Outdoor wedding - Post your best pics with and without flash

My sister is having an outdoor wedding and I'd like to take some shots (not main photographer). If it's nice weather, it will be outdoors, but if it's poor weather, it will be indoors (I've attached a photo of the outside area and the indoor room).

If it's outside, I imagine it will be good to use flash for fill, but I don't want to get in the way of the primary photographer, so if I can get away with not using flash, that might be better.

If it rains, then the ceremony will be indoors and I'll likely need a flash. The room is all glass, so there is also a chance to crank up the ISO and again, not use flash. In both cases of non-flash, however, I'm worried that I might get bad shadows, etc.

So I'd love to see your best shots taken with and without flash outdoors and indoors.

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I do a lot of wedding work--- and used to be one of those that used to fight against used of flash. I am now always using my flash. The photos come out much better than non flash and fill in the highlights ---just like you are supposed to use it-- fill flash.
I would recommend that you practice with a flash and off camera flash----once you do you will never go back.

I don't have any without.

When you're outside in daylight, no one will even see your flash going off unless they're looking right at it. It certainly won't be bothering the main photographer.

Problem with shooting indoors with a lot of glass about, you're bound to get major reflections off the glass from your flash. You need to be aware of where you're positioned so not to get that nasty reflection in your photos. Natural light is a beautiful thing, I try to use it as much as I can and let my flash play the role as the fill flash, which it should be doing anyway.

As for what I've done outdoors, here are a few examples.

stathunter wrote in post #5087186
I do a lot of wedding work--- and used to be one of those that used to fight against used of flash. I am now always using my flash. The photos come out much better than non flash and fill in the highlights ---just like you are supposed to use it-- fill flash.
I would recommend that you practice with a flash and off camera flash----once you do you will never go back.

Well, I'm fairly comfortable with on-camera flash for fill, but I don't have very much experience with off-camera flash. Are you referring to flash on a bracket or flash on a stick that is held by an assistant? I plan on getting a flash bracket, but getting someone to hold a remote strobe might piss off the main photographer and I don't want to do that!

cdifoto wrote in post #5087217
I don't have any without.

When you're outside in daylight, no one will even see your flash going off unless they're looking right at it. It certainly won't be bothering the main photographer.

Thank for that piece of information. I wasn't sure how much the flash would bother the main photographer. At my wedding, our photographer once asked a friend of ourse to turn off his flash because it was making people look at the wrong camera. That was outdoors, but on a covered porch. Now if it's indoors, I imagine it might bother the main photographer a teeny bit.

Zansho wrote in post #5087240
Problem with shooting indoors with a lot of glass about, you're bound to get major reflections off the glass from your flash. You need to be aware of where you're positioned so not to get that nasty reflection in your photos. Natural light is a beautiful thing, I try to use it as much as I can and let my flash play the role as the fill flash, which it should be doing anyway.

As for what I've done outdoors, here are a few examples.

Your shots are great. In fact, I wouldn't have even guessed that you had flash on, so I guess that means you've done a fine job.

Would most pro photographers say that they use fill flash the majority of times when shooting outdoors?

SunTsu wrote in post #5087843
Thank for that piece of information. I wasn't sure how much the flash would bother the main photographer. At my wedding, our photographer once asked a friend of ourse to turn off his flash because it was making people look at the wrong camera. That was outdoors, but on a covered porch. Now if it's indoors, I imagine it might bother the main photographer a teeny bit.

I doubt it was the flash itself that caused that. If people see lots of cameras, they aren't going to know which one to look at anyway.

That's why I insist on doing formals with only the necessary people, and the power session with just me and the couple...especially if they're on my short time package.

Whether or not you bother the main photographer has more to do with how much discretion you use than what gear you use. If you get in the way for formals, it doesn't matter if you have a P&S or your 5D, 85L, and 580EX on a bracket. You're in the way, period. If you're sniping from 25 feet with your 70-200, the flash won't be seen by anyone. They might hear the clicks but they'll see you're so far away that it's obvious that you're not the camera they should be looking at.

In other words, it's you that gets in the way, not your gear.

SunTsu wrote in post #5087843
Would most pro photographers say that they use fill flash the majority of times when shooting outdoors?

Outdoors, I use flash in every shot I take, unless it didn't recycle in time.

I'm the same as Cdifoto, I use a fill flash with just about every shot. There will be some situations where you're forbidden to use a flash (wedding officiants don't want the flash to disrupt the ceremony, etc), and that's where your fast lenses come into play.

Here's one without a flash, window light, which is awesome! I'm a huge fan of window light, and I get really ecstatic when I shoot at this one church - gorgeous skylight right over the altar, with tons of windows that let the sun in. It's really awesome.

Both outdoor wedding, fill flash on bride alone, ceremony shot from the back with a 70-300 zoom

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Zansho wrote in post #5088943
I'm the same as Cdifoto, I use a fill flash with just about every shot. There will be some situations where you're forbidden to use a flash (wedding officiants don't want the flash to disrupt the ceremony, etc), and that's where your fast lenses come into play.

I personally love the first shot. It sure helps when you have a beautiful bride. So it seems for most all shots, you use fill flash except where the ambient light is used for "mood". Is that correct?

So out of curiousity, what settings do you use on your flash?

SunTsu wrote in post #5089987
I personally love the first shot. It sure helps when you have a beautiful bride. So it seems for most all shots, you use fill flash except where the ambient light is used for "mood". Is that correct?

Usually. Besides the ceremony, I'm pretty much 100% flash because I don't come into situations where the ambient alone provides the right mood. Perfect light is a rare thing.

There are exceptions though. Silhouettes? Definitely turn off the flash.

Every situation is unique. I metered the bride first, and focused mostly on her bodice (lots of beadwork) to make sure I got the highlight exposure right. Then, I set my Quantum flash off camera to my left at -3 stops under the ambient light pointed (shoot through)at diffuser held by a friend (one of those big ones, almost as big as a scrim). My only real regret was that the bottom part of the dress and some of the lace was blown out by the flash, and the ambient light. Looking back, I'd probably have used a reflector instead of a flash, but it's still a nice image, nevertheless.

In all honesty, how you do things is really your interpretation. Sometimes I'll encounter situations where I'm forced to make my flash the main event (darkly lit ballroom, no real source of ambient light) - sometimes so much that I have to FEC my flash 2 to 3 stops more than normal exposure. For weddings, you want everything sharp. People simply won't pay for blurry pics , unless there's some aesthetic or artistic reason behind it. There will be times when you want to play around with longer shutter speeds - like having the bride and groom stand still while the rest of the people move and dance in circles around them - to get an artistic feel.

Zansho wrote in post #5087240
Problem with shooting indoors with a lot of glass about, you're bound to get major reflections off the glass from your flash. You need to be aware of where you're positioned so not to get that nasty reflection in your photos. Natural light is a beautiful thing, I try to use it as much as I can and let my flash play the role as the fill flash, which it should be doing anyway.

As for what I've done outdoors, here are a few examples.

WOW!!!! Amazing photo w/window light. Bride is gorgeous here. Nice work!

Zansho, was the one with the old limo in Minnesota? I used to chauffer a 1939 Caddilac that looked axactly like that one. I heard there was only two of them in the country and that looks awfully familiar.

The new owners advertise it as a 1937, but my boss told me it was a 39.