How many lights do you use to light the room? Bouncing light on ceiling or Direct light with diffusion paper?

10k HMI through the window. Bring sunscreen

Mike

how come you're not shooting in avail light?

1 on camera 20W light ONLY and I emphasize only if absolutely 100% necessary to fill any heavy shadows OR to help compensate for a backlight situation IF and again I say IF I'm close enough for a 20W light to make any kind of difference. (EXAMPLE: extreme close ups of make up being applied)99.9% of the time it's available light. Good, bad or ugly-I'm not there to change the feel of the setting.
Don

Uh oh. It's the start of another "to light or not to light" discussion . . .

Personally, I've shot plenty of brides getting ready in all kinds of rooms (including hotel rooms) and I've never needed to use additional lighting. Usually there isn't even really room to start putting in lights, and often times it already very warm due to curling irons, flattening irons, hair dryers, and the general tendency of females to keep a room warmer than the average male would prefer.

I you are worried about back light coming from a window, then I would either close the curtains, rig up a sheet to diffuse the light a little, or place a lighting unit opposite the window and bounce it off of the ceiling.

I've always just shot those scenes in available light, though.

I have encountered this problem of shooting in a room with window light dominating. Would just trying to kee the window between you and the subject work? Or is there problems with this as well.

Monte,

Try using the window behind the subject sometime, you can get a real nice "blown out" backlit shot. Keep your exposure manual and let it blow out. I can look very nice for a quick cutaway.