Lighting a Wedding Reception

I have a wedding tomorrow and I usually use an AB400. Sunpak 120J and a 580EX and I bounce off the ceiling.
I picked up and Einstein and was thinking about shooting reception all bare bulb with no modifiers. The room is a rectangle and ceiling are about 10 FT. Would this approach work?

I'm not sure how you plan to deploy them. When I use lights around the room to raise ambient, it's just an AB1600 with the regular 7" reflector and a 580 bare. No modifiers on either, but that's the look I want. If I wanted something softer, I'd just assume bounce them into the corner of a wall and ceiling.

I prefer to bounce the lights into walls or ceilings, mainly because it helps to greatly reduce shadows. Firing lights directly onto people works well, but as soon as there is something in the way, it creates some very hard shadows that become quite obstrusive.

For example, this was an outdoor reception so I had no bounce surfaces so I fired the lights direct. The shadows are very hard and I feel they are distracting

http://www.nicknphoto.​com/wedding-reception-lighting/

Great blog nicksan !
I'm sure gonna try this out on my next wedding in 2 weeks!

Erwin

Nick, can i ask, on your blog you say with the flash:

"Below is a typical wedding reception photo I was getting with this setup. Shot at f/2, 1/160, ISO1600. "

How come not to lower the shutter speed much lower to let in more ambient light ?

im just learning my indoor flash technique , grateful for your advice

dynamitetony wrote in post #14229998
Nick, can i ask, on your blog you say with the flash:

"Below is a typical wedding reception photo I was getting with this setup. Shot at f/2, 1/160, ISO1600. "

How come not to lower the shutter speed much lower to let in more ambient light ?

im just learning my indoor flash technique , grateful for your advice

Are you talking about the "before" shot where I was just using a speedlight on camera? Yeah, I suppose I could have shot at something like 1/60. Assuming the flash was the main source of light on the subject, it would have stopped the motion and as you said, let in more ambient. I could have used gel to match the ambient too and there's really nothing wrong with that.

I just prefer to use strobes (or OCF) because I can control the light. It depends on the venue but most venues I've been too have ugly lighting so why bother capturing that? Also, with my setup, I can shoot at f1.2, 1/200, ISO100, like this one with the 85L II.

thanks, no disagreeing your new setup is much better

Thank you for that blog! Great detail I've been looking for that kind of info and you nailed it with awesome pics! Love your work.

sabu1818 wrote in post #14230233
Thank you for that blog! Great detail I've been looking for that kind of info and you nailed it with awesome pics! Love your work.

Thanks and you are welcome!

I can't believe no-one linked to my thread yet!

tim wrote in post #14232114
I can't believe no-one linked to my thread yet!

Yeah, I was going to. I thought it was a sticky. I guess it wasn't...

I ended up shooting with the AB 400 and 580EX bouncing off the ceiling. I set the Sunpak WAY in the back of the room bare bulb. I was happy with the results.

If I did not shoot this way,some of my images would have been terrible !!! The DJ had a lasers- and all kind of lights going on during the first dance. I am sure I would have ended up with blue and green gobs of lights on the couples faces.

Thanks for everyone inputs

Any samples?