Light stick set up?

marcusrichphoto

Hi Guys,

I've two wedding shoots coming up and I really want to take my evening shots to the next level. As luck would have it, my Nephew is getting married this Saturday, so I'm going to use the opportunity to get some practice in for my up n coming shoots.

I really like the idea of using the 'light stick' technique (a speedlight on the end of a monopod), but would like to hear your setting suggestions. I have a Nikon D300s and an SB600 Speedlight, I also have the use of an assistant to follow me round with it. I want to capture the ambient light, while getting just the right amount of light on the couple and guests. I will probably use ISO 800 to 1600, but am unsure of the flash settings.

Any advice would be gratefully received

Thanks,

cmason

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=74851

Sam

My first thought is how will the hired pro for your nephew's wedding feel about you running around with an assistant with a speed light going off all over the place?

Sam

Quincy T

sam wrote: »

my first thought is how will the hired pro for your nephew's wedding feel about you running around with an assistant with a speed light going off all over the place?

Sam

+1

marcusrichphoto

Come on guys, I have a little more respect than to 'run around', getting in the way of the hired photog, give me a little credit. My assistant is my girlfriend, not someone I've hired especially. I'm after a few test shots only, I'll probably take less than most of the guests.

marcusrichphoto

cmason wrote: »

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=74851

Thanks, having a look now.

Matthew Saville

marcusrichphoto wrote: »

Come on guys, I have a little more respect than to 'run around', getting in the way of the hired photog, give me a little credit. My assistant is my girlfriend, not someone I've hired especially. I'm after a few test shots only, I'll probably take less than most of the guests.

My advice would still be, keep it to a minimum. These lighting techniques that you're curious about perfecting do not require an actual wedding in order to practice them. You can practice them all day long in most social / family situations, actually, and then go into a wedding without any doubt that the system will work.

Of course I'm not saying leave the light stick at home, I'm just saying that you should firstly practice as much as possible outside of the scenario where another pro needs to work. If you've already practiced this lighting setup a ton, and know exactly what you're doing, then go for it.

I would talk to your nephew first though. No matter how incognito you try to be, you or your light-stick wielding assistant WILL show up in the pro's photos, at least just in the background. Probably no big deal to your nephew, but this could seriously frustrate the paid pro nonetheless.

So proceed with caution, and practice as much as you can aside from actual weddings...

Good luck!
=Matt=

marcusrichphoto

Matthew Saville wrote: »

My advice would still be, keep it to a minimum. These lighting techniques that you're curious about perfecting do not require an actual wedding in order to practice them. You can practice them all day long in most social / family situations, actually, and then go into a wedding without any doubt that the system will work.

Of course I'm not saying leave the light stick at home, I'm just saying that you should firstly practice as much as possible outside of the scenario where another pro needs to work. If you've already practiced this lighting setup a ton, and know exactly what you're doing, then go for it.

I would talk to your nephew first though. No matter how incognito you try to be, you or your light-stick wielding assistant WILL show up in the pro's photos, at least just in the background. Probably no big deal to your nephew, but this could seriously frustrate the paid pro nonetheless.

So proceed with caution, and practice as much as you can aside from actual weddings...

Good luck!
=Matt=

Thanks Matt, I hear you loud and clear.

The reason I wanted to practice during the evening reception, is because it's very difficult to recreate the same ambient lighting at home, i.e. disco lighting.

What I'm most interested to find out, is what setting the speedlight should be on?

angevin1

marcusrichphoto wrote: »

Thanks Matt, I hear you loud and clear.

The reason I wanted to practice during the evening reception, is because it's very difficult to recreate the same ambient lighting at home, i.e. disco lighting.

What I'm most interested to find out, is what setting the speedlight should be on?

Depends on what settings you ordinarily shoot. Any of the settings using CLS are good. TTL gets you there quicker if there is any doubt as to your skill at dialing in the camera. and it's also a quicker dial by virtue of just having to hit the flash button on the top left while scrolling with the thumb wheel versus going to the menu for manual up/down.

And guess what? While many weddings may be similar, no two are truly alike. So while you think you are doing yourself a favor by trying this at a Wedding in preps for another one, I also say you can do this practice tech about anywhere.

~Because~

If you can dial and change that flash on the fly, that's where the rubber meets the road. Weddings no matter how well planned out are an 'event'. An event that is subject to change without notice. Being able to take the change and keep rolling is the real-deal. so yeah, practicing is uber-important, but not at someone else's wedding. Personally I'd find that rude and kinda showy/ ego driven.

Matthew Saville

marcusrichphoto wrote: »

Thanks Matt, I hear you loud and clear.

The reason I wanted to practice during the evening reception, is because it's very difficult to recreate the same ambient lighting at home, i.e. disco lighting.

What I'm most interested to find out, is what setting the speedlight should be on?

I know exactly what you mean, and yeah that is a really crazy issue sometimes.

Most of the time all I ever change is my ISO and flash power. I shoot 30-40 weddings a year, and each time I walk into the reception venue it is different. But my methods are fairly similar. I start at f/2.8 and 1/250 sec, ISO 3200. I set my wireless flashes up at 1/16 or 1/32 power at the corners of the rooms, depending on how large the room. I set my on-camera flash at anything from 1/16 power to 1/2 power, depending on how high the ceiling is.

This usually get me through all the main reception things like the grand entrance, toasts, cake cutting, general candids, etc. Maybe I dial a remote flash up or down a stop based on taste, and I change my on-camera flash throughout the evening based on how much bounce I'm getting. (Or if it's outdoors, Y may have to completely "lid" my Fong-diffuser, since there's nothing to bounce off... In which case I sometimes use TTL)

THEN, after this setup, I begin to consider the ambient lighting on the dance floor etc. Usually these camera settings are about right for a blend of flash and ambient. However if the ambient is totally dark, and the DJ doesn't have much at all, I may drop my shutter speed a stop or two, from 1/250 to 1/125 or even 1/60 if the dance floor is just pitch black. This way, even though 1/60 would ordinarily introduce blur into an action shot, really all I'm getting is the background uplighting on the walls, and the only light hitting the dance floor is my flash.

OR, if the DJ light is crazy, I start dropping my ISO. Usually, I don't have to go any lower than 1600 to cut down the crazy disco etc. lighting, but that may be because I have a Nikon with the ability to hit 1/250 sec even with wireless flashes. All my Canon buddies are stuck at 1/180 or 1/200, in which case sometimes they head for ISO 800 if the DJ lighting is bad.

OR, of course, you can always just kick your aperture up to f/4 or f/5.6, especially if you're shooting ultra-wide and DOF doesn't matter. I do a lot of shooting from the hip during peak dance floor action, often holding my camera above my head or down low, whatever works. In this situation I like to just look at my focal scale on my lens, set it to about ~5-10 feet, and rock-n-roll at f/4 or so. At 24mm or wider, you're pretty safe and almost everythigng will be in focus...

Good luck!
=Matt=

marcusrichphoto

Thanks for all your advise guys.

Going with the general consensus, I decided not to use the light stick at my nephew's wedding. It turns out I knew the Photographer well, but I still thought better of it. I practiced using bounce flash and got some good results, which gave me some good experience for my paid shoot.

For the evening reception, I shot at around ISO 800 at f3.2, with flash set on TTL, bounced from the low white ceiling. Below are a couple of pictures, please let me know what you think and how I could have done better. I'm really happy with how they came out, it's exactly the result I was after, but as always, I'd really appreciate your constructive critique.

Qarik

If I were shooting wedding and some dude was carrying around the light stick..I wopuld be kinda annoyed. I am glad you decided agianst it. Anyhow the bounced light worked quite well in your case. the ceilings appear to perfect for that. Curious, did you bounce striaght up or up and to the side some?

marcusrichphoto

Qarik wrote: »

If I were shooting wedding and some dude was carrying around the light stick..I wopuld be kinda annoyed. I am glad you decided agianst it. Anyhow the bounced light worked quite well in your case. the ceilings appear to perfect for that. Curious, did you bounce striaght up or up and to the side some?

Thanks Oarik,

I bounced up, at a slight angle, but to the front, not the side. However, the ceiling was quite angular, so it probably spread the light out a little more evenly.

Qarik

marcusrichphoto wrote: »

Thanks Oarik,

I bounced up, at a slight angle, but to the front, not the side. However, the ceiling was quite angular, so it probably spread the light out a little more evenly.

So here is the thing..if your flash head is mostly striaht up and forward, you are still hitting your subject with a bit of direct flash. (It's not very objectionable in the shots you posted) 2ndly, there is not so much directional light the way you are doing it. In my eyes, what you want to achive is soft directional light! The way to do this is point the flash sideways and up! Now you light up a large portion of ceiling and wall on ONE side with no direct flash hitting you subject. This can add some more dimension to your light. Give it a try next time.

marcusrichphoto

Qarik wrote: »

So here is the thing..if your flash head is mostly striaht up and forward, you are still hitting your subject with a bit of direct flash. (It's not very objectionable in the shots you posted) 2ndly, there is not so much directional light the way you are doing it. In my eyes, what you want to achive is soft directional light! The way to do this is point the flash sideways and up! Now you light up a large portion of ceiling and wall on ONE side with no direct flash hitting you subject. This can add some more dimension to your light. Give it a try next time.

I've got another wedding this weekend, so I'll give it a go. Like you said, there are a few images where I got a bit of a shadow behind the subjects, I was a little surprised until now

dawssvt

cmason wrote: »

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=74851

+1

Matthew Saville

Qarik wrote: »

So here is the thing..if your flash head is mostly striaht up and forward, you are still hitting your subject with a bit of direct flash. (It's not very objectionable in the shots you posted) 2ndly, there is not so much directional light the way you are doing it. In my eyes, what you want to achive is soft directional light! The way to do this is point the flash sideways and up! Now you light up a large portion of ceiling and wall on ONE side with no direct flash hitting you subject. This can add some more dimension to your light. Give it a try next time.

+1!!! Pointing the flash at a 45 or 60 degre forward angle is what I see the uncle bobs doing at weddings I shoot. Sometimes with the little tiny white tab extended, or sometimes with a tiny little diffusion dome on top.

I can honestly say that I've only shot that way for less than 10 photos in the ~1,000,000 shots I've clicked in my career. Everything else is bounced to the left or right, usually with a slightly backward angle.

If there is nothing to bounce in that direction, (behind me) ...then instead of direct flash I start relying more on wireless flash for critical moments that need to be artistic, (toasts, first dance, etc.) ...and/or I use a much larger on-camera diffusion tool for all the straight-forward flashing... (Lite Scoop, Flashbender, Lightsphere, etc...)

=Matt=

lifeinfocus

Excellent series of posts. Content should be helpful to many of us.
Phil