natural indoor wedding photos, with or without flash?

mcgee189

Hi all,

I am a hobby landscape photographer, but i have been recently asked to take wedding photos in the summer. I have a nikon D80 with 18-200mm zoom. I'd like to take natural unstaged photos inside he church and at the reception, and dont like the washed out effect of the flash. Is there any way to avoid this? Could i take photos without flash on a tripod indoors? Or does anyone have any tips for settings? I want to take both black and white and colour photos with natural hues.

Thanks for any advise
Grainne

hoganpoly

Take the flash off your camera and use it it manual mode adjusting levels as suits

pixbyjohn

hoganpoly wrote: »

Take the flash off your camera and use it it manual mode adjusting levels as suits

Thats a bit simplistic, won't photos suffer from blurring with the equipment OP is using ?

PopeBuckfastXVI

I have a d80 too.

Do *not* push your ISO above 400, the noise will ruin your shots, even at 400 you're going to have trouble. Your only choice is to use a flash to be honest (unless your church is made of glass).

Tripod will be no good as people will be moving, and you will have to move to capture moments too.

If you can, borrow a faster lens.

I have a home made solution for flash, I got some stiff white paper, and cut out a rectangle of it and some cornflake box cardboard, about 7" by 9" (I think). Stuck them together with black masking tape, and then put a velcro strip on the back and one side of the flash, and one on the white side of the card, so you can point the flash at 45 degrees, attach the card and you get some really nice diffused light, looks a bit silly, but the results are good, even on TTL.

Here's some I took using it at a fashion show, with a 17-55 f/2.8 lens (background is ambient light, the models are all from flash):

Arciphel

This is not going to end well... D80 high iso noise is bad, add to that an 18-200mm superzoom lens with a very slow aperture and I think if you don't use a flash inside the church you are going to be in trouble!

Thecageyone

To be honest, you're going to need a better lens for the job. Even a cheap 50mm f/1.8 will perform far, far better than your zoom in a church. You'll just need to move in and out a lot more.

You might not be allowed use flash. If you are, bounce it, off ceilings [if low enough] walls, statues, anything that will throw a nice blanket of light back. Only direct on-board flash gives that horrible flat, rabbit in head-lights look. Don't use that.

The Snipe

Faster lenses, and an external flash with a stofen would be your best bet.