Would this work? (top table lighting)

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ajax_andy

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I had a bit of trouble getting enough light on the top table at my last wedding... a combination of distance to subject & also high(ish) ceilings made everything a bit under exposed and the only way to avoid this would to be bump up the ISO past 1600.

So I've been thinking things over and wondered if the following diagram would work? I want it to look fairly even light wise but also am wary of it looking too false with lots of flash and no ambient. Would this be OTT?

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I can't see any diagram but either way, if your planning on bringing light stands and such to the shindig make sure you have permission from the management, i know front of house are very touchy about this kind of thing as space can be a premium at the best of times.
Is this a new venue or has it been established for a while? Surely other photographers have had experience shooting in this room? Have a look to see how they are lighting things.
Are you on good terms with the management? If so then they may be able to do something about the lighting in the room like add more or turn it up while your doing the rounds or if there are disco lights in the ceiling perhaps if you ask nicely a couple of white spotlights could be turned in your favour.
 
The problem, always, is that every situation is different, so although it's a good idea to make plans, they will sometimes work better than others.

I think that this should work OK, most of the time. But it does depend on the height of the ceiling, the power of the flashes and the level of ambient.

The good thing about it is that light bounced from a ceiling nearly always looks natural, it's where most light comes from so it rarely looks out of place.
 
Thanks for the replies guys... It's more a question of could you see any major errors in this type of set up should I decide to use it. I haven't got a particular wedding in mind to use it on as it really depends on the room and ambient light etc. Just more a question of if I decided to use it would it work ok or have I missed an important factor.

I thought it would probably work fine but my OCF experience is limited and sometimes I don't think of all aspects before trying and coming across issues :)

The other suggestion of turning up the lights in the venue is something I'd considered too so there's definately a few options I think about should the room be a little on the dark side.
 
Should work fine in theory, certainly at the last couple of weddings I've been to (as a guest!) but so much depends on the venue/ceiling. Go test it.

I've used similar techniques myself, so would just say this. If you angle the flashes up, some light will go direct to the subject and it may well over-power what's coming from the ceiling. Flag the heads to shade the table of direct light - I use a bit of black cine foil (given to me by that nice Mr Edwards :)) so you can bend it and adjust precisely, stuck with BluTack, but anything will do. Stofen type jobbies might be worth trying.

Get the flashes well back and try to cover the whole table evenly. Everybody wants to make a speech these days.

If you just want to lift and balance the ambient a bit (gel the heads) you'll have enough power but the guns will probably be working quite hard (slow recycle, spare batteries). Fit the guns on their little OEM stands/feet and just pop them on a couple of nearby tables. Could give more choice of positioning and no H&S probs with stands.
 
HoppyUK said:
Should work fine in theory, certainly at the last couple of weddings I've been to (as a guest!) but so much depends on the venue/ceiling. Go test it.

I've used similar techniques myself, so would just say this. If you angle the flashes up, some light will go direct to the subject and it may well over-power what's coming from the ceiling. Flag the heads to shade the table of direct light - I use a bit of black cine foil (given to me by that nice Mr Edwards :)) so you can bend it and adjust precisely, stuck with BluTack, but anything will do. Stofen type jobbies might be worth trying.

Get the flashes well back and try to cover the whole table evenly. Everybody wants to make a speech these days.

If you just want to lift and balance the ambient a bit (gel the heads) you'll have enough power but the guns will probably be working quite hard (slow recycle, spare batteries). Fit the guns on their little OEM stands/feet and just pop them on a couple of nearby tables. Could give more choice of positioning and no H&S probs with stands.
Click to expand...

Good advice, thanks :)
 
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