DJ Lighting at wedding reception How I handled the situation w/photo example posted.

CarlosZ

To: Neil and everyone else, While the Bride and Groom were having the first dance at wedding  and uplighting was on them and DJ Lights were on also on with different colors. I was able to wait till the bride and groom moved there position away from the Dj and took photo with my Canon 5dmk3 with on camera flash 600 ex-rt with a Gary Fong lightspare modifier my lens was a 24-70mm F2.8L2. Here's the example but there was some shadows on the bride and groom. My setting were Iso 1600 Lens at 41mm @ F2.8 S 1/400 flash on HSS. My point is there are many options to deal with the DJ lights. As you can see the ceiling had a blue light on it and my background was some what dark. If any one has other examples please post if you want too. The Dj lights have become a problem at most wedding lately.  Attached photo of my example.

Carlos Zaldivar Photographers

Trev

Carlos,

By going into HSS (1/400th) you immediately lost a lot of flash power and ambient, you could have shot at 1/125th easily and also gone up to 2000+ in ISO to open background, but you gain a lot of extra flash power once out of HSS, at least a 1/3rd more power to light up and balance background/couple if you were wanting that.

The other thing I notice and this is by no means criticism, I was wondering about the colour, I don't mean the actual White Balance, but something appears to be off here with the skin tones and in general to my eye, it looks washed out somehow, cannot quite put my finger on it.

Could I be so bold as to ask for the RAW file, you can use MailBigFile or something else and upload and send to me: fstop_87_2@internode.on.net as I would like to see it, only if you are comfortable with that.

Now, as to the DJ lighting you were talking about, I honestly don't mind if it 'splashes' across the couple sometimes as that gives the mood of the evening anyway.

Cheer,
Trev

CarlosZ

To Trev and everyone, My mistake the photo posted needed color correction. Trev you are correct at 1/125 I would have had more ambient light in background. As far as splaslhes of lights thats not what I mean I am talking about DJ lights in there face and body of different colors while there dancing. I re-posted photo with color correction.

Carlos Zaldivar

CarlosZ

I think this color correction is better my monitor needed to be calibrated.

Trev

Yep, much better in colour.

Do you still want to send me the RAW as in my post above?

Just to see how the original looks and I can open background better.

CarlosZ

Trev Thank you for everything no need to fix background but thanks anyway. Thanks for the info also on shooting at. 1/125 to get more ambient light. Next time at my next wedding but like I said those DJ's with those crazy colored lights are a problem. I wanted to share how I took my photos at wedding with the crazy DJ lights. It was great talking to you.

Carlos Zaldivar (Owner of Carlos Zaldivar Photographers)

Neil vN

Hi there Calros ... that top image does not look good at all. It's as if you had use the Shadows slider to pull up the black background?

Also, with these settings;  F2.8 S 1/400 flash on HSS

you'd be better off at f/4 @ 1/200 and not going in to HSS. With HSS you lose too much flash power. 

In other words, you have the same ambient exposure at:

f/2.8 @ 1/400  and f/4 @ 1/200

but you have LESS flash power at 1/400

Check this tutorial again:  tutorial: high-speed flash sync

Neil vN

wedding photography: dealing with the DJ’s lights

CarlosZ

Hi Neil, Your correct the top photo is no good. I was able to correct the photo in the third photo that I posted my monitor was off had to calibrate my iMac again with my xrite i1/display pro. I some how put the Lightroom 5 slider on the minus side for contrast and highlights and it made photo look green and muddy looking. I was also able to bring up the background with the shadow slider to the plus side. But what happen was the iMac needed calibration also. WB and color were off. Thank you for the great information on my settings and the tutorial high -speed flash sync. I will try F4 @1/200 next wedding with crazy DJ lights. It was great meeting you at photo expo in NYC. We need more photographers like you and me which love what we do and share our knowledge with others. I hope some day to have as much knowledge as you Neil and also be able to teach others. I love photography because you always learn something new and there so much to learn. Thank you again Neil.

Carlos Zaldivar

CarlosZ

Trev, I was able to bring up the dark background by putting the shadow slider in lightroom 5 to the plus side. One again thank you for everything.

Carlos Zaldivar