Video & Camera Equipment

Tips for low-light wedding photography?

Hello,

I’m an SF-based wedding photographer. I’ve been dealt with almost every lighting situation possible, but I’m still really curious as to what other photographers do in low-light situations.

I usually tend to shy away from using my speedlite flash as much as possible — if I do I use a lumiquest softbox diffuser… but I’m looking for other alternatives… Do you use any special technique to achieve a nice photo without ruining it with flash? I shoot with a canon 30D and a f/2.8L 24-70 lens the majority of the time… the lens is really fast which helps…

Looking forward to hearing your answers/suggestions!

Given the circumstances there are two options to archive the result you desire.
Option 1: Already mention by a knowledgeable and helpful poster on using expensive wide open lens.

Option 2: Using high ISO with the lens you already own. Noise will definitely be a concern at ISO 800-1600 but to compromise in not using a flash that leaves you with no other alternative. To work around the noise issue you will have a little extra work on post processing the photos. Make sure you shoot in RAW were the images contains more information and can withstand adjustments much better. Run your first pass through your RAW software then process the photos using a noise reduction software such as Noise Ninja or Nik Dfine. The results are very acceptable. Give it a try, Nik offer a trial version.

http://www.niksoftware.com/dfine/usa/entry.php

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