Suggestions please...

Good Evening all,

In scoping out a site for a wedding/reception, I took some shots in the reception hall to get an idea of the lighting. The good news is that there is a lot of white on walls and ceilings; the bad news is a tremendous amount of dark wood.

I am looking for suggestions at how to rectify the photo shown below. I bounced the flash off the ceiling. As you can clearly see, the fully set white top of the table is completely blown out while the rest of the image is relatively okay.

Would a lightstand mounted flash in a discreet corner help? Another problem is the reception will be going on simultaneously in three rooms total. The head table will be positioned where the two gentlemen are in the photo. As always, thanks for your two cents.

George

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You can probably get away with a lower flash power, have you tried dialing it down?

I bet you had your flash pointed straight up, rather than pointing it upwards at a 45-60 degree angle...

Try to angle your flash like Wilt said .

What they said and the table will have colorful stuff on it so things wont be so stark or empty. Smart move to do this test.

The flash was at either 1/4 or half power. It wasn't pointed directly up, but I don't think it was at 45 degrees. Thanks for the suggestions.