{"id":1900,"date":"2009-12-19T21:43:02","date_gmt":"2009-12-20T01:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planetneil.com\/tangents\/?p=1900"},"modified":"2026-06-24T00:40:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T04:40:06","slug":"bounce-flash-wedding-receptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/bounce-flash-wedding-receptions\/","title":{"rendered":"bounce flash examples – wedding receptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

bounce flash examples – wedding receptions<\/h1>\n

Over the course of the past year or so, I’ve made a steady\u00a0attempt to move this blog away from being wedding-heavy, and take the material more towards general photography, and photographing people.<\/p>\n

However, since the most of my work is as done as a wedding photographer in New Jersey<\/a>, I still get a large number of questions which relate to wedding photography –\u00a0and specifically, photographing the reception.\u00a0 So I thought I would expand a little on the techniques I use in photographing wedding receptions.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A few years back, I would regularly use additional lighting to add extra light to the reception room<\/a>, in order to avoid the dreaded black background which everything faded into.\u00a0 But I rarely do so these days, and haven’t used additional lighting at a reception in more than a year.<\/p>\n

Somewhere around the time I started using the Canon 1D mk3, I decided to forgo the additional off-camera flash setups at a reception. I could now really make use of the high-ISO capabilities of the camera<\/a> to bring in the ambiance.\u00a0 And now with cameras such as the Nikon D700<\/a> (B&H) and Canon 5D and Canon 5D mkII<\/a> (B&H), incredibly good high-ISO performance has become\u00a0more accessible.<\/p>\n

Other reasons for not using additional off-camera lighting at receptions usually have to do with the logistics and space, and shape of the reception room.\u00a0 Quite often there just isn’t space to safely put down a lightstand or two.\u00a0 Also, more and more receptions venues are lately using up-lighting.\u00a0 This already helps create a more colorful and interesting background, and additional flashguns would just destroy the mood.<\/p>\n

To show some examples from weddings this year:<\/p>\n


\nAll of these images are with on-camera flash with the back <\/a>foamie<\/a> thing<\/a>, usually bouncing the flash behind me or off to the side.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/30 @ f3.2 @ 1600 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S\u00a0@ 24mm;\u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/125 @ f2.8 @ 1600 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR\u00a0@ 200mm;\u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/100 @\u00a0f4.5 @ 1600 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S\u00a0@ 24mm;\u00a0 Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

With a marquee tent, you have a bounceable surface behind you, where-ever you turn. \u00a0In terms of using flash, it is one of the easiest situations to find yourself in.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/60 @ f3.5 @ 2000 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S @ 24mm;\u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

I quite often try to use the DJ’s lighting as a way of creating separation from the background, and especially to avoid a black background.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/30 @ f3.2 @ 1600 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S @ 35mm;\u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

Using a slow shutter speed, I deliberately zoomed while tripping the shutter.\u00a0 It took numerous tries to get a few frames which worked. \u00a0You really do need the most important part of your scene in the center where you have the least zooming effect. \u00a0It’s a bit of a trick to keep the camera fairly static while twisting the zoom ring suddenly.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/50 @ f2.8 @ 2000 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR\u00a0@ 200mm;\u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

With the first dance and parent dances, I mostly use the 70-200mm f2.8 wide open and wait for the right expression.\u00a0 I positioned myself so that there are defocused highlights in the background to help create separation. \u00a0The flash is bounced off to my right into the large reception room.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/60 @\u00a0f2.8 @ 2000 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S @ 24mm; \u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

The black foamie thing<\/a> clearly in effect here .. it allowed me to bounce the flash to my left, and even slightly towards the row of musicians.\u00a0 This is so that I can create a light-source equidistant to everyone .. and hence even light on everyone.\u00a0 This makes my post-production workflow simpler in that I don’t have to pull images into Photoshop to edit them.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/125 @ f2.8 @ 1600 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR \u00a0@ 115mm;\u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

This photograph has appeared elsewhere on this site, but I thought it would make a great example here. \u00a0Once again, I positioned myself so that I could use a defocused highlight in the background against which to place my subject.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/100 @ f5.6 @ 1600 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 105mm f2.8 macro AF-S VR;\u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

I use the same technique for detail shots, such as this photo of the couple’s rings.\u00a0 I bounced flash towards the wall opposite me. ie, the flash went “over” the rings, so that the light comes in from the opposite side of the camera.\u00a0 I used the black foamie thing again to flag the light from my flash so that there is no direct\u00a0light from my flash falling on the rings and flowers.<\/p>\n

And while we’re looking at detail shots – I alternate detail images between using the 85mm f1.4 wide open without flash, and on the other camera, use the 24-70mm f2.8 with flash. \u00a0The flash is then bounced off to the side to give directional light.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

camera settings:\u00a0 1\/80 @ f4 @ 1600 ISO; TTL bounce flash
\nequipment:\u00a0 Nikon D3;\u00a0 Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S @ 24mm;\u00a0Nikon SB-900<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now the big question – one which regular readers of this blog will already know –
\nwith these images, how did I meter for the flash?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

other articles on wedding photography<\/a><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

bounce flash examples – wedding receptions Over the course of the past year or so, I’ve made a steady\u00a0attempt to move this blog away from being wedding-heavy, and take the material more towards general photography, and photographing people. However, since the most of my work is as done as a wedding photographer in New Jersey, Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,45],"tags":[55,56,66,85],"yst_prominent_words":[5925,5132,5128,1477,1842,1478,5130,5144,5131,5127,1901,4151,5396,5129],"class_list":{"0":"post-1900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-flash-photography","8":"category-wedding-photography","9":"tag-flash-photography-techniques","10":"tag-flash-photography-tips","11":"tag-nj-wedding-photographer","12":"tag-wedding-photography-techniques","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1900"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52579,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900\/revisions\/52579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1900"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}