How to light this shoot??

Hi

I have a shoot to do soon in a blacksmiths workshop, obviously with anvil and forge revved up etc. The natural lighting isnt that great, though i can open a couple of large doors to help.

I have some old(ish) non dedicated flashes, Vivitar 285 etc and intend to try and use three or four angle poise lamps. Will this be enough? I have never done this sort of photography before, as its my brother there is no pressure really but i could do with some advice on how to approach this without spending a fortune on lighting.

Thanks

Could be very tricky, I would suggest trying to leave any hot spots from the forge out of the frame, avoid flash and try with the lamps first, shoot RAW so you can play with the white balance later.

When you feel more adventurous try including the forge, but be warned this will tend to either upset your cameras meter and underexpose everyting else or the shot will be OK but the hot spots fron the forge will be totally burned out.

I took a picture in a blacksmith's workshop some time ago (located in Mystic, Connecticut):

[IMG]http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee91/terje-l/blacksmith_2.jpg[/IMG]

Dare I say it was taken with a C***n PowerShot 45, using the internal flash. Even so, the flames in the forge are clearly visible, as is the red-hot iron.

My point is, the setup doesn't have to be elaborate to get a pleasant shot...

sounds like you got plenty of light... all diferent colors.....

here's what I'd try....
using mirrors/silver reflectors to bounce some light through those doors into your subject area....
try to get a decent balance with the hot metal/ fire so you can get some detial in the shadows. Use your lamps too light up any dark area (indirect/bounced is best)...(try to get within two stops of the brightest highlights, (the fire.)...
now use your vivitars (with snoots, and/or difusers to light your main subject (seperation and key). Ideally your key light will be bright enough to allow your highlights in the fire to not blow out.... remember shutter controls ambient exposure, aperture controls flash exposure.
establish your ambient exposure setting first, then add your flashes set up to 1/2 to 2 stops brighter than your ambient depending on how you want the final image to look.

IS
Thanks, I'll try without flash unless I need a litle fill in somewhere. Hadn't considered hot spots (not sure why but i hadn't).So I'll try many options of composition and take my laptop to see how well its going.
I always shoot in RAW anyway, so thats no problem.
Cheers for the tips.

Terje, nice photo, thanks for the confidence boost.

Don, lots of ideas to work on there, I'll definitely try the mirrors and lighting the shadows and diffusing the flashes.

Never really used flash except on Bulb when underground so Im not really sure how you set up flashes tbh.

Thanks guys

do everything on manual.

here's an idea I slapped together for you:
my fire wasn't really going yet and Gerri was not really into being photo'd, so it may not be the greatest.
using a long shutter speed (2 seconds), mixed lighting sources (one halogen lamp, bounced to raise ambient levels, just below the light levels of the flames), keylight flash gelled orange, one direct from 45 deg to Gerri's right, the other (seperation/hairlight) snooted and gelled from 45 degs behind Gerri (beside the xmas tree) both set to 2 stops brighter than the ambient.

the ambient light in this case was actually fairly well lit, easily bright enough for manual focussing, but appears darker in the image due to underexposure. the aperture was set to get a good exposure off the flash. (key light) f9 in this case.



sounds more complicated than it is. took ten minutes to set up, and get the shot.
now I could remove the gells, set balance for daylight and have the fire looking more red/orange if I wanted...but the xmas tree lights would be off. that is the challenge with mixing lightsources!
if you want to get photoshoppy, you could process the image twice with two different color balances, overlay them in photoshop, and get red/orange back in the fire while keeping the xmas lights on incandesent.....

Cheers Don
Lots of scope for trials there, it may be a couple of weeks but I'll let you know how i get on.

that's the key to it all, trying things and having fun.
I find when playing with flash, and I hope my image above helps to convey it, is this...
it's really challenging, to light a scene in such a way as to get decent imagery, without having it look like it was flash....

A shutter speed of 2 seconds sounds rather long. Especially if the blacksmith is working. You should try flash to freeze movement.

good point, I was hoping to get some movement in a fire that just wasn't going very well,, and xmas tree lights at f9...

but the flash is on the subject, and should freeze motion fairly well, depends on the ambient light....if you could block the ambient off the subject...it would work no matter how long the exposure...

so in my set up above, dimming the ambient, dimming the flash output and then opening up the f-stop, and dialing in a faster shutter speed would be a good idea for a moving subject! provided you can keep the highlights in the fire from blowing out....



I was sharing general ideas about mixing the lighsources the op had on hand for the shot he was planning...
fire, incandescent, and some type of daylight.....