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a simple lighting setup for photographing the wedding formals

January 23, 2012

a simple lighting setup for photographing the wedding formals

Photographing a wedding can be pretty hectic at times, especially as it so often becomes the photographer’s de facto responsibility to keep everything on track. The formal photo session specifically is a part of the day that many photographers find challenging. (The other is photographing the wedding processional.)

When photographing the family portraits, you can really help yourself by nailing your lighting. Get it down. Then you can concentrate on getting the groups together, and concentrate on posing the groups. But your lighting works! Much less stress.

I mostly work with the Quantum flashes since they are workhorses and don’t melt when used hard. They also have a bit more power than a speedlight.

But quite often, I like working with a speedlight setup …

Here is a similar image with the exposure pulled down to give a bit more detail of the flash set-up.

But this is a proper close-up of what was used.

the equipment you’ll need to light the wedding formals

Two speedlights.
Here I used two Nikon SB-900 speedlights.
They’ve now been updated as the even better Nikon SB-910 Speedlight (B&H)

If you’re a Canon shooter, then the Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite (B&H) is a great choice. But any speedlights would’ve worked. There are good reasons to use cheaper manual-only speedlights, but I prefer having only the top-end speedlights which offer the flexibility and features I need, such as TTL flash and high-speed flash sync.

Radio triggers
I like the PocketWizard TT5 units, but since we’ll be using manual flash only here, there’s a wide variety of radio triggers for flash that would’ve worked well.

45″ white satin umbrella (B&H)
This single shoot-through umbrella disperses the light surprisingly evenly.

Umbrella Bracket (B&H)
You need something to hook the umbrella up to the light-stand, and be able to swivel the umbrella into a specific direction.

Battery packs
For faster recycling, I’d strongly recommend battery packs. The proprietary battery packs make a lot of sense:
- Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
- Canon CP-E4 Compact Battery Pack (B&H)

Dual Speedlite Bracket
I use the IDC double mount as shown in the photograph above, but it’s been updated by the Triple Threat. There are numerous options here, and a Google search will show many choices. There’s the Morris Umbrella Tilt Head (B&H); the Interfit Strobies Triple Flash bracket (B&H). Lightware offers the FourSquare. There’s the WizardBracket. There are also DIY dual flash brackets. A wide choice.

I would also strongly recommend the RPS Light Bar (B&H), as described in the article on mounting multiple flashes / speedlites.

But it does make sense to get two speedlights in there for extra power, or for faster recycling. Besides, you have at least two speedlights anyway.

Lightstand
I like the Manfrotto 1004BAC (B&H), but a lower priced lightstand like the Impact Heavy Duty 13′ LightStand (B&H) is a good option.

That about covers the gear you’d need.

Oh, currently my standard camera and lens for formals:
Nikon D4 (B&H);
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8G ED AF-S (B&H)

exposure metering

I don’t use a lightmeter here, since I can rely on the histogram method of getting accurate exposure with manual flash.

Since the family members will be in a fixed position in relation to the light (on a light-stand), it just makes the most sense to use manual flash. TTL flash will cause too much variation in exposure. What you need for a faster workflow afterwards, is consistent and accurate exposure. Every frame with exactly the same exposure.

Manual flash exposure is controlled by these 4 factors:
- distance between the light source and subjects (which is fixed)
- power … the power / output of your speedlights. You need to figure this out, for your chosen aperture and ISO
- ISO … select a reasonable ISO. I often go as high as 800 ISO with the family photos with a suitable camera.
- aperture … pick a suitable aperture. f5.6 makes sense. f8 makes sense. f2.8 is kinda risky for a group because the depth-of-field is so shallow. Stay with a medium aperture.

My settings for the image at the top were:
1/160 @ 4.5 @ 400 ISO
There was a lot of available light streaming in, so I chose my settings accordingly, and added enough manual flash to give me good exposure for the brides dress. All other tones fell into place along with this.

For this wedding, in a darker church, I chose:
1/60 @ f5 @ 800 ISO … using exactly the same setup.

A quick note about focal length – use as long a focal length as you comfortably and practically can. Really resist the urge to zoom wider on a group of people .. really try to rather step back and keep to a longer focal length.

And this is how it comes together for the lighting – using a lighting gear that is easy to use, and gives surprisingly great light for a medium sized umbrella. This way you can take stress off you by having great light with the family formals session.

- wedding photography: positioning your flash for the formals
- lighting and photographing the wedding formals
- lighting the wedding formals
- more articles about wedding photography
- other articles on off-camera flash photography

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32 Comments »

Does adding a second flash double the power?

Lou Recine

Comment by Lou Recine — January 24, 2012 @ 4:20 am
i thought I read your initial assessment of the new Nikon SB 910 was not much better than the SB 900. In particular you stated that you wanted to take a photo when YOU wanted and did not want the flash to slow down to keep cool and slow down your picture taking . Hence you would turn that feature off. Here I read that you have upgraded to the newer SB910. Any particular reason ??

Comment by RON LEMISH — January 24, 2012 @ 7:11 am
Neil, LOVE the blog, regular reader. Any reason for shooting through the umbrella vs. shooting into the umbrella?

Comment by Nick Strocchia — January 24, 2012 @ 9:11 am
>>Does adding a second flash double the power?

Lou Recine<<

Assuming you're using two similarly rated flashes like 2 Nikon SB900 or 2 Canon 580EX II, the flash output is doubled. That is, if both flashes are manually set to full output (1/1), you would get an additional stop of light than if you'd only used one flash (measured by a light meter).

But flash power isn't the real reason for doubling flashes. Doubling allows you to set them to a lower power setting so they don't work as hard, and it also increases recycling time.

Comment by jan1215 — January 24, 2012 @ 11:23 am
Doubling up on the number of flashes improves / shortens the recycle time because no single flash needs to work quite so hard.

Comment by Ulysses — January 24, 2012 @ 12:54 pm
Thanks for this post. Quick question. Do you light from camera axis or from an angle?

Comment by Sanka — January 24, 2012 @ 3:14 pm
Sanka .. in the 2nd image, the pull-back shot, you can see the height that I had the umbrella at.

If you had the light from the camera’s axis, you’d have very flat light – not necessarily a bad thing, but not as interesting as off-axis lighting.

I usually have the light-stand at about the 2nd or 3rd pew in … and to my side so that it doesn’t get knocked over. And the umbrella is at about 30 degree angle above.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — January 24, 2012 @ 5:01 pm
Better with 2 lights?…. one on each side of the camera?

Comment by mickey — January 24, 2012 @ 6:48 pm
Sure, two lights is usually how I set it up.
– lighting the family formals
– lighting large groups

Yet often enough, this simple setup works. The photos look good, and that’s the final test on whether this way of shooting is good or not.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — January 24, 2012 @ 7:00 pm
Neil, long time follower, OK, even with your settings you presented what was you flashes output for the sb900s set to manual.

Comment by Jerry — January 24, 2012 @ 8:08 pm
Jerry …. I try not to be at full power. Other that that, the actual power setting doesn’t really matter, and I don’t take much notice of it.

What matters is that I get proper flash exposure, and that I balance it with the ambient light to some extent at least.
And I do that by juggling the flash power / distance / aperture / ISO equation. Since the output of the flash is affected by the diffusion (whether softbox / umbrella), I am not that concerned with the actual manual output of the speedlight, as long as I am not demanding more than it can deliver.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — January 24, 2012 @ 8:17 pm
Neil, some of the more eagle eyed readers might wonder why you’re talking manual flash here, yet both flashes are still in TTL mode. For those readers, the answer is simple actually. These particular PocketWizard triggers requires the remote controlled slave flashes to remain in full TTL communication mode while their mode of operation and power ratio of is set by the unit controlling them (in this case manual). This is Nikon’s thing and even using Nikon’s CLS in commander mode (SB900/901/800 or SU800), works the exact same way.

Cheers!

Comment by Bogdan — January 24, 2012 @ 9:17 pm
Love this setup. I’ve been shooting formals with this setup for a long time, and with shooting in manual exposure and manual flash, the consistency really helps in post. Great blog post !

Comment by Chris Bues — January 25, 2012 @ 1:13 am
We have a lot of dark catholic churches around here so 90% of my weddings are done in them. I’ve been using a 2 light (one on each side) set up and have been happy with that however sometimes I just don’t like how the ambient light comes into play. Some churches have lights in the back shining on the wall and some are just dark. I don’t really care for the background to look dark and sometimes orange unless I gel my flash. I shoot with the Nikon D700 and have lowered my shutter speed and increased my ISO as high as 1000 on the formals, but still very dark behind them. On my last one I actually set up a speed light on the floor behind them and let it light up the background some but then we’re looking at setting up 3 lights. What do you do in these cases? Any suggestions?

Comment by Sarah — January 25, 2012 @ 1:20 am
Damn! That’s a great shot.

Trev.

Comment by Trev — January 25, 2012 @ 10:38 am
great shot thankx for sharing!
would u have gotten more light and a bit of a more even spread had u bounced off the umbrella?

also am i correct in thinking that u feathering the light by pointing the nose of the umbrella over the subjects head thus getting softer light and a subtle hair light and maybe even to illuminate the background a little?

Comment by naftoli — January 25, 2012 @ 1:52 pm
Thank you for sharing this very nice set up…looking forward to trying it!

Comment by Phillip Marshall — January 25, 2012 @ 3:07 pm
Oh Neil….looks like someone has taken your idea and run with it. Though not quite the BFT and its functioned use is as a lens shield to eliminate flare – i think it can be used as a BFT (or whatever its made out of). I came across it on the B&H site. Personally I wont get it as my $2 solution is quite agreeable, but check it out. I really think you could have been a millionaire with this, LOL. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/825818-REG/Flex_Lens_Shade_A001_Flex_Lens_Shade.html

Cheers.

Comment by james — January 26, 2012 @ 6:35 am
please Be Careful Neil,

flash bracket like that, will stress out TT5 hot shoe.

they break easily.

i’ve broke mine :(

Comment by briand — January 26, 2012 @ 8:33 am
If you do the math then a battery powered flash head & battery pack like the Elinchrom Quadra thru an umbrella will probably cost the same as the 2 strobes, 2 PW TTL’s, brackets, extra battery packs. (yes, you may have these already). Less hassle to set up, still manual, versatile for other siyuations and lots of bang for the pack.

Comment by Jo Fonseca — January 26, 2012 @ 9:24 am
Hi Neil, could you please expand on your second to last paragraph? Why are you recommending resisting the urge to use a wider angle focal length but rather to stick with the longer focal lengths and step back. I am less concerned with coverage as I am with depth of field since one of the issues I am consistently facing is slightly soft people in either the front or the back depending on where I focus. Even at apertures between f5.6 and f8. Seems to me that a longer focal length would exacerbate that problem.

Thanks again for a great website
Ross

Comment by Ross — January 26, 2012 @ 1:56 pm
Ross,

The reason being at a longer focal length the lens gives a different perspective to the image rather than at a wider angle.

If you look at the main image at top, he could have been much closer, then do a zoom out to 24mm to fit what he wanted in, but, that would then have meant you start to suffer from ‘converging verticals’ where the outside of the frame starts to ‘lean’ in, and any person on the outer edges start to look like they are leaning right in. Nothing wrong with that if you are pressed for room.

Now if Neil had of zoomed out to widest angle and got closer, the edges of the window frame would be really distorted more than pleasing to the eye, also the more zoomed in, the closer the perspective the couple has being to the background.

If you shoot upwards to a building with a wide angle, it ‘converges’ [converging verticals] and if there was a tall enough building and you had a wide lens, eventually it could converge into a point.

Stand on some railway tracks [watch out for trains is a given] and look down at feet, the perspective is ‘correct’ that’s how wide they are, but then raise your head, it will disappear into a point.

So by zooming in, stepping back to then fit in frame what you want, gives a nice perspective to an image that will benefit from such a move like the above shot.

To the question of depth of field you struggle with, if there are 3 rows of people, f6.3-f8 will cover that, focus on the front row, if 4 or more rows, you can stick to f8, but because of how depth of field works you could focus on someone in the second row.

Generally, and I say generally because it also depends on how far back you are standing, plus focal length; this depth of field is 2/3rds behind, 1/3rd in front for a set distance which will be in focus.

What this ‘distance’ is depends on those factors mentioned.
Aperture, the further back you are from the subject will be of benefit, or you will need to have aperture around f11 if you are close.

So that means 2/3rds of a ‘distance’ is in focus behind the focus point, and 1/3rd in front of that focus point should be sharp. If you can step back further, that depth of field ‘distance’ increases. The closer to the focus point you are the shallower the depth of field distance becomes. Hope that makes sense.

This method is often used in shooting a landscape as DoF ‘distance’ can be done by focusing on an object you wish to remain in focus in the foreground is a 1/3rd of the way in the frame, so the remaining 2/3rds behind [the rest of the landscape] will by a general rule also remain in sharp focus, that’s why I mentioned if 4 rows of people or more that may help by focusing on the second row.

Trev.

Comment by Trev — January 27, 2012 @ 10:56 pm
Another reason for using a longer length — which lets you get further from your subjects — is that if you have several rows of people and are close to them, the nearer heads will appear larger than the further ones (consistent with the ratio of their distances from the camera). As you back away, the ratio of subject-to-camera distances (front row divided by back row) approaches 1/1, so the difference in apparent head sizes approaches negligible. (Not an issue with only one “row”, more of a problem the more rows there are.)

Comment by Duane Dale — January 31, 2012 @ 7:29 am
Duane,

Good point. Elongation/distortion of facial features with wider lenses if too close.

Comment by Trev — January 31, 2012 @ 8:04 pm
You have absolutely the best advice. You amaze me with your flash prowess. I am learning posing composition and the couple in front of the steps with the brightly colored stained glass is most certainly the traditional shot. Could the couple be moved closer to the camera with the camera at thigh or knee level so that they’d be enveloped by colored glass with perhaps some bokeh to diffuse the glass?

Comment by OC Mike — February 10, 2012 @ 3:58 pm
Mike … I could’ve .. but during the family photo session, I keep things as streamlined as possible. One set-up with regards to the lighting, and one position. Efficiency is really important here.

As an aside, where you say ‘bokeh‘, I think you meant shallow depth-of-field. Those two terms aren’t the same thing.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — February 10, 2012 @ 4:02 pm
Hi Neil,

Are you now lighting the formals with one 45″ shot-through umbrella instead using the 60″ bounce umbrella and how do you avoid lens flare?

Comment by Trina Cheney — February 15, 2012 @ 9:33 pm
Trina … for a fast, simple setting up, I use this.

There is of course the risk of getting lens flare if I step back too far. I’m careful with that. And with digital, it is easy enough to spot. I also remove the lens filter if I suspect I might get lens flare.

And when I’ve had lens flare causing low contrast on a good shot, then sliding up the Black Point in the processing of the RAW file, usually solves that.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — March 5, 2012 @ 9:14 pm
Neil,
With those two speedlights in the umbrella, are they coordinated in one group (i.e. both of them in group A) or separated (one speedlight in group A, the other in group B)?

Comment by Stephen — April 16, 2012 @ 7:09 pm
Just one group. This is meant to be simple.

Besides, the two flashes are blasting through a single umbrella, so there’s nothing like ratios or lights that need to be balanced.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 23, 2012 @ 9:01 pm
Neil what would be best 6o reflective umbrella or the 45 in shoot through. Also what is your take on using a 4oo watt mono light with a shoot through umbrella 60 inch or 45 inch .
thank you.

Comment by ruben — April 9, 2013 @ 3:31 am
In my experience, a shoot-through umbrella scatters the light more. For photographing the wedding formals, this is usually a (slightly?) better option.

Neil vN

Comment by Neil vN — April 12, 2013 @ 3:26 am