Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: The Ceremony

Well, here we go typical church typical lighting at the church actually look, the groom is looking pretty good in this lighting I usually don't get a whole lot of this but alright, we'll live with this so for the sake of what most of us shoot in very low light situation in churches and church is that I don't have a whole lot of stuff to bounce off of I do have a couple of window panes and I'll show you that's where I'm glad that he's exists what we have are pillars you know or even against the wall these right here is also what a lot of times for me evident at a church and that's all I need to bounce off if I'm going to show you I'm using my twenty for one point for today and I'm gonna shoot at about f two point two and bounce light off of these count columns and or right now these windows that have the white blinds on do I look for anything? But when we later go down to the reception share area, you'll see that I walked and I went, oh my goodness, I'm in trouble here and I like it bec...

ause it challenges me to try and figure it out because what if that was the real deal? You'll see the ceilings and the pillars are all a very dark brown brown almost black you're not gonna bounce a whole lot off of that kind of color. You know how black is not good? Uh, so this is a perfect setup for me. So typically rich or don or christina's, someone is right. They're on their knees washing the bridal party, walking down there already up here. So the groom comes up first with the minister's. Usually first. Then the groom comes up or the minister comes from the back on the groom comes from the side. Usually the groomsmen come along and then that's, the bride's maid one at a time. Sometimes they come in pairs, but rich captures all of those shots from the front. Flash on camera, typically with him. It's direct flash with a little diffuser on it. It's either gerry's. Um, you know, diffuser or something else but it's done from the front. And then I am with the bride, and I will photograph the bride from behind. And in this scenario right now, I'm just gonna turn flash off. I also have my seventy two, two hundred on my other camera at thirty two hundred aiso. Because I want to grab available light stuff during the ceremony so they'll be facing each other. And as he's saying his vows, I'll be looking at her over his shoulder and I will walk around the last pew to go do this kind of thing I try not to cut through the front it's usually not okay? And I don't know if I discussed this yesterday or not, but I will always ask the minister, the priest or the rabbi if it's okay, that I photograph from this perspective with the long lens and I won't use flash and may I use flash obviously when they're coming down so rich can do this and when they're leaving that's when I used and turn on my flash on my camera on this five d mark too two point two I mean manual now, now, emanuel, this is in pee mode, this is simply program and I'm shooting available light that's all I'm going to do with this thing right now. Um, and more often than not I'm told yeah, that's fine. Usually the rules are such that you know, hey, if it's a flash, if it interferes with me, don't do that so I let him no no there's, no flash involved and I will shoot with the long lens from over the shoulder looking at them without being in the front on the altar or anywhere near it so that's what going to kind of demonstrate some of the students will probably get up and do the same thing because what's really cool about this is the flash tech sneak uh, I'm gonna try and show you the difference between direct flash as most people use it, even if it's defused pop up little card, whatever you want to use versus the way that I shoot it, which is bouncing it and it looks like from where I'll be that's about ten, thirty feet to there and back so it's a sixty foot travel for my flash are the light to come back and hit them at two point two could do this all day long, you know? Two point oh one pa point eight all day long, so I'm not looking for five six f ate and I'm using the lens that is pretty darn sharp when you have that low of an f stop in the shallow depth of field, the accuracy of the focus is a must, so I'm constantly pushing that button halfway down so that the lens focuses and what I try and do with my brides and grooms, I will move at the same rate backwards. Now we have a very short I'll I usually have the entire church, so for this demonstration is going to be quick three shots, and I'm kind of done with their walk down the aisle. Typically, I will have a lot longer runway and what I do with them as they're walking backwards, as I will position myself and at the same rate, walk back and fire, fire, fire and keep the same distance so that my focusing is fairly accurate and I again, I will keep hitting this little button so every once in a while see that lens move ever so slightly just be a little more accurate in the focus it works and then to bounce out that way and cap the light, come back and light him from the side. It's actually very, very beautiful. Like so even though this light doesn't really, you know, suggest oh, my gosh, this is gonna be an amazing lighting scenario. It is better than what I've seen in most places where I rarely get to see the groom lit and the minister lit like that. Ah, they're usually pretty much in the dark, right? So, let's, go play with this, right? So, uh, my bride now is gonna come down, which would be down there, and I don't know if we can even use one of the shooters. If you want to shoot her coming down the aisle, you want to do that? Okay, so we'll do that after I do this so what I do now I am now as I'm walking behind her believing I mean p mode so I'm shooting this in programme mode so if she were to walk down I would be low behind her and I know she's tiny but go ahead and walk down the aisle honey as theirs see and walk slowly when you get to the office I normally have a better runway than that so I will shoot I will shoot I will shoot I would look over I will get him there you go so that would have been my scenario with the longer runway I would have been walking from the back of the church behind her crouched down until about midway when I can see his face over the shoulder and getting his expression yeah, well no remember this when she walks in initially I am behind her low he's getting her coming down the aisle I'm not doing anything yet I might grab a couple of shots and get get this I will shoot sometimes from right here well, I'm crouched down, I was shoot low without looking. I know from experience how far up I have to move either this twenty four that I have or times there's the fourteen millimeter on here and I know exactly where to shoot from down here without looking through the camera I like that perspective because what it allows me to do is get the entire train veil all the way up to the ceiling of the church it's stunning imagine if you had to shoot it that way and look through the viewfinder you'd have to be on the ground laying on your belly so it doesn't work so a lot of my shots in the church like this even when they come back sometimes it's from right here okay, now when they come back at me I now after the ceremony have switched this over to manual because now I'm going to use flash on camera I have dialed in the available light and I see that right now it is at ok so now it's hang on one second we've moved some lighting around a little bit I see yeah that's uh that's ok that's ok that's ok, so yeah that's fine. So what I do now is I will bounce off of that, so if if they come back at me now, you done you kiss and that's my life, I I think it'll probably pop up in a little while. The first shot I just grabbed I think is beautiful I don't know if you guys could see this e t t l so but this is the lighting that I'm getting from this okay, now I want you to compare to do that again for me, and I'm gonna keep it in manual, but I'm gonna go to what typically is shot. Ah, what people do let's say, five, six or something like that? And maybe in a tedious okay, let me see where we're at. Okay, so let's say this is a direct flash and even you know what? Let's be fair. Most people don't do that anymore. Let's, use the bounds card system. Okay, you guys do the same thing for me, okay? Difference is this while you can get stuff like this with my bounds technique or you can go to this, right, which is straight flash it changes. Um, it doesn't look quite that way on my camera. It's it's you know, it's part of the translation between here and there. It's okay, but this obviously later on in the post will get tweaked a little bit will knock down a little bit of the highlight on the uh uh, the whites that air here. Um and again, I'm simply bouncing and trying to create this mood kind of lighting instead of direct flash, which really now let's, try it directly because most people found either off of something, usually the card or a diffuser and let's, see if I can do this really quickly and show you may be direct. Okay. You ready? This is straight the wreck. Okay, walk down. Oh, you loving each other that's. Great. Now take a look at the rec flash chief. It pops up. You'll see there's a huge difference between the bounds. Uh, off. Decide you can actually open up that ambient light in the background a lot. Mohr it's, nicer you can even get, you know we can get if this is ah longer, bigger church and the lighting was a little bit because we did have to like this a little bit for video for you guys to see on the internet, so we normally don't have this lining and it's much more dramatic. Uh, when I shoot a real church because I the churches don't have spotlighting on the minister and or the couples when they're underneath there never have a question. I'm looking at the first picture where you're bouncing off the side and the mother of the bride is the flashes like gotten her, would you crop that down? So she wasn't. Yeah, and the thing is also remembered one of the things that I would try and do here, let's say, because what happens when they walk back down? Any ceremony you guys are all standing you're all standing you're all standing so what ends up happening? Eh? If this is a wide enough church I can still get over their hits and hit that pillar at the top and I have not so much very, very direct lights that I'm looking for often times if I know they're about to walk there and there's a pillar there I point my flesh I mean literally says part of the trick is pointing that flash right at that one pillar going over their heads or if this is his narrow it is it is here now I'm in trouble so my assistant the lovely miss, whoever it is will come out with the white shirt and she becomes my soft box. There is not going to be an extreme difference between the assistant soft box and this technique of pulling up the why part because you're bouncing it office something that's fairly close to you that one I just want that that's having that window and that's there now and they are windows. So this would have been great had there been no windows at all and I'm just using a couple of white pillars in between which actually you know what we should do let's kill those lights can we do that who's who's uh, tech guy uh those curtains yeah, I just shut him I'm gonna do the same thing over and I'm gonna bounce it off that yellow pillar that's what I'll do I'm not gonna be able to bounce it off from the black curtains which is perfect for me, right? I like challenges all right, so hop back over there and let's see if I can't adjust this thing to go to back to two point two and let's try it and let me see hang on one second and, uh two point two is there and yeah, so right about there okay, so now I'm going to do the same thing right? I have to now find be very observant of this a lot of people will drop their knees and shoot it, but the flash is hitting the side of the pew so are the are the flashes hitting something else? You have it's going to take a little bit of practice that try and do this kind of thing? So if I were right now trying to do it, I'd have my hand on and I said, okay, you guys want to do that walk towards me looking each other that okay? Now if you were to take a look at these, I still managed the and you know what you see on the screen, what you're seeing on the back of my cameras night and day yeah I I nail it down this way and of course it's much more flattering on my camera right now which is fine but I'm still able to bounce off that yellow pillar clearly the curtains have absorbed any bounce at all so um it's once you get this thing dialed in it is absolutely beautiful light because again I'm one stop underneath what my meter says is the ambient light in here and the last thing I punched in was s o I moved out around until I get minus one and so I have this background it's there it's not fully lit from the front it's it's absolutely beautiful like does anybody want to practice this it's kind of a fun thing to do? Yeah are there any situations in which you would bring in additional lighting? No nothing no I'm gonna do something right now before you get into this hang on one second I'm gonna take a portrait of them right there and I'm gonna kill that overhead light so let's just go let's say I want the fifty millimeter bear with me I'm going to do a standard portrait while they're there at the altar using the same technique just for the heck of it uh weii now now we're talking now normally we have a little more light than that but okay let's not let's have that right light let me see now as I look for uh okay, I'm two stops under so now I need to dial this thing in and I'm going to have to dial in the so and I'm gonna dial the aiso into go let's say thirty two hundred all right, this is four thousand ok? So here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna attempt to hit that pillar and who's blocking me right now this is why you always have to be mindful of where it's at you guys get a little closer and that's good. Okay, now look at me they were gonna do one of these alter shots with zero light on you. Okay, yeah, the videographer was right there. I would have he would have blocked half that light coming back so let's just do this this is gonna be fun let's see if I can actually make this thing worth you see how little light showed up on them? Did you see it was a kiss of light? Watch this now I still kept the background in the night look at that it's beautifully lit it's lit off that yellow pillar. Yeah. Okay, so you have to do a little color correction later on it's not a big deal but even with like zero light on them here flash instead of direct completely bounced off of a wall way over there coming back and giving me that light is perfect and I'm gonna tell you what you see. There is completely different than what I see here. It's much more beautiful, much richer, it's, more dramatic, right, it's, small, raw. This is small rod that I shoot in, but it's always trying to figure out exactly where that pillar is, because if you're now pointing into the, uh, you know, one of the things, let me explain something else to there are these portable snoops that you can get for you flashes their cloth wraps and their stiff, right? They're kind of like a cloth with a little, I don't know what's inside of it, but you conform them and they have velcro to tighten. So you, khun, if that really bothers me that the flash will go to wide and hit black curtains and not enough may hit that thing, and I'm have a very narrow space for something the bounce off of I snood it so I can wrap this thing with the snoot and absolutely point that thing and aim it exactly there and just get that thing, let me see what we have going here and you two point two, I'm still at minus one sort of at minus one c, so sometimes lighting also changes, but it's not done.