Hello All,

So here's a new one! I've been hired by the groom's father to photograph the wedding. The bride's father is a prominent person who doesn't want a wedding photographer. However, the wedding is open to the media, so the father has hired me to photograph the wedding, but I have to appear to be just another one of the newspaper/magazine photographers, so we won't be doing formals, and my lighting will be limited to on-camera flash.

I'd like to get away from the "subject is well lit but cavernous hall appears black" problem that I have with my Sigma 500 DG Super flashes (a cheapish Canon 550 knock-off). I'm thinking of buying a Quantum TTL rig (T-5DR + D23WR + Turbo Compact packs). I would get a couple more stops of light with no "oops I melted my flash" issues, and I could divert more light via bounce so the background gets more light.

My two questions are:

1) Does going Quantum make sense?

2) If so, which if any of their modifiers make sense to get partial bounce + partial direct light? See here. I currently use the LumiQuest ProMax 80%-20% to throw most of the light to the ceiling, but throw a bit forward. Something like the Flip-It or the Fong Toilet™ might make sense, but I doubt they could be made to fit the QFlash.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

-TM

Sorry to not answer your two questions directly, but the comment quoted above simply sounds like you need to drag the shutter to avoid the black cavern. Maybe you're OK with what you have as long as you can slow down your shutter and raise your ISO to let sufficient ambient light in.

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, that's in my bag o' tricks, but I don't like the "smudging" one gets when photographing people dancing while leaving the shutter open for longinsh periods of time. Also, with really large groups of people dancing, the Sigmas can't always reach the couple in the center to expose them properly.

It also seems that my Sigmas are too wimpy to hold up to what I'm putting them through. I just ordered new front lenses for two of them, as I have burned the original lenses. I guess one has to pay attention to the manufacturer's "number of flashes before letting the flash rest" specification.

I spent 25 minutes or so speaking with Will Crocket at PPE. He has found that Quantum's TTL performance is second to none. I'm inclined to go this route, but we're talking $1500ish with two batteries, so I thought I'd check here first.

Have you used the Quantum, Matt?

-TM

No... I try not to use my flash if I can help it!

Not withstanding the fact that the situation is absurd, here's what you need to look like - plus a Metz handle-mount flash.

Is there any way you can set up stobe lighting in the reception? high up somewhere and trigger with PW's? I guess then the father of the bride would know that some kind of professional is there then, but you could get even light through the whole reception without having to be right on top of your subjects....just a thought.

best of luck.

Hi John,

I always wondered what you looked like! Surprisingly, I wasn't too far off....

I saw you mentioning in another thread that you're a Quantum user - any words of wisdom?

-TM

Hi Eric,

No, I would get busted for that.

-TM

I have a Quantum X2 (400WS). It's very big. I've used it on-camera, but I wouldn't want to do it as a matter of course. I prefer using it off-camera with Pocket Wizards.

I would seriously cheat this situation and use off-camera flashes and PWs. I wouldn't tell anybody and I wouldn't ask permission. I would just do it.

Does the bride have any say in the matter?

Personally, I would hire an assistant to carry around my off-camera flash. Q-flashes are great but are really big. BTW, No PJ's use a Q-flash.

I think that would draw attention too. But what WOULD work is if the assistant had the remote flash/PW attached to a camera and pretended to take pictures, when all the while he/she was just there to point a second light in another direction (or even just bounce off the ceiling to fill the room)!

Hi Matt,


Yes, I've heard of people doing this. Very sneaky!

-TM