shooting a wedding at night

enginyr wrote in post #9153824
Thanks Tim. I will try it tonight. "Grain is my Bain!"

I do find the fong thing to soften the light a bit when I must shoot on-camera-flash.

Do you shoot with a huge flash bracket?

"Softness" is related to the light source size and distance. Given typical distances increasing the flash head size by about four times like the Fong Dong does doesn't give significant softness. People often see what they want to see.

I rarely use on camera flash as the main light, more often I have my assistant holding a soft box off camera, radio triggered. It works well.

SoCal wrote in post #9153876
I wonder if going grain will work best and use a program like Noise Ninja to bring back the sharpness of the image. It's worked well shooting late night sports.

I have NN pro, I use it maybe once a year when I REALLY stuff up an exposure. I didn't use it in the ISO12,800 image I printed 14".

enginyr wrote in post #9152755
I could push the iso but then they'd be all grainy. Anyone who has any experience to lend would be appreciated. I wouldn't feel like going over 800. 1600 if there was some light but especially with black's the high iso does very bad.

I'm glad someone with enough experience to suit you came along.

enginyr wrote in post #9152755
I could push the iso but then they'd be all grainy. Anyone who has any experience to lend would be appreciated. I wouldn't feel like going over 800. 1600 if there was some light but especially with black's the high iso does very bad.

first of all, lucky u to have 5d2 with very good high iso.
for me, it's better to get grainy pics rather than blurry pics.
if i were u and took the wedding nite shot,i would push up the iso max 6400 (depends on condition), and bring your best wide-open lens --> but i don't think it would be very very dark outside there.
if possible , bring additional lighting + light stand around the venue (i mean, not external flash).
external flash is ok to be set on 5d2.

use 5d mostly for inside the church..with descent lighting..

hope this thread can help u.

I have Noise ninja but It really slows down the work flow. It would be nice to have in included into Lightroom although the one grain removal already in Lightroom is not too bad. I took some iso6400 last night and showed the wife and she couldn't even tell what I was talking about. lol I was cringing.

If softness is caused by size and distance, why not just take ten steps back and remove the softbox?

flawless idea!

shomat wrote in post #9161735
What about a composite image? Do a long exposure of the background, then do a second exposure optimized for the subjects and put it all together in post.

enginyr wrote in post #9161783
flawless idea!

Flaw one is it takes time, effort, and always looks fake when you do it in post. Flaw two is it takes time, which is a luxury at weddings. Flaw three is requiring a tripod, which is more a pita than a flaw.

The first one looks really good, but it could be done with two lights or even one with a longer exposure if you know what you're doing. Well it depends on the light balance, but you could get close with a single exposure.

The second looks very fake to me.

shomat thank you. I know it looks a little fake to us but I'm sure the clients would be extremely happy with those results.

Does anyone else have an impressive example of night time wedding photography.

I just picked up a fisheye last night. Hopefully I can use it tastefully.

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Tim really knows his stuff. He is correct in saying that good flash technique is your best bet. With good flash, you can get high quality shots of the whole ceremony. Flash is all about balancing the ambient with your flash to get a pleasing enough mix. You can get clean, pleasing, and sharp photos of the bride and groom even in total darkness. I LOVE shooting at night!

Here are some examples of night shooting. All of them are shot at shutter speeds too slow to get a clean, blur-free image of their faces, but with proper use of flash you can shoot the environment AND the people at once and make them BOTH look exactly how to want it to.

1. ISO800 F/4.5 1/15

Lloyd.Realllly nice work. I see you have the same thing about not going over iso800. Do you carry around your tripod/mono pod all the time.

I could see myself doing it for e-sessions. I don't know about a full wedding.

Here's a few random ones at higher than ISO800, with exif on it. Forgot the shutter speed sorry, they'll all be in the 1/100th region. They're not as spectacular as Lloyd's, but it's the same idea of expose for the background, flash for the subject. I've made them relatively large so you can see the image quality's great!

Thank you Tim. As the days go by, I am breaking my "high iso" fear.

enginyr wrote in post #9166852
Lloyd.Realllly nice work. I see you have the same thing about not going over iso800. Do you carry around your tripod/mono pod all the time.

I could see myself doing it for e-sessions. I don't know about a full wedding.

enginyr wrote in post #9167114
Thank you Tim. As the days go by, I am breaking my "high iso" fear.

I have no fear of going over 800. 1600 is probably one of my most used ISO levels overall, even on my 40D. Second place is 3200. I also use 6400 regularly. But if I can get away easily with 800, then of course i'll use it. Same with 400 and lower. Sometimes I shoot night shots at 100 because the slow shutter speeds don't bother me.

Trust me, I'm one of the LAST people to be bothered by noise in photos. I shot film for 15 years before switching to digital in 2005. And the noise in 800 film looks worse than 6400 nowadays. Get your exposure right and you won't have to worry about noise at all. I do not own ANY noise reduction software at all, mostly because I don't think we as wedding photographers need it at all.

I do not carry a tripod everywhere. If I'm going to do very slow shutter shots, then I'll get it out from the car. Otherwise, it's all handheld. I woubringld not want to use a tripod during a ceremony. Set your camera to whatever ISO you need to get a decent shutter handholdable speed and use flash for the rest. But who knows, you might have enough light there that you don't even need flash at all. Sometimes, artificial lighting in pretty gardens is quite good.

This just, it's supposed to rain! wow this doesn't pay enough!

I also need to shoot video of the ceremony portion. Anyone know which lens has the shortest infinity focus?

enginyr wrote in post #9172126
Anyone know which lens has the shortest infinity focus?

Infinity's usually quite a long way away. Not sure what you're talking about. Wide angle lenses have the most depth of field.