First Wedding Dark Doom!!

Here is the venue for my first wedding ever I"m shooting in 7 days! I have one flash (600ex). I'm not sure how it'll turn out because so many people swear by off camera flash that I'm almost afraid not to try and use one for the first time for the wedding.

Option A for sure. If you have never used OCF, using it for your first wedding will be a disaster.

I cant tell by the photo, but does the venue have white/light ceilings or walls? If it does, it looks like you just did a bad job of mixing ambient with flash. Turn your flash power a little higher, iso higher, and shutter speed lower (maybe your f stop more open. Get more light in that photo.

Beg, borrow or rent a couple flashes or studio lights and set them up in "zones". Start practicing today!

Meter the room so you know what settings you need for each zone. Shoot manual with the settings for the zone your subject is in.

Shoot RAW so you have more data to play with in post.

Methinks this was shot with an HP Point & Shoot. (ISO 100; 1/30 sec; f/2)

If you can't be practiced enough in a week, follow Bryan's excellent advice.

Red Tie Photography wrote in post #14491400
Option A for sure. If you have never used OCF, using it for your first wedding will be a disaster.

I cant tell by the photo, but does the venue have white/light ceilings or walls? If it does, it looks like you just did a bad job of mixing ambient with flash. Turn your flash power a little higher, iso higher, and shutter speed lower (maybe your f stop more open. Get more light in that photo.

I didn't take those photos.. those are from the website. I updated the post to include other images... plus I found and more.

These show the room much better. This looks like a pretty standard reception hall. Bounce the flash slightly behind you and balance for the ambient. I would start my settings at f2.8, ISO 1600, 1/100th and flash at around 1/16th power and see where that gets you (I am a big manual flash shooter, I wouldnt recommend it for your first time out though).

Bring a friend/significant other/person, have them wear a white t-shirt and bring a black sweatshirt. This way you can practice with them wearing light colors, then have them put the sweatshirt on and practice with dark colors and help you figure out what ettl flash is doing.

If it was my first time, I would just bounce my flash and gel to match the ambient.

Yup. Bounce. 1/100-1/160, f2.8, ISO1600-ISO2000 for starters. Gel the flash if you want to match it with what looks to be tungsten ambient lighting. Ceiling doesn't look too high. You should be fine. Bring LOTS of batteries.

Thanks everyone! I will be loaded with batteries and bounce my flash! I hope it turns out well

The 600ex comes with that nifty filter holder and a couple of tungsten filters. That might help with the colors temp balance.

First time out I'd keep it simple, even though the photos won't be quite as good. Expose for ambient, or if you need to, keep ambient a stop or two down. Try to avoid the "black hole" background. Flash for your subject, with a gel to match ambient.

It's quite a low ceiling, so if you did do off camera you will only be able to light sections, not the whole thing, unless you have a lot of flashes.

I think instead of using you camera flash for taking photographs, it will good to have some wedding lights so that everyone should feel good and you can click beautiful picture of the bride and groom.

David Fernandes wrote in post #14498730
I think instead of using you camera flash for taking photographs, it will good to have some wedding lights so that everyone should feel good and you can click beautiful picture of the bride and groom.

This post makes about as much sense as a bag of ladders. There's no such thing as special wedding lights that make beautiful pictures and make people feel good.

What magical land do you come from good sir? I challenge you to a duel.

As a novice myself - I think your best advice came from Tim. If you don't have the equipment for off-camera flash and have never implemented it before, this event would be a bad time to experiment

Your first wedding(s) will be overwhelming (it was for me, anyway). You need to be sure that you can use the equipment you bring well in order to provide the bride and groom the shots they're hoping for. Keeping it simple will greatly help your chances of this.

You have already been given very sound advice with using bounce. The only thing I have to add is that you should spend some time practicing. Shoot in your living room, basemant, garage, any place that will give you a challenging lighting situation and practice the bounce technique. Know what you are doing before you get to the venue - learning "on the fly" is bad for everyone concerned.