Advice Requested

Montec

I went out to the location of a wedding I am shooting on Saturday to check out what we would have to work with. I am glad I did because things do not look very promising and I am hoping to get some advice here that will help.

The photo below shows where the ceremony will take place, sorry for the narrow view but I never took a wide lens with me today. The ceremony will take place in the shaded area. Directly behind will be direct sun. It looks like several stops difference between the shade and sun. What would you do? Expose for the sunny area and blast them with flash? If I expose for the shadows the BG will be totally blown out.

jeffreaux2

Montec wrote:

I went out to the location of a wedding I am shooting on Saturday to check out what we would have to work with. I am glad I did because things do not look very promising and I am hoping to get some advice here that will help.

The photo below shows where the ceremony will take place, sorry for the narrow view but I never took a wide lens with me today. The ceremony will take place in the shaded area. Directly behind will be direct sun. It looks like several stops difference between the shade and sun. What would you do? Expose for the sunny area and blast them with flash? If I expose for the shadows the BG will be totally blown out.

I don't envy this situation!

My thoughts...and I'm sure others will respond with theirs is that you HAVE to properly expose for the bride and to a lesser extent the groom. I would think that setting up a manual exposure so that the sunlit part of the scene is just within the histogram would be a first step. Using flash to light your subjects will be the second step. Finding the right balance of flash to go with that ambient light and not look flashy will be the hardest part of that. I think at that point though, the dappling...the sun light...that is making its way through the tree to throw spots of light on the brides dress will be the real demon here.

..and don't forget you will be dealing with three different temperatures of light. Flash, Shade, and Daylight. Flash and Daylight ought to be near enough to one another, but the shade is a different story. I would bring someone wearing white out there and play around with white balance settings to find the common ground, or a suitable white balance for the setting....in advance of the wedding.

Montec

When I was testing today and underexposed the sunlit bg by a stop then the shadows went totally black.

It is going to be scary, but there must be a best case scenario that i can use...I am going back tomorrow with someone with a white shirt like you say... Thank fully we are going to a nice shaded area for the formals.

Scott_Quier

with everything Jeff said, especially about the dappled light.

It appears there is something in the neighborhood of 3 stops (maybe 4)difference between the shade and the sunlit background - that's good.

Here's how I think I would handle it:

• Gel your flash with a blue gel - to balance your flash to the shade
• Shoot in RAW (obviously)
• Be sure to shoot a gray card so you have a good estimate of correct WB
• Set your WB in camera to "Shade" setting or to a CWB based on the gray card shot. Makes viewing/chimping a little closer to what you will be delivering the client.
• Expose for the background, maybe under expose it a stop
• Set your flash to properly expose the B&G. This may mean that you will be a little on the nuclear side, but you gotta do what you gotta do. If you have it, using off-camera flash will reduce the impact of the nuclear intensity and will generally enhance the look of the photography.
• With the equipment I have, I would be very tempted to use my G9 for the photography. I can actually sync my off-camera flashes (using PocketWizards) at 1/1250 second. That allows for balancing the ambient (background) with the flash at a much larger aperture. This would also cut down on the need for nuclear flash. It would be an interesting challenge explaining to the client why I was using a P&S for a professional job but I think I could sell it.
• During post, make sure WB for the B&G is correct. This will make the background quite warm. That's OK - that's why I would have it slightly under-exposed - to reduce the impact of that affect.

I really don't envy you your challenge.

OsirisPhoto

Montec.. start praying for cloud cover

Scott_Quier

OsirisPhoto wrote:

Montec.. start praying for cloud cover

Yeah, that would work too!

jeffreaux2

....

I thought about that solution to this problem last night.....

I wondered what the plan was in case of rain?:D

Montec

jeffreaux2 wrote:

....

I thought about that solution to this problem last night.....

I wondered what the plan was in case of rain?:D

Forecast is clear and 38 degrees. Ceremony at 4:00PM. :help

I am going to do my best with a couple of off camera flashes set up and they will have to live with the outcome. They choose the location...when I met with them a couple of weeks ago they had another spot on the golf course picked out that would have been beautiful for photos, then they changed to this spot ... I spoke with them last night at rehearsal and explained this would be a challenge and they understand.

I had the Bride's Dad take a few pictures of the girls standing where the ceremony was going to be with his P&S Canon S5 and all he got was silhouettes even with his built in flash. I think he understood after that about the difficulties .

One positive thing is that when shooting closeups with the 70-200 the exposure is very good, bg is bright but totally out of focus and quite nice. The only serious problem will be the wide shots of the entire wedding party at the ceremony.

Thanks for all your suggestions...off to clean and check gear, format cards, change batteries and all the other fun stuff. I will post some of the results in a few days.

ChatKat

Montec wrote:

Forecast is clear and 38 degrees. Ceremony at 4:00PM. :help

I am here almost in BC near the San Juans today in similar light. Because it's so warm the light is quite hazy for the NorthWest. I am going to be shooting towards the water. Living in So. California, we are used to this awful bright haze.

Shoot long and tight. Expose for the bright background as Scott said and then underexpose - focus and recompose with flash. I am setting up with a couple of flashes on lightstands today with shoot through umbrellas for the formals. While I love to shoot wide, with the difference in light, the best pictures will be close ups.

Ed911

Lighting...
I am setting up with a couple of flashes on light stands today with shoot through umbrellas for the formals. While I love to shoot wide, with the difference in light, the best pictures will be close ups.[/quote]

ChatKat...just wondering if you are going to use studio strobes...or flashes...if you don't mind.

Montec

Ed911 wrote:

ChatKat...just wondering if you are going to use studio strobes...or flashes...if you don't mind.

Just to let you know that I used two SB-800's off camera this weekend and they worked pretty good for the most part. The bg on this pic below was very bright and the B&G were in the shadows.

Vinnie

Montec wrote:

Just to let you know that I used two SB-800's off camera this weekend and they worked pretty good for the most part. The bg on this pic below was very bright and the B&G were in the shadows.

Considering the conditions, very nice results!

urbanaries

Exposure looks great to me!!! Lovely skintones and background. Nice!!!! It's amazing isn't it how some shots look so simple to the viewer's eye, but when you know how complicated they were, you appreciate them that much more