Dreadful Church Lighting

Snowgirl · June 20, 2013

Help please? I am shooting my niece's wedding next week-end. We met at the church this week and the set up is a huge, floor to ceiling glass window at the end of the aisle opposite the altar. That wouldn't be bad except that every pane of glass is a different shade of yellow AND the wedding is at 2:p.m. so the sun will be shining in brilliantly adding a delightful (not) yellow colorcast to everything! When I shoot the bridal party entering the church that window will be behind them all. I'm stymied about how to compensate for that.

I spoke to the Minister and he is ok with me using flash in the church but should I be gelling? I'm sure the answer is in my brain somewhere, but panic has over-ridden common sense.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Qarik · June 20, 2013

sounds tough. you can try and over power the ambient with bounced flash.
you can try and gel to match if you want to balance out flash and ambient (go to the church 2pm tomorrow and check it out)
you can process in BW or more edgy to try and take advantage of color cast
you can void shooting into the glass or if you do go for silhouette type shots
you can just go natural light and correct WB the best you can

Matthew Saville · June 21, 2013

#1) MANAGE EXPECTATIONS!!!!

Talk to the bride FIRST. Give her options: process in B&W for 90% of the ceremony, or use wireless plus on-camera flash as discretely as possible. Those are her main two options, if you don't count simply delivering yellow photos

.

Personally, I would do a combination of both. Use wireless flash when it can work; carefully position two flashes off to the side so that they shine nicely onto the couple's faces during the ceremony. But have a "kill switch" ready for the wireless flashes, and keep an on-camera flash handy, in case something changes and the flash starts giving you horrible shadows for whatever reason. And of course be ready to shoot ambient.

Consider gelling the flashes to match the yellow light, but the deeper you go down the technical rabbit hole, the more you're going to need to ask the bride for a few extra minutes to set up and test things out before the ceremony. If there is a rehearsal, I would attend it and try things out then.

I would avoid bouncing flash, since it will be yellow / colored glass that you're bouncing off. Direct wireless flash is the best option for during the ceremony, and direct on-camera flash may be your best option during the processional unless you can have a lighting assistant to "aim" your wireless flashes accurately during the processional...

=Matt=

Dreadful Church Lighting

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