How do YOU deal with this kind of lighting??

I shot a wedding last night and I feel complete failure. The lighting at the reception hall was very

challenging from the beginning to the end. Imagine a room with lights flashing from all over the place non

stop entire time, different colors plus two video guys with their lights plus their light stands plus heavy

stage smoke. The lighting was changing faster than the shutter speed. How do you deal with this kind of

lighting? Not only I was confused but my camera and flash and I couldn't focus as well. I've got some good

images but by pure luck and hoping to pul all under exposed images from raw. I am attaching one image

as is.<div></div>

I use flash and adjust shutter speed to deal with other lighting that may cause problems.

I did a quick bit of photo adjustments in Photoshop. I used to "Auto Color" function to balance colors, Used "Color Balance" to remove the pink cast from the skin and sharpened the image using Unsharp Mask. There is nothing that can be done about the bright yellow spots caused by other lights. However, the raw images may be saved with a bit of "Photoshopping".<div></div>

I was thinking . . . it seems that the biggest problem is that you may had had the white balance incorrect on the images. That can be quickly corrected in Photoshop or Picasa.

I would suggest that you power up your flash....Flash is your friend.

well, I know how to fix the image. There are so many to work on since the entire reception

was like that so allots of PP is facing me and also I can convert to B&W. My question is what

you do with the similar situation. I tried changing the shutter, the aperture, shoot manual

flash, no flash. You adjust your settings but the light was changing all the time. Is there one

solution? Did you have similar experience?

What was your shutter speed? ASA? Looks like you need to overpower the DJ lights by a faster shutter speed. Sounds like a difficult wedding with the somke and with the DJ lights. Try ASA 400, shutter speed over 30th of a sec. to blow out the DJ lights. 60th would even be better.

If the ambient lighting is causing problems, then cut it down in your base exposure and have a higher proportion of your overall exposure coming from your flash. The base exposure is reduced by: lowering the ISO, raising the shutter speed or using a smaller aperture.

 

Heavy stage smoke is a whole other problem. On camera flash is going to bounce off the smoke and give a washed out looking shot. You can get some nice effects with light coming from a different direction. You would have to either get the flash off the camera or make use of some other available light. This is where a video guy, with a light, can become your "best friend": expose for his light that is illuminating the subjects. Set your WB to tungsten and raise your ISO enough for a good exposure.

 

I need to know more about what gear you were using to shoot with, and when specifically you were having trouble focusing to give any suggestions.

Thanks guys, I see now where was the problem. the photo above was shot with canon 20d,

canon 85f 1.8 at 800 speed 50 f2.8. I also shot auto balance. That happened when i was

shooting without flash and then turned it on without changing. The reason for that I keep

forgetting to change settings, I am so much in to shooting. Someone here suggested to have

a reminder sticker on camera, I should do that. And I always have problems with auto focus

in low or bright light with the canon. Is there a focus assist? I can't find it. That what I love

about nikon d200. Anyway, I faced the fear and looked thru all the pics and they are just fine

considering. I feel allot better. I will be posting the folio when I am done.

There is focus assist on the Canon 20D. It's the strobe like effect with the pop up flash. With the flash in the hotshoe, the focus assist is with the flash.

 

With lighting like in your shot i'd have used flash on ALL shots. I'd have used manual exposure with the flash set on ETTL2. Shouldn't be much of a problem. Usually lower the ISO so the flash overpowers the ambient.

I have never shot with digital SLR. However, during the 1980's I have done many weddings in similar circumstances(with 35mm of course) and have always used flash. I had a powerful Sunpak flash which I always used on bracket, with a rotatable head which I could also bounce off walls, ceilings etc.My shutter speed most of the time was either 60th or 100th with my flash on auto. This allowed my control over the external light sources especially if it was colored light. With video lighting present at these functions, I often used their light to fill in the gaps and directed my flash so to illuminate other darker spots in my view. It would seem that flash is your friend under these circumstances. Candid shots capturing the mood of the moment probably calls for no flash or less flash.

 

Edward Williams, Wellington, New Zealand

Bruce has the answer. Overpower the ambient with flash. Off camera flashes might also help. But the smoke is a problem that can be extremely hard to deal with. I actually have asked the DJs to cool it on the smoke, especially on events such as the first dance, where you need to get good, clear photos. Usually, they'll comply somewhat if you explain why you're asking them. As for focusing--manual, zone focus.

Shoot the event in Raw mode and fix the white balance issues later. You can then stay focused on the event. Mem cards are cheap, get plenty and don't worry about all the corrections required during the event.

There's a basic problem with your approach. "flash is your friend" was mentioned more than once. Shooting in available light is crazy if you expect to get professional results. The difference between an amateur and a professional is not his or her equipment, it is his or her ability to CONTROL light. You said that "you get into shooting so much". That doesn't do you any good if you end up with bad images.

 

I'm not trying to ding you - I am trying to get you to THINK. While I am primarily a photojournalist who has had to shoot a couple of weddings in the last 12 months, the assignment isn't the issue - producing GOOD images is.

 

I'd suggest working on understanding how to use strobes and flashes. This means taking time to read, research and learn. The suggestion that you knock down the ISO (100) and then control the flash is dead on.

 

Again, I'm not trying to mean, but if you want to shoot professional quality then you have to do the research and learning to understand how to handle the situation.

 

Good luck.

Michael

You shouldn't have to pull the ISO down to 100. I'm wondering whether you want to get rid of the colored light patterns. I wouldn't. I would think using ISO 400 and keeping the aperture wide (for the flash to do it's job if you're bouncing) and manipulating the shutter would give you clean enough images, although eliminating the light patterns is another story. That would involve filling the whole area with light to overpower the ambient, meaning probable multiple, powerful lights, and also maybe lowering the ISO.

 

There are several intermingled problems here. The smoke problem causes the low contrast. There isn't a lot you can do to stop the flash(es) from bouncing off the smoke and causing low contrast except cut the smoke, as I mentioned above.

 

Another problem is the focusing--caused by the low contrast caused by the smoke, no doubt. Otherwise, focus assist should work pretty well. Again, manual zone focus would work, even with fairly wide apertures if using a wide angle. Wouldn't rely on the telephotos at wide aperture.

 

Another problem you stated is the white balance. If using flash to overpower the ambient, this shouldn't be a big problem, especially if shooting RAW.

 

Another problem is the changing light. You can work this several ways. If using the flash to overpower the ambient, including video lights, you just keep one setting and shoot away. Or, if you want to vary your settings to suit the situation, you can keep changing the shutter speed to "place" your exposure according to the ambient, to avoid motion blur while still trying to keep some ambient light "in the picture". This would be the best option if not using multiple lights to fill the room, since otherwise, a single on-camera flash set to completely overpower the ambient, video and disco lights, is pretty stark looking, even if you are bouncing.

Thanks so much everyone! Nadine, I loved your approach. I normally shoot at 400 but after

getting 85 I enjoy shooting available light moody pics at high iso. This time it was little

overwhelming- I was shooting 14 hours that day not including travel.

Definitely Nadine and others have good suggestions, ones that I would give and use. I

would definitely use off camera strobes to overpower the ambient.

 

On the other hand, I also really like the idea of capturing the true environment as a

gentleman suggested above. I have a feeling your images were doing just that. What's

wrong with having those beautiful colors as the guests were actually seeing that day? Like

others have said, use it to your advantage and just go with the flow. I would try to do

some sequences with the strobes, and some using ambient complimented with flash.

Especially the first dance - some with very clean images from multiple strobes and some

with the ambient lightshow hitting the couple. I think that adds some dynamics to your

images, something that I am realizing I need.

 

Good luck!

 

Aaron Lee

I just finished converting the raw and have to say I did a good job but it's up for the couple to

judge. I think I really captured the spirit of the wedding and that was my goal. The some

mistakes I did with lighting turned out to play to my advantage. I really panicked when I saw

thumbnails and the bad ones really stood out at first. To those who is still debating about

shooting raw- it really saved my shoot. Thank you all for participating, I learned allot. And I

want to thank Agnieszka who kindly assisted/SS me at the job. I am about to start editing her

stuff but what I briefly saw she is great.

Geeze, overpower that lighting next time. Granted, the brightness of the green and magenta lights is really high so you'd have to blast the subjects out and turn the background pretty black but that's the trade. Magenta is nearer skin color so it's not so bad but that green, wow.

 

Fiddle the shutter speed, power up the flash, get it off camera as far as possible and go to town.<div></div>

Boosting and flattenting the ambient light with some of your own via strobes aimed at

ceilings or walls and more direct speedlight would have probably helped control some of

the harsher light effects...but I don't think you would have wanted to completely

overpower the light enviroment or lose all the background. I'm a big fan of pictures

looking at least somewhat like the event at which they were taken. Personally, I can't

disagree more with the attitude that you have to get all that light out of there whatever the

cost to be considered professional. You should be able to though. Lots of ways to do that

well commented on here. You need to know what the couple is expecting. Some couples

would freak at the goofy light, others would be upset if you delivered something

completely different from what they remembered.