Let There Be Light

Let There Be Light

August 14th, 2011 @ 11:00 am by Mrs. Funnel Cake
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The most important aspect of our reception venue is LIGHT. Meaning that the venue must have light, and plenty of it. Why is this so very important? Well, let me point out priority #1:

*you know, because “joining in marriage” is priority #0, being integral to the wedding and all.

I’ve now been to a fair amount of weddings that were in dark, poorly lit rooms. I’m sure this is romantic and all, but I often struggled to take photos, even with my fancypants camera.

Sister Funnel Cake’s reception was daytime, yet notice evidence of candles lighting the room. In my opinion, candles shouldn’t be effective during the daytime! Her venue was deceivingly dark. I had my ISO jacked up to 1000 the whole time and shutter speeds were still lagging.

I wanted to get some pictures of sister Funnel Cake walking up and down the staircase at The Athletic Club, but it was just SO DARK. Again, fairy lights evident in a daytime setting.

With my point and shoot, I was hopeless at capturing brother Funnel Cake’s first dance.

Cake eating pictures? Look at that blur! I failed again.

So, why don’t I just whip out my flash at weddings? Well… that worked for me to some degree:

But when my flash started taking forever to recharge, key moments were blurred at this wedding! (Which I’m still upset about.)

Now, maybe you’ll argue that our photographer is way better than me, so of course our wedding photos won’t be blurry. It is true—he is way better than me—but I’ve seen blurry photos in every wedding photographer’s portfolio.

The fact of the matter is, when it is dark it is harder to take sharp photos. So low lit rooms like these…

…won’t be part of our inspiration.

Instead, we’ll most likely be aiming for something along these lines:

What kind of lighting do you favour?

*All photos/graphics are personal.

Tags: columbus, photography |

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10 Responses to “Let There Be Light”

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futuremrsrogers (message) 32 posts, Newbee

I have never thought about the importance of lighting in a venue. Our venue has lots of windows and its a daytime ceremony so I am hoping I wont have an issue with this.

8/14/11 @ 11:25 am (reply)

Member

jaina8851 (message) 37 posts, Newbee

Keep in mind though that rooms with big windows cause a challenge all of their own. You don’t want all of your photos to be horrendously backlit either!

8/14/11 @ 12:42 pm (reply)

Member

Rubies (message) 862 posts, Busy bee

I am a lover of dimly lit rooms….I plan on making SURE that my photog can shoot in that lighting without a flash (I am told it has to do with the camera and something about the iris…can you tell I was not a photography major?).

8/14/11 @ 4:48 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Pony (message) 4,175 posts, Honey bee

The curse of dimly lit rooms! Unfortunately we will have to deal with it as our room is somewhat in a basement and natural lighting is not prevalent, but if i had my way we’d have wonderful natural lighting until midnight

8/14/11 @ 8:19 pm (reply)

Member

hisbahamamama (message) 595 posts, Busy bee

I just went to a wedding in a hotel ballroom and the lighting was kinda dim, well it was the chandelier… the photographers had to hold white foam board over the camera to reflect the flash and I thought it looked pretty tacky… It made me make a point to remember to ask them how the will get past the lighting because it could be anything

8/14/11 @ 8:46 pm (reply)

Member

lisamarieloves (message) 447 posts, Helper bee

I have just decided to have professional lighting at my reception! I would have never thought about lighting or guesses that lighting would be something I would pay for. But after seeing the effects that extra lighting can have on the photos that are taken, and how it can affect the mood of the reception, I put it at the top of my list. Yay for lighting!!

8/14/11 @ 11:13 pm (reply)

Member

ifwinterends (message) 51 posts, Worker bee

i plan on having my ceremony and reception at a barn. as long as you hire a professional who has shot dimly lit weddings, all should be well. being a photographer myself, i will be asking what cameras and lenses photographer’s shoot with because the equipment is what makes all the difference in dim lit situations. i’ve gotten great shots at low light receptions without flash!

8/15/11 @ 4:42 am (reply)

Member

CorgiTales (message) 9,901 posts, Bee Keeper

I see what you mean here but I do want to reassure you that your photographer WILL be able to handle any lighting situation. For your posed photos he should bring a soft box and external flash to handle the dark (and quality is super important in flashes I’m learning…. the professional (i.e. expensive!) ones really do recharge a LOT faster). For motion shots the external flash should handle the situation well alone. Obviously more light is better… but don’t spend time stressing about this because if you hire a professional he should be just fine.

8/15/11 @ 8:49 am (reply)

Member

CorgiTales (message) 9,901 posts, Bee Keeper

Oh and ps… camera matters as well. I have a canon rebel xti and i don’t trust it beyond 800 iso or the images are mostly unusable. I shot a wedding this weekend with a 7d and was pushing 3200 most of the time and it was fine. The primary photog was shooting with a 5dmii at 6000 during the ceremony (no flash allowed!) and her photos were fine too.

8/15/11 @ 8:50 am (reply)

10.

Bee

Miss Kettle (message) 909 posts, Busy bee

I want my reception at night, so it will definitely be low lighting. I hadn’t thought about the sharpness of the images until I read this post. But photography was really low on our list of priorities. We’re more about food, music, guests, and clothes I think. I can’t wait to see your photos though since I know they’ll be sharp and well-lit!

8/16/11 @ 3:22 am (reply)