2nd Shooter Night Time Wedding Outside Lighting Question

Wow. could I phrase that subject line any better? LOL. Anyways, my question is

this. I'm shooting my 3rd wedding, but first night time wedding, and it's

outside. I'm the 2nd shooter and I know that I don't have to worry "as much"

as the main but I still want to get damn good shots. I don't care how dirty or

messy I have to get while on the ground either. I just want to hand the main

photog some really nice shots that he can hand the bride with confidence.

 

The main photog is using his strobes and pocket wizards so I don't have to

worry about setting his off with my 550ex. I'm going to probably use either my

50mm 1.4 or a 17-40, which I know I'm getting for Christmas, on my 20D. Any

helpful hints, settings or tricks for using this equipment for night time

shooting outside with nowhere to bounce the light would be of much help. I

just hate to use full on flash since it doesn't always give the best results.

Once I get inside I can bounce my 550 all night no problem. I've got that down

to a T.

 

Thanks a billion for ANY and all help! You guys and gals are the BEST!

 

Justin

:o)

Use a sensible modifier (one that doesn't shoot the light into the dark sky), dragging the shutter, and choosing your backgrounds so you aren't shooting into expanses of darkness. Try to have lighted buildings in the background or closer objects in the background that will pick up residual flash. Sensible modifiers that would quality are small on camera softboxes, a Pocket Bouncer, a Demb diffuser used with the card forward/diffuser on position, or an LS straight ahead, with the dome on. Of those, the most efficiency would be gained with the softbox, Pocket Bouncer or Demb diffuser, in that order (my guess).

Outdoors you're pretty much going to need to shoot with the flash pointed towards the

subject. Diffusers won't do much. <p>

You're going to want to open up the camera's exposure as much as you can to let in as

much ambient light as possible to fill the shadows/background and make things look

more natural. I'd shoot with the 50mm for the speed, but it becomes an 80mm lens on

the 20D so that might be little tight unless you're just focusing on tighter crops of the

people or you're at farther distances. On the 20D, the 17-40mm focal length range is

probably a little more versatile than the 50mm, but something like the 16-35 f/2.8 would

be my choice. The extra stop over the 17-40 will make a difference.<p>

Basically, if it's as dim as I'm assuming it would be, then I would start by putting the

camera in manual exposure mode, open the aperture as wide as your lens will go, set the

shutter speed to something like 1/30 (give or take a stop), and then set your flash

exposure compensation based on the scene/subject. You can use a slower shutter speed

because almost all your exposure will be coming from the flash which will freeze the

movement, but you don't want to go too slow unless you want that shutter drag effect

(which can be cool for some shots, but maybe not so much during the ceremony). <p>

Also, depending on what the available light source is you may want to try to match it's

color temp by putting a gel over your flash so that everything balances out better.<p>

Since it will be dim lighting and wide apertures, be wary of where your focusing is. That's

another benefit of shooting with a shorter focal length... you get a little more apparent

DOF.

In this type of situation it would make sense to get the off camera ttl transmitter, wireless or with a cord so you can put the light at various angles above you. And definitely open up to f2.8 - f4 to get whatever ambient light is there as well. I?d shoot at around iso 400 or so as well to increase my ability to get the ambient light in the shot that way the flash isn?t overpowering.

Sometimes it makes sense to use full frontal fill. In this case, the wedding took place at a home. The fist dance was conducted on a small outside patio pad that was only lit by one outdoor light and a runner band light, needless to say it was almost completly dark. No place to bounce, above was open sky and behind was the open yard. In this case the 50 1.4 at hi iso's, balancing with the ambient, came in handy with a small pop of frontal fill.<div></div>

Jammey that's an excellent shot taken in a very difficult situation!

 

What camera did you use? Because the 50mm would become an 80mm on my Canon 30D - not really wide enough. Can you remember the exact settings - ISO etc.

I'm not absolutly sure stephen, this photo was pulled from a set of stripped JPEGS that i had on hand. I do recall the shutter being around 1/20th or 1/30th, the ISO i'm almost sure was either 1250 or 1600. The lens was 50mm prime and the aperture was at 1.4. Using a 1DMII, the focal perspective would then be 65mm.

Wow WOW wow........thanks so so so much everyone! This information is GREATLY appreciated! I hope I can return the favor in some way someday.

 

Happy holidays and I wish you all the best!

 

Justin

 

p.s. I hope to post some of the photo's from the wedding afterwards. Oh and it's going to be a New Years Eve wedding!

This would be the perfect opportunity to try off camera lighting. Pick up a transmitter/receiver radio slave kit, put a used Vivitar 285 up on a lightstand, and use your flash for soft fill and the 285 for a 2nd light source on low (1/4) power at a 45-90 degree angle to your shooting location. You'll be absolutely amazed at the images you'll capture with two sources of light.

 

Chris

<a href="http://makelightreal.com/lighting/two_flash.html">If you can get an off camera

cord or something similarly cheap, you can really shape your subjects - but you have to be

kinda close as the opportunity for shaping is greater the closer you are to the subject.</a>