Last Call photoshoot

A friend of mine requested that I do the promo photos for a play that he has written and directed, called "Last Call". He wanted to shoot his cast of 5, in constume and all, on a seamless backdrop. He wanted:

- the cast in pairs
- full cast
- individual head shots

Ive never done this kind of shoot before (group in a studio setting) so the idea immediately caught my interest. The first thing that came to mind was how to light a group of five? Lighting equipment that I have (so far anyway) are as follows:

- Cactus 4 wireless trigger and 3 receivers
- one vivitar 285 flash, one canon 480 EX II, and one manual flash with only two settings
- one lightstand and shoot through umbrella

Quite limited to say the least. For the group shots I decided to go with two bare flash on either side of the cast (the manual flash and the vivitar) as kickers and the canon 480 EXII shooting into the umbrella. This would also be the first time im doing anything and triggering all 3 flashes. The headshots were simpler, I planned to go with the shoot through umbrella left of the subject with reflector on the right. Keeping it simple. For the backdrop I borrowed Julian's 9 foot seamless backdrop (thanks man). Not easy to transport I can tell you, I had to use my wife's Grand Vitara, and even then it ended up going all the way from the back resting on the dashboard in the front. Venue was their rehearsal space, a large store room on a compound downtown owned by Sagicor. Nice big space to work with.

Keiran (the writer/director) wanted them shot from a low vantage point and suggested that I shoot from far away, in order to not get the top of the backdrop in the shot. This worked quite well, as such for the group shots I shot them all sitting on the ground.

I did say this was the first time doing this kind of lighting right? Yes, learned quite a bit. First off:

- Cant put your kickers beside your subjects, way too much. They need to be some distance behind your subjects. For the manual flash, even though it was quite far away and behind it was still putting out too much light so I had to feather it:

Luckily it was far enough away so there was no glare in my lens. (Oh, this is also the first time officially using the new Sigma lens :) Must say im quite satisfied.)

- When shooting groups if lighting from the side you really have to watch for shadows. I found myself doing test shots to make sure no one's face ended up being in anyone else's shadow. And once you get the positioning right, cant nobody move really, or you have to start all over again.

- opposite to the above, you also have to watch for bright spots on the clothes from the side lighting coming through the space between the subjects. Sadly I did not see this in the viewfinder, so didnt discover it until I downloaded them to the pc. Theyre not such a big deal but would still have liked to avoid them. Not quite sure how I wouldve though :/

Once we got going things flowed really well:

The actors are experienced and know what theyre doing so were able to portray their characters easily. Keiran knew what he wanted and moved them into the various positions. My longtime friend and his fiance Rae was shooting behind the scenes, see a few below:

We starting setting up at about 7:30 Wednesay night and finished everything a little after 11 pm. Here is the poster currenlty being circulated:

The poster is getting rave reviews in and of itself. It really does have a hollywood feel to it. Hopefully it helps to translate into people coming to the show.


"Last Call", a play written and directed by Keiran King, starts on July 29 and will run for a month at Phillip Sherlock on Thursday and Friday nights, and also Saturday and Sunday afternoon/night.