Can I use floodlights for lighting?

I am photographing my sister's wedding this weekend. (I know, she should pay a pro, etc, but she's not going to do that.)

It will be held in our parents backyard. Small bridal party, about 100 guests.

The reception will be held in a tent with windows. Could I use one of the following and get good results: floodlights

purchased from a home improvement store or a photo umbrella kit?

I don't need any trash talk please. Just answer the question and tell me if and how it can be done.

Are you talking about lighting the entire scene with stationary lights, and walking about with them providing enough light for anywhere in the tent... or are you talking about lighting an area where you'll be posing people?

 

Either way, I'd stay away from the hardware store quartz lights. WAY too dangerous around people drinking alchohol, kids, etc. Fire hazard, unpleasant source of heat in tent environment, etc.

Alice, in lieu of expensive strobes, you can get wonderful results with cheap floodlights if you use the right white balance settings (a tungsten setting will work for a start, or you can use the custom white balance setting and WB on a white or gray card). Light is light, and only the color temperature will differ between them.

 

Strobes are great because they're not hot and continuous like floodlights, but you have to adjust and trigger them correctly.

 

Continous lights are nice because you see the lighting continuously, but tungsten lights do get hot. Halogens will give you a better quality of light than cheapo floods.

 

Alternately, you can use daylight balanced bulbs (the purplish ones) which have a more natural color temp, but you'll need to get the right color balance set to make skin tones look natural.

 

You'll only want to use these after it gets dark, so the background doesn't look bluish on you. I've shot some very pretty bridal portraits on a stage with tungsten spotlights they had mounted in the ceiling, so I know it can be done.

 

A photo umbrella kit will produce a better quality of light, but will cost you more to purchase, and you'll have to futz around with it more.

 

I'm assuming you don't have a proprietary flash unit for your camera?

Matt makes some great points, so use these with caution. Most of us pros who do this use a variety of techniques which usually include a flash unit with a diffuser or bounce card either on the camera, or better yet, held off-camera. It sounds like you may require some study and training to use these methods, though.

I've seen lots of people do it to add light in the enviornment. These offer way more light than a typical photo light(not

strobe)

 

Do Not aim directly at the subject. Either bounce off the ceiling or at a great distance so its softer. DO NOT use

umbrella's on these. They are really really hot:-)

 

Turn them off when not in use so they dont heat the tent. You should use real studio lighting, but sometimes

photographers have to do whatever works to get it done. Its how many "Masters" became great. They improvised and

found good usefull ways to take photographs.

 

Remember the old alcohol bottle as a flash defusuer. Way before the omni bounce came out and many many great

images were created by the old film guys. Good old enginuity. Something I think is lost these days with everything

readily available in stores.

 

If you do it. Please shoot me an email so I can look at the results. I am very interested on how this turns out. Good

Luck

It can be done but not so well for any kind of action shots. For formals or where people are standing still, they can work if you are careful about handholding and subject motion shutter speeds. Basically, you just set them up to light your subjects and use a tungsten white balance. If you are shooting jpegs, you should probably attempt to get a closer white balance with a custom white balance or other device/method. The shutter speed issue means you will probably be using higher ISOs.

 

If you are really going to use the high ISOs, you can set them up as 'room lights', at the walls of the tent, just to raise the illumination levels. You are going to be hard pressed to freeze motion though, particularly dancing.

 

A white tent is perfect for bouncing flash. Have you considered renting an external flash? It will help you freeze motion much easier and better, without needing ultra high ISO.

Backyard tents are usually white, and make great bounce surfaces. If I were you, I'd just keep it simple. If you have a camera and flash capable of TTL, just bounce the light up and to the side. I don't bother with umbrellas at a reception. A bounce off a white surface is much softer anyway, and usually the subjects are far enough away from the light source that there is little difference between an umbrella and a bare flash.

 

If you want to go for continuous light, perhaps first contact the DJ or band and ask if they have one already that you can direct yourself. Many DJs and bands have lights, usually to point at themselves.

I recently assisted one of my students who used quartz lights from Home Depot to light a tent wedding. Wow...what a mistake! As Matt pointed out, they're dangerous. They get super hot and you could be held liable for some hefty ER bills from an injured guest - probably a child but also a 'too drunk to dance' guest.

 

Second, the quartz worklights aren't color balanced at all. You'll have tungsten, quartz, possibly a strobe and at the end of the day, your pics will have more colors than a T-Shirt at an Alice Cooper Concert.

 

"Bounce" flash (as Ed mentioned) is great for tent events. Use a high ISO and manual settings. I shot a tent wedding a couple of weeks ago and best appreciate the images from my 1D3, 3200 ISO, 2.8 aperture and high speed synch. With a speedlight, you'll get a lot more reflected light with the white walls and roof than you might initially suspect.

I might add, you don't even need ISO 3200 to bounce a shoemount flash inside a white tent. I've done it with ISO 400 and a smaller aperture than f2.8.

Nadine's correct, you don't need the big aperture and high ISO - I just really like the way it looks using HS synch. It's more a stylistic comment than a technical one.

Oh, btw, consider shooting 2d curtain. The "pop" of bounced fill will light the eyes and eliminate some double chins...

"I don't need any trash talk please. Just answer the question and tell me if and how it can be done." -Alice

 

Yes, Ma'am..........The spotlite could work if you add a difuser panel. Parker Pfister gets wonderful portraits with this technique.

 

It would be cheaper to hire a pro than it would be to purchase umbrella kit lighting.

Good luck

Actually - I'm surprised this didn't get suggested: compact flourescent lights.

 

Yeah, flourescent is never the best color temp of light. BUT!!!!! the CFLs being sold today DO have color balance.

We actually use 4 of em in a soft box as a video light when we're doing interviews & stuff, and the results are nice. Best

yet - they're COOL. No heat hazards like off the big work lights.

 

If you or any friends are handy - buy yourself a couple multi-bulb sockets and then a couple enclosures for these, add

wires and then set them inside something nice & shiny (reflective) and bounce em off the ceiling of the tent over the

dance area. I suggest buying the high-wattage CFLs and at least 8 - 12 so you have plenty of light after bouncing....

David, I like your answer. I am only a few miles away and I do not need flood lights to capture the essence of

this wedding. The wedding will most likely be in North Carolina and it will be 85-100 degrees out doors.

Ambient light will spill in from the side of the tent and most likely it will be lit as the night approaches.

All Alice needs to do is balance for the dominant light and ensure her Aperture, Shutter Speed, and ISO is set

properly. I have looked at several of her photos and she seems to have a motion blur problem. This most likely

has to do with a slow shutter speed setting. What is missing her is type of camera, lens, and flash she is

using. I think this is more important for us to know then what flood light to use.

 

Alice, if you give me that information, I will email you with an answer that will help you shoot like a pro.

Here is the equipment I have: Canon xti, kit lens 18-55mm, 24-80mm, 70-200mm and an F/1.8 50mm, 580ex flash and a flash bracket.

Given that equipment, I might use the 50mm at 2.8 for sharpness, and side (off the wall/top) bounce the 580 while dragging the shutter a bit. 1/25th maybe. The other lenses are a bit slow for this kind of work, (not sure how fast the 70-200 is), and I don't think the XTi is a good low-light performer. I wouldn't go over 800, if that. I would also side light a few without dragging the shutter to get the spot-light-in-the-dark effect.

Sorry.. I forgot the the 50 is a bit telephoto on crop sensors.. You may have to deal with the 18-55 in this case.

How fast is the 24-80?

Alice,

 

please do not use flood lights in a crowded tent. Any light that is bright enough to be useful will become extremely hot and a fire danger in

the tent. I think you'd be much better off using a flash and bouncing it off the white roof of the tent, assuming the roof is white.

Alice-I will echo what the others have said-flood lights are not a good idea. If nothing else, if the couple has set up a nice ambience under the tent with candles, string lights, etc., you are going to be wrecking that with continuous lights. There is also a very real possibility that you will burn somebody or start a fire. Depending on where you are located, you may be able to rent a couple strobes if you want to set up an area for doing portraits under the tent-this may even end up being cheaper than buying worklights, and will definitely give a better result. As others have mentioned, your 580EX will have enough power to bounce off the tent, and will give a great quality of light.

You do NOT need particularly fast lenses for bouncing flash in a white tent, unless it is huge. Your kit lens will do fine. As previously stated, I've shot in white tents at ISO 400, f4 or f5.6 and been fine. If you increase the ISO to 800, you will be more than fine. Do some research on shooting inside tents. I believe a topic brought up before is a suggestion to cover the tent poles with something deocrative rather than leaving it plain metal.

 

One thing mentioned above is the light coming in from the tent opening and windows, if the exterior is brightly lit. You may have to keep your shutter speed high (do not use 1/25th, if the event is in the daytime and bright light is coming into the tent)--at 1/250th, when you are near or shooting against the openings. If the event is at dusk and evening, then you can drag the shutter more.

 

Since you already have the 580EX, I don't see any reason you would still want to use continuous lighting, since it will cost you more, take up more room, take a toll on your ISO usage (to stop motion), as well as increase your white balance problems, generate heat, alter the ambiance, and generally create a safety hazard.

Nadine is right.. 1/25th won't work in daylight. I just assumed it would be dark or you wouldn't be bringing in extra lighting.

Yes you could use flood lights. But you've already got the 580ex and a bracket so why would you need to or want to. Just add an Omni Sto-Fen diffuser or a Lumiquest or Westcott minisoftbox and you'll have the same lighting setup many people use to shoot weddings every day. For as little as $75 you can add an umbrella and light stand and shoot studio-style portraits. Go to www.strobist.com and see the Lighting 101 section. If you're concern is lighting up the backgrounds, drag the shutter. Dont' try to bounce off the tent -- it's too high. Just use the StoFen or mini softbox.

Alice: Might seem like an obvious suggestion, but maybe the tent will be setup the day before. If so, then grab a couple of volunteers as models and practice the night before with any lighting methods you choose. Get the bugs worked out beforehand.

If this wedding is taking place in the bright daylight, you won't even need floodlights. High ISO, follow handholding and subject motion guidelines, and you're set. A white tent acts like a giant diffuser.