With today’s weddings, some of the most exciting changes are taking place not at the ceremony, but at the reception! That’s where the real celebration is happening. Plenty of opportunities to catch the excitement and pure emotion of the event. With us the candid images at the party are fun, exciting-and saleable!
In the early days, candids taken with on-camera flash provided good detail in the main area of the photograph, but the backgrounds were totally dark…almost like paste-ups. This is when we started double-lighting our candids. This gave them a much better appearance…almost a three-dimensional look. But the backgrounds were still in total darkness.
Many of clients would ask us why they couldn’t see anything behind the people. Most of them were paying a fortune for elegant hotel rooms and ballrooms, and then paying additional huge sums of money to decorate them. In their photographs, they wanted to see what they had paid all that money for. This is when we began lighting up the entire reception area.
We started with only one light in the corner of the reception room. After looking at the results…seeing the nice even illumination all over the dance floor, we never turned back. Since then, we have always used several lights around the room to create spectacular results.
Along came the digital cameras, solving many problems of dark backgrounds, giving the photographer the ability to work in extreme low light. We are comfortable using iso ratings up to 3200, and beyond. My camera of choice is the Canon 5D Mark III, and we use every lens in the bag, with the 24-70mm f/2.8 L on the camera for the majority of the party.
The new cameras in the marketplace today are amazing. The low light capability and responsiveness to fast moving scenes are changing the way we work, in fact making many of today’s photographers a little lazy, many bouncing a single speedlight off of the ceiling for much of the wedding reception.
I know a handful of photographers who have mastered this technique, however, for the most part, I see dark eyes and off color images, with a mixture tungsten light with their cameras are set for flash balance.
We have solved this with the use of 85b orange gels placed over the flash, keeping the the white balance on tungsten for the entire evening. Further improvements have come with a host of Gary Fong’s light modifiers that spread light and keep the scene illumination very natural.
Picture #1 shows the couple entering the party with the huge ovation from friends and family. The most important thing to me is to capture the moment! Also notice that the camera is at proper height, or about the middle body for full length. So many photographers are standing tall and keeping the flash at the eye, creating distortion of the bodies, due to the improper camera height. The flash of choice here is a Quantum Trio on camera and the Quantum T5 D flash off camera and around the dance floor to spread the light evenly around the room. Notice how the faces of the bride and groom have a nice shape. Also, see the crowd in the background is also illuminated.
My formula for double lighting is TTL on camera. (through the lens,) metering. This keeps the exposures fairly consistent for the entire party. The off camera lights are set on manual at about f 8 for ISO 400. Before the event happens, I usually zero them in and get the proper f-stop to create the off camera lights to appear a little brighter than the on camera. If I take an important photograph and the off camera lights are too bright, I simply stop down the the lens…and the next image is perfect, as the TTL will automatically adjust to the f stop that I have set the camera to.
Picture #2 is made by one of my best second photographers. His technique is high ISO flash on camera. His work is amazing. He is always in tune with the wedding, anticipating every moment, finding moments, not fixing them. The backgrounds are bright and the expressions are always perfect. The one area of concern is the shallow depth of field and as you can see her in this image the bride is sharp and groom is slightly soft. This is made at ISO 3200 with a Canon 85mm f/1.2L wide open. His 600RT speedlite is bounced into the back corner behind him for a little touch of flash to brighten the faces.
Picture #3 Is the father’s welcome speech and as you can see perfect expression and multiple lights creating highlights and shadows for a great look in the album.
Picture #4 Action reaction…always telling the story, the bride and groom react to the father’s speech. I have put a couple of fingers over my on camera flash to muffle the light and create a more dramatic effect.
Picture #5 shows the brilliance of the multiple lights with a great moment from the couples wedding. Early I mentioned how my photojournalist does not pose pictures, and I agree with that philosophy, however, I do find myself prompting pictures throughout the evening as seen here.One important thing for more dramatic results is to shoot towards the off camera lights…theybecome back 45 degreesand the results are amazing. If you get underneath them where they are almost over the lens, the results are almost un-noticeable.
Picture#6 I purposely left this image in to show that many times we get the flash in the picture.
In image #7 you can see how easily we can crop to the action and eliminate the light from image. I always loved the effect of this image, however, the fact that the light on my right, to left of the band stage did not fire, has always bothered me. The key is having a great assistant at the wedding, always watching the lights, and making sure they have fresh batteries and the radio receivers are connecting. One feature on the new Canon 600RT is 15 channels to avoid interference from other sources that might contaminate your signal, such as the band’s radio frequencies for their equipment.
Picture #8 Big City, Big Lights! We are doing some of the biggest weddings inthe country and when the dance floor is filled to capacity the Quantum’s power coupled with the 15 mm lens and high ISO, we are able to capture the energy of the party.
Picture #09 Now using the Canon 600 RT for the same lighting that we have been achieving, keeping the on camera on TTL, and the off camera lights on manual. The new Canon systems are getting so easy to use and navigate the Flash setting from the camera I am becoming a real fan of the system. Notice the light stand on the left hand side of the pictures has wheels, making it easy to maneuver around the room, while the other two lights are stationary on either side of the dance floor.Another thing to notice on this image is how we have moved the cake in front of the DJ’s purple uplighting…it was only about 6 feet to slide the cake table, however, the results with ISO 1600 creates a more pleasing image using the color off of the wall.
Picture #10 One of my favorite candid images from last year. I am on the stage that the band is playing from to achieve the height I need to show the guests all watching the first dance. The Quantum Q flashes are on either side of the bandstand, and without the additional lights the picture just would not have the colossal effect that I feel when I look at this image.
Picture #11 We always get a great image to end the album on. This is a favorite technique, placing the second light at a back 45-degree position to really wrap the light around the subject, and intensifies the confetti.
Many times when at receptions I know that one light is good, however, two lights are better, and three and four is the BEST, for me!
