I'm shooting a party tomorrow night that is very upscale and will have a "red carpet" style entrance for all the guests. The people will not be arriving until about 10pm-12am so i won't have any natural light to work with. there will be a vinyl backdrop with sponsors for the event printed up so people will have a spot to pose infront of before they enter the party. my question is, how would you recommend lighting the area but still have flexibility to use on camera flash for shots as people get out of their cars. (i've read up on some famous red carpet shooters and they pretty much all use a bracketed flash)

my thoughts so far are to have a mono light at the backdrop that willl fire off my 580ex. i'll then have the ability to turn up my flash and get shots of the guests getting out of their cars.

just curious if anyone else has thoughts about the situation.

thanks!!

just shoot with your 580ex set on auto - no need to turn it up. just make sure you're set to second curtain sync (on the flash - not in the camera) and shoot an appropriate ISO/shutterspeed combo on TV mode.

you'll be fine. no need for backdrop lights and monolights. the 580 balances exposure extremely well, err... depending on which camera you're using.

Thanks. I'll be using a 5D w/ the 580ex

just curious, why tv mode and not av or m? (i assume its so the camera won't drag the shutter?)