Bad lighting for wedding

[jeff_bogle]

<p>Help please. I'm shooting a wedding this weekend and I took the tour of the venue(s) that it will be taking place at and realised that the lighting, particularly for the reception, is really bad, as in really dark. The reception is being taken place in a gymnasium attached to the church and the only light it will be getting is from the candles on each table and a few at the head of the entrance. To put it plainly, no light. What would be the best way to approach this? I've got 70-200 f/2.8, a 24-70 f/2.8 and a 50mm f/1.4 to work with and only a canon speedlite 420EX. Thanks. </p>

[JosvanEekelen]

<p>Looks as if you have a steep learning curve ahead. Íf there is a white ceiling bounce the light off the ceiling. Otherwise use a (DIY) flash diffuser, this can be just a sheet of white paper attached to the flash with rubber bands. Since you flash is not too powerful use high ISO (800 or so). Use a shutter time of 1/125 or so, in Tv or manual. Use these settings as a start and experiment, preferably before the wedding. <br />Read the Wedding and social event photography Forum on pnet, also get to know your flash.</p>

 

[john_deerfield]

<p>Is this for fun or pay? If for pay, don't do it. At least don't do any more until you know what you are doing. If it is for fun, then have fun. If the ceiling is low enough and/or there is a wall close by, experiment with bouncing the flash. I might suggest using nothing but the 50mm and experiment with different apertures. At f/1.4, you are letting in a lot of ambient (whatever it is) but you have a very shallow DoF so you need to be careful. And often, the shallow DoF doesn't "show up" on the camera's little LCD! Then try stopping down to f/2 or f/2.5... find your sweet spot. For bounce techniques overall:</p>

<p>http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/</p>

[jeff_bogle]

<p>Thanks you all. I will probably stick to the 50mm 1.4 in the gym. Even though I won't be able to get a wider angle (I will use the 24-70 as well though) the low light conditions will be easier to work around. I do have diffusers as well. Thanks again. </p>

[jcuknz]

<p>If you want to be sure of your results then use your flash on the camera without any fancy bouncing trickery ... maybe not the best way to go but for a newbie to flash you will get results.<br>

If you are not sure how to set up your camera for TTL then work manually using a Guide Number to tell you what aperture to use ... it is about the simplest way to take photos short of having the camera do it automatically.<br>

This explains GNs <a href="http://www.jcuknz-photos.com/LIGHTING/GUIDENUMBERS.html">http://www.jcuknz-photos.com/LIGHTING/GUIDENUMBERS.html</a></p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>My advice would be if you're covering the job professionally, hire the right kit, since a 420EX is probably a bit feeble for the job. Rent a powerful hammerhead Metz or something else with a bit of poke and coverage. The other week I (just) managed to light a massive warehouse style wedding venue with a single Nissin Di866 pointed at a 20 foot high cream-coloured ceiling by raising the ISO to 800 or 1600 and working at f/4. Thank goodness for DSLRs and custom White Balance! Or you could always use direct flash if you don't mind the ugly look of it.</p>

<p>BTW makers of flashguns just plain lie about their Guide Numbers, you need to take a stop off the published GN by dividing it by 1.4, and if you're bouncing the flash subtract another stop. The average so-called "powerful" hotshoe mounted flash has a true GN of somewhere around 28 (ISO100/metres) at the 35mm zoom setting, and none of them exceed 32. I'm afraid your 420EX probably has a true GN of around 22, as measured by an incident flashmeter.</p>

[picturesque]

<p>My opinion only--I would use an A Better Bounce Card type card, along with dragging the shutter at high ISO--at least ISO 800 for the whole thing. Most gymnasiums do not have low enough ceilings and are usually large. Bouncing will stress your flash out a lot, and you will have recycling issues. Bounce, with white card help, and dragging the shutter, will be easier on the flash and recycling.</p>

<p>Also, if you aren't used to shooting weddings, trying to use f1.4 for many of the kinds of images one takes at weddings is going to guarantee failure. People will ask you why everything is out of focus, even though a sliver of the subject is in focus. Using flash, you can use your zooms and concentrate on getting the pictures.</p>

<p>You will need to pay attention to what is happening and to getting what is happening, not to figuring out why your flash isn't recycling in time or why you can't get any decent shutter speed in dim conditions.</p>

<p>Here's what I'd recommend. Use One Shot, make sure focus assist is working, and use the white card. Drag the shutter with high ISO. Do not use AV. Set your camera manually, or use Program, which will tend to set (at) ISO 800, f4, 1/60th or 1/125th.</p>

<p>The best way to handle the conditions you describe (at a wedding) is to use off camera flash plus drag the shutter, plus high ISO and bounce, with or without a white card. Professionals though, may have an external battery pack or at least are able to anticipate and handle recycling.</p>

[jcuknz]

<p>Another trap with flash guns is that the Guide Number is apparently often quoted for when the flash is on "telephoto" beam and not that for when it is covering a normal or wide angle lens's angle of view. Direct flash is considered 'ugly' by photographers though better that than otherwise bad results. It can be improved a bit by having the flash mounted on a bracket higher than what you get with it on the camera itself. Though you loose light output another way is to point the flash upwards as with bounce but have a white card attached to it to reflect a softer light at the subject.</p>

[john_deerfield]

<blockquote>

<p>but have a white card attached to it to reflect a softer light at the subject.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Just to be clear, it is the size of the light source that determines softness. Reflected light (from a bounce card) will be closer to hard light than soft, but as fill light it isn't creating it's own shadows.</p>

[fotografz]

<p>This will probably be too late, but I'll say it anyway ...</p>

<p>Do you have a second camera? You need a second flash. What happens if your current camera or flash fails on you?</p>

<p>Dark indoor wedding reception venues are the rule not the exception. Some have reasonably low white or light colored ceilings to bounce off of, and many do not. One has to be prepared for either.</p>

<p>A few quick tips: Set the camera to Manual exposure mode, set the speed-light to ETTL. Set about ISO 800 and increase or decrease that after a few test shots ... ISO 800 almost always works as the start point.</p>

<p>Dragging the shutter: As a starting rule of thumb in dark ambient conditions, I set the manual shutter speed to the same number as the focal length ... 50mm = 1/40th to 1/60th. In dark candle lit conditions it will be the flash that does most of the lighting on the foreground subject, and a flash's short duration will freeze the subject (see example below).</p>

<p>If you are close to the subject, use a diffusion modifier like those already suggested. If you are farther away from the subject, aim the flash right at the subject in the distance without any modification ... even manually zoom the flash head to increase reach.</p>

<p>Example below: dark candle lit reception in a gym, Sony A900 set to ISO 1,000 ... fast action shot on dance floor using a 16-35/2.8 set to <strong>17mm</strong> f/3.5 ... manual <strong>shutter speed @ 1/20th.</strong></p>

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[vivi_chun]

<p>The wedding need bright and warm environment, the bad light must be one terrible factor for the wedding. But the wedding is placed in this weekend, you can not install some new light in such short time, but you could add the number of candles or decorate with some<a href="http://www.lightingever.com"> miniaturebulbs</a>, decorates on some ornamentals. The color you could choose warm white, it is much more brighter.<img src="http://image.baidu.com/i?ct=503316480&z=&tn=baiduimagedetail&word=wedding&in=24116&cl=2&lm=-1&pn=3&rn=1&di=42579901455&ln=1997&fr=&fm=result&fmq=1325561290243_R&ic=0&s=0&se=1&sme=0&tab=&width=&height=&face=0&is=&istype=2#pn3&-1&di42579901455&objURLhttp%3A%2F%2Fpic4.nipic.com%2F20091118%2F3086331_180913003612_2.jpg&fromURLhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.nipic.com%2Fshow%2F3%2F76%2F43c3d2f7c3f64fbe.html&W1024&H538" alt="" /></p>