Difficult Lighting

There is a very good reason we bring 6 cases of lighting equipment around with us to every wedding. That reason is churches are dark, dark places. They may not seem like it with the huge stained glass windows and spot lights on the ceiling, but the human eye is much more sensitive to light than any digital camera. You walk in and see beautiful colored light streaming in from all directions, but the camera just sees dark. The picture above was taken in a fairly dark church with a barely light curtain hanging about 20 feet behind the bride and groom. It took 2 lights on the bride and groom, 2 lights on the curtain and an additional light on the altar to keep everything nice and bright for the camera. It took a lot of adjusting to get the lights just right, but as you can see, the results were well worth it.