Shooting in a ballroom with low light: Some advice please

Room lighting is a great idea, small flashes put out a surprising amount of light even on 1/4 or 1/2. I use a couple of manual flashes on 1/4-1/2, with battery packs, pointing at the ceiling. For a large room you might need 4. You don't want to light it up like day, just increase it to maybe ISO800 F2.8 1/100th so you can get sharp shots and a little ambient light in. Gel the flashes if you need to match tungsten. Put a speedlite on auto in the hotshoe at FEC-1 or FEC-2 for fill with the radio trigger from the PC port. If you find PWs too large get Skyports, they're much smaller.

This is an interesting thread, Robert. Will you be using your studio monolights or attempting to get by with just the SB-800's?

I'm not in a position to offer any constructive suggestions but I certainly have observed what the "pros" were doing at the last few weddings I was forced to attend. They all had monolights mounted on tall stands in two or more corners of the room pointing up at the ceiling. These were augmented by on-camera flash units with diffusers.

Having also been forced to look at the albums after the fact, I must say the monolights did a great job of bringing up the overall lighting level of the rooms so backgrounds in the photos looked natural, not black or very, very dark as one would get if only a camera-mounted flash were used.

Dave F.

Hey Dave,

I want to bring my monolights but I'm 1 Pocket Wizard short so I'm thinking that I'll use the 3 SB-800's. 2 off camera pointed up and one on camera with a flip-it type bounce card. I'll have time to try it out before the actual event. This is a new area for me to explore and I'll learn what I can, keeping a close eye on exposure and lighting, and then figure out what was missing, what could be better and of course, what I need to buy.. UGH!

I've tested and the Nikon CLS system and found it works very well but this will be a larger venue that the last time and I guess I'll find out if I have any issues with distance and range.

The extra Pocket Wizards are happening but didn't make it into the gameplan in time for this shoot.

TMR Design wrote in post #6206217
Hey Dave,

I want to bring my monolights but I'm 1 Pocket Wizard short so .

Don't know how soon your events are but I'd be happy to loan you a couple of PW's.

Dave F.

tetrode wrote in post #6206231
Don't know how soon your events are but I'd be happy to loan you a couple of PW's.

Dave F.

Thanks Dave. I appreciate that but this was a last minute booking and the shoot is tomorrow evening. I fell competent and confident that I'll pull it off with the SB-800's and as I said, I'll learn all I can and figure out what needs work or help and go from there.

TMR Design wrote in post #6206244
Thanks Dave. I appreciate that but this was a last minute booking and the shoot is tomorrow evening. I fell competent and confident that I'll pull it off with the SB-800's and as I said, I'll learn all I can and figure out what needs work or help and go from there.

Good luck, Robert. Do please let us know how things turn out.

Dave F.

I certainly will Dave

BTW Dave, I just picked up an 85mm f/1.4. Schweet!

Will the Nikon flash system in a large venue? I know I wouldn't trust ETTL in a large ballroom. You could just hope people don't bring cameras and use an optical slave... but that could impact their photos in a bad way if they trigger it.

I haven't tested range and distance with CLS yet. I'm reviewing Mike Hagen's book this evening to see if I can gain any insight about using the system.

I'm not using the CLS system in the SU-4 (optical trigger) mode so it shouldn't be affected by other flashes in the room. It should only fire via the Master flash that is on my camera.

TMR Design wrote in post #6206278
I certainly will Dave

BTW Dave, I just picked up an 85mm f/1.4. Schweet!

To stray off-topic briefly: Fabulous lens. I owned one for years until the era of the APS-C sensor and my 85mm starting acting like a 127mm. Now that Nikon has embraced full-frame (and I own a D3), I see another one in my future. Let's see if there's an AF-S version introduced at Photokina

Dave F.

tim wrote in post #6206303
Will the Nikon flash system in a large venue? I know I wouldn't trust ETTL in a large ballroom. You could just hope people don't bring cameras and use an optical slave... but that could impact their photos in a bad way if they trigger it.

Hi Tim,

I'm not relying on i-TTL (Nikon's TTL) for the remote flashes. They will fire via the CLS system with both flashes on Channel 1, one in group A and the other in Group B so they can have independent power levels if need be and they will be in Manual mode, all controllable via the Master flash on camera in TTL mode.

I just did some testing in the studio and it's working very nicely. Of course I won't know if the large ballroom will be an issue but I tried to get the flashes to misfire or trigger from another strobe and they won't. As I was pretty sure, they will only fire via another Nikon flash set as a Master or a Nikon camera in Commander mode. That is what I like about the Nikon flash system.

I'm skimming Mike Hagen's book right now to see if I can find anything about range. I know that I need to keep some semblance of line of sight and I'll have the sensors directed towards the Master flash.

From Strobist.

I'd rent another PW and use your strobes.

That's all well and good but it's not going to happen Tim. I'm going to shoot this event as described. If you want to pay for my rental fees and get the gear to me in time, that's cool. Otherwise, as stated, I'm going to make it work for me. I'm inventive and smart enough to understand the limitations and I'm going to work within those limitations.

And let's not forget that many talented professionals shoot events like this with one on camera flash and produce beautiful results. I don't see Dennis Reggie using mulitple flashes and Pocket Wizards. He has one 580EX and a Sto-Fen and his wedding photos are phenomenal.

Btw, if you plan to mount them to something like a beam or some corner fixture, you shouldn't really depend on the clamp to keep them there. I usually put a bungee attachment on there to keep them secure in addition to the clamp, and I've been known to use some gaffer's tape.

In all honesty, I only use the extra lights when the lighting is so terrible that I can't get anything worthwhile. If I can bounce my flash reasonably well, and can balance my color temperatures via the use of gel, I generally don't use off camera all that much, except for some "artistic" shots. KISS method is usually the way to go .

No need to attack me, I was just making a suggestion. Good luck.