No FLASH allowed at a Wedding! what to do?

I was informed five days before a wedding I'm shooting that "only natural light" is allowed in the church. Although I'm

not fully professional, I've photographed five weddings and have enough experience to know what I'm doing, but this is

the first time I've been told no flash.

 

I have a Canon 40D w/a Canon 3.5/4.0 28-105mm lense which doesn't allow much light in but has always worked

well enough in the past. I usually have my ISO set to 1600 in dark situations and I am aware that I can "push" the

exposure somewhat but I feel like even with these settings, it's still not going to be enough light.

 

At this point I feel like one solution is to rent a low aperture lense (although it's not ideal due to costs) OR use my

flash anyway (I usually bounce my flash anyway, so it's not as distracting). I would rather not have to argue with the

church but I feel that this is not normal considering the church is not historic.

 

Does anybody know of a solution to this problem, other than the things I have already come up with? Is this a normal

requirement of your average, suburban church? I really don't feel like it is but I'm still somewhat amatuer.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. (SOON!!!)

 

thank you

Tripod or monopod. Use a church bench for support. Lean against a big pillar. These things will not help to stop motion of your subject, but in this case that will probably not be a big problem.

 

I'd advice against using your flash if you've been told not to.

Who did you hear this from? If not the church then I'd ask them directly. Have you been to the church before? Maybe you should go scout that location at the same time of day as the ceremony?

it is always best to consult the custodian of the building, in this case, the church warden. they might have a universal ban on flashlights, however, since you are approaching the event as a pro, special dispensation might be made?

 

other than that, a light weight tripod would be most effective. monopods are useful too but if you are going to be carrying something that is going to make a crucial difference, a lightweight tripod would be it. a well lit building should be fine at iso 800. i would say that with a tripod iso 400 should be fine for most instances without a flash.

Fast lenses is definitely the way to go, the 50mm f/1.8 should be straight on your shopping list, for the price it offers superb low light performance. I would also look at the 85mm f/1.8 and 135mm f/2 (to rent).

Rent the lens and by all means, do not use flash if you were told not to.

No flash in a church is pretty common. As for being made aware of it 5 days before the wedding -its not anyone's job to let you know the rules, its your job to find them out ahead of time. No worries, lesson learned. Anyway, you should rent a lens and not use flash. If you're being paid to be the professional photographer for the wedding, then you should conduct yourself as that, not break the rules, and provide the best service possible. You might lose money in the short run by having to rent, but in the long run, you'll gain so much more for your business by using the right tools and leaving a good impression with clients, the church, and the other vendors...

I have been to many churchs and weddings that banned flashes. It can be pretty distracting during the ceremony. At my own wedding the pastor allowed flash during the recessional and processional and that was it, strictly no flash the rest of the time. Fortunately the lighting in the church was great (2 sides were floor to ceiling windows covering 95% of the wall space) and the time of day (about 4pm early November) allowed some great lighting.

 

The single wedding I shot the minister banned all photography during the ceremony, which was annoying, but my brother (who I was shooting for) and his wife were very understanding, so I went with it (I didn't really want to violate the ban).

 

My suggestion is to rent or buy a faster lens. For this wedding and others you'll eventually need it. Get a fast prime or two. With a 40d I'd say get something like a 50/1.8 or 50/1.4 and a sigma 30/1.4. Maybe down the road get a canon 85/1.8. Out of any of that I would go with the 50/1.8 if it is last minute and you need a single faster lens.

Chances are, if they ban the use of flash during a ceremony, they don't want you down front moving around where a flash could be of any use at all. If you're confined to the back of the church, a flash would not help anyway.

 

You can always arrange to reeenact the key ceremony shots right after the ceremony, where you can be right down front and use flash as needed. Most officiants will grant this if you ask nicely.

 

During the actual ceremony, follow the advice of others given above.

Rent Nikon D3 with the new lens 24-70/2.8, or possibly just use 50/1.4 and 85/1.4 lens. Shoot at ISO 6400.

 

Possibly you could do the same with Nikon D700. Not sure how Canon 5D measures up at high ISO.

Following up on Frank's remark "Not sure how the Canon 5D measured up at high ISO", I'll contribute that it does pretty well

through 1600. At 3200, you've got quite a bit of color and luminance noise, especially in shadows. Still, you can convert to

B&W and things look fine--kinda grainy, but not bad at all.

In my experience ISO 800-1600 is sufficient to allow shooting at f/4 1/200s in a typical church on a nice day. Your church may be darker.

An f/4 zoom lens isn't necessarily sharp wide open, so getting an f/2 or f/2.8 lens and stopping it down a bit is a good idea. You can

probably buy a couple of f/1.8 primes for the price it costs to rent a D3+24-70, becoming familiar with a camera of a different brand would

take way too much time.

 

Even with a D3 the quality at ISO 6400 is so-so - definitely not recommended for important images in a potentially very high

contrast lighting in a church. I prefer to stay around ISO 800-1600.

Brittany -

 

1. Get to the church as soon as possible and do some test shots at higher ISO. Plan out where you will stand and what shots the couple want.

 

2. If the bride and groom (or whoever I'm speaking to about the wedding) doesn't mention church rules during our pre-meeting, I ask. If they don't know, I call the church.

 

3. Don't even think about using a flash anyway. Best case the officials will bar you from doing weddings in that church again, worst case, they'll stop the ceremony and call you out.

 

4. Look at investing in a serious fast lens. You should have at least 1 F2.8 or faster lens for just this reason.

 

5. If you shoot Canon, I wouldn't recommend renting a Nikon at this point since (unless you've used Nikon before) they have a completely different menu setup and behavior charactoristics. Using a new camera during a wedding isn't the way to get familar with a new camera.

 

6. Get / use a tripod or monopod. Tripod pretty much limits your mobility, but might come in handy.

 

As pointed out above, no flash is becoming the "norm" as opposed to the exception. More and more churches are limited photographers to certain areas, no flash, no movement, etc... Remember, we're not the stars, the bride and groom are.

THANK YOU to everyone who replied. I have a friend who has two Canon Prime 30mm and 50mm, 2.8 lenses and/or I may rent one an even faster one. I didn't realize that flash photography would be a problem but you live and learn...luckily I still have some time and didn't figure this out on Saturday.

 

thanks everyone

1. It is absolutely normal for some churches to ban flash during the ceremony. Typically this means you can use flash during the processional and recessional, and probably for the kiss at the end of the ceremony, but when the bride and dad reach the altar and the dad gives the bride away, flashes must stop. Some churches restrict you in other ways, even where you can stand during the processional. It is best to ask and to abide by what you are told unless you want to be banned from the church in the future. You can, however, bargain for leniency if you want to, but don't expect success every time.

 

How do I put this nicely...please don't take the following negatively. Your viewpoint about what is normal or not for the church is somewhat self centered. The wedding is not about the photography, so the feeling that one is being abused by not being allowed to do whatever one wants to get the pictures is misplaced. I would not think about going against what you've been told to do. Anyway, in most churches, particularly if there is no daylight coming into the church, bouncing a flash is still using flash, and will still not be enough to expose the image by itself, in most cases.

 

Also be prepared for the guests to be flashing away even when you've been told you can't use flash. Again, don't be tempted to break the rules. If you plan to continue shooting weddings, you don't want to risk being banned from churches.

 

2. Fast lenses are fine if you know what to do with them. This means understanding hand holding limits and subject motion limits. If you don't know about these, and all you intend to do is to put the camera in aperture priority and shoot away, fast lenses will not help you get good images. They are also not the ultimate answer all the time, even image stabilization lenses. If the church is very dark, you will still need a tripod or support of some kind, possibly.

 

You CAN use your 28-105mm with a tripod, and with a technique I call 'waiting for the quiet moments'.

 

3. How have you been shooting up to this point? Camera mode, etc. What do you know of hand holding and subject motion guidelines? Have you used fast lenses before and how?

No flash in churches/temples is actually the norm now. Why? Because photographers take advantage of using flash and and blast away whenever they feel like it. In simple terms it wrecks the mood when people are praying or the rings are being passed. Frankly, I agree with the rule and the photographers caused this rule because of over use of flash.

 

You asked if you could use flash anyway. I'd strongly suggest NO. I've seen the ministers, priests, and rabbi's stop the service and tell one to stop with the flash or even worse kick them out. Not a good thing!

 

Your best friend is a tripod, buy a good one. I shoot most of my weddings with the 24-105 lens at ISO 800 and the photos come out just fine.

Hi, Brittany.

 

I used to shoot weddings as part of my studio business (before I decided that my weekends belong to me and my

family) and have done hundreds. I never encountered this rule as an absolute, but rather as a defense against

id--ts who claimed to be professional photographers, but who were disrupting the ceremonies by shooting off

numerous flashes and dancing around at the front of the church becoming "the show" instead of recording it with

respect and dignity. As another person responded, there have been unfortunate incidents where the pastor had to

stop the ceremony to dispose of these fools and rightly so!

 

Every time I was told that there were to be no ceremony shots, a quick and easy phone call to the church pastor

explaining that I would like to shoot the processional and recessional with flash, but that the ceremony itself

would only be shot from the rear of the church or from the balcony with a camera on tripod, was met with an

immediate acceptance. They would instantly realize that I respected the church and the sanctity of the rite of

marriage!

 

Let me explain this as loud and clear as I possibly can: YOU WILL NOT NEED FLASH TO RECORD THE CEREMONY AND THE

RESULTING IMAGES WILL HAVE A TREMENDOUSLY MORE BEAUTIFUL LIGHT QUALITY THAN YOU CAN CURRENTLY IMAGINE!!!!!!!!!

 

This is partly because portable flash, especially on camera flash is a terrible light source to begin with. It

is only serviceable within a very short geographical distance and then begins to fall off into total darkness

very, very rapidly. It is only applicable as a light source for candid shooting and NEVER for anything of real

beauty!!!!!!!!!!

 

To properly "light" a ceremony with strobe equipment would take dozens of units placed all over the sanctuary at

as high an elevation as they could be placed and then many of those would actually show up in the images.

 

Light reduces by the square of the distance as it travels away from the source, so your automatic setting for the

strobe would be accurate at it's set distance, and then, at only a few feet beyond, would have lost nearly all of

its illuminating power. So, you would have a few people in the nearby pews well illuminated and the front of the

sanctuary would have only the candle flame show up at all..... unless you drag the shutter (use a very slow

shutter speed along with the flash) to capture some of the available light, also requiring a tripod. So, just

use the tripod with proper metering and you will have wonderful results. You will also keep everyone, including

the church officials happy. By the way, this also builds you a strong reputation with other brides and other

churches as being a photographer who knows how to work with respect and still get extremely good results!

 

Faster lenses are a help with this, but the camera on a tripod is very stable so you can do well with your slower

lenses. I used Hasselblad gear for my weddings and often shot with an f4-150mm telephoto at extremely slow

speeds with outstanding results. There is very little movement during a ceremony, so almost no need to worry

about stopping action. Just tell the bride and groom ahead of time to really enjoy that kiss so they won't break

too soon.

 

Good luck.

 

Tim

If you shoot Canon there is no reason to rent any gear you are not familiar with. The 40D is fine. I'd rent a couple of

fast lenses. I use the 135 f2 and it works great for ceremonies handheld.

If you can at least get closer (ask for permission to get up close since you can't use flash) the 50 1.8 or 85 1.8 will

work fine too. Just buy the 50 no matter what. For $70 you can't afford not to have it!

 

If you can afford the 85 1.8 it is one of Canon's best deals. Otherwise rent a 24-70 2.8 or a 70-200 2.8 lens. You

can usually find those as rentals as they are common. Don't panic! You need to remain calm...so you can hold the

camera steady. :)

 

Lou

A word of caution if you choose to pick up a fast prime for the ceremony... If you are used to focusing by letting the camera choose the focus points for you, you might find very quickly that it isn't going to work in this case. If you switch to a fast aperture lens you may have to quickly learn the focus/recompose technique using the center point only on the 40D. Otherwise, you may find that you end up with a whole bunch of out-of-focus pictures.

 

Remember that the depth of field or depth of focus on a fast 1.8 prime lens is dramatically smaller than it is at f4.5. The nose might be in focus, but the eyes might not.

There is no easy answer to this problem. I agree with the feeling that you should not break the rules and risk a

confrontation on a special day like this.

 

I would talk to the couple and have them ask the church if this rule can have some latitude. If the rule is hard and fast

then the only choice you really have is to go to the option of renting fast lenses and shooting at ISO 800-1600. With my

D300 Nikon I can do pretty well with a 50mm f/1.4 and a 85mm f/1.8. The suggestion of trying to get some important

images prior to and after the ceremony.

 

Whatever the decision you make be certain that you inform the couple that these measures may compromise the quality

of some of the images that are made.

 

Rent the lenses and give it your best shot. Good luck. This is only one of the reasons I don't shoot weddings.

 

-Cheers

Or...you could shoot that part of the ceremony with high-speed black and white film, which will give you much better results, particularly in the shadows.

Yikes. Let me just say that I hope you, Brittany, don't get the idea that all you have to do is put a fast lens on your camera and you now can photograph any wedding ceremony, handheld, with enough light for good images. It also is NOT your only option.

 

You CAN use your 28-105mm lens if you know what to do and use a tripod. It is trendy to eschew a tripod as being too restrictive and 'a pain', get expensive, fast IS lenses and walk around shooting handheld with extremely high ISO. This is one way, but there are others. Photographers in the past used ISO 125 film in the same dark churches without flash and managed to get the key images just fine. They used tripods with good tripod technique. They shot during the 'quiet moments' I mentioned above.

 

As I also mentioned above--there are some techniques you need to know if you do plan to go hand held with fast lenses. By the way, f2.8 isn't all that fast when you are talking about dark churches. Some dark churches will have you at f1.4 or f1.2 using the appropriate shutter speed for the focal length, and ISO 3200, and that still might not be enough. Is it better to go without tripod but very noisy or better to have less noise but use a tripod? Is it better to get all kinds of images, but they are blurry, or fewer key images but they are sharp? All things you should consider.

If you are in doubt of your results with no flash (some Raccoon-eye effects tend to be *not nice* when you show the proofs,) find out beforehand if you can re-stage the wedding after the official ceremony. If you can, shoot as you would with your flash and get results that are expected for the bride and groom.

Personally, I don't love using my flash but being the amateur (gaining speed in become "professional", whatever that truly means) I just assumed that it would be an option. I do have access to a monopod and tripod but I've rarely needed to use either, due to fine lighting conditions, but I will be bringing them with me tomorrow during my practice run. I haven't spoken directly with the church yet however, it may be that I cannot use the flash during the ceremony not the entire shoot.

Anyhow, I am preparing to use a borrowed Canon 50mm, 1.4 lense and my 28-105 as well. I think it will be fine and I once again, appreciate the feedback.

I have used that exact combination in concert halls where flash is not allowed: 40D and 28-105 lens in low light

situations, with IS or on a tripod. (I don't think a monopod helps much.) The 40D works well at 1600, but I sometimes

underexpose one stop and pull out the shadows in post processing. Also, I may use Noise Ninja with photoshop to

clean up some of the noise, although the 40D is very good with noise and often it is not necessary.

 

With camera on a tripod, I use a remote release to reduce vibration. Also I am often shooting as slow as 1/20th of a

second, so the photo will show a little movement in something that is moving, like hands of the conductor. I use live

view on the 40D also to reduce shutter noise if I do not want to disturb guests. (In fact, I use the 40D instead of a 5D for

that very reason.)

 

As for the 50 1.4, you will need to focus very carefully when it is wide open. If you are doing people, focus on the eyes.

 

And in the end, I think you will end up with better pictures than if you used flash.