The Best of Wedding Photography.pdf - Free

ABOVE—Melanie Nashan captured these two lovely bridesmaids
against a weathered barn by available light. Note that the overhang
above the girls blocks the overhead shade and a lighting pattern emerges
coming in from the left, where there is no overhang. Photograph made
with a Canon D60. FACING PAGE, TOP—Joe Photo uses bounce flash
all the time indoors to augment the room’s available light. He does this
primarily to avoid any dead spots in the frame where no light exposes
an image. Here he used his Nikon D1X and a 17–35mm f/2.8D ED-
IF AF-S Zoom-Nikkor lens at an exposure of 1/60 second at f/2.8 with
bounce flash. FACING PAGE, BOTTOM—A technique perfected by many
of the Australian wedding photographers is working by available light
in such low-light environs as pubs—frequent haunts of the bridal party
in the time between the wedding and the reception. Here, Jerry Ghionis
uses a small video light, held by an assistant, to light the couple from
the left. The intensity or distance of the light is varied to match the ambient
light exposure of the room.
Many photographers, especially those shooting 35mm
systems, prefer on-camera TTL flash, which features a
mode for TTL flash-fill that will balance the flash output
to the ambient-light exposure for balanced fill-flash. Most
of these TTL flash systems are adjustable so that you can
vary the flash output in fractional increments, thus provid-
74 THE BEST OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
EVALUATING FLASH OUTPUT
One of the best means of evaluating flash output, lighting ratios,
and the balance between flash illumination and daylight or room
light is by using the DSLRs LCD monitor. While the LCD may
not be the perfect tool to evaluate subtle exposure effects, it is quite
effective in evaluating how well your bounce flash is performing.
You can see at a glance if you need to increase or decrease flash
output.
ing the means to dial in the precise ratio of ambient-to-fill
illumination. They are marvelous systems and, of more importance,
they are reliable and predictable. The drawback
to these systems is that they are camera-mounted—although
many such systems also allow you to remove the
flash from the camera via a TTL remote cord.
Bounce Flash. Portable flash units do not have modeling
lights, so it is impossible to see beforehand the lighting
effect produced. However, there are certain ways to
use a camera-mounted flash in a predictable way to get excellent
lighting—especially at the reception.
Bounce flash is an ideal type of portrait light. It is soft
and directional. By bouncing the flash off the ceiling, you
can achieve an elegant, soft light that fully illuminates your
subjects. You must learn to gauge angles and distances
when using bounce flash. Aim the flash unit at a point on
the ceiling that will produce the widest beam of light reflecting
back onto your subjects. You should never use
color film when bouncing flash off colored ceilings or
walls—the light reflected back onto your subjects will be
the same color as the walls. Even if shooting digitally, you
may not be able to compensate with custom white balance
for the green-colored bounce flash coming off of a green
ceiling.
TTL flash metering systems and autoflash systems will
read bounce-flash situations fairly accurately, but factors
such as ceiling distance, color, and absorption qualities can
affect proper exposure. Although no exposure compensation
is necessary with these systems, operating distances
will be reduced.
You don’t necessarily have to use your flash-sync speed
when making bounce flash exposures. If the room-light
exposure is within a stop or two of your bounce-flash exposure
( 1/125 second at f/4, for example), simply use a
slower shutter speed to record more of the ambient room
light. If the room light exposure is 1/30 second at f/4, for
example, expose the bounce-flash photos at 1/30 second at