How To Use Flash For A Wedding Ceremony
A lot of people get stressed out by having to use flash when photographing a wedding ceremony. I will be the first to admit, I try to avoid using flash for a ceremony unless I absolutely have to. The video below takes you behind the scenes with me on a real wedding day where using flash was necessary for creating awesome images. Feel free to watch the video, or continue reading below.
When Should You Use Flash For A Ceremony?
As I said above, when I am photographing a wedding, I really do try not to use flash during the ceremony. This one in particular was an exception though.
What was supposed to be an outdoor ceremony was moved inside of a barn because of the extremely rainy conditions throughout the day. Now moving the ceremony indoors isn’t the worst thing in the world and sometimes you still don’t need flash. What the ultimate factor was this time, was how the ceremony was oriented inside the barn.
Heavily Backlit Indoor Ceremonies
I would call this specific situation a “heavily backlit indoor ceremony.” I have had many instances of this. It is essentially when the ceremony is indoors and there the only source of light is behind the altar. In a lot of cases this would be in an indoor space with huge windows.
The problem with this kind of situation is that the light is only coming from behind the couple, leaving them in complete shadow. When this happens, you either completely underexpose the subjects so that you can see what is out in the background, or you have to expose for your subject and let the outside background be extremely over exposed.
I took some test shots and I was not okay with either of those options. I knew that if I was going to capture images that were up to my standard of photography, I would have to use flashes.
Best Flashes For A Wedding Ceremony
When you are using flash for a ceremony, there are times where you can use a simple speedlite, however in this case I knew I needed more power to compete with the bright background. I used my go-to lights which is two Godox AD200 pro pocket flashes.
The Godox AD200pro is extremely portable and has a solid power output, making it a very versatile flash. I didn’t use any modifiers on my lights for this because I wanted the biggest spread of light possible with the most effective power, When I say effective power, I mean that I didn’t want a modifier to absorb some of the light because then I would have to increase the power of the flashes to achieve the same exposure on my subjects.
Where To Place Off-Camera Flashes During A Ceremony?
The placement of your flashes is the key to getting the look that you want. In this case, I really wanted the light to balance with the outside and act as a big fill light. To achieve this, I placed each flash on opposite sides at the back of the room. I put them as high up as I could, probably around 11 or 12 feet high. Placing the flashes at this height gives a more natural direction of light, but it also allowed me to keep the guests from being overly bright in comparison to the couple.
If you haven’t yet, watch the video above for a more in depth look and a proper visual. I wore my GoPro during this ceremony so you can actually see what I am talking about from my POV as the photographer.
-Nic