Shooting an Interracial Couple

Stacey L

Some friends of mine are getting married in a few months. She's asked me to take pictures of the rehearsal dinner and be the second shooter at the wedding. She's very dark skinned and he's very pale. I've got a D200 and SB800, but no other lighting equipment. I know I need to expose for her and keep her closer to any available light source (indoors). Are there any other tips from some of you portrait/wedding photographers that I should keep in mind? Should I absolutely have additional lighting?

Thanks,

Stacey

dangin

Stacey L wrote:

Some friends of mine are getting married in a few months. She's asked me to take pictures of the rehearsal dinner and be the second shooter at the wedding. She's very dark skinned and he's very pale. I've got a D200 and SB800, but no other lighting equipment. I know I need to expose for her and keep her closer to any available light source (indoors). Are there any other tips from some of you portrait/wedding photographers that I should keep in mind? Should I absolutely have additional lighting?

Thanks,

Stacey

IMO, you can never have enough lighting equipment. when doing portraits, there's nothing like a gamut of studio strobes and softboxes.

i shoot with a pair of D200s and SB800s and while i love my cameras, i think the colors to be cold and harsh when shooting particularly fair-skinned subjects. i'd suggest setting your D200 to Vivid in trying to squeeze some extra colour. also, a gold reflector disc an help like this one,this one, or this one. they're relatively inexpensive and you an usually find someone to help hold one. get creative with it and take your flash off camera, fire it either tethered using a sync cable or use your camera's built in Commander Mode and fire the flash into the reflector and bounce the light onto your subjects. it's cheap, dirty, and works!

OR you could suggest a B&W as an artsy alternative. shoot the whole thing in colour and then do a B&W conversion; probably adjusting your red and blues along the way to compensate for varying skin tones.

hope it helps!

Stacey L

That's a great idea! Quick and dirty...I like it. I do shoot in Vivid color and the only thing I've noticed with that setting is that bright colors (reds, pinks, oranges, etc) tend to become burn your retinas' bright. So with her dark skin and white dress....there'll be a few metering issues to deal with I think what I'll do is buy a few reflectors for the rehearsal dinner and practice with my camera in Commander Mode w/ the SB800. I'm not the main shooter for the wedding, so I think I can get away with just my camera and the onboard flash w/ bounce card or diffuser.

dangin wrote:

IMO, you can never have enough lighting equipment. when doing portraits, there's nothing like a gamut of studio strobes and softboxes.

i shoot with a pair of D200s and SB800s and while i love my cameras, i think the colors to be cold and harsh when shooting particularly fair-skinned subjects. i'd suggest setting your D200 to Vivid in trying to squeeze some extra colour. also, a gold reflector disc an help like this one,this one, or this one. they're relatively inexpensive and you an usually find someone to help hold one. get creative with it and take your flash off camera, fire it either tethered using a sync cable or use your camera's built in Commander Mode and fire the flash into the reflector and bounce the light onto your subjects. it's cheap, dirty, and works!

OR you could suggest a B&W as an artsy alternative. shoot the whole thing in colour and then do a B&W conversion; probably adjusting your red and blues along the way to compensate for varying skin tones.

hope it helps!

dangin

Stacey L wrote:

That's a great idea! Quick and dirty...I like it. I do shoot in Vivid color and the only thing I've noticed with that setting is that bright colors (reds, pinks, oranges, etc) tend to become burn your retinas' bright. So with her dark skin and white dress....there'll be a few metering issues to deal with I think what I'll do is buy a few reflectors for the rehearsal dinner and practice with my camera in Commander Mode w/ the SB800. I'm not the main shooter for the wedding, so I think I can get away with just my camera and the onboard flash w/ bounce card or diffuser.

the absolute trick with shooting in commander mode is to let your subjects know beforehand that hold their pose! commander mode will fire off a short burst of flashes from your camera's pop-up flash before firing the remote strobe. this will undoubtedly throw your subjects off a little bit and drop their smiles unless you warn them beforehand.

you could try to use your sb800 as a slave strobe, but if it's facing away from the camera's pop-up flash, it may not trigger the sb800. look out for specials at some of the usual camera stores on reflectors; i've also seen some cheap ones on ebay. good luck!

Stacey L

Thanks!

dangin wrote:

the absolute trick with shooting in commander mode is to let your subjects know beforehand that hold their pose! commander mode will fire off a short burst of flashes from your camera's pop-up flash before firing the remote strobe. this will undoubtedly throw your subjects off a little bit and drop their smiles unless you warn them beforehand.

you could try to use your sb800 as a slave strobe, but if it's facing away from the camera's pop-up flash, it may not trigger the sb800. look out for specials at some of the usual camera stores on reflectors; i've also seen some cheap ones on ebay. good luck!

pathfinder

This is kind of like the problem with the bride's white dress and the groom's black tuxedo, isn't it?

To deal with the contrast inherent with this couple, you will need to control the lighting ratios carefully - I suspect soft diffuse lighting will work better in this sutuation, than a more harsh, contrasty lighting. A single flash would not be ideal, in my humble opinion. Keeping detail in the shadows without blowing the highlights will be challenging.

Two diffuse light sources, with a low ratio between them should be more helpful. If you only have one speedlite, I would suggest a reflector for the shadowed side to minimize the contrast ratios. Even just a white posterboard reflector might help, especially with the speedlite fired away from the camera.

Stacey L

Yeah, it is.

I can buy additional lighting, but I was unsure about what exactly I'll need for the rehearsal dinner and how much of a pain all of that gear will be for the families to trip around. I don't want to be intrusive. What's your suggestion?

pathfinder wrote:

This is kind of like the problem with the bride's white dress and the groom's black tuxedo, isn't it?

To deal with the contrast inherent with this couple, you will need to control the lighting ratios carefully - I suspect soft diffuse lighting will work better in this sutuation, than a more harsh, contrasty lighting. A single flash would not be ideal, in my humble opinion. Keeping detail in the shadows without blowing the highlights will be challenging.

Two diffuse light sources, with a low ratio between them should be more helpful. If you only have one speedlite, I would suggest a reflector for the shadowed side to minimize the contrast ratios. Even just a white posterboard reflector might help, especially with the speedlite fired away from the camera.

pathfinder

Fong would suggest a Fong LightSphere PJ with just one speedlite. That may be the simplest and easiest to implement.

Or add a reflector if possible. White foamboard or Impact circular reflector, or even an umbrella. Bigger sources will be softer and more diffuse, but may be impracticable in wedding setting.

Or bounce the light off a white wall or an Impact reflector to create a big, soft light source. Shoot the flash through a thin white curtain to create a new large, soft light source. Anything to modify the light from your flash to a larger, softer, more diffuse even light source.

Buying new hardware that you haven't used previously may create more problems than it solves.

If you are not the primary photographer, you will have to be careful and not interfere with what they are doing also. Brings me back to Fong LightSPhere or a similar device.

Stacey L

I do have foamies/a better bounce card.

Adding a reflector and or umbrella would be ideal for the posed shots, but for the candids not so good.

pathfinder wrote:

Fong would suggest a Fong LightSphere PJ with just one speedlite. That may be the simplest and easiest to implement.

Or add a reflector if possible. White foamboard or Impact circular reflector, or even an umbrella. Bigger sources will be softer and more diffuse, but may be impracticable in wedding setting.

Or bounce the light off a white wall or an Impact reflector to create a big, soft light source. Shoot the flash through a thin white curtain to create a new large, soft light source. Anything to modify the light from your flash to a larger, softer, more diffuse even light source.

Buying new hardware that you haven't used previously may create more problems than it solves.

If you are not the primary photographer, you will have to be careful and not interfere with what they are doing also. Brings me back to Fong LightSPhere or a similar device.

pathfinder

One other thing I would suggest, is to get yor exposure dialed in and then shoot in manual mode, rather than one of the automatic modes. This will help make your exposures consistent if the flash to subject distance does not change.

I love using the foamie bounce card off a white ceiling or a white wall.