We are repeatedly asked how we light this kind of shot. please see below, a bride & groom outside a venue that is already illuminated with those high pressure sodium lamps that illuminate and blast orange light everywhere.
Firstly lets set the scene, Mid September, dark by 8pm fine drizzle the stuff thats soon saturates your cloths, wet and boggy grass
The weather in this case was certainly not ideal effects the way you take the shot. Firstly client experience, I need to be able to asked the B&G to come out into poor conditions, looking their best, come into position for a few seconds then back inside. Job done.
Position, If possible the preferred position of the subjects needs to be outside the Sodium light catchment area, this will enable you to light the B&G with flash, Speedlight or other portable kit, in our case Elinchrom Quadra. If you have any Sodium light spilling on to the B&G (Especially the dress) you will have to try and remove the colour cast in post production, not ideal. Due to the weather I always keep large clear polythene bags to cover to power packs and the strobes, these can be held in position with elastic bands.
Once you have decided where the subjects need to stand, you set out your lights in this case one Quadra pack in front at 10 meters and one directly behind at the same distance. The Quadra’s were modified with a reflector with a 40 degree grids to give a fairly tight beam of light. Set camera for the ambient to how you would like it to be seen. In this case I had to work very quick which meant a hand held shot settings 1/60th F2.8 3200 iso Quadra metered at +1/4 to 1/2stop over the ambient, the rear was same, this enabled me to retain detail in the dress. With Elinchroms skyport system you change the power very quickly from camera! brillient. Alternatively if you have a little more time and no precipitation, I would employ the use of a tripod to drop down to 1/15th and iso 800, this will also improve overall sharpness.
You can achieve the same with speedlights, no stoffens, zoomed in to 105m ( Canon 580ex) or 200m Nikon SB910 set to manuel power start at 1/8th. You can use TTL ( iTTL Canon) however in my experience the TTL can misbehave and give inconsistent results due to the illuminated building.
Post production, Raw file, sharpen, slight hue change to calm the orange down a little, contrast to taste. A great shot that always makes the Album.
If you would like any further information regarding the above please feel free to drop me a mail or simply call.
Jon Allen www.heartweddings.co.uk
