“How to you get dark reception rooms to look bright with so little noise (graininess) in the photos?”
I love natural light. It’s beautiful, simple, and easy to use (mostly). However, more often than not, reception locations are rather dark, and it becomes nigh on impossible to depend on natural or ambient (available) light only. I know there are some photographers out there who are natural light “purists” and avoid using flashes like the plague, but I think there’s definitely a place for adding your own light–whether by flash or some other means. Even with recent advances in digital cameras in reducing noise at high ISOs, I still think using flash appropriately benefits the look of the photos.
So, with that in mind, I’m going to try to explain what I use to achieve the look in my reception lighting. First off, let’s take a look at a typical reception hall without any flash at all. This is at the Omni William Penn Hotel Grand Ballroom from Caitlin and Derick’s wedding.
My settings were as follows:
Camera: Canon 5D
Lens: 16-35L
Aperture: f/2.8
ISO 1600
Shutter speed: 1/60th
As you can see, the ballroom has lovely chandeliers and some nice lights up for the holidays, but all in all, it’s a dark room. I’ve also pretty much maxed out my settings. Sure, I could go up to 3200 ISO on the 5D, but then I’d really be worried about noise. I also don’t think it would increase the light such that my subjects would be properly exposed.
So, I’m going to use flash to help me light the room.
Here’s another shot I took while setting up my lighting. This is ambient light only. Pretty dark. (Settings are the same as above).
The first thing I do is have a flash on my camera’s shoe, in this case, the Canon 580EX II. I’ve set it to TTL mode, so I’m letting the camera and flash do the thinking for exposure, and I’m also bouncing the light. In other words, I don’t point the flash directly forward. Instead, I’ve got it turned to the right pointing up at about a 60 degree angle. Here’s what I get:
That’s not bad. Now I can at least see the cake. But, to me, the image looks a bit flat and still too dark. So, I now have an off-camera flash set up on a stand. I set the flash to manual exposure, and put the power at 1/16th. I use radio triggers to have the off-camera flash fire when my on-camera flash fires (I’ll list my equipment at the end of this post).
This is the result I’m looking for. The flash on the stand adds depth to the image, while the flash on my camera adds overall lighting. Later in the evening, I actually added a second stand with flash so that I would have two off-camera flashes firing. I did this because of the size of the room and the dance floor. If I want to move around and catch the action on different parts of the dance floor, I want to have my secondary flashes in different locations, too. Here’s what it looks like in action. All three flashes are firing…you should be able to see there’s one directly behind Caitlin and Derick and one over to their right, and then my own on-camera flash (bounced) is filling in.
I’m also not afraid to let the flashes show in the photos..in fact, I think it makes the dance photos look more lively.
Here’s a view from above. Only one of my stand flashes has fired, the other light is from the band’s lighting.
And here you can see what it looks like when my on-camera flash doesn’t fire. I still like the mood this creates, but it’s definitely not for every shot.
So, hopefully you can see how the use of flash has enhanced the look of the photos, not detracted from them. Here’s a list of the lighting gear I use to create the look:
2 Light stands (any sturdy kind will do) with hot shoe mount adapters to hold the flashes.
2 Canon 580EX II flashes (you could do with just one for the camera)
1 LumoPro LP120 Manual Flash. This flash is very reasonably priced because it is manual only–you can’t use it for TTL, which is fine for this purpose.
3 Pocket Wizard Plus II radio triggers to communicate with the flashes.
2 Canon CP-E4 Battery packs to enable the Canon flashes to recycle faster.
Of course, there are several ways you could create the off-camera lighting setup…different flashes, different radio triggers, etc, but the principle should still be the same. You’re using manual and TTL flash together to lighten up those dark reception halls.
I titled this post “Reception Lighting Part One” because there’s another key trick that I use at receptions that’s more related to the camera itself, so I’m saving that for another post. Stay tuned!
by mary
Lou Recine - Has your set up changed with the introduction of the new Pocket wizard TTL’s
Atma - Since you set the flash on the stand to manual with 1/16 power how do you decide what kind of aperture and shutter speed to use to avoid under or over exposure ?. Thank you!.
mary - Gail–to answer your questions. Yes, I have all my pocketwizards on the same channel to fire at the same time. I usually keep the off-camera ones on the same settings…probably for the shot you mentioned they were at 1/16th power. My on-camera flash was in ETTL mode.
Gail - With the three pocketwizards then, do you have them all on the same channel to fire at the same time? Do you keep the two off stand at about the same settings? Thanks! I’d love to know more about what your settings were for the shot with the bride and groom and the shot where we see both firing.
Emily Clark - Thank you sooooo much for sharing, this is incredibly helpful! Looks like I’ll need to get myself some pocket wizards so I can have an on camera flash rather than just my OC flash!
Kate Miller - This is a great post. I try to avoid using high ISOs too. Although, I’m always hesitant about where to put the light stands and I like your approach. That photo with the light behind the bride and groom is gorgeous! Looking forward to finding out about your next key trick.
Milla - Love it love it love it!! I also love using off-camera at receptions, though I have never used TWO off-camera lights. You are crazy, girl! 🙂 Maybe that will be a new goal for this year’s receptions! Great explanation Mary.