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I am shooting a large wedding at the start of next month. I have shot a few weddings before and found challenges in each.
However I am a bit concerned as to how I will do the large group shot immediately after the ceremony - there will be 400 guests so a large wedding.
I scoped out the church today at about the same time as the ceremony finishes to get an idea of where the sun will be. There is not much room for the group shot (the church does not have surrounding greenery at all and is boxed in by other adjacent buildings) and the only area that will work is directly in front of the church - there is a large alchove area that is shaded that the guests can stand in (this is in front of the door). I am not 100% sure if 400 people can squeeze in here though - suspect not. So I may have to have some in here and the others either side of it.
Ideally I would position everyone in front of the church, all spread out. But the light is going to be facing me and also there will be a lot of shadowy areas plus hot spots (ie the sun will cast a shadow over a small part of the church whereas most of the space in front of me will be in bright sunlight). I could use a fill in flash, but not sure if it has the strength to illuminate 400 guests with me standing around 20m back! It is a Canon 580EX flash.
Any suggestions? It would be easier to draw the scenario out on paper so hopefully I've described it ok
Obviously if it is overcast there will not be an issue - just if it is bright sunlight like today, it could make it very challenging!
How odd, I've never been to a wedding where all the guests were in a group photo! The wedding party, sure... but all the guests? Is this common and expected where you're from? Have the bride and groom expressed their wishes to have this shot done? If not, I would speak to them about just not doing it.
Since there's pretty much no way to conquer this during the shoot, the only options left are in post processing. You could try taking several shots, exposing for the different lighting and then combining the exposures later, either in HDR or manually - but the problem would be the slight moving and shifting of people in the images. Alternatively, just use one shot and change the exposure in ACR and then combine them but this may not give you a big enough dynamic range. So you could do both - I would maybe use different shots for the sky/background but the same shot for the highlights/shadows on the group.
Are you using Photoshop? What version? Because the latest ACR has a "fill light" and a "recovery" feature which may also help in this situation.
It is odd to have the entire wedding in a picture. Whew, really, ask your couple if it's necessary. If anything, i would get creative, get a ladder/or if there is a balcony (make sure you have an assistant with you), and shoot from the top. Wide lens, have the entire group looking up at you, expose for the skies use flash for a fill, or you can use two flashes on each side and trigger them remotely. Then edit what needs to be in a CS.
Granted, there is no 400 people here, but still you can get something like this.
Good luck!
Since this will be a static shot, I would suggest using some portable lighting to fill in rather than rely on a flash unit. The light distribution from a single source will not be wide enough to evenly cover such a wide shot without hotspots. You could also use reflectors to utilize the backlight as a fill supplement and these could be colored reflectors to increase warmth or color balance depending upon your need. Reflectors can be rented or inexpensive solar shields for automotive purposes can be utilized.
The angle of the shot can help reduce the backlight load in the exposure, as suggested by ShepsMom, but that doesn't do much for the shadows on the faces if the backlight is significantly strong.
Really appreciate the feedback here! I have only photographed 5 weddings before and all of these were small (they were for friends and I did not charge for them). This, however, is my first paid shoot so I am a bit nervous about it.
PA2UK makes a good point that I have maybe overlooked - I am assuming they want the big group shot. It is entirely possible they may not have considered it. However, much as the bride seems very relaxed, if I ask her whether she wants me to do it, she will probably reply yes! The wedding is a Lebanese one so I might make a few behind the scene enquiries as to whether that is the norm in their culture.
I have CS4 and Photomatix so assuming I do it, I'll probably do an HDR off one image. I could take a few quick shots and bracket, but the movement between all 3 could be an issue. I always shoot RAW and am a committed ACR user (the adjustments at this level are usually all I need to do).
And as locolobo13 suggests, I'll take a variety from different angles and go from there. Fingers crossed I'll get an image that I can work with. I am basically dealing with both a cramped space and harsh lighting.
ShepsMom - nice shot btw!
Lastly I am a bit of a novice regarding portable lighting although will take a good sized reflector along....Thanks for the suggestions anyway.
It will be a 10-12 hour shoot so have almost 100GB worth of CF cards now (I stagger to think what I paid for an 8GB card a few years ago now!).
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