Photographing a wedding party - Help!

Hiya,

I have been asked to photograph at a friends wedding party (1st time, very short term)
The idea is that the pictures will be an "impression" of the evening. By no means it should be high end pictures, but i want to do the best job i can.
It will be late, it will be crowded and most likely, it will be dark.

Camera: Nikon D90
Lenses: Nikon 35mm f/1,8
Nikon 18 - 105mm f/3.5-5.6
Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
External flash: None


- What is the least of equipment i should bring (ie. external flash?)
- Max ISO to shoot at (i am guessing something like 800)
- Any pointers in general would be most welcome (ie. flash TTL settings etc)

Your help is much appriciated

I did 800 pictures like this last weekend (can't show you - private event).

Two possibilities:

1. Event is indoors in a room with a white ceiling not too high and fairly good room lighting, typically during the meal of the fun and games at the end. Go for bounce with the room light about one stop down

- Point the flash directly up at the ceiling
- Operate at 1.5-2 metres from your subject
- Use camera on Auto-P
- Set camera on Auto-TTL BBL
- The camera will use 1/60s f7.1
- Set white balance to flash
- Set focussing to closest-subject
- Go round the tables and get into the fun-and-games next to the couple and switch round to the crowd to get their reaction etc.

You will get a result where your subject is in a pool of light coming from above with the rest of the room still visible but darker

2. Event is outdoors or indoors in a place with no ceiling or it's people dancing and you have to get in close:

- Point the flash directly at the subject
- Use the camera on MANUAL 1/60s f8
- Set the camera to Auto-TTL (no BBL)
- Set white balance to flash
- Set focussing to center point fixed
- Activate the focus-assist light
- When you compose be aware that the focus AND flash measurement are both looking at the center of the image so BEWARE if you a subject with a gap in the middle (a couple next to one another)

You will get something very dynamic with people frozen in movement by a flashlight and all dark behind.
Sometimes you won't even be able to see what you are doing but just keep shooting

Thanks for your reply Franglais, Bottom line for me is get a adjustable reporting flash and probably use my 18-105mm lens.
I hope it is a low ceiling as in your example (the party is inside) so i can try your pointers.

Thanks alot again

Good advice. I recently did something like this and used a mini softbox diffuser for outside shots. I underexposed the background by a stop or so and put the flash in TTL mode. For dance shots I used FP mode on the flash (also called HSS which allows faster shutter times synced with the flash) and shot in manual using the histogram to double check exposures.
I also used a wide angle prime for a few ambiance shots without the flash.

Franglais,

What is BBL? I tried to google it but i cant find anything on it.

@ Mattb, I am afraid there wont be any outside action. Ill keep it in mind tho, thanks.

Will a SB600 do btw? or do i need to get something stronger?

Thanks

Nikon TTL BBL is a flash mode set on the SB800 (and others). It is short for "Balanced Blending" I think but it means "Fill-in"

The camera measures the light falling on the scene and sets the flash power to just even out the light and (in our case) fill in the faces of the subject. Mostly it's intended for outdoors in bright sunlight but indoors in good room lighting 800 ISO 1/60 f7.1 give you a room that is slightly underexposed and a flash fill which brings up the subject beautifully, all on automatic.

Never use BBL mode when there is no light on the subject (example: disco dancing). It will try to match the flash with the background lights. In this case you switch to normal TTL mode with the camera on Manual (telling it effectively not to try to measure the room light but just get the flash exposure right).

Yes an SB600 would be enough. We are using 800 ISO with subjects that are fairly close. Do get familiar with the flash before the event. I've heard that the user interface is not as clear as on the SB800.