[ click on the image to see a larger version ]

With this recent wedding – the same one as posted here- the ceremony was moved indoors because of the approaching thunderstorms.  The ceremony was going to be held in the large reception room in the late afternoon, under the chuppah.   I once again had no choice but to add flash to balance the shaded side to areas lit by window light.

I want to post this image as an example again of how I use directional light from my on-camera flash.  Instead of using a generic light modifier on top of my speedlight, I used The Black Foamie Thing.  I was using the 70-200 mm f2.8 to capture the bride’s expressions as she exchanged rings with the groom. Now, from my point of view where I was standing, I had more than a 180′ range in how I could rotate my flash-head to bounce flash to light up my subject.  I also had about a 120 degree angle in how I could swivel & tilt my flashhead from right behind me, over & above me, and even tilting the flash-head forward here.  So I really had a wide range in how I could bounce my flash.

But for me, only one direction really made sense …

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A question that I was asked via email, that I thought would be of interest to everyone.

Gary Payne wrote

Neil,
I just finished your book, and I would like to thank you for putting together a great book on lighting that an amateur without a studio and tons of lighting equipment can actually use. Its great. Now, I want to re-read it, camera and flash in hand, and really start to learn.

I have one question: When using ambient light, I understand that you set your exposure using the camera’s manual mode, then use flash to fill in. My question, when your shutter speed goes below that usually used hand-held, do you count on the speed of the flash to produce a sharp image or go to tripod or monopod? Or, increase either ISO or f-stop until you reach and acceptable shutter speed?

Gary .. You are entirely correct in that I usually increase my ISO or open my aperture, to get a high enough shutter speed for sharper images. I can count on the flash freezing the action when I am shooting in lower light levels, and my ambient light is around 3 stops or more under-exposed. This means the (TTL) flash will be the dominant light source, and the short duration of the flash will freeze the action

But when we get to situations in low light where we are using flash in nearly the same amount that the available light is, then we can’t rely on flash to freeze the action.  I prefer not to use a tripod for my wedding photography, since it slows me down for the style that I work in.

I thought this might be a good opportunity to run through some examples again, and look at how we’d approach these scenarios.  Then we can see what effect the flash might have on giving us sharper images .. or not. In other words, let’s see where flash would help freeze movement.  I used tungsten-gelled flash there (bounced over my shoulder) to help open up the shadows cast by the strong video light.

First, let’s start off with a scenario where flash is just a delicate touch of fill-flash to help lift the shadows:

As you can see here, the available light is just gorgeous. I purposely turned the bride and flower girl away from the sun coming through the trees in the late afternoon. This way the light falling on them from the camera’s point of view, is very soft.  So I just needed a touch of fill-flash (around -3 EV) to help lift any shadows.

camera settings: 1/300th @ f4 @ 500 ISO

It is obvious that in this instance, the flash would have no effect on freezing the subject since it is the merest hint of light. Therefore the actual shutter speed we choose; and how carefully we hold the camera and lens; and how still our subjects are .. all these will be the deciding factors on how sharp the image will be.

Similarly here, where the bride wanted a photograph of the bridal party during some air time … I needed a fast shutter speed to freeze the action.

1/500th @ f4.5 @ 640 ISO .. lens set to 24mm

I choose the ISO such that I could get a fast shutter speed. I did go into high-speed sync mode .. which implies that I would lose range on my flash. But I could accept that, since I just wanted a touch of fill-flash again. So with this example too, the actual shutter speed that I choose will determine how sharp my image will be.

However, it becomes slightly more involved when we use flash when the light levels are low …

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