What lighting to use for our door couple portraits?

[brokensocial]

This was done with all natural light. My favorite shots turned out to be the ones that occurred long after the sun had set.

[chris_holtmeier]

Originally Posted by brokensocial

This was done with all natural light. My favorite shots turned out to be the ones that occurred long after the sun had set.

That's great and all, but you do realize you've brought up natural light twice now in a thread asking about speedlights and monolights.

[brokensocial]

Originally Posted by chris_holtmeier

That's great and all, but you do realize you've brought up natural light twice now in a thread asking about speedlights and monolights.

Oh my...my apologies. When I originally read the first post, I could have sworn he was asking about options for both natural vs. fill, and I was supporting natural, but upon rereading it, you're quite right.

[jcolman]

Originally Posted by brokensocial

This was done with all natural light. My favorite shots turned out to be the ones that occurred long after the sun had set.

Not to rain on your work as there are a few nice shots, but this series looks like several images were shot without regard to getting good light on your subjects.

[brokensocial]

Originally Posted by jcolman

Not to rain on your work as there are a few nice shots, but this series looks like several images were shot without regard to getting good light on your subjects.

No offense taken. We made it a goal to expose as we saw the scenes in front of us. We also work with ambient except for on the dancefloor. It's not everyone's cup of tea by any means, but it's what we believe in, so we just have to look for clients who feel the same way.

[jcolman]

Originally Posted by brokensocial

No offense taken. We made it a goal to expose as we saw the scenes in front of us. We also work with ambient except for on the dancefloor. It's not everyone's cup of tea by any means, but it's what we believe in, so we just have to look for clients who feel the same way.

Fair enough.

[PhotoMatte]

Since there's not a camera out there that can see 'natural light' with the same dynamic range as the human eye, I use speedlights (both on and off -camera) all the time. During the day, when the sun is overhead and there are harsh shadows present on people's faces, our eyes don't really see all that; we're still able to see full detail on a white bridal dress as well as the color of someone's eyes that are in shadow ...while still seeing that the sky is deep blue. A camera, without help, cannot do that. No matter what kind of camera you have, without a flash you simply won't get results equal to the human eye. That's when fill flash comes in. I don't use flash to make an image look unnatural; I use flash to make it look more natural. Again, by natural I mean what the human eye sees versus what the camera sees.
In the example below, if I hadn't used flash the bride would've been almost a silhouette as I exposed for the background. If I'd exposed for the bride (with or without flash) there would've been no detail in the sky and barely any in the trees. My eyes were able to see the bride and the background, all at the same time, in perfect detail and perfect exposure but my camera simply cannot. In this shot I used two 600EX-RT units off-camera and one 600EX-RT on-camera.

[awad]

Originally Posted by brokensocial

No offense taken. We made it a goal to expose as we saw the scenes in front of us. We also work with ambient except for on the dancefloor. It's not everyone's cup of tea by any means, but it's what we believe in, so we just have to look for clients who feel the same way.

right on brother. we do the same for our engagements and weddings. when I first started my wedding business, i used to set up lights whenever possible. but i found it was starting to remove the intimacy that we were striving to capture.

That said, When it looks like i'll need to add some light, I have one of those lastolite ezyboxes in a backpack with a 580ex attached. throw on the PWs and i'm ready to light in about a minute.