New wedding lighting with softboxes

<p>This may be more of a lighting forum question, but I am specifically referring to weddings. I was interested on everyone’s opinion on lighting large wedding venues, and reception areas. So far I have been running my wedding photography with just my hot shoe mounted flash. It usually works just fine, but was thinking about a setup involving 2 or 3 hot shoe flashes mounted in softboxes for bounce lighting. The reason I choose hot shoe flashes is for the portability, and the fact that having my assistant swap batteries every once in a while isn’t a big deal. I thought of positioning them around for example the main dance floor at a reception hall since this is almost always an area notorious for "cave lighting". Firing straight up, and triggered by pocket wizards. Two things I see wrong with this however. One, the size of equipment which I don’t see being a huge issue. It's not like I'm going to have a Buick sized lightbox at a wedding. Second how annoying do you think it may be when I start going to town for not only my little flash on the camera, but enough light to nicely fill the room. Am I going to throw any of the guests into a seizure? As all of us wedding photographers know it’s about getting the shots, but also being as non obtrusive as possible. To all you veterans what are some of the unique setups you are running? Thanks in advance for any advice. </p>

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<p>If your intention is to bounce the light from the venue's ceiling, I'd skip the softboxes. They'll just eat light, and not appreciably its quality. Softboxes are best when used directly at the subject, and relatively close <em>to</em> the subject (unless we're talking about very large softboxes - and if you're using speedlights, then that's not happening). The ceiling <em>is</em> your softbox, so save yourself a stop or so of power (and batteries) by just pointing a naked strobe up at it.<br /><br />If you're talking about pointing light directly at, say, a dancefloor ... remember that a small-ish softbox (say, 24x24") is going to be nearly as hard a source of light from 15 feet away as a naked flash would be anyway. So, keep things smaller, lighter, more maneuverable, and less battery-hungry, and save the softboxes for when you're working right up close.</p>

<p>What Matt said............</p>

<p>I set up 2 bare strobes as slaves on light stands, angled toward the ceiling and fire them with an on camera 580ex. Sometimes I'll use the on camera strobe, sometimes not - it's usually just to trigger the other two.<br>

I don't think I bother the guests... at least no more than the DJ and his cheesy lights do.</p>

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<p>What Matt said about softboxes and umbrellas. I use 2 Sunpak 120Js, sometimes shoemounts. I point them at ceilings or opposite walls, or just 'into the crowd'--it depends. If you take the approach that you 'light up' the room, you will need tons of light, even with fairly high ISOs. If you take the approach that you are merely bring up the ambient light a bit, you will be fine with shoemounts or similar ones to my Sunpaks. You also don't annoy people with constant, huge dumps of light.</p>

Some people aim their extra flash units at the dance floor. I suppose thats ok and it's usually ok to bounce off the ceiling if the ceiling is on the white side.

 

I usually put the strobes or monolights in a corner aiming at the tables, not the dance floor. I prefer to set the on camera flash to about F4 to 5.6. The corner strobes are set about 1 stop under. The idea is to keep the background from going black. On rear occasions, mainly in huge reception rooms I may use 2 lights with umbrellas on each side. The reason for doing this is to control and taper the light flow evenly. This is so rear I only used this setup once last year, when there were about 900 people at the wedding. I have pretty powerful White Lightning strobes (the 3200 models) so using umbrellas and not an issue. Don't use the on camera strobes for this type of work.

 

Some photographers push their ISO settings to 1600 and even as high as 6400, to keep the backgrounds from going dark. I however don't like that look, so I usually shoot at an ISO setting of 400. This is more for the richness in color and depth in the quality. At high ISO's you can pick up very weird lighting conditions form exit signs, ceiling lights, DJ's colored strobe lights, to any other type of light.

 

I also agree with the others to leave your softboxes and umbrellas home.

<p>I wrote about this a couple of months ago...<br>

<a href="http://www.photocrati.com/taking-wedding-pictures-that-stand-out-from-the-pack/">http://www.photocrati.com/taking-wedding-pictures-that-stand-out-from-the-pack/</a></p>

<p>Booray thats exactly what I was looking into. At least I'm on the right track. So in your technique you use only one extra strobe on a tripod for bounce? Then the on camera flash for fill for the faces and what not? Good article though.<br>

I agree with you that everybody with a fancy $150 point and shoot is all the sudden a photographer. I work very hard to get the quality I do. I called a girl up just yesterday to discuss my packages with her, and she said she found a friend to do it "for FREE"!! It was the way she said it like oh well I'm getting it done for free. Kind of insulting actually the way it was put. Ooookkk then. <br>

 

 

<p>Anyways back to the lights. I think I will take the advice with the hotshoe mounts for now since that will be fairly reasonable on price to get going. Nadine yes I am more or less just trying to bring up the ambient light in the room. I mean I can shoot at 1600-3200, but want to stay lower for contrast and depth reasons. </p>

 

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<p>Mike--I was answering your question about annoying guests with the softboxes. First, the size of the softbox (hence the size of the light source) will be annoying. Secondly, the fact that you add modifiers immediately makes it necessary for more light, hence brighter light (annoying the guests) and thirdly, your mentioning 'filling the room' implied lighting the room, which means more light (annoying the guests). I personally like to stay around ISO 800 myself.</p>

<p>I would also add that you should do some searches. This topic has been discussed many times on this forum. People do a variety of different things. For instance, Booray's use of a tripod works well if you are bouncing the shoemounts upward, but they will be too low if you use them as accent lights--they need to be higher then. You also should look at bringing bungee cords, the 'free' platforms/stands that come with an external shoemount, or C clamps with ball heads attached. I've bungeed lights to a tree and to railings, set flashes on existing surfaces, and clamped them to items on walls. These latter methods are great in very crowded and tight rooms. I also have sandbags in the back of my car. You have to be aware of liability with guests running into the stand legs.</p>

<p>Lastly, I suggest that you get maybe two shoemounts and experiment. I don't like to rely on the Canon wireless system so I use Cybersync triggers. Sometimes I am in very large rooms, and I've had my share of misfires. When you experiment, don't just bounce them the same way each time. Try bouncing a light off the opposite wall, the wall behind, and also into the crowd, just as accent lighting. We could tell you about this and that, but the best way to learn is to do. Experiment a little at each wedding/reception, and then go back to your tried and true methods.</p>

<p>Another thing--light or white rooms are going to give you a lot more reflectivity than dark walls, plus there is color cast to deal with with the latter. This greatly affects how you set up lights, and you may want to research gelling flashes as well.</p>

<p>One extra light on a medium light stand without contraptions is a good starting place. Once you can use and control that, then move on. Just my 2 cents.</p>

<p>I use two sb800s one on camera usually bounced, the other in a 60x60 softbox on a monopod held and directed by an assistant this gives me the freedom to follow the dance and not have to wait till the b&g get to my ultimate predetermined spot for my perfect picture. This set up also allows you to shoot long lens if needs be<br>

I did try setting lights up on stands but guests just kept hitting them knocking them over, and every other mishap you can imagine they did. Seems nothing from a health and safety aspect bright tape etc could make determined guest see anything other than their own mission lol.<br>

A quick perusal of my insurance cured me of leaving stands and equipment lying around near dance floors</p>

<p>I use a single SB-800 on a stand set at the edge of the dance floor. It's (usually) set at 1/16 or 1/8 depending on the size of the room with no soft box. This is combined with another 800 on the camera bouncing off of the ceiling.<br>

I don't use them to fill the seating area very often untless the room is awfully dark. It just gives a nice directional effect when combined with the more even ceiling bounce. It also works well when shooting into the camera, backlighting the subjects and giving you some dramatic flare.</p><div></div>

<p>Mike---- That's correct, I use a 580EX on a stand pointed at the ceiling and a 580EXII on-camera. The stand flash is usually around 1/4 power and the on-camera is at full, shooting in manual. Someone mentioned in a recent thread (probably Betty or Nadine) that "the on-camera shouldn't work correctly with the added off-camera light but it does". I frequently move the off-camera strobe around the dance floor as the night progresses to get different angles, etc. I always put it next to something solid, like the corner of a riser or a pillar.</p>

<p>If the room were very big I would set up two strobes in the corners or bring in a pair of AB800's (there is a temple here in Tampa that has a 30-foot ceiling over the "party room.") But it's very rare that I will bring the big strobes.</p>

<p>I always gel my flashes to tungsten (unless I'm in a flourescent room) and set my camera to match. This gives me a consistent color all night. Even if the color isn't exactly right, it's the same across all the images and can be corrected all at once in post.</p>

<p>For this shot I had one flash on a stand to my right, pointed at the ceiling over the guys. My on-camera strobe was pointed at the ceiling over the groom. I shoot at 1600 ISO</p>

<p>I don't always use a second strobe. It's a judgement call I make at every gig.<br>

<img src="http://www.boolog.com/tampa_wedding_photographer_booray.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="400" /></p>

<p>Booray--it was me, and I was talking about using the on camera flash in ETTL (or iTTL) and the off camera flashes in manual. Supposedly, the on camera flash, because it uses a pre-flash, does not take into account the off camera flash, and one supposedly gets overexposure. In practice, this doesn't happen with judicial minus flash compensation. And, as you say, if the off camera is lighting the background and not the subjects, it doesn't affect the on camera flash exposure. Using the Canon (or Nikon) wireless system with ratios is a different thing.</p>

<p>The same used to be said of auto thyristor multiple flashes too. Supposedly, the on camera flash would underexpose, because it 'saw' the off camera flash. In reality, that worked too, with judicial flash compensation.</p>

<p>the following are just my opinion.. you might agree or disagree.</p>

<p>i'm against bringing large softboxes/umbrellas and stuff to wedding receptions.. it is one thing to bring a couple speedlights but another to have all these giant light modifiers flashing all over the place.</p>

<p>it destroys the mood if you ask me.. if the couple wanted to have bright lights shining all over her reception she would have hosted it in a gymnasium.</p>

<p>too many photographers these days bring these multiple lights to try to capture the perfect shot at the expense of the mood that the couple wanted.</p>

 

<p>Well those comments are bound to get a reaction i am in the disagree camp.<br>

Sometimes the bride and groom demand first dance shots that are coherent vibrant and colourful.<br>

@ "if the couple wanted to have bright lights shining all over her reception she would have hosted it in a gymnasium."<br>

She would hire a photographer with the equipment and ability and have it where she chooses after all lets remember we are the hired help. we do as we are paid to do, to the best of our ability, if that means a couple of lights and small softboxes so be it.<br>

Just a quick pointer mood lighting is different from bright lights<br>

In my experience there are many moods and situations during a first dance that need capturing from the gentleness of a tender moment to the full flow of a jive today's bride wants it all lets give it to them we have the gear let,s show it off</p>

<p>A 60x60 soft box is not small. I can't imagine being a wedding guest and seeing someone carrying that around all over the place. You'd think you were on the set of a major motion picture. I understand about being paid to get the shot by any means necessary but you have to keep it within reason.</p>

<p>60x60 centimetres not inches your cant imagination serves you well, no one would carry them around all day, just for use at significant moments that the photographer decides. they can be folded/erected in seconds and almost always only used when the photographer brings his/hers voice activated light stand assistant</p>