Outdoor Night Wedding

[Vacation]

I have been shooting wedding for about a year now and have never done and outdoor wedding at night.

When I booked this wedding it was indoors but it has been changed to outdoors now and it is at night.

If you have shot an outdoor wedding at night....How did you light it.

My biggest concern is you can't bounce your flash.

If you shoot straight on you will get ugly light and it will fall off on people behind them.

My first thought was to have my assistant hold a reflector but that is kind of
awkward.

The other thought was to set up some flashes with pocket wizards but I can't set up each light to to mix perfectly on each shot and umbrellas wont work with any type of wind.

Looking for any tips at all on lighting...Flash settings, camera settings, custom fuctions or any tip you think would help me to get great pics for my bride and groom.

The wedding isn't until November so I have plenty of time to practice.

I will have two photographers and two assistants.

I also will be shooting with two 5d mark ii and have two 30d's that my assistants can also shoot with when they are not assisting.

My lenses are 16-35, 24-70, 24-105, 70-200, 100-400, 50

ANY HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!:cool:

Flashes are 580ex2

[-g-]

I shot an outside night wedding two weeks ago. I used a stofen on my 580 tilted about 45 degrees or so, shot manual with ETTL - 1 to - 1.5. High ISO. Kept the histogram visible and checked it every few shots and adjusted as required.

Service didn't start until sunset but I got the family shots just before. Blended family and formals were done in the dark and I had an assistant hold a second 580 high on a monopod.

You can see some of the shots here, I think EXIF is still attached:

http://s713.photobucket.com/albums/ww138/FocusPhoto/Weddings/Amanda%20and%20Dave/?start=all

This was only my third wedding, first as primary. I'm sure others with more experience will chime in.

[picturecrazy]

A stofen doesn't give you any benefit outside... it relies on surrounding walls and ceilings in order to give the bare bulb effect.

Anyhow, you have a couple of 580's and pocketwizards! You're set. If it's at night, you hardly need to use any power at all to light them up, so your 580's will be MORE than enough.

Personally, I would take one of these approaches:

Place one 580 at the back, slightly off to the side high on a stand.
The other one way in the front set 1.5-2 stops higher to rim light them.

v

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This will give you well lit shots from the aisle. In addition, if you are shooting from the front row off to the side, you can stop down your aperture (or decrease ISO) to turn the rimlight into the main light and the light at the back will act as a fill.


Or place them both 45 degrees to the couple. Vary the power ratio between the two to your liking.



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This will keep your couple well lit from just about any angle, except if you walk past them and stand beyond them. Then you're outta luck... unless you also use an on-camera flash to fill them in, which can also be a good idea.

This is for a night setup. If you actually mean a sunset wedding, then that changes things as you also have to take into account the position of the sun and the rapidly decreasing light. But at night, the ambient light stays pretty consistent.

[mariusz]

use walls and available lighting if possible. I am sure there will be lots of lights, candles etc. you can just fill in light with your flash (I would use high iso 1600+). There are also lights made for video that photographers use. they work well.

[-g-]

A stofen doesn't give you any benefit outside... it relies on surrounding walls and ceilings in order to give the bare bulb effect.

See, told you somebody with more experience would pipe in. :)

[tim]

I would set up 3-4 radio slaved lights, but it'd depend on the location, positions, etc.