Help with lighting setup

I've been asked by a friend to do a sexy/fashion-eque shot of her, she
wants it full length, in colour and of her lying on a grand piano
(she's a music student). The shot will be facing the piano with her
lying on top above teh keys. Here are the poses I'm thinking of using:

http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/IGS/IGS193/IS059-006.jpg
http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/DGV/DGV419/692024.jpg

I'm usually a landscape guy and I have only ever done some portrait
pics with window light and reflectors. I've got access to two 250w
strobes (with modeling lights), 2 white umbrellas, maybe a softbox, a
background roll and a flash meter. I have a mamiya rb67 with 90mm and
180mm lenses, a nikon FM with 50mm and 135mm, a good tripod and maybe
access to a canon D300. The room with the piano has no windows and is
pretty big.

I'm undecided as to wheather to shoot astia or reala, it might be hard
to get the detail of the black piano with slide though, so I'm leaning
towards reala. Any better sugesstions? The end result will be prints
and I expect there to be some retouching in photoshop so the
slides/negs will have to be scanned.

I'm going to shoot with both the mamiya and the nikon since from my
experiance with portriats I have to shoot a lot of film to get a shot
with the right expression/look and I can't afford the film and the
price for scanning and printing to shoot 70 frames of 120. If I can
get the D300 and work out beforehand how to use it it will help me
check the lighting.

My main hurdle is the lighting setup, I don't really have a clue as to
what setup to use for a model lying down? Which lenses should I use
for the nikon and the mamiya?

Any help with this would be of great! If I mess it up I can always
re-shoot but I'd rather not have to.

I've been asked by a friend to do a sexy/fashion-eque shot of her, she
wants it full length, in colour and of her lying on a grand piano
(she's a music student). The shot will be facing the piano with her
lying on top above teh keys. Here are the poses I'm thinking of using:

http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/IGS/IGS193/IS059-006.jpg
http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/DGV/DGV419/692024.jpg

I'm usually a landscape guy and I have only ever done some portrait
pics with window light and reflectors. I've got access to two 250w
strobes (with modeling lights), 2 white umbrellas, maybe a softbox, a
background roll and a flash meter. I have a mamiya rb67 with 90mm and
180mm lenses, a nikon FM with 50mm and 135mm, a good tripod and maybe
access to a canon D300. The room with the piano has no windows and is
pretty big.

I'm undecided as to wheather to shoot astia or reala, it might be hard
to get the detail of the black piano with slide though, so I'm leaning
towards reala. Any better sugesstions? The end result will be prints
and I expect there to be some retouching in photoshop so the
slides/negs will have to be scanned.

I'm going to shoot with both the mamiya and the nikon since from my
experiance with portriats I have to shoot a lot of film to get a shot
with the right expression/look and I can't afford the film and the
price for scanning and printing to shoot 70 frames of 120. If I can
get the D300 and work out beforehand how to use it it will help me
check the lighting.

My main hurdle is the lighting setup, I don't really have a clue as to
what setup to use for a model lying down? Which lenses should I use
for the nikon and the mamiya?

Any help with this would be of great! If I mess it up I can always
re-shoot but I'd rather not have to.

well first lets look at the photos you site as an example (and starting this
way, either from web or tearing out photos and ads from magazines is a great
way to start)

you have subjects lying down on a large surface lit by? seems like it
could be a large window, or skylight in the other.

so take your flash and bounce off the ceiling, this will give a large light
source from overhead, heck depending on how high the ceiling is I might
start with the heads on the floor so they hit a larger area over the subject
area. or bounce off a side wall.

with a large soft light you won't have to worry about the piano. heck they
always look like a large black slab. and black is black, the only way to
get some sense of shape and detail is put a large soft light on it and let
the texture, and even if it is a very smooth finish the reflection of a huge
soft light will reveal the shape of it.

see if you can borrow a polaroid back for your RB. they are probably cheap
enough on ebay now.

this reply is echoed to the z-prophoto mailing list at yahoogroups.com

BIG SNIPS

with a large soft light you won't have to worry about the piano. heck they
always look like a large black slab. and black is black, the only way to
get some sense of shape and detail is put a large soft light on it and let
the texture,

"let the texture" -this doesn't quite make sense to me... Did you mean "light
the texture" or, perhaps, "let the texture ______" (let the texture do
something/you fill in the blank). Could you please explain? Thanks :-).

and even if it is a very smooth finish the reflection of a
huge
soft light will reveal the shape of it.



Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION":

http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm

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"Lewis Lang" wrote in message
...
BIG SNIPS

with a large soft light you won't have to worry about the piano. heck
they
always look like a large black slab. and black is black, the only way to
get some sense of shape and detail is put a large soft light on it and
let
the texture,

"let the texture" -this doesn't quite make sense to me... Did you mean
"light
the texture" or, perhaps, "let the texture ______" (let the texture do
something/you fill in the blank). Could you please explain? Thanks :-).

and even if it is a very smooth finish the reflection of a
huge
soft light will reveal the shape of it.



let the texture ______" reveal itself. Photograph an 8 ball with a flat
light and you only see a round thing with a highlight in the middle, put it
on the side an you will have a specular highlight and maybe some
differentiation between the highlight and shadow side. put a big soft
light on it and the spread of the specular highlight from a blocked up pin
point to a large soft highlight will reveal more information to the eye
about the shape of it, and the texture, or lack of it, will tell us what it
is. now put a purse or some shoes there. Each bump of texture will reveal
itself by the highlight.


Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION":

http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm

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Subject: Help with lighting setup
From: "zeitgeist"
Date: Tue, Apr 20, 2004 1:38 AM
Message-id: oH2hc.175602$JO3.102508@attbi_s04


"Lewis Lang" wrote in message
...
BIG SNIPS

with a large soft light you won't have to worry about the piano. heck
they
always look like a large black slab. and black is black, the only way
to
get some sense of shape and detail is put a large soft light on it and
let
the texture,

"let the texture" -this doesn't quite make sense to me... Did you mean
"light
the texture" or, perhaps, "let the texture ______" (let the texture do
something/you fill in the blank). Could you please explain? Thanks :-).

and even if it is a very smooth finish the reflection of a
huge
soft light will reveal the shape of it.



let the texture ______" reveal itself. Photograph an 8 ball with a flat
light and you only see a round thing with a highlight in the middle, put
it
on the side an you will have a specular highlight and maybe some
differentiation between the highlight and shadow side. put a big soft
light on it and the spread of the specular highlight from a blocked up pin
point to a large soft highlight will reveal more information to the eye
about the shape of it, and the texture, or lack of it, will tell us what
it
is. now put a purse or some shoes there. Each bump of texture will reveal
itself by the highlight.


Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION":

http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm

Remove "nospam" to reply

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Thanks for explaining things to me zeitgeist :-).

Check out my photos at "LEWISVISION":

http://members.aol.com/Lewisvisn/home.htm

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