Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hello folks,

In wedding photoraphy, what shutter speed do you use with your flash? I want the ambient light of the background to register, also to avoid motion blur and effectively lighting the subject.

Canon 5D MII
550 Speedlight
24-105mm F4 IS L
70-200 f2.8 IS L

TIA

i dont think anyone can answer this without know the exact lighting conditions you are working in.

A good rule of thumb i heard is not to go below the shutter speed matching the focal length of your lens (ex 50mm lens, 1/50th shutter speed minimum). Taking into account crop factors, multiply the shutter speed accordingly (ex 1.5x 50mm = 1/75th shutter speed).

Of course, you can always drag the shutter and go very slow, using the flash to freeze your subject as well, which works best on the dance floor.

basically, try going as fast shutter speed as you can, going lower only when you are not getting enough light from the ambient. Also try increasing your ISO to compensate too.

Did you have to decrease the flash output?

I checked out the church on a sunny day at the exact time the wedding will take place, I think there was enough ambient light from the windows and the church lighting. I might be able to do 1/80?

So you'd say anything 1/60 or below would give good results, even at the reception?

Henry,

There is no one catch all answer.

You have to figure it out based on what you have at the time.

There are a few principles though:

Turn off the flash, and meter for the ambient (depending on how much you want)

Then turn on the flash and adjust flash output

Henry,

At 1/60 I got some motion blurr on some of the guests, while using the flash too. It also depends on what the subject is doing. If walking towards you, or standing, you could probably go even lower than that.
But if they are in fast motion, be careful.

It all comes down to how steady is your grip.

If you can have a 1.2 or 1.4 lens, as opposed to 2.8, get it.
But, as Rhommel says, if you can bump the ISO high enough and still have good pictures than forget my previous sentence.
I just noticed that your wide lens is a F4, high ISO is the way...I think your 5D MII will handle that without any problem.

Hope this helped.

I do realize that. I just wanted to ask what works for other people and from there I can tailor it to the actual conditions at the time. Thanks for the tip on metering the ambient light and adjusting the flash output.

Guys, what do you do if the dance floor is pitch black?

I don't want to highjack Henry's thread, but you may want to think about that too. At the wedding that I shot three weeks ago, the dance floor was at times just that, pitch black, except for the dynamic lights and the globe, whatever it's called...

I'm going to the church again this weekend and bring someone to practice with.

Thanks for the input everyone!!

Good question. I might run into that scenario too.

draaaag the shutter. the dance lights will be captured and the flash will freeze the subject. and youll get cool background light effects too.