{"id":7557,"date":"2011-03-15T11:21:41","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T15:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=7557"},"modified":"2017-08-12T10:16:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T14:16:00","slug":"wedding-photography-dealing-with-the-videographers-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wedding-photography-dealing-with-the-videographers-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Wedding photography – Dealing with the videographer’s light"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wedding photography – Dealing with the videographer’s light<\/h1>\n

With wedding receptions, we’re most often working within a very warm spectrum. There are tungsten (incandescent) lights all around. (**) There is candle light. There might be twinkling lights as decoration … and there is the videographer’s light. The videographer’s light will be Tungsten balanced, even if it is an LED video light that they are using. (***)<\/p>\n

So while a wedding photographer might be using a lot of flash to dominate the lighting .. and settle for Cloudy or Flash WB, there is often a conflict of interest when the videographer joins in with his video light. The video light obviously has a much warmer white balance than flash. So how do we best deal with this?
\n<\/p>\n

Not necessarily by asking the videographer to move away or switch his light off. We best deal with this by gelling our speedlights (and other flashes) for Tungsten.<\/p>\n

** This is changing though, as more and more venues are changing to fluorescent lights. But it is still a warm color balance that is usually maintained.<\/em><\/p>\n

*** The videographer will gel his LED video light with an amber gel, since he is trying to match the ambient light’s color balance … incandescent \/ Tungsten.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now, the photo above was shot using just the videographer’s light. During the wedding reception, we snuck the couple out for a few romantic portraits. Instead of the videographer and I taking turns to shoot, I shot without flash and just used his video-light and worked around him. A few times I asked the videographer specifically to hold his video-camera with its light in position for me so I could get a certain angle.<\/p>\n

But even when I do need to add flash – whether as the main source of light, or as fill-light to the video light – my flash is gelled, and close to the same color balance. No problems with the videographer’s light potentially becoming intrusive.<\/p>\n

This specific blog post was triggered by a search engine query that I noticed linking to my site. The phrasing was interesting:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“wedding photographer conflict with videographer’s light”<\/p>\n

Really, there would be much less ‘conflict’, if the photographer had gelled the flash for Tungsten. The entire spectrum that we see at a wedding reception is warm … we’re the only fools there adding blue light to this with our flashes. So really, the best way to deal with this, is to gel our flashguns.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gelling your flash for Tungsten \/ Incandescent light<\/h2>\n

Since I frequently gel my flashguns to bring the flash WB closer to Tungsten \/ Incandescent, I use these gels that I cut up and\u00a0tape to the top of my speedlight\u2019s head<\/a>. One of these sheets (which aren’t expensive), will give you a lifetime supply of these filters.\u00a0 If you use flash indoors where Tungsten lighting dominates, then these filters are an\u00a0invaluable part of flash photography.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tYou can buy gels through these affiliate links:<\/p>\n