People who use strobes as off camera flash at receptions

I've seen this on the forums many times and I've read through the threads.. seems like people are shooting in a TRIANGLE kind of a format where two corners of the triangle are strobe lights and the one corner is you with an on camera flash for fill.

Couple of questions I have (i know these are very subjective) and would greatly appreciate it if someone can help me with these.

1. Ive read "point strobes at the dance floor and take a meter reading"... what kind of reading do you go for? Like is it trial and error? or do you simply go for a certain camera setting for example 1/125, f/2.8, ISO 400?

For example if you do measure the strobes for that meter reading and your meter states that now the dance floor is correctly exposed (by only those 2 strobes)..

2. How much power do you use on your on camera speedlite for fill then? or do you put it in ETTL and let the speedlite decide on how much power to put out? Can the speedlite correctly decide this when its in ETTL mode while the other two strobes are in manual?

3. Is the speedlite pointed at the roof for bounce?.. or is it pointed straight at the subjects with some kind of diffuser on the speedlite?

FYI the strobes are Einstein 640W's

You will have a hard time mixing ETTL and strobes. Putting the camera flash in manual and bouncing would be a better choice (in my opinion).

I only use three flashes for my Wedding and Receptions and they are the Canon 580EX II Speedlites. I also have the Canon Battery Packs on each Speedlite. One is on my camera and the other two are off camera. I use the PCB CyberSyncs to fire the two off camera Speedlites and the on camera Speedlite is set to E-TTL. Get you a pair of Speedlites and leave the overbearing Studio Strobes at home, you're gonna want to go battery powered anyway..... I have the Flashes set to Manual and base my exposure on the ambient light that is currently lighting the venue and how I want to control or what I want the ambient light to look like in the final image..... But what ever that exposure is I ALWAYS make sure to get an f/2.8 aperture value and I also set my camera to that value. I have a couple of examples below..... I tend to place one of my lights near the DJ Booth (close to the dance floor) and the other one directly on the opposite side. I like to use the Gary Fong LightSpheres on the flashes to give them the ability to light the entire room 360 degrees. It will also depend on the venue as well as what type of effect I'm looking for that will determine whether or not I point the flashes up at the ceiling or directly out towards the dance floor.

Here is the Father/Daughter Dance.....
Notice the nice rim lighting on his jacket and on one side of her body:

^ thanks a lot.. do you use the gary fong on your camera flash? or on off camera flashes?

i can see your OCF are pointing at the dance floor.. what about your on camera flash? is that pointed at the roof or at subjects?

Awesome shots. Are the results as good if the ceiling isn't so high? I've found that with lower ceilings its tough. Just wondering...

5W0L3 wrote in post #15371932
^ thanks a lot.. do you use the gary fong on your camera flash? or on off camera flashes?
i can see your OCF are pointing at the dance floor.. what about your on camera flash? is that pointed at the roof or at subjects?

I ALWAYS use the LightSpheres on the two off camera flashes, sometimes I'll use it with the flash that's on the camera, sometimes not..... Again, it depends on the Venue and the lighting of that Venue as well as what type of mood I'm trying to accomplish in the final exposure as well as the type of look in the final image..... Pointing towards the subject and/or dance floor, or up toward the ceiling, again is subjective and will depend on several factors.....

ootsk wrote in post #15371955
Awesome shots. Are the results as good if the ceiling isn't so high? I've found that with lower ceilings its tough. Just wondering...

Then I tend to point the flashes toward the dance floor, but because of the 360 degree lighting, I still get spill onto the ceiling which allow for a semi-soft look. Understand that most of the raw light is hitting the dance floor due to pointing it directly in that direction, however some is hitting the ceiling and creating a large diffuse light source due to the 360 degree angle of the flash.....

^ can't really use light spheres on strobes right?... only speedlites?

5W0L3 wrote in post #15371968
^ can't really use light spheres on strobes right?... only speedlites?

Correct.....
However, if you're insistent on using a studio strobe, taking off the parabolic reflector and rotating the strobe in an upward position will yield you the same 360 degree angle of lighting, however it won't be as soft and diffused.

If you want to use your Einsteins for receptions and also have the china light effect of the Light Sphere, go to home depot and get a plastic light globe. They generally have them in approximately 12 inch diameter. If you're lucking the open is just right to fit the Einstein. If not you'll have to use a saw or other means to get rid of the flange so the globe will fit on the Einstein. Vu la you have the light you want for lighting a room.


Something like this: http://www.homedepot.c​om …07%2d%5f%2dN#.U​M1rXaXA420

Tim S wrote in post #15371898
You will have a hard time mixing ETTL and strobes.

I wouldn't know why. Only thing you need to make sure (anyhow) is that the strobes optical trigger is turned off.
I use a manual OCF and ETTL on camera flash quite a lot when doing nightclub shots.

I do a similar setup as Mark however I disagree about not using studio lights. I use mono lights on nearly every wedding reception. There are a couple of reasons why. First and foremost, I don't have to worry about recycle time. By using mono lights, plugged into outlets, my recycle time is nearly instantaneous. With speedlights, your battery power is going to decline as the evening wears on, making your recycle time longer and longer. Sure you can change batteries but I prefer not to have to bother.

Second, in a large venue, I don't want to light up the whole place, just the dance floor. I often use grids on my lights to control light spill. I point my lights at the middle of the dance floor. Grids on a 7" reflector give me better control than a grid on a tiny speedlight.

Sometimes I will bounce my light, other times I use umbrellas or a combination of direct plus bounce.

I do use speedights at a reception. I keep two of them, along with umbrellas, ready to go when I need to light an out-of-the spot like cake cutting, impromtu portraits, etc.

I also typically gel all my lights to match the ambient light.

Here are a few examples.

Large venue, lit by four lights. Direct lighting.

Always great stuff, jcolman. Appreciate your willingness to share and explain your setups.

Same goes for The Loft Studios.

What you have to think about is how you are going to capture the ambiance of the reception venue while also getting the light you want for your coverage.

With enough monolights its possible to like just about any venue anyway you want. All it takes is the time to setup, test, and meter the lights.

What's been offered here are several creative options for lighting a venue using either monolights or speedlites. Whichever you choose, that's the beginning. What you have to do is understand how to balance the venue's ambient light, the mood lighting that may be added and then your lights.

The in addition to the general challenge of balancing the various light sources, is added the likelihood that here will be different color temperatures. And, don't forget there are often Videographers with their lights adding to the mix.

And, what worked in the venue last week may not work this week. Oh, how I love wedding photography.

dmward wrote in post #15375368
What you have to think about is how you are going to capture the ambiance of the reception venue while also getting the light you want for your coverage.

With enough monolights its possible to like just about any venue anyway you want. All it takes is the time to setup, test, and meter the lights.

What's been offered here are several creative options for lighting a venue using either monolights or speedlites. Whichever you choose, that's the beginning. What you have to do is understand how to balance the venue's ambient light, the mood lighting that may be added and then your lights.

The in addition to the general challenge of balancing the various light sources, is added the likelihood that here will be different color temperatures. And, don't forget there are often Videographers with their lights adding to the mix.

And, what worked in the venue last week may not work this week. Oh, how I love wedding photography.

I highlighted the most important part.

The Loft Studios wrote in post #15371925
I use the PCB CyberSyncs to fire the two off camera Speedlites and the on camera Speedlite is set to E-TTL.

How are you using the cybersyncs to fire the OCF if your ETTL flash is in the hotshoe?