Wedding Formals - High Contrast, no sky, white dress?

[Cinka]

I shot a wedding on Sunday and faced a problem I foresee coming up again: Grey/bland sky, lots of sun, white dress, bridesmaids and groomsmen in dark colors. I also fought the light as the sun kept popping in and out of the clouds.

What I took is mostly good, although I suspect I'm going to spend some time in Photoshop correcting exposures and I want to add some "pop" to the sky.

In the future, how to combat this scenario?

 

[Garbz]

Experience, being quick on your feet, I suppose if it's outdoor wedding a ND grad filter may be useful to give you that extra stop of latitude. Maybe simply underexposing the shot and then bumping in post if your camera has good noise characteristics.

There's no silver bullet.

 

[Mike_E]

Try off camera flash shooting across the dress just a hair above the ambient.

With the backgrounds you are on your own.

 

[Flash Harry]

If the sky is grey/**** I try to keep it out of the shot as much as possible, use fill flash on dull days to give the pics pop, over 70% of my work here has been performed under these conditions, and, usually rain so at times its a nightmare which we just get on with. H

 

[flyingember]

if you can't move them, change your perspective.

I second using a flash as an option too.

and sometimes the answer is to go inside or move everyone so there's something behind them (trees, building, tent, whatever). you may just have to mention to the bride (or her mother, aunt, bridesmaid) how her nice white dress will look terrible against the gray sky and your suggestion is X.