Sooo, using large strobes in dark room

[MarshallS]

I'm setting up a large strobe in the corner of a room that will be very dark ( a party will be going on) I plan on setting up my 8x10 in a secluded spot, focusing about center room.

Heres what I gather, The strobe is intense, I'm shooting color, I don't mind some heavy blacks as long as there is sufficient detail but I'm not working with zone 3 here. I'm gonna use 400 speed nc and some 160 vc.

I figure that I'll simply throw it on bulb, hit the stobe and close the lense.
That being said I'm confused as to what I should be able to get away with as far as apperature. The camera will be close to the room and with the 300 I'd like to use 32 or 64 to maximize sweet spot and get the entire partyscape down.

I basically have never shot with lights let alone strobes, any advice or experience in similiar matters would be greaaaaatly appreciated. Don't wanna burn that pricey film.

[Greg Lockrey]

Depends on the guide number of the strobe. Set it up and use your flash meter and measure various spots in the room as to set an average and see if you can get 32-64 with the film speed you have. If you don't have a flash meter, Gossen makes a pretty nice digital one (module number escapes me now, DigiFlash, I think) that also measures reflective and incident also for about $200.00 (boy have they gone up). I have the DigiPro F and it has a flash trigger hook up to test your strobes. That one runs about $260.00. If the ceiling is white, I'd be bouncing the flash off of it. But you are going to find that any room that can hold 300 bodies is too large for any one strobe. (I could be wrong, but don't think so.) And after all that, I would be testing with polaroid shots also.

[Ron Marshall]

What is the output of your strobe in watt-seconds? To get f32 at a moderate distance you will need lots of power.

[Neal Shields]

I did this same thing for fun at our local camera club Christmas banquet. To light an already lit room, I had to use about 10 flashes which I ran down the left wall. The photo suffered because I didn't also run them down the right wall.

I tried to use a lot of tilt to get the entire room in focus at eye level and missed. I strongly suggest taking small flashlights with bare bulbs to place around the room in advance to focus on.

I allowed two hours to set up and that was woefully inadaquate.

I used a majestic tripod and tied it with straps to a room support column. Even with fellow photographers the possibality of getting you camera knocked over at a party is great.

I used flash bulbs because getting that much light with strobes will break most banks. Beyond that if you had that much light, you would be in danger of blowing the circuit breakers when the strobes recharged.

This is my lessons learned page on my web site.

http://truckgenerator.com/subdomain/...quet_photo.htm

[Robert Oliver]

A good 1000ws strobe with a softbox placed as physically close to the subject as possible using 400 iso film will get you somewhere around f32. A good flash meter is the best tool you'll have if you know how to use it.

you can take a polaroid if you have a 4x5 back to test. Put a white bounce card on the opposite side of your subject just out of camera sight and that will fill in your shadows.

Focusing will still be tough. I would just take a shop light available at a hardware store for $9.99 and turn it off for exposure. The modeling light on the softbox would be a little dim for focusing imho.

[Robert Oliver]

actually my style is as large of a softbox as possible as physically close to the subject without protruding into the frame.

like shooting fish in a barrel

[Ted Harris]

and whatever you do check it withat least one sheet of Polaroid in advance ....