Re: Reception Lighting

Hi Chris,

Wow, while the days, of having huge lights at weddings, when we were using 3 Tube cameras, in the late 80s to mid 90s have pretty much gone, you still need an on camera light or have an assistant carry a light maybe with a small softbox. There is no getting around that, especially for any interviews and for parts of a wedding where in many halls they drop the lights, such as parent/dances etc.. When we shoot weddings, which we try and keep to less and less nowadays, we like the frezzis with a soft box. I have a few of the dimmable 100watt units, and they are great. I also have a varilux, older style which I like cause it''s broader light, 100 watt dimmable, and softer without a softbox. but...it is bigger. You do need light, there is no way around this.. even with cams like the Pd-150/170s which are known to work well in low light. We are using HVX 200 now and they definately require lights. I know some guys who are shooting Weddings with Z1U s and while many stay away from lights throughout the day, they use lights at the halls, which are notoriously low light...

Keep in mind that with lights come the need for power. So this brings up the need for battery packs. Again there are several popular battery packs with different capacities. The bescor battery packs, will give you alot of power for your money, but they are still expensive, and some can be quite heavy. The smaller packs, can give you anywhere from 30-120 minutes for lights from 20watts - 100 watts. The newer LED lights are great and have very little power draw, but some need to be warmed up abit (color gels) and they are relatively more expensive.

Hope that helps..
George