Someone's already suggested renting strobes, which is your best option (Key, fill and hair lights would be best.)
If you can't overpower the florescents, then you're going to have white balance issues from hell, and sickly green-looking people.
The SB-400 won't swivel into portrait orientation AFAIK, so that's best gotten off-camera. Unfortunately, I don't think the built-in flash will trigger an SB-400, so for the best results, you'll want an optical trigger and stand for the SB-400, use it as a key and the on-board flash for fill, adjusting the power of each manually. You can try a piece of foam core as a kicker to get some background separation- but you're really better off with a hair light. Since the onboard flash won't swivel, you may be better off shooting in landscape mode and cropping the heck out of the pictures.
You're going to want to spend some time with Google reading up on short and broad-side lighting, otherwise dealing with glasses and hefty people are going to make you very unpopular (well, the latter may make you unpopular anyway- it's often difficult to pose and light folks so they don't look as big as they are.)
Frankly though, I think going from "We don't want to pay someone" to "We don't want to spend any money at all" is an exceptionally bad choice for portraits. Depending on how many of you there are, if everyone kicked in $10 or $15 and there are about ten of you, you could do a strobist.blogspot.com setup with triggers, stands, brollys and some cheap Vivitars and do a way better job. Otherwise, why not all just march into Sears and pay $23 for a portrait CD?
Very good lighting advice. Thanks. I will try and see what I can do with the SB-400 this weekend...but I doubt I can do much. Like I said, last year we used the pop up flash on my D40, shot in portrait mode and in the end because the we only needed small photos - not big prints. We use an online yearbook program through jostens - and there was no cropping necessary due to the "ease" of use of the program. I did do some post processing of color issues, and for the most part, while the pictures weren't Lifetouch quality - they were fine for what we produced.
How long does it usually take to get these rented lights? Need to do more research on that. I have considered upgrading to the Sb-600 anyway but I am worried that my staff will be scared of using it - and I don't have experience with it. Do you think if I got the Sb-600 that would be sufficient?
Here are a few problems that I thought I covered but will elaborate more upon since a lot of you guys are saying "just pay for this or just pay for that".
1. I am working with multiple departments in the School of Pharmacy, and there are protocols when it comes to spending money. It is not that we "don't want to spend the money" it is that we just don't HAVE THE MONEY/ IT IS A BEAR trying to get money from the school. We are using the schools money to actually pay for the books through our publisher - and that is not even enough - economy.
- another note on money - ANYTIME we spend our own money out of pocket, it is policy to turn in those receipts for reimbursement - which is very stringently upheld. Reimbursement takes a long time, and is more trouble than it is worth. Keep in mind I have a yearbook staff, who already is putting in their time and effort to produce the book, let alone pay for things for it. It is not fair to them to ask for money - and pharmacy school costs $50,000 a year. We don't have a lot of money. Any money would come out of my own pocket - something I would prefer not to do.
2. So because we are all "poor" it would be difficult to get students to cough up money for portraits themselves. Pharmacy school is also very difficult, and we are all very studious. For the most part we just don't have time to go to sears and take portraits, some students don't even care and most of our students do not have cars because they are out of state. Other circumstances such as our distance learning campus and time constraints and the general business of the students force me to have our portrait sessions after a required lab every other day over the course a month. I even have to do it right outside of the lab - which is why we are in the hall way - so that it is the most convenient for the students (they are required to be there and to wear professional attire). As you can see, it is very difficult to plan something like this.
I may not be the most experienced photographer, but I am experienced in logistical planning when it comes to organizational work and the nature of the students at my school. I have to think about the students and the money and the protocol, and the Dean's office, Alumni Office, Publishers, staff, Marketing staff, faculty - which makes it somewhat difficult. Yearbook is just not about taking pictures.
Sorry for the long diatribe - writing this has actually let me release a few frustrations and organize my thoughts. Like I said - it is making Lemonade out of Lemons. You do the best you can. Haha. But I appreciate all of your advice guys. Helps me cover my bases and do the best I can.
So far I need to keep in mind -
1. LIGHTING - I will try to see what I can do with the SB400 - especially in that hallway. Check out rentals, see prices. See if I can make a reflector hood, try out different combinations.
2. how the students will pose - thank you for that helpful post, termina!
You could have offered a suggestion instead of insisting his photos will turn out bad!
