Paul C. Buff, Inc. Technical Forum

I'm shooting an awards event at a downtown arts theatre saturday, my hope was to use my new Einstein and PLM to light a main stage where people are going up to recieve awards for sports.
the stage itself is 40' wide (and for this effort) 20' deep at most
The balcony where i want to setup the lighting will not be occupied and is approx 50' away from and 20' above the main stage. Will the PLM/Einstein combo allow me to send enough light to a poorly lit stage to shoot at f5.6 @ 1/80 or better?
Gear is Canon 7D, f2.8 lenses, onboard 580ex flash (for fill). I'll be shooting from various postions on the main floor close to the stage (not balcony).

I also have access to AB400 and a wack of speedlights with triggers.

I'll beta test it saturday a few hrs prior to the event, but would like to know if this is possible or if it have to go down a different path.

thanks,
Don

Based on the Output specs they have for the 86" Extreme Silver it says F32 for 14 feet which equals 448 guide number. Distance you mentioned, 50' and 20' up would be 54' to subject. 448/5.6 = 80'. Coverage should be 8' at 14', about 31' at 54'. Question is will your 580Ex be able to trigger it from below and if anyone else is shooting flash on their P&S also trigger it?

thanks much for the numbers. my 580 will be on the hotshoe but either my Cybercommander or my CST will be attached by cable to the 7D as well, and that will be able to fire the main lights up in the balcony.

You will have plenty of light, but the PLM pattern may be too narrow for that wide of a coverage. If it is, you could try to defocus it, but that may become uneven.

Or you use the 8.5" reflector. At 50'+, both the reflector and the PLM are close to behaving like a point source and will give noticeable shadows. Or even the 7" reflector and get a direct component plus a bounce off the ceiling.

I would treat the stage as shooting a big portrait. Light it from left and right sides of the balcony (use both E640 + AB400). You want each one to cover the whole stage, and overlap to fill shadows and give depth.
Probably won't use the speedlight at all. Or maybe at a very low power. Thinking that would take all the shadows out and make the shots look too flat.

Sync at 1/250 to have your light control the illumination, not the ambient. When you can control every aspect of the lighting, your work is predictable and consistent.