Flash photography in church wedding

[hoffstriker]

I may be late to the party, and William covered most points I would include but I highly recommend you look at Neil Van Neikerk's tangents section of his website regarding bounce flash. That will give you a great start at what you will be trying to accomplish. Also, consider yourself incredibly lucky! I have never photographed a wedding in which the church allowed me to use flash.

[shreds]

So I echo the person above suggesting a remote flash fired by a Wizard or similar system so long as it permits you to also use the 'on-board'. I don't know if that is possible because from what I have seen from adverts the transmitter sits in the hot-shoe which in turn stops the on-board from working. There must surely be a way to overcome this problem which I don't know about. It is such a basic and obvious need???

The workaround is to have the TT1 transmitter on the hotshoe as normal, then as this has its own hotshoe, place a TT5 receiver on this and then your flashgun. A second unit can then be configured elsewhere in the room.

However, it makes an unweildy stack reminiscent of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and is not recommended in my view.

This is all based on my own set up on a D3 which does not have a pop up flash.

Any on camera flash is likely to cast a shadow of the lens, unless the latter is very short. Having invested in a number of Pocket Wizards, why would you want to put the light source back on the camera with its associated disadvantages and risk of red eye. As said above the best place for lighting this sort of scene is high up at 45 degree, a bit like the best light source, the sun, which fortunately also comes with diffusers (clouds) but they dont always work with you and are not that configurable! Its a shame so many weddings are around the middle of the day. Black suits and white dresses are a total nightmare, even before you introduce skin tones and harsh sunlight.

[nimitzbenedicto]

So I echo the person above suggesting a remote flash fired by a Wizard or similar system so long as it permits you to also use the 'on-board'. I don't know if that is possible because from what I have seen from adverts the transmitter sits in the hot-shoe which in turn stops the on-board from working. There must surely be a way to overcome this problem which I don't know about. It is such a basic and obvious need???

.....................................

On-board flash + off-cam flash? Yes.

Not sure if this works with the other speedlites, but with my YN560II, you can. i.e. use my cam's built-in flash and the YN560II at the same time. I simply set my YN560II to "slave" mode. Place it where I want it. Open up my cam's flash and shoot. No wireless transmitter or cable connections.
However, when I use this style, I make necessary on-cam flash compensation so it dovetails with the off-cam flash effect on the subject.

HTH

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One thing I learned while practicing with my flash, I realized Bill's advice, taking a test ambient light shot first, is a must. Then, "dragging the shutter" to adjust if you want the background visible/clear too. Yes, I'm still doing tons of hands-on praxis.

[jcuknz]

On-board flash + off-cam flash? Yes.

Not sure if this works with the other speedlites, but with my YN560II, you can. i.e. use my cam's built-in flash and the YN560II at the same time. I simply set my YN560II to "slave" mode. Place it where I want it. Open up my cam's flash and shoot. No wireless transmitter or cable connections.

This is how I currently work with a YN560 but am aware that other photographers [ the dreaded P&S ers ] could upset things even despite the YN having the S2 mode which is supposed to ignore pre-flashes whathaveyou. Fortunately I have yet to encounter the problem .....

Ian ... since I rarely use flash, normally only at home [ studio! ] I have yet to buy a Wizard and it is not a case of putting a flash 'back on ' but using something which is waiting to be used. Since red-eye occurs [ I believe, correct me if I am wrong PLEASE]when the eye is looking at the camera I am not sure it is likely to be a problem in a church service ... perhaps afterwards when signing the register and coming down the aisle where Bill's 'Mitt' should work nicely if hand held. But make sure you have a neckstrap around your neck if working that way.

A note "Thank Goodness I shot weddings in B&W and didn't have to worry about red-eye and the tiny flash guns made today" Nice and compact true but with horribly small reflectors. At a guess my tube was as big as most flashguns these days and then I had a nice big reflector like the 'Mitt" although nobody bounced flash back then that I knew off, otherwise I'd have been sure to copy them ... happy primative days

[nimitzbenedicto]

.....a remote flash fired by a Wizard or similar system so long as it permits you to also use the 'on-board'. I don't know if that is possible because from what I have seen from adverts the transmitter sits in the hot-shoe which in turn stops the on-board from working. There must surely be a way to overcome this problem which I don't know about. It is such a basic and obvious need???

I must've misunderstood what you posted.

I thought you meant " there must surely be a way to overcome this problem which I don't know about. It is such a basic and obvious need??? "
The problem being "a remote flash fired by a Wizard or similar system so long as it permits you to also use the 'on-board'. "

Because if as you say, this is the way you use "slave" mode with your YN560, I can not comprehend why you posted

"There must surely be a way to overcome this problem which I don't know about. "

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Oh, btw, I have tested using "slave" mode with my 2 point and shoot cams: my 6 y/o pentax M20 and 2y/o Canon G11, and it does work.

On Topic:
From my experience shooting weddings ( informally , more as a backup ), most clients' primary interest are pictures of the wedding vows - the "I do" part, then , the parents, sponsors, family, friends, and so on down the line. Meaning, the priority pix doesn't necessarily have to include the background, but must be about the bride and groom.

just me...............

[rpcrowe]

One way that I got around the limitation of no flash during ceremonies is to reshoot the shots after the ceremony. Most practicioners will help out the couple and photographer by "faking" special shots of the ceremony.

[jcuknz]

Victor ... I see the problem that while it is very viable to use the on-board as a trigger for a remote flash there is the hazard of other photographers pre-triggering the remote. This possible problem is overcome by the use of closed circuit systems such as the Wizard ... the problem remaining is that to use the Wizard it sits on the hot shoe and all cameras I have encountered will not raise their on-board when something is in the hot shoe.

I belive some cameras have a PC socket as well as a hot shoe which might permit the on-board to raise itself and work with the 'wizard' thing attached to the PC socket .... but I have not seen this suggested as an option. My experience of trying to run two flashes off a single circuit was largely unsatisfactory when I tried this over 40 years ago and hopefully things might have improved by now ... but it is quite likely they have not with Wizards capable firing several remotes.

That brings us back to having a strobe on the camera fired by the Wizard in addition to the remote. An unsatisfacotry situation from a weight POV and not having the 'fill' flash as close to the lens as the on-board is.
Red-eye is a red herring IMO in this discussion for reasons outlined earlier.

I hope this explains my situation better Victor Quite academic in my case becuase I will not be shooting any weddings .. that is ancient history for me

[AB26]

Hi Mariko,

The best “tutorial” in flash photography I have yet seen is from Neil Van Niekerk, here is the link.
http://neilvn.com/tangents/

[nimitzbenedicto]

Victor ... I see the problem that while it is very viable to use the on-board as a trigger for a remote flash there is the hazard of other photographers pre-triggering the remote. This possible problem is overcome by the use of closed circuit systems such as the Wizard ... the problem remaining is that to use the Wizard it sits on the hot shoe and all cameras I have encountered will not raise their on-board when something is in the hot shoe.

I belive some cameras have a PC socket as well as a hot shoe which might permit the on-board to raise itself and work with the 'wizard' thing attached to the PC socket .... but I have not seen this suggested as an option. My experience of trying to run two flashes off a single circuit was largely unsatisfactory when I tried this over 40 years ago and hopefully things might have improved by now ... but it is quite likely they have not with Wizards capable firing several remotes.

That brings us back to having a strobe on the camera fired by the Wizard in addition to the remote. An unsatisfacotry situation from a weight POV and not having the 'fill' flash as close to the lens as the on-board is.
Red-eye is a red herring IMO in this discussion for reasons outlined earlier.

I hope this explains my situation better Victor Quite academic in my case becuase I will not be shooting any weddings .. that is ancient history for me

Thanks. This explains a lot.

Have a nice week................

[blacksheep]

Thank you again, for all, and sorry for the late reply. (Stupid, I couldn't find my thread back...)
I am going to have to read well and search a bit more to come up with the result/new questions.

Thank you!