Wedding photographers who use strobes to light up their reception halls

or churches... how do you guys do it?

I mean with strobes you obviously cant use ETTL and let the strobe decide how much power to give you depending on the cameras exposure settings.

Do you guys put reflectors on your strobes and point them upwards and bounce them from ceilings?.. or do you use them straight towards the subjects?

The only way i can think of is.. having 4 strobes in 4 corners of a hall pointed towards the roof and setting their power manually and getting a light meter and taking readings in different areas of the room and as long as all the readings are within half a stop of difference then you're good to go.. is this what you guys do?

for example setting strobes so you get 1/200 at f/2.8 and ISO 400 around the whole reception hall.. in some areas f/2.5 and in others f/3.2 at max? That way if you need a shot at f/4 then you just bump the ISO by 1 stop.. and if you need f/2 then you'd go down to 100 ISO and so on.

MJ, I only use 2 strobes and I'll usually just stick it to a corner where there's ample space. So honestly, there's really not much precise planning with the placement. I use the 7" reflectors that came with my strobes, point it towards the center of the dance floor, and adjust power so I get good exposure at around 1/200, f2.8, and ISO800.

I'll ride the ISO depending on which lens and aperture I am using. For example, if I am using my 85L wide open, then I'll be at about ISO100.

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

^ thanks for the response nick!

Just wondering.. that would cover the dance floor area.. but what about if you had to take pictures in other areas of the hall?.. lets say someone stops you while you are walking at the back of the hall and asks for a picture.. how would you know which settings to use there since your settings are configured for the dance floor?

5W0L3 wrote in post #15124171
^ thanks for the response nick!

Just wondering.. that would cover the dance floor area.. but what about if you had to take pictures in other areas of the hall?.. lets say someone stops you while you are walking at the back of the hall and asks for a picture.. how would you know which settings to use there since your settings are configured for the dance floor?

I also have a speedlight mounted on the hot shoe of my camera, and that's actually my main light. The strobes are there to fill some of the background. For a shot like that, I might just use the speedlight and temporarily not use the strobes, bouncing the flash off a ceiling, for example.

^ ahh ohhk makes sense.. I currently use two 600EX-RT's on camera and two of them off camera (use two bodies).. and was thinking of moving towards strobes since I can use them for on location work & to overpower the sun in portrait sessions but was wondering how they would fit into the equation when it comes to lighting up indoor venues.

I think I might invest in a couple of Einstein's and use them with one camera body while having the 600ex-rt system with the other camera hmm.

I use the same approach as Nick. Everything in M and adjust ISO and/or aperture as needed. The challenge is when you're facing the strobes and shooting back into them. That can be a very desirable look. Sometimes it's not so you want to be able to power off your strobes remotely so you can use them selectively.

^ true... i think thats why a four strobe (lets say einstein's) could work very well.. use two of them when shooting from one side.. and the other two when shooting from the other.. and you can always use two from one side and one from the other if you want rim/hair light etc.

plus cyber commander is great for controlling them remotely.

^ The problem with a 4 strobe set up is finding an area to set them up in.

I use a setup similar to Nicksan and Peacefield. I will use 2 to 4 strobes, depending on the venue but I generally try for a little more DOF to cover more of the action - especially on the dance floor. I run f5.6 or f6.3 with ISO at 400. Yeah, I have to crank up the power on the lights a little more, but with the studio strobes, the recycle time is still quite short.

nicksan wrote in post #15124160
MJ, I only use 2 strobes and I'll usually just stick it to a corner where there's ample space. So honestly, there's really not much precise planning with the placement. I use the 7" reflectors that came with my strobes, point it towards the center of the dance floor, and adjust power so I get good exposure at around 1/200, f2.8, and ISO800.

I'll ride the ISO depending on which lens and aperture I am using. For example, if I am using my 85L wide open, then I'll be at about ISO100.

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

nicksan wrote in post #15124176
I also have a speedlight mounted on the hot shoe of my camera, and that's actually my main light. The strobes are there to fill some of the background. For a shot like that, I might just use the speedlight and temporarily not use the strobes, bouncing the flash off a ceiling, for example.

Pretty much exactly how I do it, except I prefer to point the strobes more towards the ceiling when possible. Speedlite on a second body for when I wander outside the "strobe zone."

joe

How I photograph wedding receptions. Don't be afraid of low power and high ISO, but keep flash recharge time in mind.

I also use the 600EX-RT flashes and have had no problems with them overpowering the sun. For indoor use, in a dark reception, I normally set up two 600EX-RT units in opposite corners of the dance area, since that's where most of the action is, and will use my on-camera 600EX-RT (bounced) for most other reception shots.

5W0L3 wrote in post #15124188
was thinking of moving towards strobes since I can use them to overpower the sun in portrait sessions

I've never had a problem with the Canon speedlights being able to overpower the sun. (see below). If you have a plethora of the 600EX-RT units, you should be fine outdoors.

^ that's in the evening.. where the sun is down behind the subjects.. thats not that big of a problem.. but its extremely hard to overpower the sun with speedlites in that 12pm - 3pm time when the sun is right on top.

Speedlights might be able to balance a couple with the sun tucked in behind them, but that''s not the same as truly over-powering the sun.

That said, I know this thread keeps making references to speedlights. My two lights for a reception are typically one AB800 and one 580. Nearly always, my AB is on the absolute lowest setting and the 580 is only at ~1/8 power. It recycles plenty fast and I only change batteries once for the entire reception so no need to invest in strobes to do this.