Wedding Flash Question

[SuzanneCarey]

Hi guys! I will be doing a wedding that allows flash during the ceremony. I was apprehensive about this b/c I thought it would be distracting, but upon looking at test shots, using the flash is much better. The future B & G both said they did not mind, and did not even notice my test shots. My questionis this, I am a big fan of using a diffuser. But I will be using my 20D, with a Quck Flip Flash bracket with a 550EX flash. I will not be bouncing...as the ceilings are very high. Should I put the Omni on the flash anyway and do direct flash? At this point, direct flash is my option, but don't want to blow the wedding dress away. ANY advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Suzanne

[markubig]

have u considered the Lumiquest Pocket bouncer? or even using an index card to bounce? these will help diffuse the light, but you're going to lose about 2 stops of light.

[Az2Africa]

Hi Suzanne. I agree with Mark. I used a 20D with a flip bracket, 580EX and the Lumiquest Pocket Bouncer at recent wedding and got great results.I shot it all in raw and used a 50mm f1.8, 28-135 IS and and a 70-200 2.8L IS. Good luck with the wedding and make sure they agree to feed you!

[scottbergerphoto]

Another vote for the Lumiquest. I don't like the look of the omnibounce straight on.

[SkipD]

Take a good look at the Lumiquest Promax System (LQ-931D). It has a variety of items, all of which work with a variation of their basic bounce attachment. It has a perforated bouncer that lets 20% of the light bounce straight at the subject and 80% bounce off the ceiling. You can put inserts in to bounce 100% of the light at your subject. There are different inserts to let you add a little color. There is a "softbox" diffuser that you can put on front of the reflector. It all comes in a nice pouch to make it easy to carry around in your bag. Here's a link to Lumiquest's site for this item: http://www.lumiquest.com/lq931.htm

[DaveG]

Hi guys! I will be doing a wedding that allows flash during the ceremony. I was apprehensive about this b/c I thought it would be distracting, but upon looking at test shots, using the flash is much better. The future B & G both said they did not mind, and did not even notice my test shots. My questionis this, I am a big fan of using a diffuser. But I will be using my 20D, with a Quck Flip Flash bracket with a 550EX flash. I will not be bouncing...as the ceilings are very high. Should I put the Omni on the flash anyway and do direct flash? At this point, direct flash is my option, but don't want to blow the wedding dress away. ANY advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Suzanne


About the only time I use flash during the wedding ceremony is when the "church" is very ugly. This is usually some kind of Lion's Club facility and the look of the place will not lend itself to good images. The I use flash and hope for flash fall off to hide the background.

If I'm in a pretty church I prefer to shoot from the back with available light. I use a tripod and get some wide angle views of the whole church with the B&G at their place near the alter, and then I use a longer lens to capture some of the ceremony.

When I was using medium format (645) film that "long" lens was a 150, so you can see that I wasn't all that close. Now with the 70-200 f2.8 and the availability of much higher and on demand ISO's I can get remarkable compositions and have enough shutter speed to be confident in sharpness later. But the images are so much better and look so much more natural than flash. You could use flash and ambient light but I don't think that that helps all that much when you factor in how distracting the flash is. And if I'm walking around at the front of the church, even with the minister's permission everyone is watching me, not the wedding.

Now I go back to flash for the recessional, but I much prefer the look of the natural light inside the church, if I can get it.

[robertwgross]

It has a perforated bouncer that lets 20% of the light bounce straight at the subject and 80% bounce off the ceiling.

Many churches have high ceilings, so you can more or less forget about any bounce off the ceiling.

---Bob Gross---

[robertwgross]

If I'm in a pretty church I prefer to shoot from the back with available light.

If you can find a church with large stained-glass windows, then this can produce a masterpiece. Once I shot the B&G with the minister, and the stained-glass light was behind them.

---Bob Gross---