{"id":11924,"date":"2012-11-12T19:31:20","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T23:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=11924"},"modified":"2023-07-26T14:01:42","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T18:01:42","slug":"bounce-flash-photography-wedding-receptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/bounce-flash-photography-wedding-receptions\/","title":{"rendered":"Bounce flash photography at wedding receptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Bounce flash photography at wedding receptions<\/h1>\n

This photograph from a recent wedding got a few comments and questions in the album on Facebook. The questions really hinged around “where did all that light come from?” or whether I had used off-camera flash.<\/p>\n

The purple and blue light in the back-ground is from the up-lighting from the entertainment \/ DJ company. The light on the couple entering the reception room … is all one on-camera bounce flash.<\/p>\n

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Bounce flash technique<\/h2>\n

Where did the light from the bounce flag come from? From behind<\/strong> me, because that is how I get the best light from my on-camera flash.<\/p>\n

To recap quickly: \u00a0for wedding receptions, I most often rely on
\n– one on-camera flash that I bounce,
\n– high-ISO capable cameras like the Nikon D3s \/ D4, and
\n– the receptions using up-lighthing.<\/p>\n

With up-lighting like this, I don’t feel the need to use additional lighting – as in\u00a0this example<\/a>\u00a0where the background would’ve been dark without the additional light. I mostly rely just on-camera bounce flash<\/a>. And if done properly, it can look pretty awesome … for minimal effort. In the example at the top, I did use the\u00a0local adjustment tool in Lightroom<\/a>, to lift the exposure on the couple by 0.5 stops. Just a quick sweep of the local correction brush to sweeten the image.<\/p>\n

As mentioned in that linked article,\u00a0using on-camera bounce flash<\/a>, I bounce my flash into the direction where I want it to come from. By creating that “big softbox effect”. The light wasn’t bounced off a wall near me. The light was bounced into a huge room. I am relying then on a wide-ish aperture and a high ISO to allow enough of that “big” light to register in the photograph. *That* is where the light came from – the rest of the room.<\/p>\n

With this, it becomes important to dispel the idea that you have to have a specific wall or ceiling to bounce your flash off. \u00a0And it is especially important to get rid of the notion that you have to bounce your flash forward at a 60 degree angle with the white card out. It usually doesn’t make for the best light from your on-camera flash.<\/p>\n

An important aspect here, is how\u00a0the inverse square law helps us when we bounce flash behind us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A side-note about bouncing flash like this: \u00a0Quite often when I take a candid portrait of a couple at a table, the guy will call me back and tell me my flash didn’t go off … because at 1600 ISO (and higher) and a wide-ish aperture, and the use of the Black Foamie Thing … it barely registered as a blip of light on the ceiling behind us. Then I will quietly show the couple the photo – well-exposed with awesome light – and walk away feeling superior when they look surprised. The light really can look very good.<\/p>\n

I normally use\u00a0a 1\/2 CTS gel on my flash<\/a> as default when shooting indoor wedding receptions. (I sometimes go to a full CTS.) For this image, I had the gels still on my speedlights, but later on when the activity subsided, I did a few tests and saw that the gels weren’t needed. There wasn’t any orange-hued incandescent lighting that needed to be corrected for. The\u00a0colored up-lighting dominated the background.<\/p>\n

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Camera settings\u00a0& photo gear\u00a0used (or\u00a0equivalents)<\/h2>\n