Where have I been lately? Not writing too many FF posts... sorry bout that. I wanted to add a little weekly motivation to your wedding photography diet. I shot a wedding last night, Friday in Athens Georgia. To my surprise, I woke up this Saturday morning with a SMILE on my face that I didnt have to go to a wedding!!!!! Just to show you how my day started, here is the first awake thing that I did this morning...*note that the eggs fell as you see them, no arranging :)
NO FF value, but smile value is 100%. I didnt manipulte this at all :)
OK, howsa bout a little FF motivation :)
Do you ever feel stale or tired of doing the same ol' thing at your weddings? Welcome to the club! Often, I am constantly challenging myself to figure out how I can make my imagery more dynamic. How can I tweak my lighting? What special twist can I add to the frame to enhance the overall message I am trying to communicate? These are questions that I constantly ask myself. If you are seeking growth or are just looking for a few ideas, I think this FF post will help you out!
I'd like to talk a little bit about balancing ambient light in a reception environment. First thing you must consider is that it is your GOAL to tell the story and communicate not only the actions and sequences of the wedding day or reception, but a clear idea on the mood and ambiance.
With off camera flash lighting, its too easy to let it get out of hand and light up the entire world, especially if you are using bounce flash carelessly. Recently, I made a HUGE effort to try and make sure that I captured an event with the most subtle mix of strobe and ambient that it would give my client an exact remembrance of the ambiance. This is a challenge as all reception rooms are different and every event can present you with new challenges... big bands bring big lights.... ambient can sometimes be turned WAY down, or WAY up or WAY orange or RED....etc.
At this event, I found that shooting with a few primes and adding a subtle bounce gave me just the desired look. As you are evaluating these frames, really give it some time and visualize this room.
ISO 400 1/200 @ 1.4 NO FLASH, ambient only. This shot is provided to show the setup of the room. There were 90 guests. Ambient light fixtures on ceiling pumping out a little tungsten color. Band lights with par can's providing red, orange, yellow gelled lights. BIG band, 10 members.
ISO 400 1/125 @ 1.4 I used a Nikon Speedlight on a stand with a very low power bounce flash, 1/32 power. I made sure to position the bounce setup so that it would highlight an area of the dance floor and I could increase my ISO if I needed the flash to travel more distance. I also left myself with the ability to drag the shutter to give the bounce light a boost if I needed more distance. My advice is to figure out these equations with a little trial and error. You will be surprised how easy it can be. Overall, I made sure NOT to blow out the room and let the ambient in the distance fall 1 or 2 stops under the foreground exposure.
Here is a photo using the same lighting setup, just from the opposite side of the room. You can see the small dispersion of bounce flash in the reflection of the glass. The light is located on a stand just behind the musicians lights to camera left.
ISO 500 1/200 @ 1.8 Here the strobe isnt adding much but it is making a small statement. The band's lights were very HOT and they provided me with most of the exposure seen here. There is a nice highlight on the toasting hand of the maid of honor and a highlight on the edge of B&G. This frame mostly shows the setup position of the camera position in the above photo example.
Here is one more from a different angle slightly closer to the strobe as you can start to see shadows.
ISO 400 1/100 @ 2.2 I was able to freeze action here but think that I could have made a slight adjustment in the flash's position as the flash head is so close that there was a little direct spill, causing the few shadows seen on the girls. Not alarming, but a slight technical flaw.
I hope that this helps you with a little motivation to make sure you are capturing the Mood and Ambiance at your events as your clients remembered them. Are you blasting flash all over the place? probably shouldn't do that...
Next post is going to be from the SAME wedding... VIDEO LIGHT Flavor... coming soon!
Cheers!
matt
I like the subtle lighting that the low powered bounced flash provides over the full nuclear effect I more frequently use - nice tip, thanks. Depending on the angle, like the last photo, it looks like you can get some catch light on the eyes which is a nice bonus.
TripleCord has missed all of your amazing blog entries! Glad you’re back!
Jack,
Often, you can actually have control of the lights in the room. Always ask the coordinator or director of the space if they can assist you with increasing the light levels ever so slightly (most reception venues have lights on dimmers, sectioned off so you have lots of areas to adjust light intensity. In addition, if you are shooting a room without people, you can have them increase the lights even more to help with ambient exposure.
Paul,
yup, just bridesmaids. I find the same problem you are finding, big groups and lots of excitement, flowers get caught in the wind and travel 50 feet away, lots of crazy unexpected things happening and sometimes, you can pull the trigger and fire off a few frames and hope you get lucky. Its all about timing. Sometimes, we get real stinking lucky!
Cheers!
matt
These are great shots. My problem is that I haven’t seen a wedding that had nearly as much ambinet as this example. Hopefully my brother’s wedding this weekend will be better.
What a dignified group of bouquet catchers. Great shot, I like the brightness level in the background. Was it just the bridesmaids who were trying to catch? I find these shots difficult with a large and often excited (euphemism) group where the landing position of the bouquet was not fixed. A couple of times I tried using a helper with a light who could aim once he saw what was going to happen including people scrapping it out on the ground.
Que bonitas!!! soft nice light very well done… very pretty
:)
Love it! Glad you are posting again! Its definitely an inspiration to us as beginning wedding photographers! Thanks!
Ryan
RGM Photography
www.rgmphotographyonline.com
Matt, this is AWESOME!!!!! Nice way to think outside the box.
Thanks for the feedback. Hola Stacy, i hope you are enjoying your new lens! Thanks for hanging out with me at the workshop!
John, we do often gel our flash but didnt in this application.
Cheers!
matt
Great post as usual, very interesting and instructing. I also try to always bring something fresh and new in all my shootings. Not easy but I am definitely happier afterwards when I know that I challenged myself and achieved something good.
you are an inspiration matt! i met you and your lovely wife at CPR in stamford - i was in the last class on the last day and asked a lot of questions! anyway - getting a speedlite from santa this year! can’t wait to start having some fun. great pic of the eggs and that’s no yolk (joke-yolk)! i’m sorry - i had to! it’s late and i’m tired! haha see - you’re not the only dork.
This is what I am trying to achieve. Very nice work. Is your off-camera flash gelled? Your balance of flash and ambient is excellent. Thanks so much for the motivation.
Great post Matt. Looks A much easier, economic and effective way of lighting. Thanks for ispiring us here! looking forward to the next post.
Joseph