Beach wedding setup - aka how to get great images on the beach

That's exactly the setup I used to use (AB 1600's and 800's) and a Vagabond battery. I highly congratulate you using high-powered flash fill instead of going "natural light" like many photographers do these days.

What I don't recommend is the near on-axis shot towards the sun. That's GOT to be the worst situation for controlling flare I've ever seen. The fact that you can see ANYTHING shooting into the sun like that is a compliment to your lens manufacturer.

Off center would've probably been better, but the way people were arranged made that problematic. It would also make the guys and girls different brightnesses.

My Nikon G series lenses are very flare resistant. I actually bought a cheaper lens just to get more flare!

tim wrote in post #14237665
Off center would've probably been better, but the way people were arranged made that problematic. It would also make the guys and girls different brightnesses.

Not if you had 2 strobes and crossed them, right?

Red Tie Photography wrote in post #14239599
Not if you had 2 strobes and crossed them, right?

Correct, but that's more hassle than I'm willing to go to. Also, Vagabond Mini units are pretty expensive out here, I paid 2-3 times more than the US cost, so one is all I really want to buy. A cord between two lights on a beach doesn't sound like a great idea either.

tim wrote in post #14239714
Correct, but that's more hassle than I'm willing to go to. Also, Vagabond Mini units are pretty expensive out here, I paid 2-3 times more than the US cost, so one is all I really want to buy. A cord between two lights on a beach doesn't sound like a great idea either.

Tim

Too bad about you guys getting ripped on the vagabond minis. We have 2 and Each flash has its dedicated battery. They are great but have some limitations. Mostly its pilot error. You tend to fire them quicker then they can recycle so when you do,your gonna get a few slightly underexposed. Nothing that could not be fixed in post. I wait 2-3 seconds before i take the next shot especially on big group shots. I can get almost 400 shots at full power with both my AB1600's. In full sun like you were in, but it was lower in the sky and behind them, with an AB800, a circular stacked with a 1 stop ND works great. I found that with groups, I needed two AB1600's to get an even light spread on the group, especially groups that had 8 or more.

Found some examples from last year. Hope this helps

This was shot with 1 AB800 at 3/4 with a circular attached. I had them in the shade with the light line directly behind them. Light was about 12' away. Worked great for smaller groups but with the larger group i had to wait for some clouds to move it and i had to fill in post for some of the side lighting. It was underexposed on the sides about 1/2 to 3/4 a stop. lighting on first shot straight off the camera

tim wrote in post #14236924
Not sure how far away they were, around 3-4 meters I guess. I'm at about 16mm for that image.

AB1600 gives you one stop over an AB800.

Thanks Tim

Ed

Interesting stuff there Mike, nice light, last image is great, really colorful. First image has the soft of softness I saw when I used Canon.

umphotography wrote in post #14240830
You tend to fire them quicker then they can recycle so when you do,your gonna get a few slightly underexposed. Nothing that could not be fixed in post. I wait 2-3 seconds before i take the next shot especially on big group shots.

I had a wedding on Friday; 2 PM, bright sun, no shade to be found, and used my AB1600 and Vagabond Mini. With 580's I'm so used to setting up a group and firing of 4-6 shots in quick succession. I know it was only a few seconds between shots to allow for the recharge of the AB, but it felt like forever at the time.

Tim

I think that's photobucket on the softness. It was shot at F/16 @ 1/125. Its pretty sharp on my screen. i believe i had a circular and a 1 stop stacked to get the shot with an AB800. Its just to easy to take a couple of stands and set some lights and softboxes on to shoot outdoors. Umbrellas are better but ive tossed sooooo many lights with the dam things that its just worth the risk unless you have someone dedicated to hold the stand and umbrella. A 64" silver parabolic is phenomenal outside but i almost never bring them anymore unless its a morning shoot and someone is there to guard the stand.

Also works for shallow depth shots as well. This was an AB1600, no modifier, shot at 1/16 power 10' from max. Im going to use this set up for all our shallow depth work. Shot this in AV mode. Set it at -2/3 for the ambient and +2/3 for the light.....works great. I was testing the pocket wizards flex and minis with AV mode and TV modes yesterday. I will be using these all season long when im outside. Im actually considering selling a couple of speedlights and going to a Qlite set up. Took a class from John Hartman and was very impressed with how easy he made it work with Q-lites. They do great things for shallow depth (wysiwhg) but when i asked him about getting up around F/4.0. i didnt like the answers or the results. I think you can do so much with an AB1600 with the Flex and mini set up. Im confident enough after testing this winter that this is the way im going to go. I was very worried about shallow depth work, but as you can see,,works trick. Would probably be better with a speed light because you can control the light output and exposure compensate from the camera,,,so I may get another Flex and have a dedicated speed light on it for these needs. Its gonna be good to about F/3.5


F/2.0 @ 1/1600 straight off the camera

Peacefield wrote in post #14246683
I had a wedding on Friday; 2 PM, bright sun, no shade to be found, and used my AB1600 and Vagabond Mini. With 580's I'm so used to setting up a group and firing of 4-6 shots in quick succession. I know it was only a few seconds between shots to allow for the recharge of the AB, but it felt like forever at the time.

Yup. Ticks you off and ive lost a few shots. Gotta pace your self for sure. Results are worth the risks. Can you believe we can now shoot outdoors in full F/16 light with strobes and get these results. Unheard of unless you had 110V close by....Now its just to easy and soooo much better for our needs as wedding photogs

The delay can be annoying, but I just tell people the lights make the photos heaps better, and we need to take a couple of seconds between shots for them to recharge. It seems fine.

I would like a decent ND filter, probably something to take me from ISO100 F14 to ISO200 F5.6, so about 4-5 stops I guess. Do you use another filter too? I tried a CP at the beach recently and didn't much like the results.

What does the flex do for you Mike?

The trees just looked sharper than the people, pretty typical with my old gear. The grass is greener... especially if you use the saturation slider I can't see your images from where I am right now.

tim wrote in post #14249226
The delay can be annoying, but I just tell people the lights make the photos heaps better, and we need to take a couple of seconds between shots for them to recharge. It seems fine.

I would like a decent ND filter, probably something to take me from ISO100 F14 to ISO200 F5.6, so about 4-5 stops I guess. Do you use another filter too? I tried a CP at the beach recently and didn't much like the results.

What does the flex do for you Mike?

The trees just looked sharper than the people, pretty typical with my old gear. The grass is greener... especially if you use the saturation slider I can't see your images from where I am right now.

Flex on an AB1600 lets you shoot hyper synch ,,,,I can go F/2.0 @1/3000 if i want to. Your going to have to experiment with the AB800. All i have to do is increase flash power to keep the subjects lit properly. My assistant came over today for some training and i took some shots of her at F/2.8 @ 1/2500 that looked like studio lighting.I had the power at 1/2 and i was 8' from her with the flash..pretty remarkable what we can do with these flex units....no interference at all. I can fire it from 100 yards with no problems. also,,Im using HOYA nd's and they work fine.

Now THAT would be useful. A transmitter/receiver pair would be around $400 right? I don't have any PWs right now, not sure the investment is really necessary, as handy as it'd be.

Here are the FlexTT5's from B&H

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …tt5&N=0&Initial​Search=yes

Im impressed with these things. They are allowing me to do things I could never do in the past. They make an AC9 and AC3 adapter that you can use and control the AB lights from the camera. I saw them demo's at WPPI and was pretty impressed as well. They would be great to use and I may get them. At this point whats another $150.00

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …ries/ci/8486/N/​4232859121

So about $450. Not awful, not great. How much of the strobes power do you get at faster shutter speeds? All of it, or only a portion?