Urgh! First wedding assist lol

An Exception · 3 Oct 2011 at 15:49

Paul11 said:
why cant you just use slow shutter speeds to keep the ambient light /atmosphere and just use the flash to fill in a bit of light on the subject

At F4 your shutter needs to be allot slower to reach the same ambient level exposure compared to F1.8 or similar.
Also if you in a large building with dark/high ceilings especially in an old church, your flash may not be powerful enough at F4 to correctly expose the subject if your bouncing the flash, even if it can it will likely be at full or half power, and that means your going to be limited by recycle time and will likely run into thermal protection issues that could mean you miss some crucial moments.

If you don't plan of bouncing the flash, then it just looks plain ugly, just like your point and shoot flash.

I once walked into a large dark church with a 2.8 zoom on a 50D + flash just to test what exposures I could get away with, I was shocked that I could barely get enough light for correct exposure at ISO3200 F2.8 1/40 and bouncing the flash of the ceiling at full power. Also the pictures were noisy as hell.

Paul11 · 3 Oct 2011 at 18:11

if the ceilings are so high, then more direct flash at a lower power setting is what i would use.

also , with flash lowering the shutter speed isnt an issue as the flash becomes the thing that freezes the subject, not the shutter speed.

i totally get fast glass, but there are times when F4 and a flash work very well

AHarvey · 3 Oct 2011 at 18:22

Yep, and throw in to the mix that some have several types of light in them, in odd places as well and it can be a real pita!

Paul11 said:
if the ceilings are so high, then more direct flash at a lower power setting is what i would use.

Or white walls, or even a guest in a white shirt

An Exception · 3 Oct 2011 at 18:23

@ Paul
When you blend ambient with very slow shutter speeds and flash exposure, you often get ghosting if there is movement, which isn't my cup of tea personally.
Also I have a rule when it comes to flash, I never ever ever use bare direct flash, even if it's only for fill.

33L · 3 Oct 2011 at 19:26

If you are trying to balance flash light and ambiant light in a church thats making WB a rather PITA. You have window light, the church lights and then the flash source. I havent yet needed to use a flash in a church and i have been to some dim churches. The trick is using fast glass and spot metering. im normally at f/2 @ ISO 1250 - 2500.
I make sure the faces are metered correctly. There are so many things to confuse the metering, the white dress, the large glass windows, ceiling lights etc... all of these will cause under exposure if using evaluative metering.

Another reason for teaching yourself not to use flash is that a lot of venues dont allow it. Its good practise to not use it for the ceremony and then knock yourself out afterwards. You end up distracting the B&G, and everyone looks at you and not the event itself.

AHarvey · 3 Oct 2011 at 19:57

33L said:
If you are trying to balance flash light and ambiant light in a church thats making WB a rather PITA. You have window light, the church lights and then the flash source. I havent yet needed to use a flash in a church and i have been to some dim churches. The trick is using fast glass and spot metering. im normally at f/2 @ ISO 1250 - 2500.
I make sure the faces are metered correctly. There are so many things to confuse the metering, the white dress, the large glass windows, ceiling lights etc... all of these will cause under exposure if using evaluative metering.

Another reason for teaching yourself not to use flash is that a lot of venues dont allow it. Its good practise to not use it for the ceremony and then knock yourself out afterwards. You end up distracting the B&G, and everyone looks at you and not the event itself.

I've had to use ISO 5200 before in church with a 1.8 to let enough light in for decent shutter speeds and they were standing still.

Then, the signing of the register there was 1 beam of sunlight falling down through a window on to the face of whoever was on the right hand side

It's all experience though. Weddings do push you!

33L · 3 Oct 2011 at 20:00

AHarvey said:
I've had to use ISO 5200 before in church with a 1.8 to let enough light in for decent shutter speeds and they were standing still. Then, the signing of the register there was 1 beam of sunlight falling down through a window on to the face of whoever was on the right hand side

It's all experience though. Weddings do push you!

please let me know the church and address so i never set foot inside it!

Honestly though if you got the shots well done on ya. I do make a point of advising in my contract that if the enviroment and restrictions mean i cant get the shot, i am not accountable for failure to provide.