Thanks guys! This is the only video on lighting wedding reception venues I've been able to find on the web. It was extremely helpful and I'm going to look to incorporate this in my wedding work soon. Much Appreciated.
Fstoppers Hey guys. Can you control the flash power for the off camera flashes from the pocket wizard dangling from your camera as shown at 22:18? I've tried this with a Yongnuo setup and while the flashes do fire, I can't seem to control the output. Thanks
Alot of great information here. You are one of the first to actually online these methods on youtube. This was my biggest problem at weddings and I hated the pictures I got. I recently found the Light Stick kitbash w/ assistant and I think it will solve a bunch of my reception problems.
Thank you! I've been so afraid to use light because I didn't understand it with kickers, OCF and Umbrellas...but now I feel confident giving this a try! Thank you!!!
Excellent Video, Just as a suggestion, during the barn demo by Patrick, he mentioned power cannot be increased or vaired of the flashes. i would suggest to use yongnuos yn560iv flashes along with a yn560 transmitter.. can change the power of the flashes without the use of an external trigger..
While I know much of the videos you make are good marketing and exposure for your business, still from an armature photographer, I say thank you so much for sharing you knowledge with us lesser skilled photographers. You have made it to a nice point in your photographic skill, and it is nice that you give some of that back to those of us trying to learn. Was happy to hear that you guys are based in Charleston, I live near there as well, and we are very lucky to live in a place as photogenic as our area is! :)
Totally appreciate every element of your explanations and demonstrations. Having recently purchased a Sony a6500, couldn't figure out how I was going to use my Pocket Wizard Plus III along with my manual LumoPro LP180. After a brief chat with one of the Sony Artisans, he mentioned using the pc sync port on the flash to fire the Pocket Wizard...and sure enough, just as I realize you show dangling from your camera, it works...hopefully as well as I'm going to be shooting a wedding this weekend with almost the same set up. Thanks for some really great tips and recommendations!
I use a very similar setup to the ones explained here.. I'll have 2 off-camera flashes, (set at manual power, around 1/32 power, and a bit of zoom) both on opposite corners of the room, basically pointing at each other or "center" of the venue or dance floor, and 1 on-camera flash, set to TTL but with a lower exposure compensation number. With that setup I'll try to always shoot perpendicular to where my off-camera flashes are pointing.. and the camera will be setup at about 3200 ISO, 1/80 shutter, 3.2 or 4 aperture. That particular setup is what I always use, and it gives me consistent look at all my wedding receptions.
Extremely helpful, I struggled a bit in reception lighting in the last wedding I did but this tutorial has sparked back so many options I can go with to improve. Thank you.
Nice video Fstoppers! kickers and rim lights are alot of fun and create a dynamic effect to the images, but as a heads up, when and if you choose to go with that system, practice and learn your lights and lens combos for use with it and always be aware of flare artifacts when shooting with backlighting on more spread out dance floors, or when lighting is set lower in the background and no bodies are in place as natural gobo's. In many cases, flare can be a nice added effect depending on your clients taste, but no bride, groom or wedding guest would welcome having their faces perfectly obscured by the green zombie floating camera right at 17:56 Happy strobing!
Hey at 5:54 you talk about dangling a pocketwizard from your flash/camera, can you explain that abit more, i.e. do you change settings on you camera/flash to make it work, how do you exactly get this to work, i have tried this out but am unsuccessful with it. Thank you!
I have watched a lot of videos on wedding photography and lighting is always glazed over an the focus limited to composure and shot lists. I always worry and fuss over my lighting- always. I am glad to see a video, a great one at that, covering lighting at weddings as the primary focus.
Thanks John. I think the reality is so many wedding photographers don't actually understand lighting that well. We aren't the experts either but if you want to take your photography to the next level, it usually starts with expanding your knowledge of light and flash.
Wonderful. Took me ages to find this video on my liked videos but now I have finally found this video. Bounce Flash. Tomorrow is my first attempt to use this so hopefully this will work using a kicker light. Found the idea of the 'hair' light to just be perfect in principle. So looking forward thanks to your tuition :) Great video along with your relaxed tuition and attitude. A very nice and simple (but effective) professional production.
Changing your aperture is a good technique to get bracketed exposures. I'm thinking of setting the camera to bracket mode anyway to use shutter drag instead, which will mix ambient lights in some shots. Experimentation is needed.
Great information. It is my goal to become a wedding photographer and I'm still learning photography in general and appreciate every bit of information I can get. You guys explain things so understandable. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and all of your efforts.
I'm familiar with these techniques, and use them all other than the studio strobes as I don't own any. With the last setup, once you move the strobes out to the walls where they should be, what do you do about the shadows created by the beams/columns in the room? Also, other than getting the lights up high and filling with on-camera or assistant-held lighting, how do you prevent weird shadows in general created by people, arms (such as the woman holding her glass at 19:11), etc. between the light source and your subject? This is less of an issue where you can bounce, but I've shot in a lot of dark ceiling venues. THANKS!
at 18:00, you have a flash B half height with the umbrella; surely once the barns full of guests, anyone standing near it, in front of it etc will just block the light from a subject you might be taking a photo of in another part of the barn. If you've turned off the flash that's nearest you, your working with one light that is partly covered creating shadows across the subjects your taking photos of and your other light is not likely to fill in/illuminate those shadows. Then what do you do?
Yeah I never really set the light that low but it was more for demo purposes. The ideal light height is always about 2' above the tallest people in the room so that the light spills over everyone and illuminates any single person you are trying to photograph. It's never perfect but that's probably a good rule of thumb
Thank you for a pretty darned comprehensive video. There are a lot of ways to handle the many variety of on-location situations and I'm glad you were able to address so many ideas.
Great video! Please help... I have a canon 580exii/ w pocketwizard plusiii cable (ch17 ABCD all on) attached on hotshoe of canon 5dmarkii (dangling off like you do). I have another canon 580exii off camera connected to another pocketwizard plusiii (ch 17 ABCD all on). The test button on both pocketwizards fires both speedlights. Unfortunately when I press the shutter on camera, only the onboard flash fires... What am I doing wrong? what settings should I adjust? I know if I set the onboard flash to master and off camera flash to slave it will work if nearby (unreliable)- but I need the speedlights to fire at a distance w/ the pocketwizards? Any help would be appreciated.
With new strobe systems that are available now not having to use pocket wizards I’m kind of interested in seeing if you’ve changed up systems? And if so are you going to update the wedding photography series?
OMG this happened to me this last Saturday. My FIRST wedding at that! It was the venue was this HUGE church with wooden ceilings AND walls and on top of this I was as well. Plus they the church rep said that we could only use flash up until the back half of the church. And that we could not take photos from any other part but the halfway part of the church. It was crazy!
Lo considero un excelente tutorial. Es sumamente práctico y actualizado, orientando a como resolver problema en diferentes situaciones que se presentan con frecuencia. Muy agradecido.
Who is the guy teaching about how to handle lighting that barn? I like the way he thinks... I wish I had seen this one before we shot at Dubsdread in Orlando. I loved and hated that place. Better yet, the barns in Knoxville!! Gah!! Who is this guy...? He has changed my life.
That was a great video tutorial. I have weddings for the next 3 weeks and I'm excited to try some of these techniques......I'll update you as to what happened
Sometimes there are receptions where a decorator team spent countless hours creating a certain ambiance. You certainly don't want to blast it all away with the flashes. Selective flash firing is key in these situations.
I have a Canon,6D, using a 600EX-RT as my top mount flash and have my PLUS III connected via the PC connection. And I have PLUSX triggers on my other flashes. When I fire my 600EX it does not trigger the Plus III so that the other flashes go off. What setting do I have to go to to make this setup work?
I was wondering why you would change your aperture to control light if you subject comes too close to a speedlight? Why wouldn't you just bump up your shutter speed, while keeping a shallow depth of field for the creamy look. Unless using the pocket wizard does not allow you to shoot over 200. To me, that poses a problem, I like shooting at f/2.0 - f/3.5 majority of the time. Creates separation from the background and lets in more light. Great video, definitely learned quite a bit.
Good question. The reason is that shutter speed does not affect your flash up to the sync speed (usually 1/250). So bumping up your shutter from say 1/60th to 1/250th will not make a difference in flash power. Instead you have to use one of the other two aspects of exposure: aperture or ISO. If your flash was too powerful, you COULD lower your ISO and then slow your shutter speed by the same amount to keep your ambient light equal with your flash decreasing in strength. However at some point your SS might become very slow (less than 1/20) and that could cause problems. Instead I prefer to gain DOF by stopping down the aperture and increasing the ISO up. Both work but using the shutter would not in this situation.
Yeah, if you shoot straight up, you need to be 10-20 feet away from them which works well with telephoto lenses. But if you are shooting wide and are close to the action, you def want to angle your flash backwards or back and slightly left/right.
What does he mean when he says “once he white balances correctly for his gelled flash”...? If you put a gel onto the flash, then wouldn’t adjusting the white balance cancel it out? .....Also, if you have the flash only backlighting the subject, can’t it throw off the camera meter? Like, the meter will think it’s exposed correctly and then when you fire the camera a flash goes off right in the frame that wasn’t there before when the camera was metering. I would think that would throw it off.
Thank you guys ! Your video is very helpful! I have the strobe Flashpoint Xplor and 1 speedlight Canon 430. Is this enough for me to start? Do I have to place these two lights in different angles? Or flash on the camera, and the strobe in the hall?
I still use my Fstoppers light diffuser that I bought years ago. Thankfully, I bought 3 of them. Every time I use it, other photographers want to know where they can get one. Not sure why it is no longer available.
We've thought of revamping it. When it was a success, all these Chinese factories started ripping us off and there were no less than 4 listings on Amazon that were 50% less than what we charged (which made it not even profitable for us). Now that all our inventory has been sold, those Chinese rip offs have disappeared too which is interesting. Maybe we will revisit it. -P
Thanks for the Videos!!!! Hey I have a D5100 Nikon going to upgrade later on but I need your help !!! Im going to shoot a wedding recpetion at night in a white wedding tent. I like to know what kind of Flashes I need for my nikon D5100 just like your set up at the barn in your video. Thanks!
Can I point out, while I have watched your videos for a few years, it finally hit me why Lee REALLY distracts me when he speaks. Dude, you are like Dexter Morgan Jr. It's kinda hot! LOL!!!
A solution to the dangling Pocket Wizard...use the threaded screw hole on the side of the Pocket Wizard and a screw cut to fit between it and the hole for a tripod on the bottom of the camera or battery grip. Take a small sync cord, black spike or gaffers tape and you have a solid unit that doesn't move around. Place a nut in the center of the screw to gain purchase on it when you want to remove it.
Yeah I've thought of that before but it ruins the ability to shoot vertical with your vertical grip. I also use tripod plates enough that I don't want to tie that 1/4" screw hole with a random bolt....have you ever gotten one of those stuck and tried to remove it? Not fun
I love this video. A lot of great info and I have got to get a Pocket Wizard setup like that. Where do I get tripods that hold speedlights and go up a couple stories like in the video?
The best lens in my opinion is the 24-70 2.8. It gives you a lot of flexibility for those fast movement moments because it zooms and the 2.8 aperture helps tremendously in low light situations. It also helps you blur the background quicker which often gives your subject a strong focus point in an otherwise busy environment.
thank you for the video. I would like to try this but am worried about what the guests are going to feel when the flashes are going off all of the time. Do you notice that they are annoyed at all?
I have never once had a guest complain about that. Most of the weddings we shoot have a DJ or a Band and the energy level is pretty high and people don't notice flash. I am very mindful during toasts and speeches though and only try to take 5-10 shots total before taking a break and letting the people give their speeches. Of course, that being said, I'm also keeping my camera ready for emotional moments so if the bride starts crying or the best man tells a joke, I'm ready to capture that too.
Sarah Powell it aint their wedding. They cant say nuffing about it. Or they can but on their way back to their houses. Usually folks start critiquin at that moment. So you dont be worried about nobody but the customers
Hey, I loved the video and had a confusion where you said that you can gel the lights. So what do you mean by gel the lights ? Like you said gel my camera's flash red and leave the other light which will automatically produce a blue light on the other flash. The other question is how do you sync the Nikon flash and the Pocket Wizard ? Thanks :)
Think of "gel" as a film that you can use to change the color or white balance of the flashes. You can get an assortment of colors to cover your lights. If you don't understand how color temperature or the Kelvin temp can affect your shot I would probably study that. It can really affect your quality and effects. Good luck!
Lee, do you still hang the pocket wizard off to the side, or has this changed? Or has this changed altogether and you dont actively shoot weddings as much?
Guys, I just finished watching your whole vidoes on how to become a wedding photographer, so many good tips, i appreciated it. Since you are Nikon shooters like me i have another question if you dont mind. . listen i have some problem and i cant figure out what i am doing wrong. i have the d810 and speedlights sb910 and sb700. no matter what radio trigger i use (phottix and godox) i cant control remotely the power out out or ttl. it only shoots. is it a setting in the camera or speedlight that needs to be adjusted. i really appreciate your help specially when i have an up coming even and i will be using flashes remotely. thank you! Keep up the work, you encourage us to working our goals...
You need a trigger that allows for remote ittl to control the power output. 80% of the triggers out there simply send a "fire" signal. I have used some of the Yongnuo, cactus 5 or 6, and the pocket wizard flex/minis. Just make sure they support the ittl Nikon creative lighting system.
Hi Patrick! I tried the same thing with my setup (Nikon D750 and a yongnuo 622-TX via PC-sync cable attached to my sb-910) but i realised, that I was not able to control the power oft the flash, wich is sitting on a yongnuo 622 receiver unit! I used a Yongnuo 568EX and a Nikon SB-700 flash... Of course the 622-TX is capable of ttl mode but regardless of whether I set a certain power level on the trigger the external flashes on the resceiver units are firing always on the same power setting. It doesen't matter also if the units and flashes are in manual mode or not...
"Great video! Please help... I have a canon 580exii/ w pocketwizard plusiii cable (ch17 ABCD all on) attached on hotshoe of canon 5dmarkii (dangling off like you do). I have another canon 580exii off camera connected to another pocketwizard plusiii (ch 17 ABCD all on). The test button on both pocketwizards fires both speedlights. Unfortunately when I press the shutter on camera, only the onboard flash fires... What am I doing wrong? what settings should I adjust? I know if I set the onboard flash to master and off camera flash to slave it will work if nearby (unreliable)- but I need the speedlights to fire at a distance w/ the pocketwizards? Any help would be appreciated."
You guys have seriously helped me with my photography. Thank you for your content. One question: If you cant afford the pocket wizards or secondary flash options, what can you use for low or no cost?
Great videos. Question for you. When your shooting with lets say 4 off camera flashes at 1/16~1/64 power and TTL on camera flash, do you use a light meter to get your initial settings for the area covered by the 4 off camera flashes?
I've been looking at buying a Nikon D800 or D800e do you have any comments which is better for photographing people. Love this tutorial btw, saving for the dvd as I type
hi guys i enjoy your videos. i see you used umbellas difusers instead of umbrelas reflectors instead to light thst venue. what difference is t between the two? thanks
we just have a mix of shoot through umbrellas and normal bounce umbrellas. Honestly I rarely use umbrellas unless I'm in a situation like the barn where the ceilings are high or made of wood. You might be able to see a difference in the two umbrellas in a small room where you are trying to contain the light spill, but in a large venue situation both will work equally as good. I wouldn't get too hung up on buying one over the other and infact you can often buy one umbrella that has a skirt that removes so you can use it both ways.
Interesting and very comprehensive. I don't really shoot weddings professionally (except for friends) but I have had to do many 'mass events' in the past and one thing I never do is put lights on stands: NEVER !! People drink at receptions, people become unsteady, distracted and a danger to themselves and everything around them. Lighting stands are a hazard you definitely do not want - think of the legal angle when your tumbling speed lite wipes out the bride ! Will your insurance cover you ? In situations like that I have always gone into the venue early and CLAMPED lights up high onto existing features and added a safety chain or cord if for some reason the clamp fails. It does restrict your placement but you are safe in the knowledge that you're not going to kill a guest.
Yeah you def need liability insurance if you are a photographer and also it's wise to sandbag your lightstands. That being said, a little speedlight on a lightweight stand would never be able to seriously hurt anyone in all honesty. The Profoto B1 lights are a different story but we rarely use those in receptions.
Thank you so much for this video! It was so informative! I am currently looking into getting a second speedlight flash, but the flash transmitter that I have now goes on top of my camera without a second hot shoe to connect my flash to the camera as well. Ideally, I would love to be able to have a flash on top of my camera while still having flashes that I can leave around the room to trigger, but I'm not sure how I would do this - especially in a way that is somewhat inexpensive as I am only starting out. I have a Canon DSLR. Any suggestions?
You need to either buy triggers with pass through hot shoes on top or plug in your trigger into your camera/flash through the PC port. We always had Pocket Wizards dangling off to the side of our cameras with a lanyard. If you have a more professional DSLR that has a PC Sync plug on the camera you can use that otherwise you need to plug the remote trigger into the PC Sync on the side of your flash which sits on top of your hotshoe. Hope that makes sense and helps
Would studio strobes also work in that barn instead of the speedlights?... changing batteries in speedlights that are 10 or 12 feet in the air must be difficult in the middle of a 4 or 5 hour reception...
yeah definitely. I just find that my speedlights are usually set at about 1/64 - 1/8th power so if a single set of batteries gives you 200 flash pops at 1/1 full power, then you usually get 1200 flash pops at 1/8th or less. Changing batteries on these lights isn't that big of an issue and I usually have to change them out once if ever during a long reception. That's not necessarily the case with the on camera flash that is sometimes firing at 1/4 or 1/2 power.
What about using the PocketWizard FlexTT5 and mini along with the AC3 to trigger the OCF? I had the Plus III's but wanted the HSS capabilities of the Flex system. I understand that the AC3 only has 3 groups but you would think that three groups would be enough.
HSS is really only useful outside where you want to shoot at 2.8 but the ambient light is too bright. Indoors this is hardly ever a problem. Infact, I almost always shoot receptions at f2.8 so I can't see why you would need the HSS or FP modes turned on indoors. Your flash duration is usually waaaay quicker than a fast shutter so you don't need the fast shutter to freeze motion either. But yes, you can use any of the pocketwizards to trigger your lights. If for some reason you do use HSS indoors and bounce that light, keep in mind that HSS destroys flash output and so you will probably find yourself firing your flash at full power and exhausting your batteries pretty quickly.
My wife and I got the full tutorial a while back and it's helped us so much with our wedding photography. Thanks Fstoppers! You guys rock!
Where can i find it plz?
Thanks guys! This is the only video on lighting wedding reception venues I've been able to find on the web. It was extremely helpful and I'm going to look to incorporate this in my wedding work soon. Much Appreciated.
Thanks Mel. There is a lot more including 2 other techniques in the full tutorial :)
Fstoppers Hey guys. Can you control the flash power for the off camera flashes from the pocket wizard dangling from your camera as shown at 22:18? I've tried this with a Yongnuo setup and while the flashes do fire, I can't seem to control the output. Thanks
Nice comment Mel. I usually just abuse people if I write a comment.
I loved this 📹
@@FStoppers where is the full version? please give a link
Fstoppers is raising the standards of photography.
It's amazing how far triggers have come compared to when this video was made.
I was thinking of the exact same thing!
Is a pocket wizard the same thing as a trigger? I’m new to off camera flash.
@@kaylasopinionpost PocketWizard.com is the OG off camera flash radio triggering system.
@@creightonholub Actually the og was a modified remote control hobby reciever and transmitter.
For realz
Alot of great information here. You are one of the first to actually online these methods on youtube. This was my biggest problem at weddings and I hated the pictures I got. I recently found the Light Stick kitbash w/ assistant and I think it will solve a bunch of my reception problems.
Thank you! I've been so afraid to use light because I didn't understand it with kickers, OCF and Umbrellas...but now I feel confident giving this a try! Thank you!!!
Excellent Video, Just as a suggestion, during the barn demo by Patrick, he mentioned power cannot be increased or vaired of the flashes. i would suggest to use yongnuos yn560iv flashes along with a yn560 transmitter.. can change the power of the flashes without the use of an external trigger..
While I know much of the videos you make are good marketing and exposure for your business, still from an armature photographer, I say thank you so much for sharing you knowledge with us lesser skilled photographers. You have made it to a nice point in your photographic skill, and it is nice that you give some of that back to those of us trying to learn. Was happy to hear that you guys are based in Charleston, I live near there as well, and we are very lucky to live in a place as photogenic as our area is! :)
Totally appreciate every element of your explanations and demonstrations. Having recently purchased a Sony a6500, couldn't figure out how I was going to use my Pocket Wizard Plus III along with my manual LumoPro LP180. After a brief chat with one of the Sony Artisans, he mentioned using the pc sync port on the flash to fire the Pocket Wizard...and sure enough, just as I realize you show dangling from your camera, it works...hopefully as well as I'm going to be shooting a wedding this weekend with almost the same set up. Thanks for some really great tips and recommendations!
This video is GOLD!!!
Just what I needed. I'm trying to learn event photography lighting.
I use a very similar setup to the ones explained here.. I'll have 2 off-camera flashes, (set at manual power, around 1/32 power, and a bit of zoom) both on opposite corners of the room, basically pointing at each other or "center" of the venue or dance floor, and 1 on-camera flash, set to TTL but with a lower exposure compensation number. With that setup I'll try to always shoot perpendicular to where my off-camera flashes are pointing.. and the camera will be setup at about 3200 ISO, 1/80 shutter, 3.2 or 4 aperture. That particular setup is what I always use, and it gives me consistent look at all my wedding receptions.
Extremely helpful, I struggled a bit in reception lighting in the last wedding I did but this tutorial has sparked back so many options I can go with to improve. Thank you.
Nice video Fstoppers!
kickers and rim lights are alot of fun and create a dynamic effect to the images, but as a heads up, when and if you choose to go with that system, practice and learn your lights and lens combos for use with it and always be aware of flare artifacts when shooting with backlighting on more spread out dance floors, or when lighting is set lower in the background and no bodies are in place as natural gobo's. In many cases, flare can be a nice added effect depending on your clients taste, but no bride, groom or wedding guest would welcome having their faces perfectly obscured by the green zombie floating camera right at 17:56 Happy strobing!
Hey at 5:54 you talk about dangling a pocketwizard from your flash/camera, can you explain that abit more, i.e. do you change settings on you camera/flash to make it work, how do you exactly get this to work, i have tried this out but am unsuccessful with it. Thank you!
this was awesome!!!! shooting a wedding in a barn and this was it!!!! first wedding shoot !!! wish me luck!!!!
Great video just what I need to know ,thank you for sharing your knowledge 😊
Thanks Fstoppers. I'm just getting started. Vital information to utilize.
I have watched a lot of videos on wedding photography and lighting is always glazed over an the focus limited to composure and shot lists. I always worry and fuss over my lighting- always. I am glad to see a video, a great one at that, covering lighting at weddings as the primary focus.
Thanks John. I think the reality is so many wedding photographers don't actually understand lighting that well. We aren't the experts either but if you want to take your photography to the next level, it usually starts with expanding your knowledge of light and flash.
Wow your photos are amazing!
Wonderful. Took me ages to find this video on my liked videos but now I have finally found this video. Bounce Flash. Tomorrow is my first attempt to use this so hopefully this will work using a kicker light. Found the idea of the 'hair' light to just be perfect in principle. So looking forward thanks to your tuition :)
Great video along with your relaxed tuition and attitude. A very nice and simple (but effective) professional production.
Fantastic! Very simple explanations and great examples. Thank you!
Changing your aperture is a good technique to get bracketed exposures. I'm thinking of setting the camera to bracket mode anyway to use shutter drag instead, which will mix ambient lights in some shots. Experimentation is needed.
Great information. It is my goal to become a wedding photographer and I'm still learning photography in general and appreciate every bit of information I can get. You guys explain things so understandable. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and all of your efforts.
What should the power level of the off camera flashes be set to? And your not bouncing them off the ceiling? They’re facing directly to the crowd?
Good job guys. From Russia with love.
One of the most informative videos. Thanks
I'm familiar with these techniques, and use them all other than the studio strobes as I don't own any. With the last setup, once you move the strobes out to the walls where they should be, what do you do about the shadows created by the beams/columns in the room? Also, other than getting the lights up high and filling with on-camera or assistant-held lighting, how do you prevent weird shadows in general created by people, arms (such as the woman holding her glass at 19:11), etc. between the light source and your subject? This is less of an issue where you can bounce, but I've shot in a lot of dark ceiling venues. THANKS!
at 18:00, you have a flash B half height with the umbrella; surely once the barns full of guests, anyone standing near it, in front of it etc will just block the light from a subject you might be taking a photo of in another part of the barn. If you've turned off the flash that's nearest you, your working with one light that is partly covered creating shadows across the subjects your taking photos of and your other light is not likely to fill in/illuminate those shadows. Then what do you do?
Yeah I never really set the light that low but it was more for demo purposes. The ideal light height is always about 2' above the tallest people in the room so that the light spills over everyone and illuminates any single person you are trying to photograph. It's never perfect but that's probably a good rule of thumb
So much useful. Thanks buddies for your nice efforts!
this is awesome . I have one question when to use strobe lights at reception?
Thank you for a pretty darned comprehensive video. There are a lot of ways to handle the many variety of on-location situations and I'm glad you were able to address so many ideas.
Very knowledgeable and informative.
Great video! Please help... I have a canon 580exii/ w pocketwizard plusiii cable (ch17 ABCD all on) attached on hotshoe of canon 5dmarkii (dangling off like you do). I have another canon 580exii off camera connected to another pocketwizard plusiii (ch 17 ABCD all on). The test button on both pocketwizards fires both speedlights. Unfortunately when I press the shutter on camera, only the onboard flash fires... What am I doing wrong? what settings should I adjust? I know if I set the onboard flash to master and off camera flash to slave it will work if nearby (unreliable)- but I need the speedlights to fire at a distance w/ the pocketwizards? Any help would be appreciated.
Awesome video thanks a lot! I've been scared to use flash just because I have no idea where to start. This helped a lot
This is super helpful. Thank you!!
With new strobe systems that are available now not having to use pocket wizards I’m kind of interested in seeing if you’ve changed up systems? And if so are you going to update the wedding photography series?
OMG this happened to me this last Saturday. My FIRST wedding at that! It was the venue was this HUGE church with wooden ceilings AND walls and on top of this I was as well. Plus they the church rep said that we could only use flash up until the back half of the church. And that we could not take photos from any other part but the halfway part of the church. It was crazy!
Guys. Really love your video! Great things to invest buying your dvd
Lo considero un excelente tutorial. Es sumamente práctico y actualizado, orientando a como resolver problema en diferentes situaciones que se presentan con frecuencia.
Muy agradecido.
Hi you can put continue light also, colored light , it can give nice result , isn t it?
Who is the guy teaching about how to handle lighting that barn? I like the way he thinks... I wish I had seen this one before we shot at Dubsdread in Orlando. I loved and hated that place. Better yet, the barns in Knoxville!! Gah!! Who is this guy...? He has changed my life.
This was great. confirmed a few things I was already using and I learned some new tricks as well.
That was a great video tutorial. I have weddings for the next 3 weeks and I'm excited to try some of these techniques......I'll update you as to what happened
Awesome, glad this helped!
Thank you for the tutorial,but I have a question for you.
Pls what is the watts of the Studio light use normally use.
Anywhere from 650watt/s to 1000 watts/s
Sometimes there are receptions where a decorator team spent countless hours creating a certain ambiance. You certainly don't want to blast it all away with the flashes. Selective flash firing is key in these situations.
I have a Canon,6D, using a 600EX-RT as my top mount flash and have my PLUS III connected via the PC connection. And I have PLUSX triggers on my other flashes. When I fire my 600EX it does not trigger the Plus III so that the other flashes go off. What setting do I have to go to to make this setup work?
nice for me and all bro
I was wondering why you would change your aperture to control light if you subject comes too close to a speedlight? Why wouldn't you just bump up your shutter speed, while keeping a shallow depth of field for the creamy look. Unless using the pocket wizard does not allow you to shoot over 200. To me, that poses a problem, I like shooting at f/2.0 - f/3.5 majority of the time. Creates separation from the background and lets in more light.
Great video, definitely learned quite a bit.
Good question. The reason is that shutter speed does not affect your flash up to the sync speed (usually 1/250). So bumping up your shutter from say 1/60th to 1/250th will not make a difference in flash power. Instead you have to use one of the other two aspects of exposure: aperture or ISO. If your flash was too powerful, you COULD lower your ISO and then slow your shutter speed by the same amount to keep your ambient light equal with your flash decreasing in strength. However at some point your SS might become very slow (less than 1/20) and that could cause problems. Instead I prefer to gain DOF by stopping down the aperture and increasing the ISO up. Both work but using the shutter would not in this situation.
awesome tutorial Fstoppers
Thanks. I was thinking in terms of straight up. Have to make sure I watch the angle.
Yeah, if you shoot straight up, you need to be 10-20 feet away from them which works well with telephoto lenses. But if you are shooting wide and are close to the action, you def want to angle your flash backwards or back and slightly left/right.
Just what I may need for Daz Studio, I'll get back to this later. Back to TSFH, and CG 101 texture stuff.
Very helpful episode thank you
What does he mean when he says “once he white balances correctly for his gelled flash”...? If you put a gel onto the flash, then wouldn’t adjusting the white balance cancel it out? .....Also, if you have the flash only backlighting the subject, can’t it throw off the camera meter? Like, the meter will think it’s exposed correctly and then when you fire the camera a flash goes off right in the frame that wasn’t there before when the camera was metering. I would think that would throw it off.
Thank you guys ! Your video is very helpful! I have the strobe Flashpoint Xplor and 1 speedlight Canon 430. Is this enough for me to start? Do I have to place these two lights in different angles? Or flash on the camera, and the strobe in the hall?
very good tutorial..thanks guys.
I still use my Fstoppers light diffuser that I bought years ago. Thankfully, I bought 3 of them. Every time I use it, other photographers want to know where they can get one. Not sure why it is no longer available.
We've thought of revamping it. When it was a success, all these Chinese factories started ripping us off and there were no less than 4 listings on Amazon that were 50% less than what we charged (which made it not even profitable for us). Now that all our inventory has been sold, those Chinese rip offs have disappeared too which is interesting. Maybe we will revisit it. -P
Great video! Thank you for all this information!
With the godox x pro trigger you can control also the power of your speedlite
Thanks for the Videos!!!! Hey I have a D5100 Nikon going to upgrade later on but I need your help !!! Im going to shoot a wedding recpetion at night in a white wedding tent. I like to know what kind of Flashes I need for my nikon D5100 just like your set up at the barn in your video. Thanks!
Isn't the bounce flash going to light up the entire room only if you use it on TTL ? Why not use it on manual ?
Excellent
Can I point out, while I have watched your videos for a few years, it finally hit me why Lee REALLY distracts me when he speaks. Dude, you are like Dexter Morgan Jr. It's kinda hot! LOL!!!
A solution to the dangling Pocket Wizard...use the threaded screw hole on the side of the Pocket Wizard and a screw cut to fit between it and the hole for a tripod on the bottom of the camera or battery grip. Take a small sync cord, black spike or gaffers tape and you have a solid unit that doesn't move around. Place a nut in the center of the screw to gain purchase on it when you want to remove it.
Yeah I've thought of that before but it ruins the ability to shoot vertical with your vertical grip. I also use tripod plates enough that I don't want to tie that 1/4" screw hole with a random bolt....have you ever gotten one of those stuck and tried to remove it? Not fun
Fstoppers Fans just velcro the pocket wizard on your on camera flash mate. add a rubber band for extra stability and you're good to go.!
I love this video. A lot of great info and I have got to get a Pocket Wizard setup like that. Where do I get tripods that hold speedlights and go up a couple stories like in the video?
ebay, Amazon, and Adorama. I would start with ebay first.
Thanks for the response, Darren. I was looking for the specific brand or model as most stands I see on ebay and Amazon don't extend to that height.
kurt copeland Take a look at Adorama or B&H Photo Video for lightstands. If you get something like the Phottix Varos II XS, you can angle the flash.
Very nice lighting,what is the best lenses to use in the reception?
..
The best lens in my opinion is the 24-70 2.8. It gives you a lot of flexibility for those fast movement moments because it zooms and the 2.8 aperture helps tremendously in low light situations. It also helps you blur the background quicker which often gives your subject a strong focus point in an otherwise busy environment.
Thank you for your reply..
thank you for the video. I would like to try this but am worried about what the guests are going to feel when the flashes are going off all of the time. Do you notice that they are annoyed at all?
I have never once had a guest complain about that. Most of the weddings we shoot have a DJ or a Band and the energy level is pretty high and people don't notice flash. I am very mindful during toasts and speeches though and only try to take 5-10 shots total before taking a break and letting the people give their speeches. Of course, that being said, I'm also keeping my camera ready for emotional moments so if the bride starts crying or the best man tells a joke, I'm ready to capture that too.
Sarah Powell it aint their wedding. They cant say nuffing about it. Or they can but on their way back to their houses. Usually folks start critiquin at that moment. So you dont be worried about nobody but the customers
Amazing video!!
Hey, I loved the video and had a confusion where you said that you can gel the lights. So what do you mean by gel the lights ? Like you said gel my camera's flash red and leave the other light which will automatically produce a blue light on the other flash. The other question is how do you sync the Nikon flash and the Pocket Wizard ? Thanks :)
Think of "gel" as a film that you can use to change the color or white balance of the flashes. You can get an assortment of colors to cover your lights. If you don't understand how color temperature or the Kelvin temp can affect your shot I would probably study that. It can really affect your quality and effects. Good luck!
Lee, do you still hang the pocket wizard off to the side, or has this changed? Or has this changed altogether and you dont actively shoot weddings as much?
Guys, I just finished watching your whole vidoes on how to become a wedding photographer, so many good tips, i appreciated it. Since you are Nikon shooters like me i have another question if you dont mind. . listen i have some problem and i cant figure out what i am doing wrong. i have the d810 and speedlights sb910 and sb700. no matter what radio trigger i use (phottix and godox) i cant control remotely the power out out or ttl. it only shoots. is it a setting in the camera or speedlight that needs to be adjusted. i really appreciate your help specially when i have an up coming even and i will be using flashes remotely. thank you! Keep up the work, you encourage us to working our goals...
You need a trigger that allows for remote ittl to control the power output. 80% of the triggers out there simply send a "fire" signal. I have used some of the Yongnuo, cactus 5 or 6, and the pocket wizard flex/minis. Just make sure they support the ittl Nikon creative lighting system.
Hi Patrick! I tried the same thing with my setup (Nikon D750 and a yongnuo 622-TX via PC-sync cable attached to my sb-910) but i realised, that I was not able to control the power oft the flash, wich is sitting on a yongnuo 622 receiver unit! I used a Yongnuo 568EX and a Nikon SB-700 flash... Of course the 622-TX is capable of ttl mode but regardless of whether I set a certain power level on the trigger the external flashes on the resceiver units are firing always on the same power setting. It doesen't matter also if the units and flashes are in manual mode or not...
Thanks for the video, are you using TTL speedlights?
Really incredible video, guys. Thank you so much.
This is amazing... what a difference...
Muchas gracias
Can you please show a link to all the lights & gears you're talking about? Thank you so much!
Great tutorial, thanks!
thank you for the video, guys!
brilliant just show the competition how to shoot like you
this why most photographers are struggling
Thank you Thank you Thank you!
I'd be shitting my pants leaving a profoto on slight stand around stumbling drunk people!
This is why photography insurance exists, lol. Drunk people and energetic children.
Thanks. Great tips.
"Great video! Please help... I have a canon 580exii/ w pocketwizard plusiii cable (ch17 ABCD all on) attached on hotshoe of canon 5dmarkii (dangling off like you do). I have another canon 580exii off camera connected to another pocketwizard plusiii (ch 17 ABCD all on). The test button on both pocketwizards fires both speedlights. Unfortunately when I press the shutter on camera, only the onboard flash fires... What am I doing wrong? what settings should I adjust? I know if I set the onboard flash to master and off camera flash to slave it will work if nearby (unreliable)- but I need the speedlights to fire at a distance w/ the pocketwizards? Any help would be appreciated."
Same problem! So frustrating!
Very useful, thanks for sharing!
You guys have seriously helped me with my photography. Thank you for your content. One question: If you cant afford the pocket wizards or secondary flash options, what can you use for low or no cost?
Pocket wizard now makes a cheaper version called the X. If you can't get those, check out the cactus V5 or 6 or the triggers by Yongnuo.
Great videos. Question for you. When your shooting with lets say 4 off camera flashes at 1/16~1/64 power and TTL on camera flash, do you use a light meter to get your initial settings for the area covered by the 4 off camera flashes?
old but gold
What do you use that you can crank iso to 3200 on still images and not have it full of grain?
Thanks a lot! Very helpful!
I've been looking at buying a Nikon D800 or D800e do you have any comments which is better for photographing people. Love this tutorial btw, saving for the dvd as I type
Great Tutorial. Helped me out greatly.
Curious if you're still using Nikon or switched to Godox
hi guys i enjoy your videos. i see you used umbellas difusers instead of umbrelas reflectors instead to light thst venue. what difference is t between the two?
thanks
we just have a mix of shoot through umbrellas and normal bounce umbrellas. Honestly I rarely use umbrellas unless I'm in a situation like the barn where the ceilings are high or made of wood. You might be able to see a difference in the two umbrellas in a small room where you are trying to contain the light spill, but in a large venue situation both will work equally as good. I wouldn't get too hung up on buying one over the other and infact you can often buy one umbrella that has a skirt that removes so you can use it both ways.
Interesting and very comprehensive. I don't really shoot weddings professionally (except for friends) but I have had to do many 'mass events' in the past and one thing I never do is put lights on stands: NEVER !!
People drink at receptions, people become unsteady, distracted and a danger to themselves and everything around them.
Lighting stands are a hazard you definitely do not want - think of the legal angle when your tumbling speed lite wipes out the bride ! Will your insurance cover you ?
In situations like that I have always gone into the venue early and CLAMPED lights up high onto existing features and added a safety chain or cord if for some reason the clamp fails. It does restrict your placement but you are safe in the knowledge that you're not going to kill a guest.
Yeah you def need liability insurance if you are a photographer and also it's wise to sandbag your lightstands. That being said, a little speedlight on a lightweight stand would never be able to seriously hurt anyone in all honesty. The Profoto B1 lights are a different story but we rarely use those in receptions.
Thank you so much for this video! It was so informative! I am currently looking into getting a second speedlight flash, but the flash transmitter that I have now goes on top of my camera without a second hot shoe to connect my flash to the camera as well. Ideally, I would love to be able to have a flash on top of my camera while still having flashes that I can leave around the room to trigger, but I'm not sure how I would do this - especially in a way that is somewhat inexpensive as I am only starting out. I have a Canon DSLR. Any suggestions?
You need to either buy triggers with pass through hot shoes on top or plug in your trigger into your camera/flash through the PC port. We always had Pocket Wizards dangling off to the side of our cameras with a lanyard. If you have a more professional DSLR that has a PC Sync plug on the camera you can use that otherwise you need to plug the remote trigger into the PC Sync on the side of your flash which sits on top of your hotshoe. Hope that makes sense and helps
Would studio strobes also work in that barn instead of the speedlights?... changing batteries in speedlights that are 10 or 12 feet in the air must be difficult in the middle of a 4 or 5 hour reception...
yeah definitely. I just find that my speedlights are usually set at about 1/64 - 1/8th power so if a single set of batteries gives you 200 flash pops at 1/1 full power, then you usually get 1200 flash pops at 1/8th or less. Changing batteries on these lights isn't that big of an issue and I usually have to change them out once if ever during a long reception. That's not necessarily the case with the on camera flash that is sometimes firing at 1/4 or 1/2 power.
If you fire studios into the ceiling will the lighting be flat resulting in the lighting not pulling the subjects off the background?
Hi Guys ... that`s exc......Which cameras and lens are you using to record the hole film. ...
guys, you are great as usual. i just don t like your jeans :). but again, you are extraordinary... thank you for all your work.
jubi laru stupidest words lol
Excellent video! What wires are you running on your pocket wizards?
They are paramount cords with the locking Nikon locks so they don't pull out..
What about using the PocketWizard FlexTT5 and mini along with the AC3 to trigger the OCF? I had the Plus III's but wanted the HSS capabilities of the Flex system. I understand that the AC3 only has 3 groups but you would think that three groups would be enough.
HSS is really only useful outside where you want to shoot at 2.8 but the ambient light is too bright. Indoors this is hardly ever a problem. Infact, I almost always shoot receptions at f2.8 so I can't see why you would need the HSS or FP modes turned on indoors. Your flash duration is usually waaaay quicker than a fast shutter so you don't need the fast shutter to freeze motion either.
But yes, you can use any of the pocketwizards to trigger your lights. If for some reason you do use HSS indoors and bounce that light, keep in mind that HSS destroys flash output and so you will probably find yourself firing your flash at full power and exhausting your batteries pretty quickly.