Off Camera Lighting For Wedding Receptions

By having our off camera lighting placed in the far corner of the room we re able to light up the guests behind our couple so that it never looks like we re shooting into a dark cave.

Off camera lighting for wedding receptions.

The color of light corrective color balance 3. She will share 4 wedding reception lighting setup scenarios you can practice. Off camera light was placed behind a pillar and in this photo the light is directly behind the bride the off camera light wasn t moved from its location behind the pillar for the ceremony and reception so you can see how it can achieve two very different looks. Our setup itself is actually a rather simple three light system.

Light stand i set it anywhere from 10 20 feet from where the subject i want it to back light is sitting standing dancing depending upon the size layout of the reception room. 2 off camera speedlight at weddings i typically carry 3 4 speedlights with me and 4 6 transceivers. The biggest benefit of a zone controller is when a light is adding unnecessary light to your shot simply turn it off from at your camera. Tranceivers or transmitters receivers are devices that allow you to remotely trigger your flash without it being attached to your camera.

These will be set up in the corners of the room and it will allow for even light to bounce around. Depending on the temperature of the ambient light tungsten daylight etc dial in a custom color temperature setting in camera to balance out the light in your scene. We use two kicker lights and one off camera stand light. Here is another example of our setup.

We don t want that kind of lighting in wedding photography. Reception lighting gear whether you are shooting indoors or outdoors it is imperative to have an off camera flash on you for wedding reception photography. I set the height of it so that the flash is about 1 to 2 feet above where person s head will be. No need for running laps around the venue.

High iso settings can only take you so far when it is pitch black outside and can create nightmares in post production due to high noise levels. In her final post of the wedding lighting master class series shootdotedit wedding pro leeann marie wedding photographers shares reception lighting tips for photographers. Keep reading to learn more. The kicker lights which provide backlight during the reception are lumopro lp 160 speed lights on heavy duty 9 foot flash stands.

The best off camera light to use here if you need the flash is to use speedlites.