Totally Off-Camera Wedding Lighting

[Rick DeLorme]

Lotsa FUN!

No flash on the camera. Four off-camera flashes.

http://www.delormephoto.com/whit77.jpg

[slappy sam]

Nice, 4 flashes wow. What was your lighting setup like? Flashes everywhere? :D

I like the top left and bottom right the best.

[ZekaG]

Those are nice. I like it.
Did you trigger them via wireless?

[Rick DeLorme]

Hi Guys,
Yes, PocketWizard MultiMax.

Three permanent flashes were placed camera right.

One mobile flash was placed camera left (operated by my assistant).

[Lelasmama05]

I hope my wedding is that fun! :D great job!

[TristanCardew]

Four flashes at a wedding = Win. You must have had a lot of trust in both the guests and your flash stands. Did you find it became hectic to set up and control the amount of light from each?

I've always considered using multiple off-camera flashes but have quickly become nervous at the various possibilities of things going wrong and/or becoming too complicated. You never felt this?

And well done on the shots! They're excellent.

[Tobiah]

nice work! inspiration for an upcoming weding i have ... ti the above poster head to strobist.com if you havent already a great resource... off cam lighting may not be as hard as u think

[DwightMcCann]

Outstanding! Did you gel them? Were they on stands, attached with clamps or set on something? What flashes? How do you go about setting the power?

[DonE]

Awesome work and I to am wanting to know the set up and how control was achieved and kept though the event.

[spharris]

fabulous work!
please share your details . . . don't have any flashes yet but soon!!
really wanting to know how to achieve this incredible outcome!!!
sue

[texasreddirt]

I'd also like to know how you had this set up and what kind of power you used on them. The place I shot this past weekend was definitely the worst lighting I've ever shot in and really wished I would have done something like this.

[stathunter]

Great work......thanks for sharing. It is nice to see other "Flint Area" wedding photogs on the forum. Welcome Rick.

[amccomis]

the combination of shadows and lighting angles appearing from different places adds a lot of character to the scenes. well done!

like everyone else, i'd like to see how you set it up!

[Rick DeLorme]

Hi All,
Thank for the encouragement!

I use battery-operated Sunpak 555 and 622 flashes on 13 foot stands fired by PocketWizards.

The flashes are set on 1/4 or 1/8 power (or less) at ISO 250. With my new Nikon D3 I will be using higher ISO settings.

No gels, no modifiers, just straight flash. Multiple flashes diminish the hard edge of point-source flashes.

I place them far back and out of traffic patterns so there is no danger of being knocked over. These flashes are very light and do not plug in ... so, no cords.

[DwightMcCann]

Rick, thanks for the additional information. Now I'm curious about how they are arranged ... just spaced out in a line? Near the wall? From how high? It's quite clear that we are all impressed ... haven't seen anyone else do this sort of setup but it makes great sense. Also, the last flash, handheld by assistant? How does he know where to point?

[Alexajlex]

Nice work man...

Like a feather light...crossfire setup...but with 4 light sources.

I'm guessing you had 1 in each corner forming an X?

I really like this a lot.

[iso1600]

Nice combination of lighting. Well done. Thanks for sharing.

[biggpopa]

Great work. I have an upcoming reception that I have to shoot. I only have two flashes, but may buy a couple more.

Very well done.

[Doobsy]

Wow! Awesome and four flashes. Came up a treat!

[jcolman]

Very nice Rick. I have three off camera speedlights that I plan on using. I may have to buy one more after seeing your shots.

[howzitboy]

the really came out nice. multi flashes rock! id be scared someone would bump into them and knock them over.

[jcolman]

the really came out nice. multi flashes rock! id be scared someone would bump into them and knock them over. Sand bags are your friend.

[LuisE]

Cool, I always use one or two off camera flashes for my wedding receptions, never used battery operated ones. How often did you change the batteries ?

[mattograph]

Dude, you rocked it. Nice work!

[form]

I did something similar, only I had three flashes. Dance floors are great for off-camera flash.

[mattograph]

A lighting diagram would be awesome, if you are so inclined.

[O3DigitalBath]

^yea I'd also be curious to see how they were basically placed.... I saw you said all the static lights were camera right, but how did you adjust for shooting a pic of someone closer to the lights then going to someone further?

Did you have to make more than one shot and adjust apature to tone the flash down? or premeter the area so you had a basic idea to get it close and brought it where it shoud be in post?

I'm just thinking that doing something like this would cause someone on the right side of the dance floor to be super bright maybe even fully blown out where the left side would be underexposed?

[MELIBRYM]

I wanna be like you when I grow up :lol: Great shots..Love em

[RichR]

Excellent results Rick! I tried using 2 strobes with umbrellas once during a corporate x-mas party and got complaints of the lights being too bright. I said to myself that I'd never do that again and just stick to the overhead flash on a bracket system... but your pics make me want to give it a try again.

[mattograph]

Lighting diagram? :)

[O3DigitalBath]

guess the poster isn't comming back to check this?

[jcolman]

^yea I'd also be curious to see how they were basically placed.... I saw you said all the static lights were camera right, but how did you adjust for shooting a pic of someone closer to the lights then going to someone further?

Did you have to make more than one shot and adjust apature to tone the flash down? or premeter the area so you had a basic idea to get it close and brought it where it shoud be in post?

I'm just thinking that doing something like this would cause someone on the right side of the dance floor to be super bright maybe even fully blown out where the left side would be underexposed?

I'll do my best to answer for him. The lighting setup isn't difficult. He probably had all three lights on the right side equal distance from the center of the dance floor and spaced so that one light would light the area closest to the camera position ( foreground) the next light would hit the middle of the dance floor, and the third light would illuminate the back of the dance floor. All lights would be on the same power setting, except maybe the light farthest from the camera, which may be a tad brighter. All he would have to do is to meter the first light to get his aperture. (the other lights would be about the same power setting so there would be no need to meter them). As long as the lights didn't overlap too much, he can use the same aperture. The fourth light on the left (the one his assistant is holding) is also measured for a set distance, say 15 feet. He simply tells his assistant to stay about 15 feet from the main action.

You don't really need to worry too much about people being "blown out" by standing too close to the lights because his coverage area of his shots don't include people next to the lights. Also, the lights are placed well above the heads of the crowd.

In summary, all he is doing is lighting a section of the dance floor and concentrating his shots there. Hollywood does this all the time in film production.

[Kiddo]

WOW these are amazing!!! Great work....

[O3DigitalBath]

I'll do my best to answer for him. The lighting setup isn't difficult. He probably had all three lights on the right side equal distance from the center of the dance floor and spaced so that one light would light the area closest to the camera position ( foreground) the next light would hit the middle of the dance floor, and the third light would illuminate the back of the dance floor. All lights would be on the same power setting, except maybe the light farthest from the camera, which may be a tad brighter. All he would have to do is to meter the first light to get his aperture. (the other lights would be about the same power setting so there would be no need to meter them). As long as the lights didn't overlap too much, he can use the same aperture. The fourth light on the left (the one his assistant is holding) is also measured for a set distance, say 15 feet. He simply tells his assistant to stay about 15 feet from the main action.

You don't really need to worry too much about people being "blown out" by standing too close to the lights because his coverage area of his shots don't include people next to the lights. Also, the lights are placed well above the heads of the crowd.

In summary, all he is doing is lighting a section of the dance floor and concentrating his shots there. Hollywood does this all the time in film production.


thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I understand the basic idea you are explaining but i'm still confused on how that would work in practice.

To get it out of the way...I fully understand the "4th light/talking stand/assistant" and the light power on that, with that person staying a roughly static distance from your subject the lighting would be the same always (close enough)

I'm still confused on the 3 lights to the other side. I hadn't thought of setting them to different distances (thinking vertical) and I was thinking more horizontal so that changes things and it seems much more do-able. at the same time without I feel like all 3 of them would have to be set at different power or you would get a lot different lighting. If your shortest throw light is set at 1/16 power for example and so is the middle light....the light in the middle of the floor would have fallen off a lot more right?

If you were to set all the lights at different powers or maybe if the room was smaller doing 2 the same and one more powerfull for the far side does make sense but how are you not getting spill from the other lights? gobo?

Unless I don't understand this still, even in a small room if you had two lights at 1/16th power (as an example again) with out a gobo, wouldn't you get a decently "hotter/brighter" area in between the 1st and 2nd lights? Or are you setting the angles as such so its just both the falloff sections (in between the lights) to try and get a more constant range all the way across the room?


sorry if this is kind of a jumbled mess of a post, I'm trying to understand this a little better and I think i'm almost there but still just slightly confused.

[jcolman]

thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I understand the basic idea you are explaining but i'm still confused on how that would work in practice.

To get it out of the way...I fully understand the "4th light/talking stand/assistant" and the light power on that, with that person staying a roughly static distance from your subject the lighting would be the same always (close enough)

I'm still confused on the 3 lights to the other side. I hadn't thought of setting them to different distances (thinking vertical) and I was thinking more horizontal so that changes things and it seems much more do-able. at the same time without I feel like all 3 of them would have to be set at different power or you would get a lot different lighting. If your shortest throw light is set at 1/16 power for example and so is the middle light....the light in the middle of the floor would have fallen off a lot more right?

If you were to set all the lights at different powers or maybe if the room was smaller doing 2 the same and one more powerfull for the far side does make sense but how are you not getting spill from the other lights? gobo?

Unless I don't understand this still, even in a small room if you had two lights at 1/16th power (as an example again) with out a gobo, wouldn't you get a decently "hotter/brighter" area in between the 1st and 2nd lights? Or are you setting the angles as such so its just both the falloff sections (in between the lights) to try and get a more constant range all the way across the room?


sorry if this is kind of a jumbled mess of a post, I'm trying to understand this a little better and I think i'm almost there but still just slightly confused.

I'll see if I can explain this a bit better. Picture a rectangle shaped room. Think of the three lights on one side of the room as being spaced equally along one the side of the room. Each light lights up approximately one third of the room. Each light is set to the same power. When triggered, the three lights will light up the center of the room. There will be some overlap but not enough to make much of a difference in brightness. Now fill the room with people. If I were to stand at one end of the room and take a picture looking down the length of the room, the entire room full of people would be evenly lit, albeit from one side only. I might want to raise the power of the light illuminating the people farthest away from the camera to make them stand out a bit more.

If the lights were only raised to say, 6' high, those people standing next to the lights would be very overexposed. But if you raise the lights high enough so that they shine over the heads of those closest to the lights, the overall effect will be that only the center of the room is lit.

Hollywood films will go the extra step to install a half scrim in their lights to help even out the lighting in the above situation but for wedding shooters, it really isn't necessary.

[O3DigitalBath]

Alright so you are only talking about getting even lighting in the center of the room and not really from one side to the other. That seems pretty do-able.

Originally, I was thinking you were talking about from the one side of the room to the other (closest to lights to furthest from lights).

[jcolman]

Alright so you are only talking about getting even lighting in the center of the room and not really from one side to the other. That seems pretty do-able.

Originally, I was thinking you were talking about from the one side of the room to the other (closest to lights to furthest from lights).

Exactly. There is really no way to evenly light the entire room except by hanging the lights from the ceiling and then you get too much top light. Side lighting works best for shooting lots of people scattered around a room.

[O3DigitalBath]

^thanks for all your help and clearing up that confusion for me!

[jcolman]

^thanks for all your help and clearing up that confusion for me! No problem, glad I could help. I've set up so many lights for videotaping over the years that this stuff is second nature for me, but I still remember when I was first starting out, how daunting light placement was.

[madmanscam]

excellent shots I must say !

[Rick DeLorme]

Hi All,
Sorry, I haven't had time to come back to this and did not know that there had been such a response. Someone should have sent me an email.

I dont think a diagram would help much because the set up is different for every room. But some basics: I like all lights to cross from the same side, NOT placed in each corner. I do not shoot from under the lights because that would make the light flat. I want direction of light crossing the scene or I place myself for back lighting.

My assistant with the mobile flash can be assigned to do any of a variety of things. In this case, he was camera left doing a little fill. The other three flashes were camera right. They were straight flash, no modifiers, no bounce.

I use Sunpak 555s because they have a lens that creates a beam of light that can be feathered to give pretty even light across most of the dance floor. I am always chimping and if I see that I need to open up the aperture for a certain portion of the dance floor or seating area, then I just keep that in mind.

All flashes and all camera settings are on manual. I use PocketWizard Multimax radio slaves so that I can place each flash on its own sub channel. I can turn off any flash right from the camera if I don't like what a flash is doing to a particular image.

I offer a two-day class. One day of instruction and one day at a real wedding to put it all to real use. Max number of students is two per class.

[Coastwatch203]

Great!
- fantastic "Strobist" shots!
Well done...:)

[s8langwo]

I captured this about a month ago. Shot with an ST-E2 mounted on an XTi. I had the 430EX mounted on my second body. It was set on the table behind and off to the left side of the couple.

I've enjoyed moving the flash off-camera. Still much to learn.

Kevin