I am asked to shoot portraits in a home studio that has no complete lighting equipment. I need your suggestion how to set up using only my SB800 and built in flash of my D80? Here are the available gadgets on hand:

>> Nikon D80
>> 1 SB 800
>> 2 Reflectors [white and silver]
>> a nice backdrop

I wonder how can I maximize these available equipment and come up with nice or acceptable portraits of family, couple and solo shots?

Any advise and suggestions, please? Thank you in advance! :)

Well, you can use Nikon CLS... and there are so many ways to approach this. If I am on your situation, I would use the onboard flash as fill and the SB-800 as the key light.

There are just so much posibilities... you will just have to experiment and learn.

@Sir Roland,

Thanks a lot for the suggestions and encouragement. Experiment is the key!

How about quick and proven/tested set up?

Okay... quick and proven... NO SUCH THING. :D

There isn't any correct or wrong lighting.... it always depends on what you are trying to achieve.

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/3171/rha1145lhr3.jpg


Take the photo above. It was taken using Nikon CLS, the same equipment as yours without the pretty background and reflectors. :D The SB-800 was on Remote mode and the D200 was on commander mode. The onboard flash acted as the key light and the SB-800 as a kicker and background light. I used ambient light as my fill. It was not accomplished by exposing one frame. In fact, this photo was a product of about 6 test shots.

Okay, look here (http://strobist.blogspot.com/) for more tips.

Roland is right. Ur lighting setup will depend on how you will shoot the family, couple and solo portraits.
Some factors to consider:
1. will this be a formal shoot vs (all dressed up, poised and sh##@) casual.
2. whole body vs half vs close up.

The setup will vary depending on these, among others...
HTH! :D

I'd like to correct myself, I said that the camera's on board flash was on Commander mode... I should have said that the camera's on board flash was on MASTER mode since it was also contributing to the subjects illumination. D80's on board flash can also act as Master.

I see.

Well, the shoot will mostly be half body.

Thanks for the enlightenment. :)