This content explains a practical technique for using off-camera flash during a wedding ceremony in a challenging indoor venue with a strong backlight, enabling versatile shooting angles and consistent lighting.
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if I didn't know how to use Flash during
a ceremony I would have had to deliver
images like this but instead I was able
this I'm Nick Hilton and I'm going to
show you a great way to use Flash during a
ceremony so a bit of a background on
this particular setup this wedding was
supposed to take place outside but it
was very very rainy and stormy so we
moved the wedding into a barn and this
is how that Barn was laid out we had the
couple and the wedding party up near the
entrance of the barn and then we had all
of the audience sitting inside the barn
and the only source of light besides
some chandeliers was the natural light
that was coming from the open barn doors
behind the couple and the wedding party
this is extremely problematic because
now you have this super bright light
source behind your subjects and nothing
to light the front side of your subjects
it basically leaves you with either
exposing for the outside and attempting
to bring back the Shadows on your
subjects or you can add your own light
now with this ceremony I knew that if I
wanted to Brave the rain I could shoot
from outside you know be shooting
towards the audience the entire time but
while that's cool sometimes I didn't
want to shoot the entire ceremony from
from outside I did want some shots from
the audience's point of view and
shooting from the aisle for a little bit
so I knew I was going to have to use
Flash the venue was cool with me using
flash I asked the couple about it they
were cool so I grabbed two ad2 200s out
of my bag I put them on stands and then
got the trigger onto my
camera and if we look at our Barn setup
I placed my two flashes in the back two
corners behind the audience I put them
at equal power because I wanted even
output from both corners of the room and
then they're about 11 ft High that's
where my stands max out now the reason
you want your lights high is to one
create a natural angle and two I didn't
want any Shadows from the audience
hitting the wedding party and so like a
side tip if you put your light
High then the shadow is going to be very
very short whereas if you put your light
low when it hits your subject it's going
to cast a much longer
Shadow you can see this for yourself if
you go outside at noon all the Shadows
pretty much go straight down and then at
Golden hour when the sun is really
really low you get those very very long
drawn out shadows and so with this setup
what I was trying to do was basically
kind of make a light sandwich of the
couple and the wedding party you know
the couple's right here and I have the
natural light from outside coming this
way and so I put my flashes inside
pretty much to imitate and send light in
the other direction and with this setup
making this light sandwich it gives me
the freedom to wander around and shoot
from pretty much any angle that I can
fit physically
if I'm shooting from inside the barn
down the aisle for example then my flash
is kind of acting as a fill to bring up
the levels and match it with the
background when I'm shooting from
outside with this setup those flashes
inside are actually acting as a rim
light because now the natural light is
my key light and if I shoot from any
kind of side angles that flash acts as
like a fill and almost like a kicker
light and so you can get a lot of unique
perspectives and different angles while
still basically having light hitting
them from both sides pretty evenly real
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so once I had the lights set up and I
had this plan I knew that I was going to
be able to shoot from different
directions it was time to dial in the
settings before the ceremony started I
of course exposed for the ambient as I
always would and I settled on ISO 200 f
2.8 and shutter speed of 1 1200th
because that is my Max sync Speed
without going into highspeed sync now
because it was stormy uh the outside
wasn't as bright as it could have been
so I was able to keep my flash power at
116th that way I didn't have any slow
recycle time so that worked out really
well now take those settings with a
grain of salt because your scenario or
even my next scenario probably won't
work with those exact settings because
that's just how it works but as long as
you set your ambient and then just raise
or lower your flash power accordingly
you will be fine and really cool I
wasn't actually expecting it to work out
that well but because I was exposing for
the natural light that was outside as I
moved around and I went inside and
outside during the ceremony I did not
have to change my settings whatsoever
and now let's take a look again at these
two shots that were taking without Flash
look at how noisy and just awful these
are and how much detail you really can't
see on the subjects and then look at
when we shoot from the back of the aisle
with the flash look at how much I was
able to raise the exposure up and give
it a really nice look and now here are
some shots from other angles so you can
see the different effects of those flash
[Music]
so that is one basic way of using flash
during a ceremony I hope this video
helped you please subscribe to the
YouTube channel and we will see you in
the next video
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