Party Time and cross lighting the dancefloor

As I was finishing up on my last wedding album of 2010 I came across a series of images with a story to them that I wanted to share. And since the full wedding posts will probably only show up on the blog next month, I thought: lets do a quickie!

It’s always easier with natural light, but with late summer weddings that light tends to fade out early, or sometimes you will just find yourself in a darker wedding venue….

This I what I got when shooting wide open at iso1600 without flash. Yes, the picture tells a story but it lacks sharpness and it lacks punch. I knew I was gonna find myself in trouble when the friends were going to do a special act, even more so when the opening dance came.

The contingency plan:
A while ago I purchased a couple of PockedWizard Flex TT5’s and a TT1 and this would prove to be as good a time as any to break em in. So I went to my car and fetched myself 2 lightstands from the trunk and placed them in opposite corners of the room. Left everything in ETTL (auto) mode. This is was that gave me, I even got to play with the projector light a bit.


The consistency was not always up to par compared to when shooting in manual but now I had time to focus on the action instead of running towards my stands all the time.
When the opening dance came the DJ decided to royally mess up my plan: first he added the lovely presence of magenta light!


Later he decided to up his game a little and throw in tons of smoke which made it near-impossible to use the autofocus. The following image : is a happy accident ! 🙂

4 thoughts on “Party Time and cross lighting the dancefloor

  1. mark says:

    leuk te zien Tom. Ik doe t zelf wel eens met een ST-E2 maar die werkt niet altijd 100%. Toch maar eens naar PW’s kijken dan. Op hoeveel mm zoom heb je je flitsers nu staan?

    Overigens vind ik dat magenta wel mooi hoor. (en tipje terug: vraag van tevoren even aan de DJ wat hij met t licht van plan is tijdens de dans, ik heb me zo al vaak een bak rood licht bespaard 😉 )

    • Tom Leuntjens says:

      zoom stond dacht ik op 50mm. je wil ook niet te breed alles gaan nuken met licht.

      ik doe eigenlijk altijd een praatje met de DJ en vraag expleciet niet al te veel rood-tonen, nu die mannen willen ook met hun lampjes kunnen uitpakken….

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