Shooting An African Wedding

A

andybiz_2005

Well-known member
Hi all,

I'll be shooting a multi-cultural wedding in April next month involving an American bride & an African groom. Since the groom's from Nigeria, his skin complexion is very dark. In order for him to be "properly exposed" I figure that I would have to mount a fairly strong video light (100watt halogen light) on my DVX100A & shine it directly on him whenever he comes into view, else his face would just appear too dark.

Though the American bride is quite fair, would having both the bride & groom in camera view while my video light is shining on both of them make the bride's face a complete & utter white-wash? How do I properly expose the skin tones of a fair face & dark face both at the same time in the same camera view? Should I engage the N/D filter? What should I set the Zebra value to? Should I increase the shutter speed at the expense of filmic (25p) motion? I'll be shooting 25progressive for the wedding.

Any useful help on this would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Andrew
 
Seems to me that the DVX100a should be able to handle shooting a dark-skinned person and fair-skinned person at the same ok. What will the setting be like? Is outdoors under sun? Outdoors at night? Outdoors under a tent? What color is the tent? What time of day and what direction is the sun coming from? Or Indoors in a dimly lit church? Indoor with lots of light?

In any case, just make sure white balance. Use your 2 available presets for setting up white balance for 2 different environments. Maybe you will start outside (different light) and make your way indoors (another different light). Using your presets will save you having to white balance on the go. Also, unless the bride and groom and church AND audience don't mind, use a light, but most of the time using a light at a wedding is just distracting. It is already distracting enough with you and the wedding photographer and their 3 other assistants running around and you maybe you have another videographer with you. That adds up to a lot of bodies that the wedding party and guests don't necessarily want to see. Having a light on you all the time is just asking for. It depends, ask the couple, they might not care.

I would mess with the Scene Files to find what will work best to balance the contrast out. I probably wouldn't mess with Knee so much. Try not to use Gain. Only if you really have to. ND Filter? Depends.

If you can go to a rehearsal (hopefully it as at the same time of day as wedding) then go to it and test some settings. If there isn't a rehearsal or it isn't at the same time of day, go to the spot a few days before at the time of day it will take place and test some settings, take notes, figure out how you are going to mic everything, etc.

hope this helps a little.

:beer:
 
I am Nigeria (black - not too dark though) and got married to my wife who is British (white) last year. I shot my wedding (with the help of a friend) with the DVX100b and I had no problem with the lighting.

My dark smiling face was clearly visible and I didn't need extra lighting for that. Did I also mention that it was the usual London rainy day so the light wasn't at it's best. I got by with the onboard camera settings to compensate.

I think your problem will not be your subjects having contrasting complexions but more of the environmental lighting as a whole. If it's dark then you'll have underexposed shots and vice versa. If the lighting is normal then both will be well lit.
 
Andrew, that's a very important question that you asked. It's someone wedding and there will be only one time to capture it. The concern that you have is not just a DVX problem, it is a video problem no matter what kind of camera or video tape that you use. The ability for video to handle drastic contrast ratio is much more limited than film or what the human eye can perceive.
If you shoot an interview situation with 2 women one in a white dress and one in a black dress the situation/problem is easily seen.
If you attempt to shoot a 2 shot, the camera will attempt to "average the brightness" and you will lose detail etc. If you fill the viewfinder with only one "no problem".
With your situation the problem is exacerbated. The black Groom will probably be dressed in a dark or black suit and Bride will be in a light or white dress.
Careful shooting (framing) is the key. Adding light will only bring up the brightness equally and not help. By the way the bride, her dress and most of the natural lighting (inside and outside) helps the bride and not the groom. Isolation is really the only remedy. Ok how do you do that? Plan, Plan, Plan your shots, at least the ones where you can include both in a close-up. The more of these that you can add the less the "other" shots will become obvious. Try to avoid any bright backlighting, natural or artificial.
In closing, this is not a problem that can be solved in post or changing cameras, it's good old fashion creative shooting technique. The better the footage the better the finished product.
Gary
 
Wow, thanks Ian, iobuc & Garry for your very helpful & insightful comments on shooting this wedding. I've heard that the DVX's cinelike_D gamma can capture the most dynamic range, but I'm very reluctant to use it simply because it produces the most amount of noise in the image. Gary, like you mentioned that if both the bride & groom are in the same shot (a two shot), then the camera will average the contrast. Then it would be better if I set the iris to manual & expose manually right?

Also, the wedding ceremony will be indoors in a hall that can seat 300-400 people. The ceiling is 12feet high with flourascent lighting spaced equally on the ceiling. So, it will be bright & mostly lit with flourascent lights.

If possible I don't want to use my 100watt video light as shining it directly at the couple would result in total overexposure & their faces & clothes would just be washed out. Gary, I also agree with you on how to expose properly when the bride is in a white dress & groom in a dark suit. Any suggestions?

Thanks again.

Andrew
 
Just a few screeshots from my wedding. Remember that 2 of these were shot inside the church with the worst lighting plus they were shot by a friend that has never held a camera before. There are better shots but these are the not so great ones. I attached the last picture to show my DVX at it's more confortable environment - also done with no extra lighting. I'm still a beginner so please don't slam my framing, colour correction etc.

(Please note that I've never attached a picture to this group so I hope my attachments will take :-)

If not I'll try again.
 

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Andrew, don't get sucked into the increased dynamic range making a difference. The problem here is much more drastic than an extra f-stop here and there. Also manual or auto exposure won't be of much help. It's the balance of light and dark in the shot that counts. Take a look at the great examples that jobuc has provided. In picture 1 there is a majority of dark (background and overall lighting) with only the grooms white shirt, the brides dress and the brides vail in bright white. The camera has adjusted itself to make a great picture (under the circumstances). The reverse is true in picture number 3, the brightness is pretty equal and balanced. Now if you look at picture number 2 you will see the problem starting. The Bright Window and and other brights begin to conflict with the equal amount of darker images and the facial images and detail begin to suffer.
So since jobuc's video was shot by a novice with everything probably set to auto, you can understand what I meant in the beginning and also what you need to look for in your shots.
obviously you can't do this on the entire video because you won't have that kind of control, but if you can be aware of opportunities and take them there will be nice shots to mix in with the problem shots.
Gary
 
Wow jobuc,

You are really helpful in posting screenshots of your own wedding. You really trusted a friend who had never held a camera to film your wedding? At least to me, the screenshots look quite OK. What a lucky gentleman you are to have such a gorgeous wife.

For the wedding I'm shooting, the groom's from Nigeria & the bride's from America, but they met here in Malaysia & will be here for some time more. I heard rumours from bride's close friends that the groom is planning an elaborate, traditional wedding following the Nigerian wedding traditions & mixing in some Christian wedding traditions to suit his American bride. Though I've never shot a cultural wedding like this, I'll have to ask the groom closer to the wedding date what are his plans so I know where to position & frame my camera shots. Thanks very much for your help.

Andrew
 
Thanks Gary, the wedding ceremony will be at around 7:30pm in the evening & by then the outside will be almost dark. So there wouldn't be any windows with bright sunlight shining through. That would be a good point. And the hall (I've seen it) has ample flourescent lights, so the hall will be well lit. No problem with using extra lights. I may have to stop down the iris a bit if it get too bright inside.

I usually set my masterped down to -8 for normal wedding shoots. Would you suggest then that I bump up the masterped settings to about 0, or 1 to compensate for the groom's dark complexion & bring out any dark shadow details? I think adjusting the masterped would be the way to go in this case. What do you think?

Andrew
 
Boy Andrew i'd be a little cautious about making adjustments blind.
Can you go to the rehearsal and experiment a little? I know it demands a little more time but it might just be worth it.
Gary
 
Hi all,

The wedding of the Nigerian groom & American bride is this evening. So I'm gonna experiment with bumping up the Master Pedastal a tiny lil bit & see if that helps with the skin tone contrast. I'll report back soon once the wedding shoot is over. Thanks for listening & for all your very helpful contributions to this thread.

Andrew
 
Hey Andrew,

How did the wedding shoot go?
I wish I could have jumped in earlier to be the voice that says.
Please don't shine a brite light on the Groom, it's not needed. Just get good exposure on the Bride then bump it up 1 stop and you'll be fine. You can adjust in post. There's a feeling that we have to pump a lot of light on dark skinned people but really we just need to make sure that we look for proper angles that enhance the light that's there. If you dark then you're going to be dark. If you shine bright light on someone dark they'll still be dark but now they'll be squinting. The picture above are well exposed pictures and they don't look like alot of "extra' light was thron on him.

Just my 2 cents (or 1 and a half)
 
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