{"id":13408,"date":"2013-02-08T21:02:20","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T01:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=13408"},"modified":"2020-06-13T18:55:22","modified_gmt":"2020-06-13T22:55:22","slug":"wedding-photography-lighting-large-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wedding-photography-lighting-large-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"Wedding photography – Lighting large groups with a large light"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Wedding photography – Lighting large groups with a large light<\/h1>\n

Relating to the article\u00a0positioning your flash for the wedding formals<\/a>, where the family portraits and groups where photographed with a single umbrella and two speedlights, the question then inevitably comes up – what do you do when you need to photograph a large<\/strong> group of people.<\/p>\n

The obvious answer is – you need a lot more juice! You either need to add more flashguns, or use a more powerful unit.<\/p>\n

As a wedding photographer of Indian weddings<\/a>, I know that I will be dealing with huge groups of people. And that means a small aperture – and that means a really powerful flash.<\/p>\n

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In a previous article<\/a>,I described using two Quantum flashes and large 60″ umbrellas to spread the light. But the Quantum flashes, even though they are tough workhorses, aren’t that much more powerful than a speedlight.<\/p>\n

Instead of the effort of setting up two Q-flashes on their light-stands, I am now using a much simpler set-up – Profoto B1 flash (500 Ws\u00a0)<\/a>\u00a0(affiliate<\/em>), with either the\u00a0Profoto RFi 3’x4′ softbox<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(affiliate<\/em>), or a white shoot-through umbrella.\u00a0The Profoto B1 flash is easy to set up. Even the softbox with the spines is hassle-free. The way that the softbox clips around the flash-head is also very straight-forward and hassle-free.<\/p>\n

What you see in the photo above, was lit by that single large softbox 4 ft by 3 ft. There is slight light fall-off to the sides, but nothing that a quick swipe with the Local Adjustment Brush in Lightroom<\/a> won’t fix. It’s a small trade-off doing this in post, for the simplicity of the lighting setup during the event. Do keep in mind that most groups would be much smaller, and then the light fall-off doesn’t exist.<\/p>\n

The positioning of this Profoto softbox is exactly the same as described in this article –\u00a0positioning your flash for the wedding formals<\/a>. With this, I get consistent awesome light.<\/p>\n

The summary to all this: I use whatever is necessary for the specific task, but also with an eye on what is easy to use.<\/p>\n

camera settings: 1\/125 @ f\/10 @ 400 ISO<\/p>\n

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Photo gear\u00a0used (or equivalents)<\/h2>\n