Hello:

I'm trying to decide if I should use both of my 800w/s studio strobes with umbrellas (both pointed down at a 45 degree angle - one on each side) for wedding picture formals. I have an uncle who shoots with one umbrella directly above and behind him and he states that's plenty of light. Using one light would probably take away any shadows on shots involving large groups of the wedding party as well. I'm leaning towards an easier set-up with one light above and behind me. I'm shooting with a 30D (and XTI as back-up). I'm hoping for the 5D in the next couple of months.

Anyway, any suggestions or experiences with your lighting set-ups would be great.

Thanks,

Jason

I would suggest that you keep things as simple as possible while you're starting out shooting weddings and concentrate on using speedlights before you consider using strobes/umbrellas on stands. They take more time, they can get in the way of subjects, families, guests, and they can pose a liability issue. The primary benefits of using umbrellas is to give you a "soft" light. However, the softness is dependent on the size of the light source relative to your subjects and is impractical for shooting formals with small/large groups. A better solution is to "bounce" the light off of a large source (such as a white cieling) which in turn gives you a large light souce and as such, soft lighting. Softness can also be improved by the use of a diffuser. Personally, I'm a fan of the Stoffen omnibounce but there are others. As you get to the point where you've gained some mastery with your speedlights, try some multiple speedlight setups and master an understanding of light ratios.

The forum entries on speedlights here will give you good info. You might want to prurchase: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=430ex+dvd+crane&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=RootPage.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t since you own Canon gear. Also check out some of the trainings with Shoot Smarter (see above threads). Good luck.

BTW, the 30D is a fine camera.

Thanks David. I appreciate your advice and will be purchasing the Canon 580EX/430EX DVD today. I own both flashes. The wedding this past weekend went very well. I ended up using one of my 800w/s stobes and shot through a white umbrella. They turned out great for my first wedding. I would've liked the backgrounds to be lighter (using more ambient lighting from the church) but I can adjust a little bit in Photoshop. Next time, I'll try using a shutter of 1/60 to open up the natural lighting in the background. They didn't turn out black, but just darker than expected. It does put more emphasis on the wedding party, family, etc. this way I guess.

This actually brings another question to mind.....Is it best to keep the backgrounds in the church lighter or darker? As mentioned, the darker background actually made the wedding party stand out a bit better without the cluster of the background being light. Or, maybe it's best to keep the background light? If so, what type of camera settings do you recommend? I used nearly full power at f/10 for good depth of field. But, I also used 1/250 for my shutter - way too fast I suppose. Any additional recommendations would be helpful before my next wedding in March.

Thanks,

Jason

There really isn't a specific setting that you'll need to use because the amount of light in the room can vary. You want to aim for a relative balance between the available ambient light and the amount of light your speedlite puts out. This is where understanding light ratios is important.

Generally speaking the lighter backgrounds will look more natural so most photographers tend to prefer that. Good luck and I think you'll enjoy the video. Be sure to read the forum threads here on Prophoto....there's a bunch of good info in much greater detail.

Hi Jason,

Unless the location is photographically unattractive I prefer to show the church or wherever the event takes place. Typically the bride and groom chose the location because they liked the aesthetics or it holds some emotional value so they want to be able to see it in their pictures.

I am curious why did you choose a shutter speed of 1/250? That is twice as fast as what I will usually use and typically I shoot at 1/90 when taking static portraits. Also what ISO did you have set? That may have some bearing on why you had to choose 1/250. I suspect you may have had your camera on Program and ISO set at 100 or lower.

There are many ways to bring up the background. Typically using a slower shutter, A.K.A. dragging the shutter, is what is done to preserve the original look and feel of the location. But you could also use a second flash adjusting the output to provide your desired look.

Can you post any example images?

Best Regards,
GEG, Jr.

jasonrgphotographer:


This actually brings another question to mind.....Is it best to keep the backgrounds in the church lighter or darker? As mentioned, the darker background actually made the wedding party stand out a bit better without the cluster of the background being light. Or, maybe it's best to keep the background light? If so, what type of camera settings do you recommend? I used nearly full power at f/10 for good depth of field. But, I also used 1/250 for my shutter - way too fast I suppose. Any additional recommendations would be helpful before my next wedding in March.

Thanks,

Jason

GEG,

Thank you for the information. Why did I shoot at 1/250th? Good question! I suppose because that's what I shoot all of my indoor studio photos at typically. I just didn't know that you needed to change it for larger areas. So, I kept it at 1/250th without really knowing I needed to change it (hate to admit this).

So, when I was shooting the shots at the wedding, I shot at ISO 200, 1/250, and F/10 (with 3/4 power on my B800 unit). I was able to fix the background in Lightroom and photoshop, but don't want to go through that kind of work in the future. My next wedding is Feb 23rd so I'll use 1/90 like you mentioned. What ISO do you recommend?

Here's a picture from my blog. It doesn't look half bad, but I would like to do a bit more work to make sure no strange color contrasts result along the edges. Any advice on retouch would help as well! And, your opinion would be great, too!

www.gemarphotography.com

Thanks much,

JasonATTACH: 114