Throw Reflectors to concentrate the light onto the group.

What about using some 22HOBD

Thanks guys. So what's the conclusion? Should I be thinking 2 86" soft silver?
I was thinking white with a black back and shoot at ISO 800 at sunset - too little power?
Will probably get 7" reflectors just in case as well - do you think there will be a difference at that distance? I will pickup a digital distance measure from home depot this afternoon and try to get a rough measurement tomorrow as for the distance to the front row.


Other option is to skip the purchase and rent some Profoto Acute 1200 or 2400 packs for the job. It does not solve the modifier question however. Large parabolic? Silver vs. White? or Reflector since I am so far away.

I really do appreciate all of your help and sorry if I am pushing to get more info, I'm just honestly trying to find out what is the best tool for the job. I want to make sure this goes well and avoid any problems that can avoided by drawing the knowledge and experience of anyone who has done this before (and possible made mistakes that I can learn from so I can avoid making the same!).

Thanks again.

White will not be of much use, scatters way to much. The link above to Rob Galbraith shows 3 bright silver PLMs, 64" versions. However, at the distances being considered, 86, 64, or 51 inch versions will produce the same amount of light on target, with the larger ones catching more wind. 22 HOBD (silver) are also popular for high output needs.