I'm co-shooting a wedding with another OSP-er in a couple weeks. The wedding is on a lovely, 125', three level yacht that we scouted over this past weekend. Now, any shots we can get of them on the top level will be lovely. But, the two lower levels (middle level is the ceremony, lower level is the reception) have 7 foot ceilings with shiny tiles that have a greenish-grayish pattern to them. There are inset fluorescent lights in some of the tiles, but the room itself metered out to about ISO 800, 1/125 at f/5.6. We'd obviously prefer to use flash of some sort for at least some of the critical moments, but we're very concerned about the way flash will bounce off the ceilings. Any suggestions?

If it helps, the bride is about 5'5", and the groom is about 5'8", maybe 5'9". No idea about the wedding party. Between the 2 of us, we have 3 580EX flashes, 2 430EX's, and a pair of Q-Flashes with radio triggers. Or should we just break out the low light lenses and shoot without flash?

Hey Steph!
A few weeks back I shot a wedding on a boat similar to the one that you are describing. I nevery used Flash once...I tried...believe me. However, flare will come from like every frikkin direction. There was a mirror behind the they're table, and brass poles.

If you can, have the poles (if there are any), and mirrors covered with some lacey fabric of some sort. I have only a few from inside the boat, they are on my website....website--->photos----->weddings------>ken and sandy

http://www.haskinsphotography.com

Sometimes I'll set my Speedlights up on stands, and put them on the sides surrounding the reception. Get one of those diffusers that spills light outwards, and not upwards.

Hope this helps...good luck!

Thanks, it does help! I think we're going to have to break out the really fast lenses and try to avoid flash at all costs. Of course, it won't help that all the guests will probably have the flashes on their cameras going off...but we're just going to have to make do, I think. And of course we'll try to get them to the top of the boat for the formals. *sigh* Thanks again!