| Author | Thread |
|
|
10/22/2008 06:52:25 PM · #1 |
| So I am photographing a wedding soon and I have 430EX for my only exterior flash unit. The wedding reception and ceremony are in a low lit church and the weather most likely will be overcast. The ceilings are pretty high in the ceremony room so bouncing light is probably out of the question however i want to stay away from that cave look that comes out with straight on flash. What should I do to get a soft light natural look to the pictures? diffuser,softbox,bounce card?? any tips or ideas would be much appreciated thanks. |
|
|
|
10/22/2008 07:14:43 PM · #2 |
Originally posted by JackieK:
So I am photographing a wedding soon and I have 430EX for my only exterior flash unit. The wedding reception and ceremony are in a low lit church and the weather most likely will be overcast. The ceilings are pretty high in the ceremony room so bouncing light is probably out of the question however i want to stay away from that cave look that comes out with straight on flash. What should I do to get a soft light natural look to the pictures? diffuser,softbox,bounce card?? any tips or ideas would be much appreciated thanks. |
Have you received permission to use the flash in the church yet?
Hotshoe flash units aren't nearly as powerful as strobes, but remember that changing your ISO affects both ambient and flash; you can probably bounce your flash off the ceiling and get some nice light out of it at 1/4 power and 800 ISO.
To get soft light, you need to make the effective size of the flash larger. Whether you use an umbrella, soft box, or bounce to achieve that is up to your vision and what you can pull off.
If you are renting gear, you need a camera that can pull off high ISO, very fast lenses (f/2.8), or both. If you're going into this with the gear listed in your profile, then you'll basically be stuck using the 50 mm for the ceremony; the other lenses are too slow, and the camera performs poorly at high ISO.
ETA: Frequent pulses from a flash are extremely annoying to the guests and everyone involved at a wedding, so if you do end up using a flash during the ceremony, keep the shooting to a minimum.
Message edited by author 2008-10-22 19:16:02. |
|
|
|
10/22/2008 07:32:34 PM · #3 |
Originally posted by geoffb:
Have you received permission to use the flash in the church yet?
Hotshoe flash units aren't nearly as powerful as strobes, but remember that changing your ISO affects both ambient and flash; you can probably bounce your flash off the ceiling and get some nice light out of it at 1/4 power and 800 ISO.
To get soft light, you need to make the effective size of the flash larger. Whether you use an umbrella, soft box, or bounce to achieve that is up to your vision and what you can pull off.
If you are renting gear, you need a camera that can pull off high ISO, very fast lenses (f/2.8), or both. If you're going into this with the gear listed in your profile, then you'll basically be stuck using the 50 mm for the ceremony; the other lenses are too slow, and the camera performs poorly at high ISO.
ETA: Frequent pulses from a flash are extremely annoying to the guests and everyone involved at a wedding, so if you do end up using a flash during the ceremony, keep the shooting to a minimum. |
agree 100 percent here. |
|
|
|
10/22/2008 08:59:13 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by geoffb:
Frequent pulses from a flash are extremely annoying to the guests and everyone involved at a wedding, so if you do end up using a flash during the ceremony, keep the shooting to a minimum. |
I agree with this for the most part, but don't sacrifice missing a shot just to keep shooting to a minimum. Sure, the flash is a bit annoying, but two weeks later when your clients are looking though their images, they are not going to remember the flashing. They will, however, notice if there is a shortage of quality images from their special day. When using flash, I use the Lightsphere to increase the size of the light output. To date, I have no complaints with the LS, and I'll be using it again in a couple of weeks at one of my higher-end weddings. Absolutely use a fast lens. My most used lens at a wedding is my 28-70 f/2.8.
|
|
|
|
10/22/2008 09:07:53 PM · #5 |
I would recommend using Gary Fong lightsphere. Cloud 2?
Pretty sweet for softening light. Get the metal cover which "doubles" your light output.
Gary Fong Lightsphere
There a few videos down the right side for tutorials and examples.
|
|
|
|
10/22/2008 09:47:26 PM · #6 |
when shooting with the Lightsphere do you point it up or at them?
edited to say
Nevermind I watched the video
Message edited by author 2008-10-22 21:50:58.
|
|
|
|
10/22/2008 10:25:49 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by Dirt_Diver:
when shooting with the Lightsphere do you point it up or at them? |
Up and atom. |
|
|
|
10/22/2008 10:29:21 PM · #8 |
| I have a Garry Fong LightSphere Cloud 2, It is amazing... you will seriously be blown away how good it works... it gets rid of those annoying eye shadows that you get from bouncing off of the ceiling |
|
|
|
10/22/2008 10:31:32 PM · #9 |
I use the lightsphere 100% of the time if I am using flash. It gets a bit of a bad rap but I think its great.
I would ask the church if flash is allowed before you decide on anything |
|
|
|
10/22/2008 10:32:07 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by ericwoo:
Originally posted by geoffb:
Frequent pulses from a flash are extremely annoying to the guests and everyone involved at a wedding, so if you do end up using a flash during the ceremony, keep the shooting to a minimum. |
I agree with this for the most part, but don't sacrifice missing a shot just to keep shooting to a minimum. Sure, the flash is a bit annoying, but two weeks later when your clients are looking though their images, they are not going to remember the flashing. They will, however, notice if there is a shortage of quality images from their special day. When using flash, I use the Lightsphere to increase the size of the light output. To date, I have no complaints with the LS, and I'll be using it again in a couple of weeks at one of my higher-end weddings. Absolutely use a fast lens. My most used lens at a wedding is my 28-70 f/2.8. |
Point taken. I guess I'm just not one that favours using flash during a nice church ceremony. Hopefully, shooting carefully and capturing all the nice moments are not mutually exclusive.
A Lightsphere barely increases the effective size (and therefore softness) of the light. What it does is turns the flash into a bare bulb, which allows the light to hit the subject directly while also allowing it to bounce off the surroundings for fill. Considering the distance from camera to subject, the impact of the size of the device itself on softness is effectively negligible.
Edit for spelling.
Message edited by author 2008-10-22 22:34:02. |
|
|
|
10/23/2008 08:53:01 AM · #11 |
Guess I'll go buy one right now then. :)
|
|
|
|
10/27/2008 07:21:19 PM · #12 |
| Thanks for all the responses! Shot the wedding Saturday and i am generally happy with the outcome. A faster lens i agree would have been helpful and I could have definitely used the lightsphere. Thanks again :) |
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Prints! -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 04/19/2024 04:35:05 PM EDT.
