Alien Bees..bounce or umbrella@ reception?

[dennis osipiak]

At the reception...I can answer my own question when ceilings are high or off

colored,,umbrella has to better..but..shoot straight through or reflect into the

umbrella? (AB 1600). Second question...if I do bounce off the ceiling for softer

and broader light should I have the 7" reflector on or off? I like the

even/softer light (usually) of ceiling bounce but some reception venues soak up

the light with darker ceilings or serious height issues for 580EX flash.Any

reply from monolight users is appreciated.

Dennis

[wedding-photography-denver]

Dennis, I use a couple of 800 AB's from time to time. My use is normally due to reception sites where there are dark wood walls/ceilings and any bounce results in terrible colors.

 

When I do this I use the reflectors and set them about 10 - 12' high then aim down at the dancers etc. I works well once you are familiar with the fact that to keep consistent light you have to adjust your F stop as you approach or leave the lights.

 

Here is how that works/looks in practice:<div></div>

[adrian_wilson6]

Hi Dennis,

 

 

I would forget about Bounce flash, what goes up must come down but not necessarily as you would want it. Light reflected from a ceiling or a wall for that matter will take on the colour of the surface it is reflected off, that's how Brides dresses end up looking brown and discoloured. This is one of the reasons we have light tents for small product studios to prevent any reflected light from contaminating the product. I always use a dedicated flash and I tend to stick with that unless I run out cables or wire in another identical unit on a tripod, but please remember you are increasing the risk factor if you do this.

Last point I never use direct flash I ALWAYS have a diffuser ( Stofen ) in place, the only time it is removed is when I am looking for distance and that's not very often.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Kind Regards,

 

Adrian.

[al_kaplan1]

That first photo is a great example of the fact that having one or more of the lights in the photo can make for a dramatic picture!

[edrodgers]

Often times I will use only one light (T5D) on a stand (10' up, pointed at the crowd, diffused) set for manual (main light), triggered wirelessly through my pc connector. Along with that, I will use an on-camera 580EX on TTL for fill light, riding flash compensation as necessary.

 

This setup is nice for me, because I only have to set up one light, and it's simple to effect lighting ratios on the fly. To do ratios with multiple T5D lights wirelessly, you must use a control flash, which means you need 3 of them. I only have 2. The second one is usually being hand-held by an assistant, set to Auto dedicated.

 

With square rooms, this works great, but long rooms probably should have two main lights.