Lighting a wedding ceremony

[trailblazer]

So I have a wedding for a friend tomorrow that I agreed to shoot last minute as a favour with another friend.
We are both amateurs and the couple is poor so they do not have a paid photog. I have also never visited the church, so I have no idea of the layout.

I will be allowed to use flash during the actual ceremony and was wondering what was the most effecient way to set up my lights.

I am using three flashes. One 580EXII and 2 Nikon SB24s triggered by Cybersyncs.

I am thinking to put the 2 SB24s on 1/4 or 1/8 power on either side of the altar zoomed to 50mm and point it at a small angle to the ceiling and place the 580 in the back hidden somewhere maybe on 1/8 power.

Anybody have any input?

Also, what about after the actual ceremony before they head to the reception? (I believe it is the formals?)

I will be walking with 2 Westcott 43" double folding umbrellas.

How would you utilize them?
I was thinking to use 1 high either camera left or right feathered to the opposite end so as to more evenly illuminate the two and 1 low on whichever side the bride is on to light the lower part of the dress and keep the 580 in the back for separation if I need it.

What are your thoughts?

[tim]

Why do you think you need flash? I rarely do. ISO1600 and F2.8 is your friend.

For the reception read the thread I started in this forum called something like "how I shoot receptions".

[jimmywires]

i wouldnt worry about the lights....i worry about not steppin in a church. lololo

[trailblazer]

Why do you think you need flash? I rarely do. ISO1600 and F2.8 is your friend.

For the reception read the thread I started in this forum called something like "how I shoot receptions".

Because as I said, I have never visited the church so I have no idea of the layout or the lighting. It could be well lit, or it could be the bat cave, who knows? We also have permission to use flash so why push ISO1600 when I don't need to?

It is not like I need to buy any gear or rent any. I have the equipment and it is light and portable so I would rather take it with a plan in mind and be refreshingly surprised if I don't need it rather than trying to squeeze ISO 1600 or ISO 3200 f/2.8 out of my gear if I don't absolutely have to. I have no qualms with shooting ISO3200 which I regularly do but I am doing this for personal reasons to start to build my wedding portfolio, so I would rather that I keep my options open. I might as well get something out of shooting a freebie for a friend.

Depending on the situation, I might just use one off camera on the side of the groom, head on coming towards the bride's face on low power, or straight up.

I posted because I wanted to get some advice on ideas to light the ceremony, not to determine whether I will need it.

I just did a search and read your thread called "How I photograph receptions" and duly noted your two lightstands on the side of the head table pointing up which is how I had it planned in my head.

I just wanted advice from the pros on if this was adequate or other options and setups I could try, during the ceremony, including incorporating the umbrellas for formal shots afterwards and things to try out.

[tim]

I think you'll find most professionals, myself included, will suggest using flash as a last resort in a church. I've never needed it, but I have no idea what the churches are like over there. I shot a wedding on ISO3200, F2.8, 1/30th-1/50th a few weeks ago. I have a print of an ISO1600 image that's 36" wide across two pages in an album, everyone who says it says "wow", no-one mentioned noise or grain.

But if it's a hole then planning in advance is a good idea. There are two main issues I know of, keeping the background from going too dark, and also being unobtrusive. Umbrellas would be too much I think. One light at each side of the church, on a small stand, with a little fill from the center should be fine. Still shoot ISO1600 F2.8 so the background doesn't go too dark. I'm not sure how succesful lighting a background with a hotshoe flash that's close to the background would be, it would really need to be near equidistant from the top and bottom of the wall in the background, so mounted up high and a bit away from the wall might work.

For church formals i'd break out the umbrellas, but still drag the shutter and keep the ISO up, again for the background. This is one of the more challenging parts of wedding photography, fortunately i've only had to do it once in 4 or so years of weddings, and I use studio strobes with umbrellas for that.

[trailblazer]

Thanks Tim. Good to know that my thoughts are similar in terms of lighting the room.

Yeah, I don't plan on using umbrellas during the ceremony, but I know for sure the B&G want some formals afterwards, before heading the reception so no getting away from that.

I know you recommend battery packs, but I don't have any of those at the moment so judging from reading your other thread, you recommend about 1/4 power? I know I can adjust them as needed but how long do you think the AA batteries will last at that level?

I have 32 new Sanyo Eneloop batteries so it won't be a problem. I just need a ballpark on when I should think about changing them out as I've never shot with flash for so many hours.

[tim]

I have no idea how long batteries last, I use battery packs whenever i'm using the flash a lot. The flash manual should tell you though. At 1/4 power they should last a decent length of time though, the recharge time may be a couple of seconds but you'll be able to shoot while it recharges.

[trailblazer]

Ah ok. Thanks for the advice Tim; most appreciated.