Wedding Photography at reception (too dark)?

C

Crossed Palms

New member
I have just started doing weddig photography and I am using a Canon sx10 IS and when I am trying to take photos at a reception they come out like newspaper photos if I dont use a flash they look aweful. I used an external flash for some of the photos and they come out ok but are very bright. I just want to capture what the room looks like when I see it. I have tried to over expose the photo but still have a grainey look to them. Nothing blurs but looks aweful. I have edited some on the computer but I dont think I should have to edit everything that I took!! Seems to be ok out side. What do wedding photographers do In a case when they need great photos but have aweful lighting??
 
you will need flash for sure in this situation.

I was taking pics at my sister's wedding recently. I was watching the pros very carefully. At dinner service, the lights were very dim. ALL of the pros had their flashes pointed straight up towards the ceiling, to bounce the light....none of them had their flashes pointed directly at the people the were taking pictures of.

MOST of them also had what seemed to be some sort of diffuser on their flash as well.


It takes a lot of practice to get the flash settings just right....do you have flash compensation??This allows you to dial up or dial down the flash power as needed...

Also, I recently read a good tip for shooting people indoors. If you set your settings to SLOW FLASH SYNC, this option allows you to capture more of the ambient light in the scene, which prevents the brightly lit foregound with a very dark background look.

Also, wedding photographers do not use point and shoot cameras, because they are waay too limited in low light situations.
You really need to think about investing in
a digital SLR for sure.

One of the things about NOT using a flash in low light means you need a HIGH ISO setting....your camera might say it can shoot at ISO 1600, but really, ALL point and shoot cameras are totally crappy at high ISO settings.....grainy newspaper looking images, as you say.
Digital SLR cameras are EXCELLENT for being able to shoot at high ISO settings.
That's what I mean...just from one respect. A point and shoot style camera...such as the one you have just doesn't have what it takes to produce the images you want. As a TOOL, its severely handicapping you.

Just in case you are thinking you camera is NOT a point and shoot.....sorry, but it is.
 
First of all, I hope you are #1: Not taking taking money from unsuspecting couples, and #2: Not the primary event photographer. That sounds harsh? Maybe. Not as harsh as a family who is not satisfied with their wedding "photography".

Photographers know how to use light and their equipment, have the experience and gear for the job, and more importantly the knowledge. You have "just started doing wedding photography"? With a point and shoot? Probably on the green auto button as well? Well, maybe not, this camera does have manual control, but the timbre of your question leads me to think you don't know much about the craft of photography in general. Certainly not enough yet to begin shooting weddings as a business or a side line.

Your camera is inadequate for event photography overall, but especially in dark rooms. The tiny sensor creates major difficulties that really will be hard to work around. Although the lens is f/2.8 on the wide end, it is getting pretty dark and slow at the tele end. The high ISO performance is pretty dismal, especially for wedding work, and not usable over ISO 400. So you are limited. Of course, we shot ISO 400 film for years at receptions and did fine.

You mention you are using an external flash. Are you bouncing and/or diffusing? If not, you need to be. Another technique that you need to learn is called dragging the shutter. The basics entail determining exposure for the background, using shutter speed to control ambient, and using aperture, manual flash, or compensation to control flash output and exposure on the subject. This requires manual exposure, and will avoid the deer in headlights look that auto flash often produces. This technique will work on your camera just the same as a SLR. Do you understand the connection between aperture and flash output? More research for you. A great place to read more about beginning wedding photography is photo.net. Go to the wedding and event forum, and click on the archives for newbies, also there are many forum posts on technique. Enough to keep you busy learning for months.

I highly suggest backing off from shooting any more weddings until you get the proper equipment, and a much better grasp on basic photography, and assist with an established photographer for some amount of time. These are once in a lifetime memories. Of course, having mediocre snapshots is better than having no pictures at all, and perhaps you are not really "doing" wedding photography, but are just snapping at friends' weddings. If so, disregard my dressing down in this post. If you *are* shooting for pay, you are asking for trouble in the future. Do you have photographer's liability insurance? You may want it when you get your first angry and disappointed bride who happens to have a lawyer involved. There is more to shooting weddings than pointing the camera and hoping the pictures are OK. Learn the stuff before starting.
 
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