shooting a wedding at night

PMCphotography wrote in post #9197523


I had to use my 40d at ISO 3200 underexposed by 1 stop last saturday to get a fast enough shutter speed at the reception. Gotta do what you gotta do to get the shot- noisy? Yeah, a bit. but no motion blur.

I'd add light, but sometimes you don't have that option.

You guys really helped me out. If I didn't shoot in the 3200 to 6400's I would have missed MANY shots. This chapel also didn't allow flash during the ceremony and kept us in the back of the church. Thank god I had the 70-200 2.8 is and iso 1600. I could still barely hold it at 1/60 @ 200mm leaning against a pew. I would have used the 5d2 but I was using it for video. Time to get another 5d2!

You could get a 7D for video, they're a bit cheaper. Shame you couldn't add light for that image, the background's well exposed but the people a little under. Adjustment brush in LR/ACR will fix that in ten seconds

tim wrote in post #9198009
I'd add light, but sometimes you don't have that option.

I don't use a lot of off camera flash, but in this case I was planning on it- had it all set up and pocket wizarded up. And...

For some reason it stopped working. It was the bridal waltz, so I didn't have time to fiddle with it, just had to crank up the ISO and underexpose a bit.

Thanks tim. I hear the 7d's are over heating and all sorts of other bad things.

enginyr wrote in post #9198235
Thanks tim. I hear the 7d's are over heating and all sorts of other bad things.

You only ever hear the bad stories. Mine works just like it's meant to.

It's probably colder over there in Wellington. It can get very hot in Los Angeles. Also I would need to buy some new lenses like the 10-22 and 17-55 which takes me right back to where the extra 5d2 would have cost.

enginyr wrote in post #9198275
It's probably colder over there in Wellington. It can get very hot in Los Angeles. Also I would need to buy some new lenses like the 10-22 and 17-55 which takes me right back to where the extra 5d2 would have cost.

All your current lenses will work fine on a 7D, 24mm is probably wide enough for most things if you're just playing with video.

Well we are focusing on Photography for now and just throw in video to seal the deal. Even 24 isn't wide enough at times.

Good thread. I have an upcoming wedding myself that is outdoors at night, and would rather just add on to this thread instead of creating a new one.

For the outdoor ceremony, the altar will be well lit, but the congregation will be pretty much in the dark.
For the outdoor reception it will be lit by the moon, stars, and some string lighting.

I'm thinking of having one light on a stand shoot through to help with the ambient lighting. I'll have my assistant shadow me with main lighting, and I'll be doing some fill off of the speedlite on the camera. Has anyone tried this technique before or have any suggestions?

If the altar will be well lit, perhaps you can get by with just exposing for that part of the scene? It would look like an outdoor night wedding, for sure, but isn't that what the B&G planned? Not to be pedantic, but if the B&G really wanted all their guests to be lit up during the ceremony, why did they plan an outdoor wedding at night? You could of course use all your OCF and speedlites during the formals and reception. Any chance of asking them those questions without scaring them about what the photos will look like? I did a wedding in Cyprus last May and it was an outdoor ceremony at night. I used existing lighting during the ceremony, with a little fill flash for some shots, and the darkened sky and ocean behind the B&G looked great. Shot it mostly at 1/40th at 1600 ISO (any higher on a 5D and it's just way too noisy, imho).