***WARNING: Photographer Geek Post Ahead!***
I am sure you recall the wedding of Erica and Eric at Union Station — and I mentioned that some of the areas had some lighting challenges. The room where the ceremony was taking place is a dark marble space, that is long and narrow. I never like to be in sight of the guests, which meant that I had to stay in the very back of the long room (no on-camera flash would work). So here is the sequence of lighting situations that were done, in very low-resolution images of my assistant Jenni. Doesn’t she look cute? 🙂
1. Ambient Light: The available light in the room. Yes the white balance is off, but I didn’t like the feel of the image because the couple would be in slight darkness and all you would really see is the trees.
2. Ambient Light + Flash: I felt that this scenario killed the mood & atmosphere of the room, and the flash was overpowering.
3. Reduced-Ambient + Flash: There were windows on the right side of the room, so using my Pocket Wizard I placed a flash on the ledge. I didn’t like this because it only lit the back wall, and if turned more towards Jenni it would blind anyone that would be sitting in the front few rows. Again, I don’t want to be a distraction to the ceremony.
4. Reduced-Ambient + Flash II: You can barely see the pillars built into the wall, but I tried placing/balancing my flash up there. To light the couple and not blind any guests. But it cast strong shadows of the chandelier and placed too much light on the back wall again.
*5. Finally, a solution that worked. While the pillars are a part of the wall, there was a small surface area to bounce my flash into. I placed the speed light on a tall stand and aimed it into the pillar. This kept the feel of the room, while providing soft light to the front area where my subjects would be. Hooray!