Lighting question

[drumsab]

Hi,
Some good friends of ours are getting married and have asked me to take some photos for them. It's a very informal, small ceremony to be held in the bride's home. I've already had the "hire a professional" discussion but she's on a very tight budget and doesn't want to spend the time/money to hire someone who does this for a living. I've agreed to do it as a favor.

The room the ceremony will be in is fairly small (from the back of the room about 30' to the front of the room and about 20' side-to-side). The walls are painted a dark chocolate color and the celiing is a vaulted wood ceiling.

The Minister will be standing with his back against the wall (see diagram) in the "front" of the room and the bride/groom will be standing very close to him. There is a 8" rise in the floor (step up) from where they will be standing to where the rest of the folks will be sitting (with the exception of the grandparents who will be sitting on the same level as the bride and groom).

The only lights in the room will be a few small lights on the front wall (behind the Minister) and a couple in the back of the room on the wall. Without additional lighting it would require me to use ISO 3200, f/2.8 and 1/20 shutter speed to get enough light to have a chance at a shot so that doesn't seem to be the way to go.

I plan on using a couple of 580exII flash lights (w/pocketwizards) and a 24x24 soft box mounted on a light stand in each of the two back corners of the room for additional light (raised high near the ceiling and pointed slightly down toward the bridge/groom). There is no room for me to be in the front so I'll be standing in the back, probably on a small step stool to shoot the bride/groom as they take their vows.

What I'm wondering about is the shadows that will be cast from the two 580ex units against the front wall where the Minister will be standing. The Bridge/Groom will only be about 4'-5' from the wall themselves so they may even cast a shadow.

What suggestions / options do I have to try and light up the front to reduce / eliminate the shadow being cast from the 580ex units in the back of the room without it being to distracting?

(as always, ALL comments are welcome and thanks in advance!!!)

[JohnnyUK]

Use a 5dmkii and shoot with natural light

[drumsab]

I'm using a 5dmkII...when I did a couple of test shots I ended up with an ISO of 3200, f/2.8 and shutter speed of 1/20 to get enough "natural" light for the photo (the wedding will be at night so nothing other than the existing room lights are available and the bride wants the existing room lights (located on the walls) to stay as is.

I felt the shutter speed was too slow to keep me in the "safe" zone for "no blur" and I thought the ISO of 3200 was just a bit too grainy for my tastes which is why I opted to look at the external flash options to allow me to raise my shutter speed to 1/125, ISO to 400 and fstop to f/4.0 (additional dof).

My problem now is what options do I have to eliminate / reduce the shadow's that will be caused by the two flashes in the back of the room?

[Benji]

To be perfectly honest with you I would tell the bride you cannot shoot in such a low light situation and tell her you MUST use additional lights, but tell her you would only need them during the ceremony. After you get her to agree use them "during the ceremony" use them all the time. She will be so focused on what she is doing up there she won't have the foggiest what is going on "out there."

Situation 1. I would get two "garage lights" and place them on two light stands as you have shown and shine them into umbrellas, but MAKE SURE you don't get the lights so close that you set them on fire. Shoot a grey card and use a slow shutter speed and a fairly high ISO.

Situation 2. You could position two flash units directly above the camera and fire both of them into an umbrella. Raise the umbrella up so the shadows cast by the light fall on the floor behind the subjects. If you use them raw and at the sides you will have a double set of huge dark shadows. The reason the tungsten lights (first example) won't leave many shadows is because of the slow shutter speed which allows the ambient light to "pile onto" the sensor and lighten up the shadows.

Benji

[JohnnyUK]

OK, so I see your problem, this is a difficult one, either way the brides memories will not be what she will see in the final pics.

Still not sure the 580's will deliver a lot of light at that distance and you may end up with their backs light, but unable to see their faces.

Any possibility of a white screen against the front wall to reflect some of the light?

Also apart from umbrellas as suggested above, a Gary Fong dome on each of the flashes may help reduce the shadows
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._Inverted.html

[RocketRick]

I'd also add that, if you're planning to put the flashes that far away, you should lose the softboxes. They won't do anything but steal light at that distance, and you need all the light you can get. Use 'em bare if you put them back there.

On the other hand, if you can do something about the brown walls (such as hang up some white sheets or tape up some white foam boards or poster boards), then you could use the wall corners as giant corner reflectors for your lights on stands. Lacking that option, I'd suggest putting your two lights about half way back along the side walls, up near the ceiling on light stands, feathered across the spot where the ceremony will take place.

Aim the right one to the left of center, and the left one to the right of center, and you should (hopefully) be able to get sufficient fairly-even light onto the bride & groom's faces. Go there as soon as you can, well ahead of time, and do some test shots.

Depending on the ambient light, you will probably want to gel the flashes with 1/2 or full CTO, so as to come closer to the ambient tungsten white balance. Otherwise, the bride's gown might end up with a bluish cast from the flashes, depending on what you do with the overall WB. (I tend to like faces to be as warm, or warmer than ambient, rather than vice-versa.)

Hope this is helpful,

- Rick

[drumsab]

Thanks for the suggestions...very much appreciated.

The 580ex will be in a softbox and I've already tested them so I know they'll throw plenty of light to reach the front of the room (from the back). I have them fairly high near the ceiling and angled down toward the bridge/groom.

So as to not disrupted the ambiance of the front of the room, I'll have to think about a way to potentially add a reflector someplace to help reduce the shadows.

[deluco]

I wouldn't use softboxes for this. They are going to stand out like a sore thumb and be distracting. Assuming you don't want to use high iso with no strobe, I would point the strobes at the ceiling from where they are in your diagram, and try to fill the room up with light. Don't worry about shadows on the wall. Be careful not to make this too complicated. They just want nice ceremony shots.

You also have to concern yourself with the procession shots. I would use on-camera strobe, bounced if you can, for the procession...again, assuming you can't use 3200 iso.

[J T Smith]

An on camera strobe set above the lens axis with a strobaframe seems to me the way to go. Less to worry about. Not sure the advantage of setting all that up and worrying about it. Seems to me you are trying for a flat light situation anyway.

You could try bringing the lights into the center but they will be more obtrusive to the audience. They will be more straight on directional to put the shadows behind the subject, blocking it a little. Although, I am still trying to figure out having equal light source on both sides are casting that much of a problematic situation.

You are putting too much emphasis on the live ceremony shots. Especially for how much you are getting paid. Again, I wish you would stop the insanity and just shoot it straight forward with a strobe mounted to a strobaframe. You are limited and you need to make a choice to simply capture the action and rest with it.

Then after the ceremony be artistic and recreate those special moments up close with those soft boxes.

Just make it clear to the bride n groom of your limitations so they understand up front.

J T Smith
http://www.supershoots.com
http://www.hitthelodge.com

[Sterling]

I don't know if this would work but if there is a window on one of the sides of the room, could you hang a bed sheet or large diffuser outside of it and fire a CTO'd flash into it from outside?

[JohnnyUK]

Again a Gary Fong dome on the flashes, will be small, reduce shadow and will deliver great results

[jeff martin]

" I have them fairly high near the ceiling and angled down toward the bridge/groom."

This should help. Can you do test shots ahead of time to figure it out?

[tomrit]

What is the possibility of increasing the ambient lighting (higher wattage bulbs in all the fixtures)? Lit to office levels you should get 2.8 1/60 @ 800asa. I used to be able to shoot a 50mm @ 1/30 no problem, although that is no longer true.