Low-Light Wedding Photography San Francisco – Emma and Max
Emma and Max
Emma and Max had a delightful low key wedding on a lovely May day. They told me they wanted lots of fun candid photographs, so I did just that. Their guests were good dancers, which made everything easy.
The wedding reception was held in a white tent, so bouncing my flash off the ceiling was always a good option, but I like to mix it up. There are five different flash setups here. Let’s start with simple, and proceed from there:
#1 Bounce flash. This is a very simple technique. My flash is set to ettl and pointed up and behind me. The camera is on manual exposure with a high enough iso to let ambient light in.
#2 Shutter Drag. This is also just one flash. Here the flash is pointed directly at my subject, and zoomed in a bit at 1/4 power. The camera is in manual iso 100 f18 1.6 sec shutter.
#3 Backlight. This is two flashes on light stands at 1/128 with a trigger on camera. Almost all of the light is coming from behind. All settings are manual here. Sets the mood, doesn’t it?
#4 key light plus hair light. This is the same setup as the last, but I am standing in position for one of the two flashes to act as a key light.
#5 Two kickers plus fill. Here I have the two flashes on stands, but I have added bounce flash at 1/4 power on camera as a fill for a more balanced look at a delightfully chaotic scene.