Lighting for Reception and Dance Floor

[Ken Diewert]

Well, I was saving my 1,000th post for my 5th anniversary on March 14th of this year but it didn't work out that way...

Nicholas and Santo (in particular), produce some beautiful work - as do many others on this thread. And I completely agree that our craft is all about mastering light, and evolving as craftspeople.

My point is in the sub 2k wedding kit - I have a 5d2 with 5 lenses, an XLH1, an HV30, I like to squeeze in a second shooter when I can, 2 tripods, a glidecam, Senn wireless system, etc... I think you get my point. It becomes a matter of priority, where you expend expense and energy.

But having said all of that, I have run into venues that have ugly lighting and could definitely use a bump, so I may rethink my strategy and start packing a couple of softboxes with some egg crates, though it would be nice to add a high key as well. See this is what happens, where do you stop..?

Anyways, this is the great thing about dvinfo. That we can come together from all corners of the world and share our experiences.

Thanks to all.

[Susanto Widjaja]

Hi Ken,

I'm sure this 1000th post of yours is going to be worthwhile :)

That's right. Where do you stop? How many things that you have to haul along to each shoot? It gets really hard when you're only shooting by yourselves and carrying all these gears.

I guess the answer depends on what do you want to end up doing. Do you want to keep on doing 1 camera person shoot or do you want to shoot with 2 people every time? We all know that we cannot produce consistent beautiful work with one person shooting. But the client doesn't know that. When you shoot with one camera person each time and uploading those highlights to your blog. That's what the future clients would see and expect. They wouldn't care about adding a second camera shooter because they haven't really seen much result with 2 camera person and they are happy with the result with 1 anyway. so why pay more?

We took out our 1 camera coverage a long time ago because we want to force our couples to get 2 camera person on the day every time. For sure we lost some potential customers and such and such because of the higher price. However, our work became more consistent and it allows us to do a lot more creative things with 4 hands and 2 brains. And when our future clients saw our work on the blog using 2 camera persons, that's what they wanted as well.

All in all, I understand that some of us might not have the luxury of doing 2 camera people shoot every time. in that case though, I would still carry one light with light stand to act as my backlight for dance and speeches. Carrying softboxes and egg crates sounds really obtrusive and heavy and massive.. I wouldn't do that. My lowel 250w is very very small and light. as well as my comer1800 and it takes probably 5 minutes in total to set a light up and leave it there. But yeah, when you're shooting with one person, 5dmark2 kit + XLH1 kit + HV30 + audio kit + glidecam + tripod kit + lighting kit would be 2-3 times return travel to the car.

Just an additional note that might help. We carry this bag to all of our shoot. It fits our 2 monopods, 1 slider, 1 tripod, 3 light stands, 1 lowel 250w, 1 comer 1800, cables and power boards, glidecam (disassembled), car rig, small accessories. We bring this bag to overseas/interstate shoots and it works wonders.

Kata OC-97. Organizers Rolling bags (Kata Bags)

Hope this helps :)

Santo

[Ken Diewert]

Hey Santo,

It's a good point. I think that there are many inherent flaws in solo shooting and to evolve, I think that I really do need to expand. And coincidentally I've met an assistant over the last couple of weeks and I am going to try adding her as a second shooter at a wedding today (19th). The budget wasn't for two shooters but I will pay her anyways and we will try it out. She's very creative and has a fine arts degree so it may work out.

We'll see where it ends up.

I always enjoy your work by the way. Again this is the great thing about dvinfo. That we can share and learn from others from around the globe.

[Claire Buckley]

I often advise clients to approach a reception lighting company who will light their venue quite artistically for about (£500) $750 per evening gig. Then I can use that setup (as Philip has mentioned) to shoot against. It frees me up and allows a specialist to do what they do - everyone's a winner.

Failing that tell them to hire a lighting director, especially if YOU (as opposed to the client) want to shoot a cinamatic video (for all you DSLRs out there) - that's what lighting directors and lighting people do. Clients do not pay me (or want to pay me) to turn up with a separate lighting rig to paint their reception and first dance with light. I record light, I don't project it.

Here in the UK, the Bride's idea of romantic lighting (and the venue's) is often the light eminating from one candel from a distance of one foot. If at all I use a Comer 1800 to throw a few shadows and create a soft light spot to give effect.

Strapping a light to your camera head simply creates a two-dimensional image - flat and all rather boring and makes people feel self-conscious when all they want to feel is romantic.

George... you're just being naughty again :)

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Claire Buckley

I often advise clients to approach a reception lighting company who will light their venue quite artistically for about (£500) $750 per evening gig. Then I can use that setup (as Philip has mentioned) to shoot against. It frees me up and allows a specialist to do what they do - everyone's a winner.

I'm definitely not getting the kind of demographic that will pay an extra £500 for the venue lighting. I need to move to Cambridgeshire ;) It's bad enough trying to persuade them that Uncle Bob's camera won't cut it without getting them to light it for me too.

We tend to use Comer 1800 lights on two cameras to get good lighting from a couple of angles so as to not have simple flat lighting. Using DSLRs with fast glass also helps, but you need to have a couple of good operators to make sure you've got 'in-focus' shots to cut to if the couple are moving around quite a bit.

We rarely light anything other than the first dance..... and even then we try to use as little light as possible and shoot from the DJ's side so we get the benefit of his lighting too :)

[Steve Bleasdale]

spot on + 1

[Taky Cheung]

I have Comer light on camera as well as setting on the corner of the dance floor. During open dance floor time, I shot with steadicam. The lens flare and lighting off camera gives great dynamic to the footage. Check this out.

Wedding Open Dance Floor on Vimeo