Comments on: photographing the wedding processional

By: Tony Sale

Tony Sale — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:00:13 +0000

Neil I always find the processional the most challenging part of any wedding, there is some great advice here, thank once again for sharing

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 13:08:27 +0000

Hi Neil,

I’m a beginner autodidact wedding photographer and i’m faced with a big lighing problems each time i shooting at the wedding processional (bride, groom and specials guests down the church aisle) …

It’s been difficult for me to correctly set my exposure, because when they come down to the aisle, the church door are obviously large open and this cause that the background is always overexposed because of the lighting come in from the church door !!!

I’m wondering how can i deal with that, and where i’m supose to be standing … In the middle of the aisle, on the side or in a bench place ???

Note: I wish you understand me well, because i’m a french canadian from Québec and my english is not so good … :)

Thank you and have a nice day !!!

By: Neil vN

Neil vN — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:12:58 +0000

Never with auto ISO. For me, that would defeat the entire point of shooting in manual exposure mode, because it would bring in a variable again.

I want manual exposure mode on my camera, because then my ambient exposure is fixed. Then, as a variable (if necessary), I can bring in TTL flash.

Neil vN

By: PhilW

PhilW — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:07:37 +0000

Neil, a little off-topic, but are you shooting in Auto ISO while in Manual mode? I noticed that all three settings (Shutter, Aperture and ISO) changed quite often. I don’t know how one could concentrate on shooting while changing all of the settings from shot to shot.

By: Neil vN

Neil vN — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:21:03 +0000

At the end of this page, there's a link to more articles about wedding photography, and there you'll find the link to the article on shooting wedding portraits in bright sunlight. Neil vN

By: tom

tom — Thu, 05 May 2011 09:09:17 +0000

I realize this is primarily a discussion about indoor / flash photography, but do you have any recommendations about using fill flash when photography a wedding outdoors? Especially in bright sun ( assumimg overhead sun)? Or should one just shoot in existing light and worry about fill flash only if they are shaded?

By: Neil vN

Neil vN — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 03:32:53 +0000

Catherine .. when I use a diffuser cup in this situation, I usually have my flash in a tilted-forward bounce position. It isn’t necessarily to bounce my flash around the place … but rather to force light fall-off in the foreground.

If my flash was pointing straight forward, then the ground right in front of me would be brightly lit. (You’ve probably noticed this already.) Instead then, I tilt my flash up (or, if you want, tilted forward from the upright position), so that the ground in front of me receives about the same amount of light as my subjects.

So it really is about feathering the light. I hope this makes sense.

re the choice of shutter speeds. In this situation, you are letting your flash take care of proper exposure. So your ambient will be under-exposed to an extent. So you can push your shutter speed up a bit to where you are comfortable that you won’t get subject movement.

Neil vN

By: Catherine

Catherine — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:31:42 +0000

Hi Neil, in the big cavernous churches with wood panelling where you’re forced to use a diffuser cup, how are you then aiming your flash? I get much nicer light if the flash head is pointing straight up with the cup on rather than aimed straight at my subjects. But you do lose a lot of light and the flash struggles to freeze the movement in the processional: I’m not getting high enough shutter speeds even at 2500 ISO on my 5DII. Any tips? Many thanks.

By: Neil vN

Neil vN — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 03:17:09 +0000

Alfredo .. you'll be happy to hear about the new article on using flash during the wedding ceremony in the church. Neil vN

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 02:24:36 +0000

RE: 3rd Shooter: Very rarely but sometimes when Uncle Bob or Aunt Bobbi get a bit annoying I will bounce flash off of them or I will work my way to so as to get in their shot estpecially when they are getting in the way of our work – usually works but you don’t want to offend any one because all your future customers are watching you (weddings are your audition for your next client). 3rd shooting – unfortunately unless you really look the part, pro camera, big lens, etc I think many times will think you are an enthusiast and may not take you seriously…