Portraits - Help!

I've been asked to take pictures of the committee members for a local club. I've not really taken many portraits before and when I have they haven't turned out too good. Any basic help appreciated. I should add that I've been asked to take them early evening so they'll have to be taken in the clubhouse which doesn't have particularly good lighting - a couple of fluorescent tubes and I only have an on-camera flash. Lens choice is kit lens or Tamron 90 Macro on a K5! I do have a tripod and a remote release. I won't have too much time either to take the pics of the 12 or so victims ... I've seen and been shot in the "place a chair at 45 degrees to the camera and get the victims to look over their left shoulder" approach. Should I try this?

Vic.

To be brutally frank, walk away. You dont have the equipment, you dont have the experience, you dont have the time and you call your sitters 'victims'.

Not a situation that will produce good results.

Practise on friends and family until you feel at ease with appropriate equipment and then undertake a job like this. Right now it sounds like you will be very unpopular for wasting peoples' time.

how much time and money have you got?

I agree with Gartmore that sometimes you have to walk away... but... I love a challenge....

a trip to the hardware store...

2 x 1x2 boards or 2' abs pipe cut to 6 ft lengths...
1 foldable silver car windsheild sunlight blocker...
One silver reflector styled clamp on light and daylight balanced 100 watt bulb...

plus a couple pails and some gravel can make two useable lightstands and a huge reflector... for under thirty bucks...

if you got the photo and posing chops, you could pull it off.

If you really want to be able to shoot portraits you need a decent off-camera flash.

My advice:

Kit lens is pretty decent, can be a tad soft but not unpleasantly so. As for a flash, look for an AF240Z or AF280T, the former can be had for £10-£20 and has a bounce head so you can use a light coloured ceiling or wall to give more even lighting to your subjects. The AF280T is more flexible but also more expensive (unsurprisingly so!)

Don't just walk in and expect to be able to do this shoot. Get the gear then practice loads. Anything will do - try a candlestick or lamp if you can't find a human willing to hang around for ages while you learn.

Only way I can see it is that you take the bar as a backdrop (having it blurred and shallow DoF so only the face is sharp).
No tripod or cable remote. I have taken Committee pictures and as above mentioned you will be unpopular if you make a fuss about it. The pictures you take are in effect quite similar to passport pictures. Set the camera to X/f8 with the Tamron. That should get decent results. Do not use a solid background as you will get a shadow and you want to avoid that. Lock for a back with not too much 'noise' and no other people in the back.
If you do not feel comfortable with that then rather walk away.
On the other hand go in with your camera and take some try shots to see how far the flash goes and how the background looks (DoF).
Then freehand, 3 pictures fast, one after one and done.
You have to explain that even a shot for the committee board has to take some time as it will reflect on YOU for the rest of the committee year by ALL members.
If you are in the slightest unsure rather walk away then getting a stigma as a bad snapper.

Thanks for the comments Guys. Perhaps I could postpone it until I can take them outdoors in daylight. I expect many of them may be more at ease that way in any case. As a member of the club I've been asked to do this as a favour so refusing to at least try is perhaps at the least unhelpful - after all, if they dislike the results they don't need to use them ...
Thanks for the tips SmutjeUK, I'll practice with the Tamron over the weekend

Vic.

Update:

Job done and prints handed over! It was quite tricky at times with not much room to work but although perhaps not the most flattering of "portraits" they more than serve the purpose and at least one "customer" I saw was happy. I went to SRS on Saturday to have a look at some stuff and came away with a used DA 16-45 and a Metz 44 AF-1 which were both used for the shoot.

Vic.

"sunlight blocker"

HAHAHAHA - not much call for those in the UK

Good job.

I recently got an ebay knock off omnibounce for the princely sum of £2 or less. It does make a difference to the harshness of the light.

around here we use them as emergency blankets/insulation to reflect body heat back towards the body, nine months out of the year...lol!

soooo...xbow, when ya gonna post up some examples from the shoot?

Thanks. Luckily the ceiling in the clubhouse is white so I used bounce flash with the Metz pull-out white card. Exposures seemed spot-on and no correction was needed at all in LR3. Seems to be a very capable budget flash but I will get a Sto-fen or similar diffuser.

Vic.

I'd be happy to post pictures taken in a public place but as I was asked to take these and they were done on private property I wouldn't post them on an open forum without permission but I'll see what I can do!

Vic.