“I prefer to use bounced flash for the first dance, and like to get in quite close with 35mm using a wide aperture to create some nice bokeh and keep the onlooking guests in the background”
“We wanted the guests to feature in the image and the stairs, so could not have the exposure too dark for this. We set the two flash units close to 45 degrees from our bride and groom giving us freedom to move around and still have good light”.
“Check the ambient light beforehand and test so it doesn’t interfere too much with what you are trying to achieve. Also ask for lasers etc to be withheld during the dance if not using OCF as these can create certain flaws within the images, and mostly, know what you are trying to achieve!”
“In this case the lighting in the room was really cool and atmospheric so I wanted to capture that. So I exposed the room for that and then just added two flashes off camera at the lowest setting of 1/128 to give it a bit of extra pop. My main top tip though that I always do is choose guests in the background rather than a DJ/band”
Editors comments
So basically light is king (dur!), so pay attention to the ambient light, work with it, make sure the existing venue or DJ lighting isn’t going to interfere with your shot and get the background spot on to achieve that simple but beautiful shot. How you light it, where you place those lights etc doesn’t really matter if you follow these simple but effective pieces of advice.
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