Wedding Reception & first time shooting with flash.

[-B-]

I went to a wedding reception this past Saturday as a guest and decided to bring the camera along. This was my first time shooting in fairly low light and the first time using a hot shoe flash. I've had my D90 for less than a month now (first DSLR) so I'm fairly new to photography. C&C please.

D90 with kit lens and SB-24 on manual.
All photos are unedited.

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[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

It looks like you were bouncing the flash off of the ceiling, that's good. It gives you a nice soft overhead light....which is much better than direct flash. The only problem with that, is that you don't get much (or any) light into people eyes because the light is hitting them from above.
This is where flash accessories come in. Most flash accessories are made to be used while bouncing...they throw some of the light forward to fill in the shadows caused by the bounced light.
The most basic thing you could use, would be a bounce card. Just a reflective (white) card attached to the back of the flash so that when it's pointed up, some light is reflected forward.

Also, I will assume you had the flash set to i-TTL (auto). That's OK, but when using it, you may need to adjust the FEC (flash exposure compensation). The more reflective (white) the scene, the more you will need to increase the FEC. For example, the shots with the cake & white table cloth...they are underexposed. Turning up the FEC could have fixed that.

 

[-B-]

Thanks for the recommendations. I will definitely look into bounce cards.

 

[bigtwinky]

Keep on shooting, you are on the right path.

I'm not going to CC the images, too many to go through.

As a general comment, look at filling your frame more with the subject. The first few images, you seem to be a bit far / not zoomed in enough. If a cake is your subject, fill the frame more with it. Same goes with people.

Most of the images are fun, capturing the moment somewhat candidly. Nothing hugely inspirational, but a good start.

But yeah, fill the frame with your subjects, get in close, work on composition

 

[Derrel]

Compositionally, on most of the photos you have allowed too much top space,but not enough space at the bottom of the frame. One of the best ways to improve one's composition is to deliberately look at all four edges of th frame before pressing the shutter release.

For many people, the bottom edge of the frame is neglected; it is easy to see if the heads are being cut off, but sometimes the feet are forgotten, and that results in a compositional imbalance. Missing feet absolutely ruin many formal photos.

 

[tjones8611]

I know little, hell nothing about flash...but is the white balance off on a few?

 

[IgsEMT]

Good Job, Nice soft light.
I'd play with WB and check what picture-profile you are at. Images seems a bit to oversaturated and warm.
Good Job pal

 

[-B-]

Thanks everyone. As for the white balance, I just set it to flash and that was it. Any tips on how to properly set white balance?

 

[Big Mike]

Thanks everyone. As for the white balance, I just set it to flash and the was it. Any tips on how to properly set white balance?

Ideally, you should set a custom WB...but for something like a wedding, your light may change from shot to shot, so that may not be the best option.

I leave the WB set to auto...but I also shoot in RAW, so I can easily adjust the WB on the computer, after the wedding is over.

Personally, I don't think the WB here is all that bad. The skin tones may not be technically accurate, but the nice warm light is probably indicative of the light that was in the reception hall at the wedding. If the WB was more accurate, the shots might not have the same warm feel to them.
For most photos like this, I prefer a better feeling to technical accuracy.

 

[Layspeed]

Some nice photos. The first time I used my D90 was at a friend's wedding also. It's challenging with flashes, for me anyways. I can't ever tell if I like the photos with the flash after wards even when bouncing. But you got so good advice from Big Mike and others, so keep shooting :thumbup:

 

[IgsEMT]

Any tips on how to properly set white balance

Properly - that is subjective. On Nikon, "flash" is a bit warmer then on Canon. I used to use "daylight". Ideally, as mike said, you just preset it on the spot IF you want to play with Kelvin, I keep mine for SB600 and SB800 at 55300&5660K all depending on how warm/cold ambient light is.