I've got a wedding coming up, the venue has a grass roof and dark stone walls, so i don't see myself bouncing good light off, any suggestions on what to do, i am using a canon 350d with 18-55mm lens, standard stuff, plan to rent a f2.8 lens, should i bounce the flash off reflector, will that not cause shadow to the side or should i use f2.8 - f4 aperture, high iso, slow speed.

Any suggestions.
Thanks

Make sure you get some safe shots with using the flash straight on.

Hey PhotoWiz,

Sorry no one posted a response to this question. Hopefully the wedding hasn't already happened and we can get some chatter about this one.

I do not shoot weddings but have had to do my share of wedding and event photos in the past. I have found that in my experiences either outside at night or in a room where bouncing is not an option it has always served me well to use the diffuser that came with my flash and hit the subject with my flash direct on TTL setting. When shooting direct this way I find it is best to use a bracket so you can get the flash far off camera so as to not get such a flat look. I personally do not mind the look of the poppy high contrast look from a direct flash.

There are some great products out there that attach to your flash that will give your photo a bounced look as well with somewhat soft light and I am sure someone in here that does weddings regularly can give you some suggestions.

Hope that helped a little.

Wes

I like to use a stoffen omni bounce on my speed lights. I will also have my assistant hold a speed light mounted on a mono pod with an omni bounce affixed to it as well. I get very good light. No dark holes. It is fast, light weight,and conveniant
Ed

I would set up a couple of speed lights around the room. Maybe set them on the speakers if there is any and use the slaves in the flash.