iolair
No longer a newbie, moving up!
On Saturday I'm shooting a wedding, and expecting to do the group shots outdoors in direct sunlight.
I've practiced before shooting 1 or 2 people in direct sunlight, shooting in to the sun and using flash to fill, just leaving the sun to provide some edge lighting.
Adding enough light to 1 or 2 people is easy. Doing that with 60-100 people for the largest group shots is, I suspect, not going to be - I only have small flashes.
So, my options are
1) just go with the available light with the sun behind them, and resign myself to the fact that shooting with the correct settings to keep details in their shaded faces (probably around f/5.6 and 1/250s, maybe down as low as f/4) will leave the background and highlights (with correct exposure more like f/11 at 1/250s) in direct sunlight badly blown out.
2) As above, but expose to the right and see how much detail I can bring back from the shadows in post processing the raw files - but that carries a risk of the underexposed faces etc. carrying a some digital noise.
3) Shoot with the direct sunlight into their faces to avoid nasty cross shadows. Not tempting - I don't want a group shot of a hundred people squinting.
4) Pray for conveniently-placed clouds.
5) Try to fill in with my flashes. I don't think this is even realistic. I have three Yongnuo YN-460-II flashes, three light stands, two softboxes. The guide number of the YN-460-II is 37 ISO 100 m (according to the manufacturer; a couple of tests online suggest its more like 34). To get the faces etc. just a stop darker than the areas in direct sunlight I want them at f/8. With bare flashes (which might add more harsh details of their own) at full power, assuming I spread the three flashes across the front of the group so each flash was lighting roughly a third of the group, I'd need them 34/8 = 4.25 metres (about 14 ft) away from the group; I can't see that being that close they'd cover the whole group, and obviously don't want light stands in the group shots.
So, I'm thinking probably option 1, maybe take some option 1 and some option 2 to hedge my bets. That's for the larger groups. For the smaller groups, I guess I'd use two of my flashes bare at full-power, one on each side of the group, for fill (and have the third flash set up with a soft box ready to do the portraits with the bride and groom after the group shots).
Would love to hear thoughts on this, particularly from people that have actually shot large groups in direct sunlight ...
I've practiced before shooting 1 or 2 people in direct sunlight, shooting in to the sun and using flash to fill, just leaving the sun to provide some edge lighting.
Adding enough light to 1 or 2 people is easy. Doing that with 60-100 people for the largest group shots is, I suspect, not going to be - I only have small flashes.
So, my options are
1) just go with the available light with the sun behind them, and resign myself to the fact that shooting with the correct settings to keep details in their shaded faces (probably around f/5.6 and 1/250s, maybe down as low as f/4) will leave the background and highlights (with correct exposure more like f/11 at 1/250s) in direct sunlight badly blown out.
2) As above, but expose to the right and see how much detail I can bring back from the shadows in post processing the raw files - but that carries a risk of the underexposed faces etc. carrying a some digital noise.
3) Shoot with the direct sunlight into their faces to avoid nasty cross shadows. Not tempting - I don't want a group shot of a hundred people squinting.
4) Pray for conveniently-placed clouds.
5) Try to fill in with my flashes. I don't think this is even realistic. I have three Yongnuo YN-460-II flashes, three light stands, two softboxes. The guide number of the YN-460-II is 37 ISO 100 m (according to the manufacturer; a couple of tests online suggest its more like 34). To get the faces etc. just a stop darker than the areas in direct sunlight I want them at f/8. With bare flashes (which might add more harsh details of their own) at full power, assuming I spread the three flashes across the front of the group so each flash was lighting roughly a third of the group, I'd need them 34/8 = 4.25 metres (about 14 ft) away from the group; I can't see that being that close they'd cover the whole group, and obviously don't want light stands in the group shots.
So, I'm thinking probably option 1, maybe take some option 1 and some option 2 to hedge my bets. That's for the larger groups. For the smaller groups, I guess I'd use two of my flashes bare at full-power, one on each side of the group, for fill (and have the third flash set up with a soft box ready to do the portraits with the bride and groom after the group shots).
Would love to hear thoughts on this, particularly from people that have actually shot large groups in direct sunlight ...