advice for portrait/promotional photoshoot

[theperfectplex]

I usually shoot fast paced pro wrestling matches ringside. The owner has reached out to do portrait/promotional photos. I have really done any in a set space like that. I will be getting a couple light boxes and an umbrella light.        (I was given a couple backdrops already). I am curious on the settings everyone uses. I currently have an M50 with a 50mm prime, an R6 with a 24-70mm and a 70-200mm (3rd party). These will be used for online flyers, promoting shows etc. I believe he has an graphics person/editor that will cutout the star in photoshop to create them so the background would just be white when I shoot.

[rs-eos]

Note that a white background can be extremely challenging. While there are methods to make use of a single light, if you're doing portraits with anything capturing more than a headshot, two or more lights will become very useful.

The key though is to have the light be very even on the background and at a power level that will not blow out the sides of the person. I use a light meter to ensure that the light falling on the back of the subject off of the white background is the proper exposure.

Depending upon framing (headshot, half-body, full body), you'll want to potentially use different lenses.  A 50mm on your M50 may be good overall, but at 24mm on your R6, that would be very poor for a headshot (too many facial distortions, unless that is the artistic intent).

The settings to use will all depend; there are way too many variables in play.

All I can really recommend is practice, practice, practice before taking on such work.

[theperfectplex]

Thank you. It would be mostly full body and half body. Some headshots maybe afterwards. What about the 50mm on the R6? I will have three lights setup. Two on the side angles and one from the front. I know there's a lot of variables but is there a shutter speed that I could start from for portraits? I usually run about 1/800 and up for action shots. The 50mm I actually have a full frame booster on it that can actually make it go down to a 1.8.

[rs-eos]

Is the 50mm an EF lens? Assuming you have an adapter for using it on your R6.  Yes, for full or half-body, that should be OK. However, note that a 50mm's angle-of-view is quite wide, so if working on a background such as seamless paper, it will need to be wide enough.  A more telephoto lens has the benefit of not needing as wide of a background.

What lights are you using (strobes, flash, continuous?). For strobes, you'd want to set the shutter to the camera's sync speed which is usually around 1/200s.  Remember that for flash, that is what will be freezing the action instead of the shutter.

[theperfectplex]

Yes, I have an adapter. Its continuous lights. I could go back between the 24-70mm and the 50mm I think. Would the 1/200 be a good starting point? Oh also, would face recognition focus only be more on the face or would that pick up the body as well? Or do a zone focus? Background will be like a seamless paper. 

[rs-eos]

For continuous lights, you would not need to use the sync speed; that's for flash.

[theperfectplex]

What about the face recognition?