Indoor Wedding Photography/Dance Floor Question
Posted in: darrelrussell.com edit
05 Jan 2009
New to this forum, so bear with me if this is in the wrong spot.
I've been a photographer for a while but I just got into wedding photography a couple years back. My photos have improved a lot, but I seem to encounter the same problem with a few different reception halls. A lot of the halls have reflective mirrors on the ceiling above the dance floor, and most of them have some type of lighting (chandelier, etc) hanging from those mirrors. So when i take photos on the dance floor (bounce flash), the lighting is always different and the shadows and highlights are scattered all over the subjects. I can never nail any solid shots in these locations. What can i do? I've attached examples below...in one of the photos you can see the type of ceiling i'm talking about. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!
http://www.bradracinophotography.com/help/troubleshoot-1.jpg
http://www.bradracinophotography.com/help/troubleshoot-2.jpg
http://www.bradracinophotography.com/help/troubleshoot-3.jpg
http://www.bradracinophotography.com/help/troubleshoot-4.jpg
http://www.bradracinophotography.com/help/troubleshoot-5.jpg
http://www.bradracinophotography.com/help/troubleshoot-6.jpg
http://www.bradracinophotography.com/help/troubleshoot-7.jpg
I've shot in a lot of reception halls...some of them are great, some not so bad and some of them are down right terrible. I have a couple different accesories and techniques that I might use, depending on the location.
For a room like that, with a chandelier like that, I might still try bouncing but also using something to divert a good portion of the light forward. Recently, I've been using a Demb Flip-It Pro, which is light a big bounce card with a hinge. So if the ceiling is good for bouncing, I have the card straight up or angled slightly. If the ceiling isn't so good, I might angle the card a little (or a lot) more.
A couple photographers that I shoot with, use the Gary Fong Lightsphere. It spreads light all around so that it bounces off of multiple surfaces. If there are good reflection surfaces around you, it can make for some nice soft light.
I also have a flash bracket which I would normally use when shooting the flash directly, but it can also be used when bouncing.
Another technique that I've been using for receptions lately, is off camera lighting. I set up a flash (either hotshoe unit or studio strobe) and use a radio remote to trigger it. I will use on-camera flash as well. This allows me to get dramatic lighting from the off-camera light and I adjust the on-camera light for varying levels of fill.
It takes alot of the guesswork out of where your flash is gonna bounce, but the pics dont have that harsh flash appearance.
Off camera flash will solve ALL of that and better than any on camera issues you are slapping yourself with curently, though. ;)
Don't take my word for it but first thing that springs to my mind is to crank the ISO right up, use the maximum aperture your lens goes to so that you don't have to use flash! perhaps you can do that and use the flash straight ahead with a diffuser/bounce card? at a low power, just enough for a little fill? (but then you risk the reflection of flash in the mirrors on the walls etc anyway)..
I'm sure other people will come along and give better methods.. :)
The other things I can recommend is up the ISO. Even the dirty noisy cameras (like my D200) do just fine at ISO800.
Maybe invest in some faster lenses (f/2.8).
Oh and drag the shutter on the dance floor. Let's get some sense of motion in those photos.
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