wedding lighting tips

[alastair_anderson]

Hi everyone,

 

I know this is cheeky, but here goes.

 

I have a D3 (bought as a somewhat bulky digital replacement for my Leica M cameras).

 

I've never shot a wedding in my life, but will be the official photographer at the wedding of a friend of mine. It's a small

affair - he's in his 60's and isn't bothered about hiring a pro.

 

Although I have the D3 I don't really have adequate flash equipment. I have a speedlight (SB-15) which for reasons

known only to Nikon has a reversed sync. cord connection - the same as the one on the camera - making it

impossible to connect it to the camera using a conventional sync. cord. I've never got an answer to that one!

 

The way I use the speedlight is to fire it via a light sensor attached to the hot foot which reacts to the sunpak flash

that I have attached to the camera.

 

I hardly ever use flash anyway and when I do my technique is to bounce the light from walls or ceiling. I get fairly

good results by calculating exposure based on distance, halved because of the bounce.

 

 

The point is that for wedding photos I should imagine that it might be important to use flash as fill in.

 

I'd be grateful if you can tell me how to expose for that given my limited equipment. Any other wedding tips will be

greatly received.

 

I'll have 3 lenses with me: 85 1.4D; 60 2.8D and 14-24.

 

Please don't suggest that I invest in an SB800(900). At the moment I can't afford to without parting with some Leica

gear and I'm reluctant to do that.

[ilkka_nissila]

I would just shoot available light only. Don't shoot into strong backlight (i.e. a person directly in front of a

window unless you position yourself to the side of the window) without a fill flash but position yourself so that

the subject is lit from the side or from the same direction you're shooting from.

 

If the spaces you photograph in have reasonably light (white) surfaces, this will work fine. If they're dark and

if the windows are small, you may get deep and possibly colored shadows, which can be a problem. However, this

problem is easier to fix in post-processing than learning how to use fill-flash so that the mood and atmosphere

of the ceremony is not lost. Few can do it at all.

 

I shoot all my ceremony shots since I got the D3 without flash and the results are fine. I use 28/2, 50/1.4 and

85/1.4 when the light is very low, and in a nicely lit church I'll get to use the 24-70 and 80-200. I start

using flash only when daylight runs out some time in the evening, and grudgingly so.

 

Usually, ceremonies are located in spaces where the ceiling is high, so bounce won't work. And the walls are in

many cases colored so that's a problem too. Direct flash without adequte diffusers/reflectors looks terrible,

don't do that.

 

A fair bit of post-processing experience is helpful if you use available light only, but I think this is the

easier approach to take. I can't repeat this enough: it is vital that you position yourself correctly with

regards to the position of the light source and the subject.

[ilkka_nissila]

Just one more thing: you <i>can</i> shoot into the light with the gear you have, and there shouldn't be much of a problem with flare or ghosting. But if the floor is dark, the shadows will be deep in this backlit scenario. Some shots this way are fine, especially if they're overview shots or show the guests, but in the case of the bride and groom, you need to be able to get into a position from which there will be some light on the faces. Sorry to make this sound so complicated. ;-)

[alastair_anderson]

Ilkka, thanks very much. On the contrary, you've made it sound simple. Your advice is much appreciated.

 

I'll try not to push my macro lens into the bride's face and shoot bursts at 9 frames a second !

[www.roelandebruijn.nl]

There is an extensive amount of info on just this question in the wedding forum.

Search for dragging the shutter on this site, or just google 'Neil van Niekerk' and/or 'Strobist'.

 

Loads of info, dragging the shutter makes your flash shots look way better. BTW the D3 will allow you to shoot without flash for way longer, that would be my first choice, when I have to use flash I use the above-mentioned technique.

[ilkka_nissila]

If you use flash and "drag the shutter", remember that you need to match the color of the light source to the ambient light. This isn't a big problem when your available light is daylight (just use flash WB) but if it's tungsten/fluorescent/candle light then you probably need to use a filter on the flash to make it look like the available light. This is often forgotten (by yours humbly also...).

 

Another technique which can be used with the D3 when you have neutral/white walls in the room and need to create even relatively shadowless frontal lighting with true colors: point your flash backwards (over your head). This results in the back side of the room basically acting as a huge reflector. I think need to shoot at a fairly large aperture / high ISO for this to work though, but the results can be astonishingly good. It isn't the first thing that comes to mind when using a flash but with the D3 even a tiny blip of light can be used.

[wing8]

Hello Alastair,

 

Have you considered renting a flash?