How to light an outside night time reception?

I have a wedding coming up in March that will have a backyard style reception. It will be outside and at night. Will be looking at 3 flashes to play with, possible 4 with remotes. Nothing to bounce off of so would I just use them as direct flash? or use a modifier of some sort? Any hints or tips would be appreciated. Plenty of time to practice so looking for starting points and inspiration.

Thanks

If the yard will be set up so that the key areas of interest are all in one general area, you can direct two flashes there for general lighting of the scene while using a third just off camera for the main. This will take some expermentation and practice, though.

I just did a wedding in a glass conservatory at night. What a PITA. Not only nothing to bounce off of, but there was the constant threat of the flash flaring back at me. I did the most important shots with two 580's in a main/fill via ETTL. It's hard in that type of environment as the infared becomes a little less reliable; the two flashes really need a line of sight to each other. For the bulk of the reception, I used one of those home-made foam diffusers. Less than ideal, but the results are decent and it keeps me portable.

Are you sure there's not going to be a tent?

Tell us more about the layout. The general idea of two or three radio slaves lights with one more on the camera is about what i'd do.

You actually only need 2 lights. One flash that's on your camera, that's your main light...and the other flash for the background. Shooting at night in a backyard is tough. Because if you're not careful, there's really nothing you can do to lighten up a dark open black sky. It doesn't matter how much flash you use.

In all honestly, I always only use available light to lighten up the background, a tripod, slow shutter speed, rear curtain flash, and this works really well in most situations.

I didn't have any help with a reception I shot at a friend's house. It was in the small back yard. I had just the 580 on my 5d2 and that was very hard to deal with. I put a diffuser on just to cut the harsh light, straight on. There was no place, literally, to put a slave. The pictures were fine, but not great. If I did have time to set up, I would have put one flash on one side on a tall stand and one on the other and used PWII's, separately setting off one or the other with a flash on my camera, giving me 2 lights sources at least for each shot. I've done that before and we were trained to do that at the wedding gathering a few years ago in Albany. 2 lights up or more and setting them off with PWII's.

Dream Weddings Hawaii wrote in post #9480890
You actually only need 2 lights. One flash that's on your camera, that's your main light...and the other flash for the background. Shooting at night in a backyard is tough. Because if you're not careful, there's really nothing you can do to lighten up a dark open black sky. It doesn't matter how much flash you use.

In all honestly, I always only use available light to lighten up the background, a tripod, slow shutter speed, rear curtain flash, and this works really well in most situations.

First off, rear curtain flash is irrelevant, and I give less weight to the opinions of anyone who suggests using it in the course of regular shooting. Rear curtain has a very specific set of cases where it's helpful, and it involves moving objects and light trails.

The problem with one flash on the camera and one for background is you move around, so you never know where the background will be. Two or three are necessary for decent cover IMHO. That might annoy the guests though.

Outside is hard. An experienced photographer would have problems in total darkness. High ISO, wide apertures, dragging the shutter a little (a lot can cause ghosting), and flash for the main subject is what i'd do if I couldn't strobe the place.

Assuming you have the space, I think I'd probably use two slave flashes cross lighting the bride and groom, and maybe one in the hotshoe.

But it's hard to say without knowing more about the setup of the venue.

Havent actually seen the set up yet. Its a backyard at a house. Cant imagine there being too much to go off of. I think the most I will have is 2 slaves and one on camera. I will have fading light by the time the reception starts so not all will be lost. I think they will be having the typical tiki torches around as well. I should be heading out there in a week or so to check it out...Once I do I will take for pics and post the set up.

Anyone have any reference photos for inspiration? For night receptions that is....

Lacking anything to bounce off of, I use umbrellas, others might use softboxes etc., and I adjust camera settings depending on where the light source is relative to the subject (light falloff).

Good post here. I have an additional question, please. With a multiple slave setup around the yard, don't you have to watch out as you move around, snapping shots, to NOT include your slaves in your photos? I could just imagine a photo with a big, white umbrella in the background.

this is how I personally would tackle that challenge... but I'm a flash nerd

I would put as many lights around the venue as possible. If I knew it was going to be that kind of a difficult setup, I'd visit and plan the set up the day before if possible. I'd try to mimic the light that they've created (with torches or lanterns). So likely, I'd put a crapload of flashes inside some torches all over the place at the same height as the other torches. (If you hollow the torches out you can fit a speedlite in it) I'd go for a bare bulb effect probably by using stofen omnibounces. Also probably use some of those spherical paper lanterns (I have a bunch of these for certain situations like this) and hide studio strobes inside them to give off the same light as lanterns would.

Now you can take pictures at a comfortable ISO, probably even 200 if you set the flash power accordingly. But I'd likely use 800 or even 1600 to save battery power. Your photos will be super crisp and clear, no motion blur, the light will totally mimic the lights they've set up so it won't have the "flash look" at all, and you don't have to worry much about your flashes being in the shots because they'll look like the lights that they've set up because they're in lanterns and torches.

This kind of thing is the only reason I have a stack of omnibounces... to mimic lighting.