Dark Room Wedding

obxer

I'm shooting an evening wedding on October 20th and the wedding and reception are in the same room (holds 120pp), which is all dark wood walls and ceiling. The wood gives off a yellow/orange hue.

I'm shooting with a Canon 7D and a Rebel xTi, I have a 28-135mm F3.5-F5.6 and 430 EX Flash, was planning on renting a 24-70mm F2.8L lens and a wide angle lens and 580EX II flash.

I'm looking for any advice or suggestion on how to deal with the lighting for this event? Oh and did I mention this is for my bosses wedding. Thank you!

Mark1616

obxer wrote: »

I'm shooting an evening wedding on October 20th and the wedding and reception are in the same room (holds 120pp), which is all dark wood walls and ceiling. The wood gives off a yellow/orange hue.

I'm shooting with a Canon 7D and a Rebel xTi, I have a 28-135mm F3.5-F5.6 and 430 EX Flash, was planning on renting a 24-70mm F2.8L lens and a wide angle lens and 580EX II flash.

I'm looking for any advice or suggestion on how to deal with the lighting for this event? Oh and did I mention this is for my bosses wedding. Thank you!

Shooting the wedding of your boss...... very brave

I would count on using f2.8 and bouncing off of the walls and colour correcting in post. This thread gives some great advice that I've just started trying out so not an expert at all.

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=178738

Check out the shots and info posted in the link by mmmatt in the 5th post, very helpful.

Sam

obxer wrote: »

I'm shooting an evening wedding on October 20th and the wedding and reception are in the same room (holds 120pp), which is all dark wood walls and ceiling. The wood gives off a yellow/orange hue.

I'm shooting with a Canon 7D and a Rebel xTi, I have a 28-135mm F3.5-F5.6 and 430 EX Flash, was planning on renting a 24-70mm F2.8L lens and a wide angle lens and 580EX II flash.

I'm looking for any advice or suggestion on how to deal with the lighting for this event? Oh and did I mention this is for my bosses wedding. Thank you!

This is tough shooting conditions. Can you get access to the room before the event? If so go and take some shots with a gray card, then try and see if you can get a gel to match the lighting, and warm wood reflections. You could also try some standard white balance settings or custom white balance settings. Shoot in RAW.

You could use a wider lens , along with the 24-70.

Take plenty of spare batteries.

Now just a curiosity question, how did you, apparently not an experienced wedding photographer, get roped into photographying your bosses wedding?

Sam

l.k.madison

Sam wrote: »

This is tough shooting conditions. Can you get access to the room before the event? If so go and take some shots with a gray card, then try and see if you can get a gel to match the lighting, and warm wood reflections. You could also try some standard white balance settings or custom white balance settings. Shoot in RAW.

You could use a wider lens , along with the 24-70.

Take plenty of spare batteries.

I, too got married in "The Black Hole" nicknamed by our own Jeffreaux2. It was really an old plantation home that has changed hands several times into several different venues and now is a wedding venue. Solid wood walls, floor AND ceiling with very little a few windows on one wall and a few more on the other. I'm shooting a wedding there next month and I'm going to just absolutely freak trying to get that place lit up. Luckily, it's in the afternoon so there's *some* available light but not much. The bride is the photographer that shot my wedding, so I have my own wedding pictures to compare my work to. No pressure, right?

Play with your flash, use your child, pet or a friend to practice fill flash. Practice practice practice.

The best three words for you "Shoot in RAW" -- if you listen to any advice from this thread, let it be those.

obxer

Sam, I've never used a gel any advice you can offer me on how to figure out what color gel to use that might decrease the orange glow that the walls give off? I'm trying to go ahead and place orders for what I will need so that I can get it in and practice with it. Thank you for you help and advice.

Dan7312

Since it is evening the you won't have any outside light coming and changing the color as the outside light changes As Sam suggested you might be able to get by just be using a gray card to set a custom white balance for your flash and another for ambient light if you use that. Ift might not be perfect but it will make it easier to correct the color afterwards.

obxer wrote: »

Sam, I've never used a gel any advice you can offer me on how to figure out what color gel to use that might decrease the orange glow that the walls give off? I'm trying to go ahead and place orders for what I will need so that I can get it in and practice with it. Thank you for you help and advice.

TheCheesehead

Anyone know if a strobe on a radio trigger aimed up at the ceiling may work for ambient?

Matthew Saville

TheCheesehead wrote: »

Anyone know if a strobe on a radio trigger aimed up at the ceiling may work for ambient?

Depending on the color of the wall / ceiling, no amount of white balancing will save the images from being horribly red.

Personally, I would rather use flashes pointed *directly* at people. Then I can manage my ambient and flash exposure, and color, separately.

A standard CTO gel will help bring the color of your flash towards the warm ambient light.

The only thing to do now is to practice, practice, practice! You'll need a wireless system and VERY good knowledge of how to use it.

That, or if the ambient lighting is bright enough, I'd rent a 5D mk2 and a 35 f/1.4. You could rent a 50 1.2 or an 85 1.2, but those lenses are sluggish and have a learning curve that requires much use. I recommend the 35 1.4 because it will behave itself with focusing, and the wider angle will allow you to get away with a slower shutter speed. Unless their reception is candle-lit, you should be able to shoot at least most of the stuff with ambient lighting.

=Matt=

obxer

Would using a LightSphere help with this at all? The couple does not care if a flash is used during the ceremony. The room is wood walls, wood ceiling and wood floor. The ceiling is very high with wood beams. I'm loving all the advice thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experience.

TheCheesehead

Get in there soon and take some sample pics and post them here. These guys will be able to analyze, dissect, and give you a recipe for success.

tenoverthenose

obxer wrote: »

Would using a LightSphere help with this at all? The couple does not care if a flash is used during the ceremony. The room is wood walls, wood ceiling and wood floor. The ceiling is very high with wood beams. I'm loving all the advice thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experience.

By design of the lightsphere (and similiar products) it will attempt to evenly light the room. Given the size of the room, you will probably kill your flash batteries quickly and have less than ideal recycle times.

I'm with Matt on this; either fast glass or direct lighting balanced with ambient. Of course, you could use multiple flashes throughout the room to create a false ambient and on camera for directly lighting + fast glass & high iso (to save your flashes), but that takes a grip of cash.

Blurmore

I'll chime in here for direct flash too. I'd manually zoom it to give a more concentrated look, but that might be too much to think of. Also effective in a room with polished wood is any kind of second light even if it is not TTL, a simple manual flash on a stand with a peanut slave could work (but other flashes will trigger it). The second light would be used most effectively as a fill from generally the same direction as the camera position. This will ensure that you will get a decent exposure even if your on camera flash "sees itself" in the polished wood which can cause an underexposure. There is nothing wrong with direct flash. A stofen omni-bounce box used at at 45 degree angle might also work well. I recently started using a stofen again in addition to my press light vertex, it makes very consistent, efficient, on shoe light. *added With the peanut slave or any reactive slave you need to turn your main flash's preflash off.

obxer

Here are 3 photos of the interior, I know there are windows but this will be taking place at 6:00 in the evening so there may be some light so that I can work without using a flash. But I believe it will be dark outside by that time of the day on the 2oth. Let me know your thoughts and again many thanks.Attachment not found.,Attachment not found.,photo(5).jpg

Qarik

hmm..I would try the light sphere and/or just straight bounce and/or natural light. The would on the walls is not THAT bad (not dark wood). Lastly..keep in mind you can convert to BW on shots that are particularly troublesome.

Matthew Saville

tenoverthenose wrote: »

By design of the lightsphere (and similiar products) it will attempt to evenly light the room. Given the size of the room, you will probably kill your flash batteries quickly and have less than ideal recycle times.

I'm with Matt on this; either fast glass or direct lighting balanced with ambient. Of course, you could use multiple flashes throughout the room to create a false ambient and on camera for directly lighting + fast glass & high iso (to save your flashes), but that takes a grip of cash.

Agreed. A lightsphere is not the tool to use in this situation, it would suck the power right out of your flash and in this kind of situation, power is going to be EVERYTHING. I'd rather have direct flash and more power than anything else. Especially if this is a good looking couple, don't be afraid of blasting them directly. As long as it's off-camera, it will look great.

But again, FAST GLASS! Just looking at that chandelier, I'd bet you could easily get the job done with a full-frame body and a 35 f/1.4 L. It sounds like a huge investment, (Probably close to $200 total) but it would be far easier than trying to master wireless flash in the limited time given. Unless you can set aside an hour EVERY day to practice wireless flash, I would avoid it like the plague at your 1st "black hole" wedding... Get a 5D mk2 and a 35 1.4 L, you'll be oh-so-happy you did!

=Matt=

Blurmore

Looking at that room, I wouldn't worry about a second flash either....it wasn't what I was thinking. Direct flash or the stofen would work well and not eat batteries.