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 wantedĀ lots of fun candid photographs, so IĀ 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 fiveĀ 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.