Original subtitles

Alright, so just to set the scene here,

this is the space for the reception.

It's called the Crystal Ballroom at the Pallister

Hotel in Calgary.

And it's a, you know, as you can

see, it's a big, open, voluminous ballroom that

typically would have tables everywhere.

But due to COVID, everything is very spaced

out, obviously.

So it's quite a bit different than what

you would normally find.

So they're getting ready for the grand entrance

where everybody's going to be entering.

And so Eric and I are just testing

out some lighting settings to get a feel

for how it's looking.

Getting things dialed in as best we can.

Essentially setting our ambient exposure for the highlights

in the room, which are the chandeliers.

And then getting our flash exposure set.

Now, just a little interjection here to chat

about transitions.

Again, at some point, Jenna went into, disappeared

into the women's bathroom to bustle the dress.

And Erica, of course, went with her.

We don't have footage of that because I

wasn't with her.

And the video guys obviously didn't join her.

So it was just Erica in the bathroom

with Jenna and her mom and her bridesmaids

helping her bustle her dress, essentially doing makeup

touches.

And so Erica just followed her in with

one camera, one lens to just document and

story tell.

And there's huge opportunity there.

In some ways, these are some of our

favourite stories or our favourite photos from the

reception.

Because it's off the script, right?

It's outside of the cookie cutter, predictable timeline,

right?

That's when the interesting stuff happens.

And Jenna also went outside for a smoke

at some point.

And we joined her for that too to

get some shots of that.

Okay.

Back to the reception here.

We're ready to go.

Grand entrance.

And we know full well we're not going

to get anything awesome here.

Deliverable at best.

We're just going for deliverable here.

Get the shots.

Light it as best we can.

You know, we'd love to be able to

layer in additional stories.

But just given the space, we pretty much

had to choose whether to photograph them as

they made their entrances or, you know, the

alternative would have been to focus on the

parents and their reactions.

We just decided to just get everybody entering

the space.

Deliverable.

Rinse, repeat.

Rinse, repeat.

Erica's flash on the camera is just acting

as a transmitter here.

We only have one off-camera flash coming

in from the side.

Okay, nothing too exciting.

It is what it is.

Okay, so now we're moving over into speech

mode.

And so now Erica and I are going

to shoot independently and work our own flashes.

And really it's just those three tips that

are guiding us in terms of where we

go and which lenses we use, where we

put our lights.

We're trying to short light everything as best

we can.

We're trying to fill the frame with the

stories and, if possible, layer in the speaker

and the reaction.

That's base camp there.

Basically where we keep all our lenses, batteries,

everything we need.

So speech number one, we're kind of just

figuring out, okay, where are we going to

go?

So I'm getting set to light the speaker.

Erica's focusing on the reaction.

Okay, so here's a good shot of the

light stands.

You can see I've got mine lighting the

speaker and Erica's got hers positioned.

So here's mine lighting the speaker.

And here's Erica's positioned to side light the

reaction here, right here.

Okay, and I've got my light to side

light the speaker.

So Erica's trying to layer in, you know,

all the people at the head table, fill

the frame with that.

I'm moving my light now.

I'm realizing that I might get better short

light action from here.

Move back into position.

You know,

it's a pretty challenging situation with this podium

where it is relative to the head table

and everyone lined up.

There's not many good compositions we can make

just the way it's arranged.

So we're trying to figure out the least

worst compositions we can come up with here.

Straightforward one is just fill the frame with

the speaker here, which is what I'm doing

for now while I get the lights in.

Erica's getting reactions.

So I'm searching out here for something new.

Move my light.

So I kind of have my next position

in mind.

So I need to go move the light,

get that in position to short light from

the new direction I'm going to shoot from,

which is way over there.

I'm going to try to fill the foreground

with the head table and focus on the

speaker from back there.

I think at this point I probably had

a lens that was a little bit too

wide for that.

Not a lot of options.

You can go in front of the head

table.

You can go on either side of the

head table.

And then, of course, we've got the main

players here at these tables, parents and their

reactions, which is something else that we're trying

to keep our eyes on.

Try to get some shots of that as

well.

So Erica's doing here, light coming in from

the side.

And this is often one of the most

physically painful parts of the wedding for us

is crouching in position often because we're waiting

for the moments, right?

We're trying to time the frames with when

people react or when the speaker looks up.

And so often you'll be will be crouched

in position, you know, for two or three

or five minutes waiting.

Getting food in when we can.

I think we did have, yeah, we did

have a chance to sit down and eat.

Speech back at it.

Erica's getting their reaction.

I'm getting the speaker.

Short lighting as best we can.

So for these hugs, what we're doing is

just switching over into on camera flash.

I've got it set up so we don't

have to push a couple of buttons so

that we can just turn that on camera

flash from from being a wireless trigger to

actually fire.

So we can get those hugs when they

happen where it doesn't happen to be.

The only other option for that is to

move each other's light.

And that's the other strategy that we'll do

sometimes.

So I've got a bigger lens on now,

which seems to be working better from this

shooting angle down at the end of the

head table.

Side light coming in on the speakers.

Just given the length and position of this

head table, it was tricky to get good

light on the reactions.

The bride and groom at the table because

we could only put the light in behind

them like that or somewhere up front.

So moved up a little bit closer to

the speakers there.

Erica's getting parents reactions.

So that

seems to be the best place I've realized

for my light.

For lighting the speakers with nice short light

coming from the side when I'm shooting them

from straight on like this.

Erica's on the reaction and I'm on the

speaker.

Getting those hugs.

I'm trying to move my light as best

I can and Erica switched over to on

camera flash.

Trying to layer those hugs.

The double hug is always the holy grail

if possible, right?

So I'm

going to attempt to layer speaker and reaction

in here from this shooting perspective.

It's just a tricky, tricky arrangement to get

them to line up.

Attempting from in behind there as well.

Just straight on bride and groom reaction.

So then when this happens, we try to

react as best we can to move the

light.

I moved mine.

Not sure if I got this or not.

Okay, so I'm going to back up and

try something a little bit different now.

Partially because I feel like we've already got

really good or decent enough straightforward reaction and

speaker shots.

And Erica's continuing to do that.

So I'm playing around with my mirror now.

And I'm using it essentially to try to

bring in the chandeliers from above.

Hugs, trying to get in there.

Cardboard cutouts do not make good photos.

Okay, so trying to layer in that chandeliers

from above.

Just trying to make something a little bit

different.

I do find the chandeliers interesting in this

space.

So that's what drew me into trying this.

Is there a way that I can layer

in the chandeliers into these shots?

Light coming in from the side on mom

there.

Get a reaction shot.

And also trying to layer in the other

parents as well.

Alright, final speech, bride and groom.

Thank you speech.

Now notice those three girls right there, the

three bridesmaids.

That's where the money was.

Both Erica and I tuned into that right

away.

That was the shot.

So I'm focusing on them from up here

and trying to layer in Will and Jenna

in the foreground.

And Erica was shooting from straight on.

Of course, both of our flashes have warming

gels and grids on for all of these

shots.

And that's just to isolate the light on

the subjects and keep it off of the

walls around them.

Okay, well that was basically speeches.

And next we're rolling into first dances.