Flash Bracket Necessary when Shooting a Wedding?

[snapware]

Hi I wanted to see what the general consensus is. If I have the 580EX, do I also need a flash bracket when shooting indoors, such as a wedding?

 

[Kevin Krows]

Gary Fong dome will eliminate the need for a bracket. Just google his name or look up some of his products at B&H.
--
Kevin Krows

 

[Ignacio Feito]

Depends on the specific conditions.

If you have a light coloured ceiling on which you can bounce your flash off then you don't need to worry. If there's nothing to bounce against and you'll need to use direct flash then you need a flash bracket to avoid those weird side shadows that you get when using the flash sideways.

--
Ignacio Féito
México

 

[d2f]

I used to use a bracket to avoid red-eye and to cast the shadow down behind the subject. Before that I often get bumped shooting a wedding and with the flash unit mounted on the hot shoe I often wonder which would break first. Given the new 580 mark II has a metal hot shoe I think the camera mount might give first. The bracket solved that problem and a good bracket will give you better images, but at the cost of weight and cables.

Over the years I found the hot shoe mounted flash units to be to weak and not cycling fast enough to full power to shoot weddings. Also there were times I wish I could disconnect it from the camera and hand hold it to bounce off a wall to simulate window lighting. Years ago I talked to Monte Zucker about this and he convinced me to switch over to a bare bulb flash mounted on a bracket and long distance on a tripod. Proper and creative use of the bare bulb can result in outstanding indoor and outdoor images that stand apart from the crowd. You can also use a Norman frosted glass with reflector to focus more power forward yet yielding soft lighting effects.

I have also seen demonstrations by Monte where he mounted the bare bulb flash on a 4 wheel stand with a battery pack and remotely firing it. His assistant would move the flash around to provide background and or main light at the wedding reception. If I had an assistant that is what I would do, it solves the weight problem and again allows greater control of the light on the subject.

D2F

 

[Guerito]

I used to use a bracket to avoid red-eye and to cast the shadow down
behind the subject. Before that I often get bumped shooting a
wedding and with the flash unit mounted on the hot shoe I often
wonder which would break first.

I made this point a long time ago. I'd prefer a plastic flash foot rather than risk ripping the hot shoe off of my camera. Having said that, I do use a bracket for weddings for the reasons given above.

--
'The primary purpose of any business is to make a profit.'
Canon CEO Fujio Mitarai

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home ;jsessionid=GX90G0k1Qp!1508707039?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=186095&is=REG&addedTroughType=search

 

[Fantasy Photo]

Yes, you need one. It keeps the shadows behind the subjects and makes the final image look a whole lot better. Unless you shoot a lot of weddings and/or have a lot of well earned confidence in your abilities, weddings are best shot in the most simple and straight forward method possible in order to avoid mistakes. Direct flash is about as simple and straight forward as you can get and you really truely need a flash bracket for that. Even if you try bounce flash (which adds complications, drains your flash batteries faster, etc.) you will probably get a bad shadow unless you use a bracket. I've seldom been able to use bounce flash at weddings due to dark wood panelled walls and ceilings, high ceilings, etc. Also, I like to work close to my subjects (generally the bride) to keep people from getting between me and the subject and that eliminates bounce flash as a possibility. I sometimes put a diffuser over the flash but I still need a bracket. The diffuser, like bounce flash, adds complications, drains the flash batteries faster, and only works in a small room and in most cases you will still benefit from using a flash bracket as the diffuser still casts dark shadows (assuming the diffuser is able to do it job, and pitch black shadows if it isn't).
--
http://www.fantasy-photo.com

 

[Benedict Slotte]

If you have a light coloured ceiling on which you can bounce your
flash off then you don't need to worry. If there's nothing to
bounce against and you'll need to use direct flash then you need a
flash bracket to avoid those weird side shadows that you get when
using the flash sideways.

You also get side shadows when the flash is on a bracket and you shoot with the camera in the horizontal position. Furthermore, since the flash head is then closer to the lens than when you have it on the hot shoe, you tend to get red eyes more often.

I use a bracket for the sake of convenience and to avoid breaking the flash or hot shoe, but I think otherwise a bracket doesn't provide all the advantages it's said to provide, for reasons I wrote above.

Note that I now mean the Speedlite bracket from Canon. Having some different bracket that puts the flash head further away from and more above the camera in both positions will of course be better.

--
B. Slotte
Turku, Finland
http://bslotte.smugmug.com
See profile for equipment

 

[DuffysPhotos]

I don't do too may weddings, but I have a 5D, set high iso, and use a 220ex at the end of an off-camera cord which I hand hold. This is my system for all the casual and candid photography especially during the pre-ceremony get-ready and the reception. The 220 basically becomes a wink light to fill in ambient. I can point the flash just about any way I want to paint with light, yet the 220ex is small enough to stick in a pocket while composing or when not using flash. I can get the flash much higher than with a bracket, but leaves only one hand for the camera. Of course I still bring along a 580 for bigger scenes or daylight fill outdoors.

Best system I have seen is to have a savvy assistant with a second flash on a monopod triggered by IR or RF, really fabulous, gives cross or back-lighting, but still does not solve problem of shadow location from on-camera flash, unless using bracket or off cam cord for camera flash.

Next best, use a bracket with a fairly high power flash, but a big diffuser to keep the light soft.

 

[Eddie Santos]

I use

Custom Brackets CB Junior Flash Rotating Bracket with my 20d and the 1dMk11 with the 580 flash

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/313176-REG/Custom_Brackets_CBJUNIOR_CB_Junior_Flash_Rotating.html

--
Eddie

http://www.ESPhotoStudio.Com

http://www.PuertoRicans.Com

 

[stevetog]

I used a Pro T for a year, but its really quite bulky & awkward, so I have gone back to hot shoe mounting the flash on the camera & also using the Canon oc-E3 cord a lot. That combo seems to work much better for me as using the cord you can direct the flash where you want it & get much higher overhead flash than if your unit was even mounted on a Pro T. You can also do things like poke the flash high up into the wedding cars, to get better directional lighting rather than get a nasty on camera flash shadow etc.
--
'Your failure to be informed, does not make me a wacko.'
John Loeffler.

No politically correct beliefs were challenged or harmed in any way during the writing of this reply.
equipment- lots of FulL FrAMe & whacky lenses, various MF/LF.



http://www.pbase.com/foodphoto/i_call_it_art
http://www.pbase.com/foodphoto/weddings1

 

[Huan T Tran]

I did an informal survey among wedding photogs last year

It was roughly equally split between

1.bracket
2.Fong dong or other type modifier
3.no bracket-no modifier

There are a huge number of possibilities when it comes to lighting, don't let anyone tell you that you 'must' do it one way to another. This is where experience is important- only you can figure out for yourself which way you want to go, or how to mix it up.