Tips for Boring or Dark Wedding Ceremony Venues?

I think any wedding photographer has run into this issue before, not every ceremony is held in a beautiful church. In my experiences, many of them have been in less than stellar venues.
For example, I have found that larger non-denominational churches can pose some real challenges. Typically they use projectors, so in a wedding the screens are rolled up and you are left with a straight black background. What do you guys do in these types of venues?
Typically what I do is set up cross lighting from either side of the stage (bounced off the ceiling when possible), and shoot mostly close ups and reaction shots. I’m trying to work some more variety into the mix. Any thoughts or tricks to share?

I've never shot any weddings but I plan to so take my advice with a table spoon of salt. I'd personally invest in a camera bracket and quadruple up four YN560 II's which will cost you $240 for all 4 of them and I'd invest into battery packs for each one. I'd set each to full or half power and bounce if beforehand you know that bounce will result in reasonable results.

If that's not the case I'd have a bracket with a Lastolite Ezybox Hot Shoe Softbox Kit attached to it with a speedlite inside if bounce is not possible combined with high iso.

How many weddings have you shot ? I'm surprised that you typically light your church ceremonies with flash--I avoid that as much as possible; and usually churches frown on flash usage throughout a ceremony.

95% of ceremonies in a church I'm shooting pure ambient. I'll move to give the best backgrounds possible, but in general if the wedding couple chooses a ceremony venue that isn't stellar, well--I can't do much about that.

But, yes, shooting tight, using low aperture and choosing your angles would obviously help reduce the impact of the venue in the photos.

Sovern wrote in post #15327424
I've never shot any weddings but I plan to so take my advice with a table spoon of salt. I'd personally invest in a camera bracket and quadruple up four YN560 II's which will cost you $240 for all 4 of them and I'd invest into battery packs for each one. I'd set each to full or half power and bounce if beforehand you know that bounce will result in reasonable results.

If that's not the case I'd have a bracket with a Lastolite Ezybox Hot Shoe Softbox Kit attached to it with a speedlite inside if bounce is not possible combined with high iso.

If im reading that right, your arm will get very tired quickly. So your saying youll hold four flashes, gripped, with your camera which I would guess is gripped too? Thats one way to get some ripped arms. Sorry if I read it wrongly.

For me ive tried a few, One was having a flash/strobes/elnchrom dlites on both sides bounced up to the ceiling or have an umbrella on them. But I usually just go for the high-ish iso, low aperture, and on cam strobe with diffuser or just ambient. Id say just depends on how the client wants them as most would do anything to have the ceremony documented

Moved this thread to Talk as you don't have images to Share.

thirdkid wrote in post #15328319
If im reading that right, your arm will get very tired quickly. So your saying youll hold four flashes, gripped, with your camera which I would guess is gripped too? Thats one way to get some ripped arms. Sorry if I read it wrongly.

For me ive tried a few, One was having a flash/strobes/elnchrom dlites on both sides bounced up to the ceiling or have an umbrella on them. But I usually just go for the high-ish iso, low aperture, and on cam strobe with diffuser or just ambient. Id say just depends on how the client wants them as most would do anything to have the ceremony documented

Yes, I was talking about on a bracket but for me 4 flashes on a bracket a long with the camera isn't that heavy still. I'm actually going to have my assistant trace behind me with 3-4 speedlites for bounce more than likely so that I can get a nice ambient without having to boost the iso all that much and use an on camera soft box + speedlite to really highlight my subjects.

^ This setup sounds very odd to me. I use one flash on my camera bouncing and seem to do alright. I think you're making more work and expense for yourself for very little benefit. I shoot ISO1600 iso all night and come out with photos as clean as I want them to be. Another thing to consider. If you're shooting at a low ISO (100,200 etc.), it means the amount of light you're putting out via flash is more than quadrupled what it would be if you were shooting at ISO 1600. To have flashes firing off all that light hundreds of times at a wedding or event probably doesn't make for a good experience for the guests.

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #15328041
How many weddings have you shot ? I'm surprised that you typically light your church ceremonies with flash--I avoid that as much as possible; and usually churches frown on flash usage throughout a ceremony.

95% of ceremonies in a church I'm shooting pure ambient. I'll move to give the best backgrounds possible, but in general if the wedding couple chooses a ceremony venue that isn't stellar, well--I can't do much about that.

But, yes, shooting tight, using low aperture and choosing your angles would obviously help reduce the impact of the venue in the photos.

I completely agree.

Sovern wrote in post #15329381
Yes, I was talking about on a bracket but for me 4 flashes on a bracket a long with the camera isn't that heavy still. I'm actually going to have my assistant trace behind me with 3-4 speedlites for bounce more than likely so that I can get a nice ambient without having to boost the iso all that much and use an on camera soft box + speedlite to really highlight my subjects.

8 flashes so you can get some nice ambient??? You obviously have not shot in the real world.

jcolman wrote in post #15333643
8 flashes so you can get some nice ambient??? You obviously have not shot in the real world.

lol exactly what i was thinking.. this event i did recently was at a boring venue.. plain white walls all around and mediocre to bellow average ambient lighting.

One flash on camera controlling 2 flashes off camera. The first 3 shots (i think) is only one flash on camera.. or maybe 1 flash off camera somewhere on the side of the subjects far away to raise background ambient a bit, the last pic is 1 on camera and 2 off camera.

jcolman wrote in post #15333643
8 flashes so you can get some nice ambient??? You obviously have not shot in the real world.

You're right, I've never shot an indoor venue but you mis understood me. I never mentioned using 8 flashes at once.

I said that it might be viable to have an assistant hold up to 4 flashes in the back of the venue to bounce off the ceiling and you'd want your assistant far back from you so that the square inverse law of light helps you rather than hurts you as the light fall off when your light source is say 18 feet away from you and your subjects is going to be very, very low whereas if you do it straight directly at the ceiling above you the light fall off will be more harsh as your light subject will be directly above you.

If the venue is bright enough 1 flash on camera should be enough but if it isn't I'd imagine resorting up to 4 being used by an assistant tracking behind you would be viable or perhaps even on light stands.

^ I've worked in incredibly dark venues with basically no hope for bouncing off the ceiling. I handled it with 1 off camera flash + one on-camera flash. No assistant required--done (some shots from this wedding are here).

Sovern wrote in post #15333879
You're right, I've never shot an indoor venue but you mis understood me. I never mentioned using 8 flashes at once.

I said that it might be viable to have an assistant hold up to 4 flashes in the back of the venue to bounce off the ceiling and you'd want your assistant far back from you so that the square inverse law of light helps you rather than hurts you as the light fall off when your light source is say 18 feet away from you and your subjects is going to be very, very low whereas if you do it straight directly at the ceiling above you the light fall off will be more harsh as your light subject will be directly above you.

If the venue is bright enough 1 flash on camera should be enough but if it isn't I'd imagine resorting up to 4 being used by an assistant tracking behind you would be viable or perhaps even on light stands.

What if the walls are dark or colored? What if the venue doesn't permit the use of flash? Fast glass and high ISO is sometimes the only way to go.

We are talking about the ceremony in a church. During the reception, you can typically use all the light you want.

jcolman wrote in post #15333951
What if the walls are dark or colored? What if the venue doesn't permit the use of flash? Fast glass and high ISO is sometimes the only way to go.

We are talking about the ceremony in a church. During the reception, you can typically use all the light you want.

If the venue does not permit flash then why bother shooting? The photos will more than likely come out bad if you're using nothing but church ambient. Good lighting is key. If the walls are dark or colored that's easy to fix, just change the WB in PP. Dark walls can still be bounced off as long as they're glossy.

^ If you're shooting weddings with a 450D, I can see why you're alarmed at the prospect of shooting dimly lit venues. It may very well be that you do not have the adequate gear to do this kind of work.