Lighting for small wedding party

[canonpink]

I will be shooting a wedding tomorrow evening with the formal portraits outside in the evening sun around 5:30 - 6:30.

Here is my equipment list:
2 580EXs, 1 Metz 58 = 3 good range flashes total
3 lightstands
3 Pocket Wizards

The client is having the wedding in their backyard, but I have access to the entire front and backyards. The backyard has a pool that will be decorated with candles, etc....

I am thinking of placing the subjects where the sun is approx. 20-20 degrees to their right or left and using a bit of fill flash from my camera (ETTL comped down about 0.5 of a stop) and probably ambient light comped down 0.5 of a stop; because I want to use the sun as the main light. There is a possibility that the yard will be mostly shaded, therefore, I will need to use flash as the main light to get the shadows on the portraits the way I want. If that is the case, I would probably setup one light in a white umbrella about 30 degrees to the right or left of the subject, then another light on the opposite side bare with no umbrella 1/2 to 1/4 the power of the mainlight for fill and -1 stop for ambient.

Camera probably about 10-8 ft from subjects, but lights setup a bit closer for softer light.

Camera manual mode probably staring around 1/80, ISO 400, f/5.6 and adjust from there for ambient light and the manual flash settings.

For the rest of the wedding, it is photojournalistic and will be shot with available light with fast lenses.

Am I missing anything?


Any further suggestions? Thanks for any help.

CP

[canonpink]

I take it by the few responses that I must have a decent plan in place. I went over to the clients house last night and took some test shots. I think my plan will work. It is good that this is my first wedding and don't expect to get paid for it is for a family friend that doesn't expect much more than snapshot, so the only way to go is up on their expectations. I plan to give them much more than they expect for practice on the next one.

PC

[Don Powell]

Since no one is answering your post, I will try to make a couple of points.

First, I try to not have my subjects face the sun, which would cause squinting and poor facial expressions. I have the subject, or subjects, face away from the sun and expose about 1/2 to 1 stop less than ambient so that the sun is a hair or edgelight. The way to do this is to use low ISO and set the flash to - 1/2 to 1. Ballpark example - ISO 100 1/250 sec f8 - f10 flash set to - 1 ( auto flash set to f5.6 ).

Note, is more effective to use off camera flash. I do not use any diffusion, since I need all the power the flash can deliver.

[howzitboy]

make sure you got some weights to hold your umbrell stand up. hate for them to end up in the pool. using umbrellas and off camera flashes take time, which at a wedding u don't have. unless you're going to have help, i would just go sun main, one flash for fill.

[jameelm]

If you are going to go off camera, just remember that although you want the flashes closer for softer light.. if you jack the power a bit (manual) and move them back, you'll get a more even application across the group while still maintaining the soft look you want. Having them too close can having you skipping through stops over inches (eg... on one side of the shoulder the person should be at f16 and by the other shoulder they would need f9...).

Otherwise I would go with howzitboy and say just do the fill if you don't have the time to set up...

In shade though, you would probably do well to just set up one light with white umbrella and use that light for fill.

[Wilt]

If you are going to go off camera, just remember that although you want the flashes closer for softer light.. if you jack the power a bit (manual) and move them back, you'll get a more even application across the group while still maintaining the soft look you want. Having them too close can having you skipping through stops over inches (eg... on one side of the shoulder the person should be at f16 and by the other shoulder they would need f9...). .


Concept of moving flash farther for less falloff due to distance is right, but the illustration of one shoulder f/16 while the other is f/9 is overdramatized...if one shoulder was 18" away, and the other was 36" away, there would 2EV falloff! So if light was 4' away from nearest shoulder, falloff to other shoulder is 1EV; if light was 8' away from nearest shoulder, falloff to the other shoulder is about 0.5EV.

[canonpink]

Well, I actually went ahead and didn't use flash at all. Most of the events were before the sun was all the way down and their backyard had plenty of shade for nice even lighting. I didn't have to go above ISO 400 and used my 5D and 30D. I already provided the bride and groom 8x10's of a bridal portrait and their wedding portrait and they appeared very pleased. I am finding that getting exposure right and everything doesn't matter if you cannot compose worth a darn. I bias my focus toward composing and if the shot is a bit under exposed, or over, (I prefer under to save highlights) I would rather work on it in PS than have a badly composed shot with perfect exposure. If I get both, all the better.

I will just keep practicing and learning.

Thanks for all the help and believe it or not, your suggestions helped me with a portrait shoot I had yesterday.

CP

[beep]

lets see some examples...

[bobrock111565]

I agree, post examples. Giving us all these great setup details, and then no reference images, leaves us all in the dark. Show us the pix!
Bob

[johnstoy]

Where are you located at in this world?

What lenses will you use?

Here is a link to some evening sun shots from 6:30PM on, with the Canon 70-200mm f2.8l IS... No flash... Performing Arts outdoor close ups... The EXIF photo properties info is intact...
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=357058