I have downloaded the wedding custom preset from this website, the ceremony looks great!

I am white balancing before each section - I am not using a light on the camera and I am about to shoot on the dark dance floor. Does anyone have advice re shutter speeds/gain/exposure etc to capture the mood, and keep the darkness true on the footage of the first dance when using the custom preset. Should I continue to use the TV mode, or the Spotlight or Low light modes?

My second family wedding is forthcoming (in the UK) so should be able to experiment - but would like to hear of your preferences out there.

I tend to work with around 6-9db of gain in at this point in the proceedings. Assuming we're talking about typical night time/night club lighting then it seems to work ok in terms of representing the mood truthfully ?

I don't like working with the iris wide open, certainly no more than around f2.8 and ideally narrower when possible? It's a tricky situation, you can always ask for the lights to be left up a little for the first dance or two, without killing the atmosphere for the party goers.

Allen, just out of curiosity why dont you like to open the iris all the way?

Allen, just out of curiosity why dont you like to open the iris all the way?

Because it's difficult to assess the focus with the combination of a negligible depth of field and a poor LCD viewfinder. I think somewhere between f5.6-4.0 is the ideal hunting ground, but not easily attainable at a relatively uncontrollable event such as a wedding shoot.

Ok, makes sense.

Off Topic

I found this little clip via another forum and thought some of the wedding guys would appreciate the sentiment...

http://www.videobycarol.com/home_page/Obtrusive_Photography.html

Allen, that was very funny.