I have never met a photographer that hasn’t struggled with their reception lighting setup and after years of trying to come up with the perfect setup, I’ve slowly realized that like everything else, less is more. With that being said, I want to cover three different types of lighting setups that I use throughout a wedding reception. All three use minimal equipment and all three yield excellent results!
It’s a photographer’s house of horrors—a dark reception hall. Let me simplify everything for you. Below, I’ll lay out the easy system we at The Blumes use to create crisp, color-balanced, commercial-quality reception images every time. You’ll just need your camera, three cheap flashes, and a few rubber bands. Sound good?
If you’re overwhelmed by the technical side of lighting, don’t fear. You can try these simple approaches to wedding day lighting. As with every part of the wedding day, I apply in-studio lighting techniques to my photographs using my keylight (the main light), hair light (light that separates the subject from the background) and fill light (fills in the shadows). The mood I want to create changes throughout the day as the story I am telling changes, so my light sources vary from natural to artificial.
