Wedding Flash Photography

scottphotography · February 27, 2008

Can someone help me out w/wedding lighting?

Off camera flash: What equipment do most people use and how many flashes?
Do you use the pocket wizard wireless to transmitt flash?
If not wireless, how do you use off camera flash?
How do you use exposure control w/off camera flash...on the camera itself or on the flash itself or will the camera transmitt the camera information directly to the flashes?

Thanks.

ziggy53 · February 27, 2008

For the ceremony itself I usually use ambient light, and many, if not most, clergy prohibit flash photography during the ceremony.

The processional and recessional are usually OK for flash so I use a flash bracket with off-camera cord and a flash modifier on the flash itself.

For formals I generally use full studio monolights and large umbrellas. I trigger the monolights with cheap ebay 16 channel radio slaves.

For the reception I use a flash bracket with off-camera cord and a flash modifier on the flash itself.

Antonio Correia · February 27, 2008

Some good links:

Planet Neil / Flashflavour / Strobist (generalist) / Dgrin 1 / Dgrin 2 (lots of infos)

SavedByZero · February 27, 2008

scottphotography wrote:

Can someone help me out w/wedding lighting?
Off camera flash: What equipment do most people use and how many flashes?

Do you use the pocket wizard wireless to transmitt flash?

If not wireless, how do you use off camera flash?

How do you use exposure control w/off camera flash...on the camera itself or on the flash itself or will the camera transmitt the camera information directly to the flashes?

Thanks.

Anything off camera needs to either hard wired or on radio slaves. Ambient slaves will be popping off with every p/s in the house.

Even when I do formals and I had an ambient slave in my power pack, triggered by my on bracket flash I had to use strict methods with all guests so at they wouldn't pop my flash just before I took my shot. So I tell them all let me take my 2-3 pic of each group then I'll step out of the way and you can take yours afterwards. That seem to work very well as everyone got what they wanted and only added maybe an extra 10-15 minutes to the formal session.

And for the controlling the flash it's all on manual read by a flash meter. f8 at 1/60 and you're good to go!!

swintonphoto · February 28, 2008

I do almost everything with on-camera flash - one that communicates with my camera. I put it on a flash bracket so the halo shadows are avoided. I sometimes shoot with strobes on location, but i am doing it less and less because it becomes quite cumbersome. When using a flash on a bracket, a general rule I follow when using a flash is to set my ISO as high as I am comfortable doing while still getting good quality (I usually use 400-800), and a larger aperture. This allows some of the ambient light to be present so all the pictures don't look like you are in a dark cave. Then the flash automatically fills in the rest. This way I set the limits for quality purposes, but still get the necessary light. I will give you some samples (these are not great shots, but show the technique fairly well)
For example, this is not a reception but was a ribbon-cutting event I shot recently. I had a higher ISO and a larger fstop. this way the flash only filled in the little extra bits, and didn't turn the background black:

As opposed to a shot with a low ISO, and a higher fstop:

It may be preference - but lately I do more work like the first shot than the second one.

Antonio Correia · February 28, 2008

I am just an amateur and I have been using flash recently, 2 years maybe

But I would like to write a little about the use of this equipment.

Sometimes people look and don't see. People are not demmanding. People look at a picture and are not critical towards it.

I have never shot a wedding but I would like to. I shot once a baptism when I had just one flash and little control on it's light. At the beginning of having the 430.
It doesn't mean that I am an expert now. No, on the contrary: I do know that I know nothing, or very little.
A specific knowledge about a subject is so vast that we will never know it completely. I use to say that the subject is 1 kilometer long and we only know 1 milimeter of it.

scottphotography wrote:

Off camera flash: What equipment do most people use and how many flashes? 1.Do you use the pocket wizard wireless to transmitt flash?

Nowadays I shoot with 2 flashes most of the time. One bounced and another, more direct on the subject itself.
I use either a 20 or a 350 with the ST-E2, 430 EX and 580 EXII .

The ST-E2 works fine indoors. However as I want more freedom to place my strobes I bought a pair of Gadget Infinity. They were great, the guys from there. Very quick to anwser and very kind. I do recomend them. I bought this from them.
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scottphotography wrote:

2. Do you use the pocket wizard wireless to transmitt flash?

I think the use of transmission equipment to trigger the flashes is the key to sucess.
Of course you have to be commited to try and try until you get the right shot/procedure.
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scottphotography wrote:

3. If not wireless, how do you use off camera flash?

Rarely with the flash on the camera. No. Sorry: Never again with the flash on the camera. I have bought a soft box recently with a flash bracket "cooked" at home and not ready yet to be used.
Lastolite is another softbox quite interesting...

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scottphotography wrote:

4. How do you use exposure control w/off camera flash...on the camera itself or on the flash itself or will the camera transmit the camera information directly to the flashes?

For this year I have a great project and I am working on it: shoot a toureiro - a bull fighter - and bullfights. I don't like bullfighting myself but I do it for the sake of photography.
In the next weeks I am going to shoot a bullfighter getting dressed. It is a kind of ritual and those photos will be the beginning of the book to be published by the end of the year.
I visited a ring for bullfighting for the 1.st time and I could see that the use of 2 flashes will give me great control over light and ambiance.

When in a dark environment I control the lights 2 ways. (This is my experience so far and I may change the procedure soon) I mean inside a house: I bounce one flash to the ceiling or to the corner of the room and I use the other again to the ceiling but holded on my left hand. As I told you before, no FB yet.

Here I am holding the flash while the other one is on camera's left hight above a cupboard. Can you imagine this picture without flash ? Or with a flash "direct" ?
Would you do this picture of the piano player without flash? Or with the flash on camera?

Look at the use of this bounced flash

Well, I am getting lost...
For the settings of these pictures I use Manual, 1/100 or 1/60; f/4.5 or 3.5
An assistant is crucial. In a marriage is a must have.

Uff. Have you been reading all this ? Congratulations.

If anyone thinks there are something in-correct please say it and teach me/us.

Oh and something else: I do print Strobist and read, read, read... and shoot, shoot, shoot ...

How could I ever shoot without flash ???

rwells · February 28, 2008

:wow Well, this should certainly have them looking toward your camera...

Your a brave man Antonio

Antonio Correia · February 28, 2008

rwells wrote:

:wow Well, this should certainly have them looking toward your camera...Your a brave man Antonio

rofl
Well, this is being prepared. Why ? Because the "arms" couldn't hold the weight of each flash.
But as inside those flexible cables, there was an electric wire my friend is filling inside with another wire which will - I hope - be able to hold the flash and keep a certain - yes a certain - flexibility/versatility.
This will be the way to shoot with 2 flashes at the same time with the benefits of a faster recycle gap - both at 1/2 power - and more power together when needed.

And, I can separate one flash from the other.

.

The other flash will be with my slave-man at the end of this painting rod, with or without umbrella, with or without softbox.
My wife says I am flash-dependent/flash-addicted

But ... you have done something similar to sports haven't you ?
With the 2 flashes on the monopod ... one above and the other down...
I hope to have something similar but "in the air"

Scott_Quier · February 28, 2008

Answers below

scottphotography wrote:

Can someone help me out w/wedding lighting?
Off camera flash: What equipment do most people use and how many flashes?Sunpac 622, PW, and TR-2000 battery (though I may, eventually upgrade the battery pack).

Do you use the pocket wizard wireless to transmitt flash?Yes

If not wireless, how do you use off camera flash?

How do you use exposure control w/off camera flash...on the camera itself or on the flash itself or will the camera transmitt the camera information directly to the flashes?Determine your desired aperture and where you want that. Meter the flashes and reset accordingly. With PWs, there is no ETT-L feature so it's all manual.

Thanks.

Antonio Correia · March 2, 2008

Experiment with the 2 flashes thinking about the portraits of the bull fighter and bride.
Bull fighter/bride huuummm. What a connection.

rofl

Robinivich · March 3, 2008

rwells wrote:

:wow Well, this should certainly have them looking toward your camera...

Your a brave man Antonio

I've been looking for a flexible flash bracket solution that doesn't cost a fortune, guess I'll know what I'm looking for now

Antonio Correia · March 3, 2008

Robinivich wrote:

I've been looking for a flexible flash bracket solution that doesn't cost a fortune, guess I'll know what I'm looking for now

This object is 40 years old, but I hope you can get something similar

evoryware · March 3, 2008

rwells wrote:

:wow Well, this should certainly have them looking toward your camera...

Your a brave man Antonio

Hope you don't hurt someone switching to portrait orientation!

Antonio Correia · March 4, 2008

evoryware wrote:

Hope you don't hurt someone switching to portrait orientation!

Clever and subtile joke:D

Only clock wise then, please !

This is the "object" like it was in the origin, but attached to the 20 D.
My father used it for cinema placing two bulbs with dishes at the end.
Still have them, one wider than the other.
So, don't get astonished if you see some crazy stuff one of these days !:D
In this now bracket I can turn the lights 90, 180 and 270 degrees. Just look:

.

Wedding Flash Photography

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