Couple being married in front of a Christmas Tree. White Balance question

[theresa_amelia]

On Saturday I will be the wedding photographer at a small home wedding.

 

This lighting question has been bugging me all day long.

 

Do I set the lighting for Tungsten, to set the white balance for the white Christmas lights, or, since I am

using a "Cloudsphere" diffuser from Gary Fong, do I just keep the lighting set for flash photography?

I have the "amber" diffuser top from Gary Fong's kit, do you think it would be more appropriate to use this

with the White Balance set to Tungsten, or to Flash?

 

There will be other ambient lighting in the room - Candlelight, and I believe one or two other sources of

light from either lamps or overhead lighting, plus a window or two. The couple is getting married at

3:00pm so there will still be some outdoor light remaining although it will be at best late afternoon ligjht

(with cloud cover) With all of these various light sources, all at different colour temperatures, how would

you approach this situation?

 

I am well versed in both studio and outdoor lighting situations but, this one is quite unique because I'd

like to capture the ambience of the Christmas lights, while at the same time keep my subjects and the

background evenly lit. I plan on doing some test shots (I'm arriving at the venue 2 hours early) with my

assistant in place of the bride and groom, to see what works best.

 

But I always love the wisdom and experience of folks here - you guys really are the best! *smile*

 

Thanks again!

 

Theresa Hilsdon

Hilsdon Photography LLC

you may reply directly to theresa@hilsdon.net as well as to this thread.

 

THANK YOU!!

[ronald_moravec1]

I have used daylight film, 160, at 1/4 sec with electronic flash. I did not miss a single shot with hand sync

 

It was a necessity as I forgot my sync chord. Pics were georgous, people and lights on the tree.

[van_bemmelen]

Shoot RAW and decide in PP on what you would like the WB to be.

 

Doing test shots 2 hours before the actual wedding is cutting it rather fine, imo.

[jamieleephoto]

http://strobist.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-photograph-christmas-lights.html

[catherine_oostdyk]

I had a small home wedding by a Christmas tree a couple weeks ago! The ceremony was beside the tree and the couple ended up with their backs to me so I had to reposition and then the tree wasn't in many of the ceremony shots. I did several posed shots in front of the tree before and after the vows though.

 

I was shooting RAW, AWB, ISO 400-640, and dragging the shutter a bit, most around 1/30-1/50. Here's a link to my results: http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/thumbpage.aspx?e=3337382

[david_schilling___chicago_]

I would suggest that you capture with AWB and then work with your post processing. Most of the time I rely on flash with the omnibounce angled to provide some bounce and overpower the tungsten. Unless I'm looking for some mood lighting with plenty of ambient light source but these tend to be limited to a few detail shots and available light ceremony images(where I still go with AWB).<div></div>

[john_beaver1]

I wouldn't worry about the xmas tree lights as much as the rest of the scene. If you prefer to

balance for the flash, the tree lights will be a little warmer, which should be very nice.

[ernie.grimes]

Theresa

One other thing you can try that makes the Christmas Tree lights twinkle more is use a cross screen filter on your lens. I also agree with John

Ernie

[paul_boyd]

Shoot black-and-white :-) Kidding aside, it might not be a bad idea for some shots with weird color imbalances. Also, throw in a BW shot of them near the tree. I like to present BW images of subjects that most people expect to see in color: wedding cake, party balloons, American Flag, Christmas tree etc. They already know what these things look like in color, and it makes them do a double-take when they see it in BW.

 

Good Luck,

paul

[KenPapai]

Theresa, it's assumed you're shooting with film. Many others assume you shoot with DSLR. Is there any possible way you provide that important detail here?

 

[if you use DSLR, you shoot Raw and it doesn't matter what you preset WB to... there is no better answer]<div></div>

[bob_osullivan]

Ok, the window light, if it's coudy will be bluish. The christmass tree lights will be amber as will the tungsten lights throughout. I'll bet there is some fourescent lighting in the ceiling as well. And you need to choose for your flash.

 

If the scene overall favors tungsten, then I'd balance the flash with the amber lid. And if the scene favors window light I would shoot the flash as it is.

 

Either way, I would use custom WB not Tungsten, flash, daylight, cloudy or AWB and fix it later in post.

 

Mixed lighting is exactly what custom WB was designed for. All you need is a white peice of paper in your pocket or a grey card. Get it right at capture, even it you shoot raw + jpeg. Why not save the time later and get it right now. In a cases like this I might shoot RAW + LG Jpeg. Just in case I do get it right, I can avoid any post.

 

Not to mention, the light coming in from those windows and the overall mix will change over the term of the event. So, recalculate CWB as needed.

[JohnWebster]

If you don't have time to mess with a white or grey card rmember that most brides and grooms are wearing the white and the black you need to put the eye-dropper on in Photoshop. I have the white set to 240 and the black to 20. Maintaining a warm look means you may not want to remove all color cast. I use curves to tweak the final result.