wedding dinner... low flash usage?

[serametin]

i dunno if this have been asked before or it is a noob question.

i was at a hotel wedding dinner. although the photographer have a flash attached to his cam, he seldom use his flash. the hotel ballroom set-up was warm light. is he using those 85mm 1.4, 50mm 1.4 lenses?

 

[alternatve]

i dunno if this have been asked before or it is a noob question.

i was at a hotel wedding dinner. although the photographer have a flash attached to his cam, he seldom use his flash. the hotel ballroom set-up was warm light. is he using those 85mm 1.4, 50mm 1.4 lenses?

A constant aperture f/2.8 lens would do very nicely instead of a f/1.4 prime but he might have been using that and he would have jacked up his ISO as well.

Samuel

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

i dunno if this have been asked before or it is a noob question.

i was at a hotel wedding dinner. although the photographer have a flash attached to his cam, he seldom use his flash. the hotel ballroom set-up was warm light. is he using those 85mm 1.4, 50mm 1.4 lenses?

he can bump up his ISO, tweak the white balance later.

anyway, even with flash, most of the time for ballroom, you have bump up iso to expose the background. a flash is not a sunlight replacement.

 

[serametin]

he can bump up his ISO, tweak the white balance later.

anyway, even with flash, most of the time for ballroom, you have bump up iso to expose the background. a flash is not a sunlight replacement.

yup, i know flash is not a must. i just want to find out what lenses and what settings he was at. thks for the info, i think i got a better idea now.

 

[lukesky]

think his flash he only use for group shots? anyway what i found when shooting wedding dinners if the ballroom is high ceiling (can't bounce the flash) plus using very strong tungsten lighting, then shooting with flash is challenging to say the least in terms of white balance.

if u want everything to have the same colour, i.e. the subject's colour must be same as background, then using flash as it is will make the colour different for the subject (it will be white), but the background is orangy (because flash not powerful enuf to reach the back of the room). so how to adjust WB like that since there are 2 different colours in the picture?

so either put colour gel on the flash to bring the subject's colour closer to the same colour as the background, or screw the flash and use available light and high ISO (did someone mention D3? ), then later do WB correction and noise reduction.

 

[enghong17]

he can bump up his ISO, tweak the white balance later.

anyway, even with flash, most of the time for ballroom, you have bump up iso to expose the background. a flash is not a sunlight replacement.

For most ballrooms, you need to shoot at the correct white balance to get the image. The image is almost near impossible to rescue if you shoot at AWB and try to tweak later on.

serametin: Yes, the photographer is shooting with ambient light. Mostly Iso1600-3200 at f1.4-f2 with prime lens. The flash is for people who suddenly come up to you and ask for a group photo or if the photog feels there's a wall close enough to bounce the flash off.

 

[serametin]

serametin: Yes, the photographer is shooting with ambient light. Mostly Iso1600-3200 at f1.4-f2 with prime lens.

ok thks for the info.

 

[Del_CtrlnoAlt]

For most ballrooms, you need to shoot at the correct white balance to get the image. The image is almost near impossible to rescue if you shoot at AWB and try to tweak later on.

serametin: Yes, the photographer is shooting with ambient light. Mostly Iso1600-3200 at f1.4-f2 with prime lens. The flash is for people who suddenly come up to you and ask for a group photo or if the photog feels there's a wall close enough to bounce the flash off.

more of a raw shooter than a jpg shooter.

anything go back then tweak color.

cos most of the time, color might change, if for eg, they set to tungsten then later to cool light then to spot light... no time to change wb.

 

[enghong17]

more of a raw shooter than a jpg shooter.

anything go back then tweak color.

cos most of the time, color might change, if for eg, they set to tungsten then later to cool light then to spot light... no time to change wb.

Not sure for you but the last time i tried with RAW and AWB, the colours still can't match setting the white balance manually. Certain tones or hues are lost/clipped, making the image look funny.

The only time which i think has that problem is during the march in where the spotlight may suddenly turn on and if you try to shoot the couple with the spot light and turn around to shoot the crowd scene which has a totally different WB.

 

[Snowcrash]

i dunno if this have been asked before or it is a noob question.

i was at a hotel wedding dinner. although the photographer have a flash attached to his cam, he seldom use his flash. the hotel ballroom set-up was warm light. is he using those 85mm 1.4, 50mm 1.4 lenses?

if you have a chance to look at the photos, try to "see" what focus length you think he shot at.

I tried a 50mm f1.4 with iso800 at a church wedding, quite like the bokeh/ ambient lightings...

 

[serametin]

if you have a chance to look at the photos, try to "see" what focus length you think he shot at.

I tried a 50mm f1.4 with iso800 at a church wedding, quite like the bokeh/ ambient lightings...

u are shooting always at 1.4? or also 2 to 2.8?

 

[GitS]

be selective in your usage of flash - which is usually required for couple shots, group shots etc...but if u are going to be anal about achieving daylight balanced white balance and evenly lit shots for the entire dinner, you will lose the world of ambience, atmosphere, shadow play that comes with shooting available light shots with a fast prime...try it...you will enter a new realm....

 

[Snowcrash]

u are shooting always at 1.4? or also 2 to 2.8?

1.4, 2 and 2.8....

Maybe you can just go experiment with the different settings and see the results.

Happy shooting!

 

[serametin]

1.4, 2 and 2.8....

Maybe you can just go experiment with the different settings and see the results.

Happy shooting!

thks for the advice. cheers.

 

[Override2Zion]

u are shooting always at 1.4? or also 2 to 2.8?

Just to add on, you probably would wanna shoot with a f/5.6 for group shots to keep everyone's face sharp in the picture, you'll probably need the flash to come into action then.

 

[lsisaxon]

yup, i know flash is not a must. i just want to find out what lenses and what settings he was at. thks for the info, i think i got a better idea now.

See what body he's using also.. It might have been a D3 and he's using ISO6400? ;p

 

[serametin]

Just to add on, you probably would wanna shoot with a f/5.6 for group shots to keep everyone's face sharp in the picture, you'll probably need the flash to come into action then.

yeah. point noted.

See what body he's using also.. It might have been a D3 and he's using ISO6400? ;p

too bad, on that day, i was too far away. but he was using two camera, one with a flash, one was without. i maybe wrong, but from far and from the size, it don't look like d3 to me.

 

[jOhO]

at iso 1600 f1.2 you can use the highest of ceilings to bounce flash.

really.

 

[lsisaxon]

too bad, on that day, i was too far away. but he was using two camera, one with a flash, one was without. i maybe wrong, but from far and from the size, it don't look like d3 to me.

Ah okie.. Then might be one of the more recent DSLRs shooting at least ISO1600, I guess. The diameter of the lens will also tell you roughly what kind of maximum aperture he has.