D300 and SB800 lighting for wedding formals in church?

I've shot about a dozen weddings and have produced (thank God) some delightfully creative images both inside and

out. My next wedding has asked I shoot the formals inside (up to this point I've shot all formals outside). The church

has high ceilings, and ample lighting from both florescent from above and natural light coming through the windows

(due to stainglass there is a slight blue cast). I've haven't tested the lighting for the formals yes but was planning on

keeping it simple using my D300, SB800 and a Gary Fong diffuser (clouded model). At the most the formals will be

comprised of groups up to 10 people. Do you think think I will have sufficient lighting or shall I look into additional set

up?

This is up to you. With your present set up I would say good formals are possible if you drag the shutter, which may require a tripod, depending upon how dark the ambient is. However, in this scenario, the fluorescents may cause a problem with color balance.

2 flash stands with sb-800's and 2 45" Photogenec umbrellas. Use TTL and set camera to ISO 400. Set the SB-800 on the D300 as master and use the diffuser. The 2 SB-800's on the stands add about 2 stops. I say all of this assuming the worst in your "high Ceiling" statement with no bounce ability. I use these umbrellas and settings in less than favorable lighting and get GREAT results. Good luck!

Oh, and with this setup you are good to go for future indoor formals. Plus it is light anf easy ti set up.

I dont think the Diffuser is of any use when the celeings are very high...just wastes the power.

After reading Neil van Niekerk's articles and techniques, i have stopped using diffusers at all and bounce the flash behind me instead and use higher ISOs. The results are really good.

 

You'll probably find his article very helpful

http://planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

 

Since the church has natural light coming in through the windows..and you have a pretty powerful flash and a camera the can do very well at high ISOs, i dont think you'd need to worry at all.

Maybe a tripod...and flash bounced behind you......the results can be extremely good.

Fluorescent lighting is kinda' yucky by itself, but really gross when mixed with flash, incandescent and light through stained glass windows.

 

One method is to use a flash strong enough to serve as the main light source - something not likely with a shoe popper. Another is to use existing lighting with flash for fill. You should gel the flash to match fluorescent lights. There is a lot of variation between types of fluorescent bulbs, so it may take some experimentation.

 

A diffuser may still help if you need more even lighting, even if the ceilings are too high to bounce. SB-800's do not give very uniform light, and tend to vignette badly without a diffuser.

Hi

You do not have to make this so complicated The setup you have is the one I use all the time.

 

The flash is designed to balance the light sources and will require only minimal tweak in post to have a clean look to the skin and dress. 400 ISO is totally doable in this situation and will give you great large prints and enough depth of field to have the groups in focus. With this situation I use a handle and direct flash which is more predictable than trying to bounce all of the place and hope that the whole group is evenly illuminated.

 

If you have time to try out some bouncing on smaller groups or bride and groom go for it. BUT most churchs in my region will not allow setting up of umbrellas, stands etc. We are lucky to have a few miutes to get something of the group and the couple.

 

I find that the 800 has great uniform light, but I do use a handle and not a camera mount!! Makes a big difference.

 

Good luck

Brooke

BTW - that was just 1 diffuser on the master SB-800 mounted on the camera. The other 2 no diffusion firing into the umbrellas at +2. This should overcome your fluorescent light at distance if the ceilings are very high and the lights are a good distance away. You want the flash to become the main light source as much as possible. The diffuser on the camera stops the light down a bit, but also evenly disperses it. The light from the umbrellas will already be nicely dispersed. This is a light weight system with minimal setup time and sets you far, far apart of others at the event snapping shots of your setup who do not have the advantage of your lighting. Somethings it's technical proficiency like this, along with creativity, good demeanor, and mind blowing photo's that get referrals.

Forget the Fong thing as it wastes the output from your flash and you will want to get as much as possible when shooting a group. Yes you can take your D3 and shoot at ISO 4000 but it really makes more sense to get a better setup for formals and also not have to worry about the color of the walls and ceilings. I have shot only one wedding in the past year where there were white walls and ceilings to even consider bouncing off.

 

Get a silver umbrella and bounce the light off it to provide a wide area of coverage and plan on a tripod and slower shutter speeds than you would want to shoot hand held. You should have two flashes in your kit anyway, and there are inexpensive brackets for mounting two strobes on a light stand with an umbrella. You will get about a 40% increase in output by using 2 strobes over a single one.

 

The GN for the SB800 is not based on the widest angle setting and so it is at least double what you can expect with full diffusion, and then losing another 50% with the umbrella. Distance also works against you. If you have to back up from 8' to 11' to get a large group into the frame you have doubled the light output needed from the flash.

I use a piece of white foam core held over the flash and tilted toward the subject.

 

The flash points straight up.

 

I hear the D300 is very good at high ISO, so you may be able to go as far as 1600.

 

With 10 people you should not be much farther away than 15 feet, if that.