Hello all,

I've noticed that some folks put a strobe on a stand in the four corners of the room to brighten up their shots. I currently use Sigma 500 Super II flashes on camera (about as much output as the Canon 550), but I want more light. It occured to me that I could either do the "strobes 'n' stands" thing, or I could mount a 400WS Quantum flash on my camera. That would definitely up the room light, and would save a good bit of setup and teardown time.

What do you think?

-TM

This is just my opinion but if you have the Q flash and the Sigma flash you should use one on the camera and one off camera mounted in the room somewhere. Whether you have your Sigma flash on camera or the Q flash your photos will look mostly the same. A great example of what you could accomplish with one flash on camera and one mounted elsewhere can be found on Nathan and Amber Holritz's blog....check this out. It's the last few photos on the dance floor that I'm talking about. The only additional equipment you may need besides a stand or mounting clamp might be a pocket wizard. You could always trip the remote flash via slave but then any wedding guest who shot a flash photo would also trip your flash and your batteries would suffer.

There are many others here on OSP who could interject and probably make more sense of this than I could!

Good luck!

Hi Dave,

You're right, doing the two light thing is great. My question is this: I'm shooting with one bounced flash now, and I'm not getting enough light. I see folks set up stands and lights in the corners of the room to increase the overall amount of light in the room. Couldn't I get the same effect by buying the 400WS Quantum and using it on camera with the ETTL module? It would give way more light than my Sigma 500, and it's ETTL, and I don't have to set up all these stands and lights. The disadvantage is that it would make the camera weigh more, presumably. I'm just wondering if anyone uses the BWF (Big Wompin' Flash) from Quantum in a bounced mode. Can it replace the lights in the corners of the room?

-TM

You could mount 2,400 w/s strobes to your camera and it will not achieve the effect I think you are referring to. You'll just have to expose your subject standing a few feet in front of you at about f 128. The inverse square law complicates things.

You basically have two subjects in mind here. One is the action or person/people in front of your camera that you are focusing on. They require a certain amount of light.

The second "subject" is the background or environment you are wishing to add light to.

When you walk into a reception situation you have to figure out your optimal shooting positions for the people in relation to the environment. This is where your on camera flash or hand held flash is going to come into play. THEN you consider the room and figure out how to place a light to take care of that.

- Are you wanting to bounce a light into the room?

- Are you wanting to cross light your subject or back light them?

- Are you wanting to light the background independently from the subject so your background light doesn't spill on to the subject?

So simply adding more light to your camera isn't going to take care of the two main subjects. All it will do is make your back hurt and blind your subjects.

When we are shooting receptions we regularly have a flash in one hand and a flash on a stand. Just to give you an idea of how little light you can get buy with... Marc and I both can make it through an entire wedding on one set of AA batteries with our hand held flashes.

I really can't give specifics to how exactly the lights are set up because each venue is different and one light on a stand can be used in several different ways depending on where you are standing in relation to that light.

I can say that a good place to start is having one flash on camera (or hand held) and while you are shooting the dance floor, have another flash either bouncing into the ceiling or lighting the background of your images without spilling the light onto the dance floor. This will begin to give you an idea of what the light is doing in your specific venue. You'll be able to judge the amount of power you need coming from that second light and what sort of ratio you want to set it at compared to your hand held flash.

Don't try this out at a wedding though because it can be maddening and frustrating if you don't have a handle on it. You'll be dorking with your lights and missing shots you need to get. Get access to some sort of large room that would be similar to a reception hall and have a subject go with you and spend and hour or two with it before you pull this at a wedding.

Just remember that you are lighting two subjects at once and each subject has different challenges or needs yet they have to work together visually.

Cheers,
Zack

*edit- Zack posted at the same time I was writing this...just do what he say

If you just want to increase the overall lighting then stick the Q on a stand and bounce it. Personally, I like directional light so I tend to put a light on a stand and point is accross the room. I set my on-camera 580 to TTL if I am shootin into the other light or turn to -1 or 1 1/2 if I am getting side light. It makes for more dynamic lighting. Also, carrying a q-flash on a bracket is super heavy and bulky...it will give you muscles though!
For this shot I had a flash to camera right at +1 to the ambient lighting and the camera 1/3rd below that. On camera was set at -1 to soften harsh shadows. I PS'd to make the backgroud a bit more dark as Dslrs pick up so much detail in the shadows.

I try a few things-

I have done strobe on a stand but in small venues that can be excessive (sp?) I like putting a q-flash on a stand or having an assistant with an Nikon SB-80 (i think thats what its called....Im a canon user). I like te sb because I can plug my litelink into it and trigger remotely and my assistant can move around....not a glamorous job though. I can also stik it on a stand and move it around to suit.

I use the extra light to give more depth to the shots, help the ambient light in the room, for some fun effects and so my subject isn't in a black hole (which can be cool at times)

Sometimes I bounce, sometimes direct, sometimes I'll use an umbrella and shoot through, sometimes I use a pepper popper (a large flashlight with wax paper on it) and sometimes I use the videographer to my advantage and shoot near, into, 90 degrees from his big ass light (technical term)

I try to avoid direct on-camera flash but use a fong dong to smooth out the light.

Here are some examples :
This venue was big and I had a strobe on the dance floor-really wished I had a portable flash to light the background but the strobe was behind me when I shot this so they were very brightly lit but you can see the background is dark. Even if I know it will be dark-I still look for light behind them so its not totally black (the chandalier)




my associate shot this- Same wedding-strobe shot through umbrella pointed towards dance floor, gave side lighting to everyone, lit the background a bit and he used on camera flash (550 on ttl with fong dong bounced up)



This one is oncamera flash (550 w/ fongd bounced) with the sb portable flash on I think 1/8, assistant standing 125 degrees left from me with flash pointing in their direction skimming behind them to give them some glow



strobe in corner through umbrella- me shooting into the light and with oncamera flash to light my subject



taking advantage of videographers light, used on-camera flash with fong, -1 ttl


not a great example but all I had on the computer-
no on camera, strobe through umbrella (1/8), the stand up as high as it will go, 90 degrees from me and the light is hitting cake from above and its probably 15 feet away (I think)-




I hope this is what you were asking about as far as lighting and how to achieve different things- like zack said you don't need much flash or light you just need to know what you want to light up and the effect you want in the image and of course its a wedding so you need to think of these things in a split second.