Lots of Stained Glass Behind Asile

[samantha_bender]

I recently did a wedding where the church had an absolutely huge (at

least 10 feet wide and floor to ceiling) panel of blueish/greenish

stained glass located at the back of the short little church - right

behind the asile. This stained glass cast a strong light onto

everyone that came down the asile. To make matters a little more

complicated, when those coming down the asile left the strong green

light of the glass, they entered into the front of a pretty dark church.

I shot a few pics of everyone coming down the asile and ended up using

those of the people when they were closest to me - so they weren't

green and my flash compensated for the darkness.

But, I was wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience and

had advice to share?

Thanks!

Samantha Bender

[keith_van_hulle1]

Judiciously placed assistants with decent sized scrims to block or redirect the light you want/need would be my solution.

[cariad]

That is exactly the reason I go to the rehearsal even if I don't have to when I am not familiar with the church. You can see what you will have to deal with and make a plan and bring what you have to bring to take the best pictures possible.

I don't like going cold turkey to a wedding and not know what to expect, the day of the wedding it might be to late. What is an hour of your time to give your clients good pictures........

[ellery_chua___singapore]

Samatha,

Could you post a pic from what you used and a pic from what you canot use ?

 

Based on what you are saying and what I understand, it is a no win situation given you have 1 or at best 2 flashes with you. Backlit further than 10 feet subject in a large room aka a church mean your SB800 will be work flat out just to bearly throw enough light at 10 feet - that is with minimum bounce almost direct flash. Some coloration will show. In this case I would go with the flow and shoot for a mix of

 

1. fill flash on faces, allow the rest to show coloration and the mood of the place

 

2. flash as main of closer subjects allowing for at most minimum amount of coloration in frame

 

3. some availble light either full ambient or with fill flash and let the lighting fall where it will.

 

I would not try so much for flash as main and no coloration - because the tools you have will not allow you to do this well enough to get all the require pics in.

[conraderb]

samantha - in the future, check out the site when you arrive and ask the bride what she wants. it seems to me that you could drag the shutter to get a bit of the light from the windows and pop the flash to correct the colors. yes, you could kill the ambient by ramping up your shutter speed, but unless the colors are horrible, I think taht a flash should overpower the color cast just fine.

[picturesque]

Not sure why you think it was a problem since you solved it yourself anyway. I would have done the same thing...waited for the subjects to exit the light of the stained glass and used flash. I would have even tried to balance the stained glass with the flash, so you would have a nice, saturated blue/green background--maybe frame closely so you don't get too much of the black/darker interior. I would think that you could have done this even further back, within the light of the stained glass, but without seeing it, it is hard to say--maybe you had a lot of light reflecting up from the floor and around people's hair?

[bill_b2]

Maybe block the stained glass with well-placed, tall plants, trees, really. I have seen postings doing that.

 

Or buy a huge role of 48" by 25' Roscolux, to cover the glass, balancing the light to that of your flash.