Hey guys,
This won’t be as long a post as the last one about bodies and lenses.
Every wedding photographer should carry an array of lighting equipment. Lighting equipment serves several purposes during a wedding.
With good lighting you can add subtly create directional light where this is none. This is particularly helpful on Seattle wedding days with overcast grey skies.
With good lighting you can enhance the natural ambient light of reception halls and ceremonies. See article here on a little tutorial on gelling flashes.
With good light you can do a lot. I won’t go into detail on how to make light “good”. That would be a long post. I will run down the basic equipment I think you should carry to adequately cover a wedding day. (Again I will cover this from a Nikon user perspective so bear with me)
1) TTL-flash. sb-600, sb-700, Sb-800, Sb-900, Sb-910. You need at least one of these. TTL stands for through the lens metering. That means that your flash and camera are talking with each other to determine proper exposure. One thing to keep in mind when using these is that you need to apply the same exposure principles when dealing with flash exposure as you do when dealing with camera exposure. Dial up +1 compensation when shoot an all white dress. Dial down -2/3- 1 stop when shoot guys in tuxes etc.
I use on camera flash only as a run-and-gun during the reception. I almost always use it in conjunction with off-camera flash.
However, it is a necessary thing to have at %90 of weddings. These things aren’t cheap, so I recommend buying at least one used. The sb-800 is a solid performer in my opinion. I have used the sb-910 and it performed well, but it is more than most creative photographers need. Get 2 in case you need a back up.
2) Off camera shoe mounted flashes. There are a lot of takes on which ones to buy. A lot of people use old vivitar strobes. I personally will always stick with old Nikon strobes. For reference search for the following used units. These are my preferred options. Nikon sb-26, Nikon Sb-28dx, Nikon sb-80dx. An older Nikon Sb-24 or nikon SB-25 are fine as well, just not as awesome. The aforementioned models all have built in photo slaves triggers which make them an exceptional value. You can pick these up for around $100 each used. It doesn’t matter that these won’t work on your camera, because you won’t be using these on your camera. I would get at least two.
3) Large monolight. I held off getting one of these for a long time, relying on my speedlights to get me by. However when it came down to it it was super helpful picking up an alien bee unit. They make a ton of light. Are cheap. Seem pretty much indestructible. Bonus they work with Radio poppers Jrx system. I use these to shoot my large group family formals. I take it outside with its battery pack (extra) and over power the sun. I bounce it onto high ceilings to create awesome even light at receptions. I bought a black one. I would not recommend pink. Pick up their lithium ion battery pack while you are at it.
4)Radio popper jrx, pocket wizard plus III. And now to trigger them. I’d buy the radio popper jrx system. You can change the output of all the flashes listed above from on camera dials. this is so useful you have no idea. I have used pocket wizards in the past, and the plus IIIs are tempting. But I have found no difference in reliability between the two.
‘ the basics. For how to use them, and what modifiers to get stay tuned. Or check out the strobist 101 site.