2 SB800s, 1 D70 and a short prayer!

[kirsty]

Hello everyone and Happy New Year from bonny Scotland!

Your group is an amazing fund of information as well as a good giggle!

I have a big question that I have posted in tips and tricks too.

I have landed (by accident) a large Charity Event in February. The set up will be 600 or so guests at a dinner, charity auction/fund-raiser and dance with band. The organiser wanted me to take formal shots of guests during the reception and then some candids during the rest of the night, without being intrusive!

After lots of thought and panic attacks, I have decided to set up an area in the reception/lobby and take formals of the guests arriving. I have also decided to use 2 SB800s instead of carting a studio light set-up with me (I don't have one, that's why!). One SB800 will be on a flash bracket on the D70 and the other will be on a stand with a diffuser umbrella.

The question is, what happens next? I think I have to set the light on the stand as master and the other one as fill?? I need an SC29 cable and I have also bought a sekonic L358 (although some folks say the SB800 reads the light for you). As you can tell, I'm a bit confused and hope that someone could take me through this step by step including the best place to position the 2 lights.

Many many thanks,

Kirsty

[Geoff]

Hi Kirsty and welcome to the group. My answer/reply is not the one you will be looking for as I have little/no expertise in the area of your question, but I will say however, keep a very close eye on the forum + your question inparticular and you will more than likely have an answer in no time at all. Good luck with your job and hope it all goes well. JordanP from this forum MAY be able to help you out here!

Cheers,

Geoff.

[birddog114]

After lots of thought and panic attacks, I have decided to set up an area in the reception/lobby and take formals of the guests arriving. I have also decided to use 2 SB800s instead of carting a studio light set-up with me (I don't have one, that's why!). One SB800 will be on a flash bracket on the D70 and the other will be on a stand with a diffuser umbrella.

The question is, what happens next? I think I have to set the light on the stand as master and the other one as fill?? I need an SC29 cable and I have also bought a sekonic L358 (although some folks say the SB800 reads the light for you). As you can tell, I'm a bit confused and hope that someone could take me through this step by step including the best place to position the 2 lights.

Many many thanks,

Kirsty

Welcome to the forum kirsty and congrat on doing a job as mentioned, to set up two flashes as master and slave, Onyx and Gary may contribute more on these answer, Gary has one type of setup.
You may use two SB-800s as slave and the onboard flash as master when you want to do the formal of the guesses arrival.
What flash bracket are you using? RRS? Stroboframe? etc...
Depend on what flash bracket and lens the SB-29 is un-useable due to the blocking of the IR on the mount.

With the SB-800s you won't need the sekonic L-358, just simply use the Pringle cap or Expodisc for white balance and Preset in WB setup (WB Tutorial in Tutorial section) then you'll be OK, if you can get an Expodisc Digital Wamer Balance Filter and do Preset with WB of the D70, the result is more better with skin tone.
Shoot NEF 100%.
All that I can say, and believe someone will give you more hints, helps later.
Good Luck.

[JordanP]

Hi Kirsty,

Welcome to the forum. Not sure if I can help much, but I can tell you about my limited experiences with the SB800 with studio lights etc.

I set-up a mini studio with a friend as we needed to do formal shots for school graduations (we did about 4 of them). To get everything working right was a bit of trial and error. We found that we had to switch the SB800's to manual and manage our light that way. So make some time beforehand at the venue for testing and fine tuning.

As you would know the beauty of digital is that you can rattle off some test shots until it is all good. I would, as you have said, be looking to use the difussed SB800 (umbrella) as the main light and the one bracketed onto the D70 as the secondary. This set-up should work fine unless you have to shoot largish groups. If you have large groups I would consider having both SB800's off camera and using the on-board flash to triger them both. Spaced well this should give you the spread of light you would need.

One thing to be careful of if you do switch to manual is the SB800 you have with you on camera should always be the same distance from the subject - this will probably limit your movement.

There may be a better way using functions in the SB800 I havn't explored yet - so hopefully you will get some more responses to help.

Cheers,

[kirsty]

Great, thanks. The bracket is the only thing I don't have yet, I am having difficulty choosing a bracket so a recommendation for that would be greatly appreciated.

K

[birddog114]

Great, thanks. The bracket is the only thing I don't have yet, I am having difficulty choosing a bracket so a recommendation for that would be greatly appreciated.

K

I have and use RRS flash bracket:
http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/flash/index.html.
Happy man I'm.

[fozzie]

kirsty,

For some reason Birddog 'RRS' link is not working, try this:

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/flash/index.html

We both have the B87-B 'mid-sized flash arm' Portrait Perfect Package as this allows for 70-200VR to be fitted, more working distance around lens.

You will also require a a 'L' bracket (BD70-L) and this can be found at, but select model D70 digital from the menu:

http://www.reallyrightstuff.com/body_pl ... index.html

Hope this helps, and all the very best for your challenge in February.

Cheers,

[kirsty]

I can't get RRS in the UK and can't seem to view their website to see which one is compatible with the SB800. The lens will be either the kit 18-70mm or the 50mm 1.8 (most likely)

What Stroboframe model is compatible?

Thanks a million,

K

[kirsty]

cheers, thanks.

More money....hope I make some soon!

K

[gstark]

Hi Kirsty, and welcome.

Sounds like an interesting challenge. I'm available to come over and help as long as you pay the airfares ex-SYD + accommodation. Maybey schedule a side trip to the Peterhead fish markets along the way?

More seriously, you're on the right track, but watch for light fall-off due to the use of the brollies. Remember that the light will travelling at least an extra four feet just because of the distance to and from the reflective surface. That fact, plus the diffusion of the light, means that your light quality will be good.

For the light that's left over.

You might want to consider a couple of Lumiquest mini soft boxes instead. You'll get a reasonable amount of diffusion, but you don't lose light to extra distances travelled.

Two SB800s in A mode, with mini softboxes, one on each side of you and raised to about 8 or 9 feet pointing into your target area should be a good start. As I said, use A mode (IIRC) on the flash and if you can, f8 on the flash units.

Switch the camera to A mode, set your aperture to f8 (or 9 ... play around a little), bump the saturation a notch and wb to flash -1. Use the on-camera flash to trigger the 800s, set the on camera to -1.3 or -1.7. Again, play around a little, dump some samples to a pc and see what they look like there if you can before you decide on your final settings.

Have fun.

[sirhc55]

I can't get RRS in the UK and can't seem to view their website to see which one is compatible with the SB800. The lens will be either the kit 18-70mm or the 50mm 1.8 (most likely)

What Stroboframe model is compatible?

Thanks a million,

K

Kirsty

I use the Stroboflip and it works well with the SC17 attached

Chris

[Matt. K]

If all that is to complex....set the gun on the stand to F/8 Auto...set the gun on the camera to f/5.6 Auto set the camera to Manual and set 1/125 second at F/8. Fier some test shots and move the gun on the stand until you get some nice modeling. You may not need the umbrella....try some with and some without whilst you are testing. Maybe work the camera from a tripod....but not essential.

[kirsty]

oh thank you, thank you, thank you all! I am very excited now and can't wait to practise!

I had looked at the softboxes before so will seriously consider them.

I wish you could all come and help, you would love Scotland I'm sure (not so sure about Peterheed though - nice fish, bit rough, bad smell!!!)

I will let you know how it all goes but will probably be back on before then with another panic!!

Thanks again..

K

[atencati]

Welcome to the group,

One thing I have not seen posted and is a definite must...bring Lots o batteries! I was shooting portraits the other night and forgo how fast the 800 eats batteries. Good luck, post some pics when you;re done!

Andy PS Birdys link doesn't work because there is a period at the end

[jdear]

kirsty, we never found out how you went! Please share so we can learn!

JD

[kipper]

Kirsty, yes we would love Scotland. I was very disappointed when I didn't get up there at Christmas Guess there is always next time.