The ceremony and the dark hall

Learning goal

In a dim hall where flash is forbidden or inappropriate, you will be able to shoot a ceremony without disrupting it, with sharp and readable faces. You will ask about the ceremony's rules in advance, keep to the limits on flash, movement and sound, and choose in advance a few places from which you can shoot without interrupting the ceremony. By looking at faces shot at high ISO on your own camera, you will learn with a test how high you can go, and use this limit together with a wide-aperture lens and a shutter speed that stops the movement of hands and faces. You will turn down the shutter's sound. You will set the exposure not for the scene's darkness or the bright chandeliers but for the faces; knowing in particular that underexposing dark skin in the dark and brightening it afterward can leave color blotches on the skin, you will expose the face correctly at the moment of shooting.

The question

After the window light of the preparation room, the civil ceremony hall is like a cave. Only a few of the chandeliers on the ceiling are on, a purple light seeps from the walls. Before starting the ceremony, the registrar turns to the photographers and asks: "Please don't use flash during the ceremony, and please don't step in front of the table." Your friend looks into the viewfinder; the faces are dark, the camera suggests a thirtieth of a second. The hall is so quiet that at the first shutter sound a few guests turn to look. How do you shoot in a dim hall?

Context

In the lens speed lesson you saw the fast lens, whose wide maximum aperture allows a short shutter speed in dim light (Lesson 12.6). In the ISO lesson you worked on how ISO amplifies the sensor's signal rather than adding light, and how luminance and color noise increase as it rises (Lesson 8.6). And you tried turning off the camera's shutter sound and shooting silently so as not to startle the house's tabby (Lesson P.10).

A dim ceremony hall is where these three pieces of knowledge are used together. Flash is often forbidden or disrupts the ceremony; the photographer works only with the hall's own light. The light is scarce, colored and mixed, and the ceremony is full of once-only moments. That is why the dark hall is one of the places where a wedding photographer's technical skill is tested most. But before technique comes etiquette: the ceremony is held not for the photographer, but for the couple and their families.

Simple explanation

What does the ceremony allow?

Ceremony etiquette is the whole of the rules and courtesies a photographer keeps to during a ceremony: whether flash may be used, where the photographer may stand, when they may move, how much sound and movement is accepted. These rules change from venue to venue, from registrar to religious official and from family to family; that is why they are asked of the official and the family before the ceremony starts. Many ceremonies don't allow flash; some also limit the photographer's movement. A shoot started without asking about the rules can be interrupted by a warning in the middle of the most important moment.

A fixed position is one of the places the photographer chooses in advance and uses throughout the ceremony so as to shoot without interrupting it: a side corner that sees the couple's faces, a wall edge behind the civil ceremony table, a doorway that sees the guests and the family. These positions are chosen in the hall seen in advance as part of the day's plan. During the ceremony, you move between positions only in quiet moments, crouching and slowly. If there is a second shooter, the two share two separate fixed positions and neither steps into the other's frame.

What do you do when the light is scarce?

When the light is scarce, three tools are used together: a fast lens with a wide aperture, a shutter speed that stops movement, and an ISO high enough to make up for them. During a ceremony people don't move much, but hands, heads and smiles do; in such a scene many photographers try not to let the shutter speed drop below roughly a hundredth of a second. Once the shutter speed and aperture are in place, ISO makes up the rest of the light.

A noise test is a photographer shooting faces at different ISO values on their own camera and examining them at their own print and screen size to determine how high they can go. Every camera's noise is different, and acceptable noise changes with where and at what size the photo will be seen. That is why there is no general number like "don't go above this ISO"; a test done before the wedding, in a dim room, with faces of different skin tones, shows the limit. The value found in the test can be written into the camera's auto ISO upper limit.

The shutter sound is a limit too. In a quiet hall every sound of the mechanical shutter draws attention. Silent shooting or the electronic shutter removes this sound; but since under some artificial lights it can create bands in the frame, a test frame is shot in the hall's light before the ceremony.

What is the exposure set for?

Face priority is setting the exposure and color in a dim, mixed-light scene not for the scene as a whole or for the bright light sources, but for the faces. Chandeliers, candles and colored wall lights confuse the camera's metering; the metering can be fooled by bright points and leave the faces dark. The exposure is adjusted for the face and checked by enlarging the face on the screen.

This matters especially for dark skin. In a dark hall, underexposing a dark face and brightening it in editing also enlarges the color noise in the shadows; the skin can turn into a grayish surface spoiled by red, green and purple blotches. Exposing the same face correctly at the moment of shooting, even if it means a higher ISO, often gives a cleaner and more accurate skin. Under colored hall lights, white balance is also set by looking at the faces, especially faces of different skin tones; the reflection of a purple wall can be removed separately from the face alone in editing.

Visual evidence

At a cousin's engagement party, your friend had shot in a dim hall with the settings the camera suggested and with flash. The flash firing as the ring was put on had made an elder wince, and the registrar had given a warning. In the frames without flash, on the other hand, the faces were blurred, and the face of a dark-skinned aunt had filled with colored blotches when brightened in editing.

The evening before the wedding, your friend photographs the faces of two club members of different skin tones at several ISO values in a dim room with their own camera; seeing up to which value the faces stay clean at print size, they write it into the auto ISO upper limit. On the day of the ceremony they ask the registrar and the family about the rules, and choose two fixed positions, next to the civil ceremony table and in the doorway.

During the ceremony they shoot in silent mode, at a wide aperture and at a hundredth of a second. They set the exposure for the groom's and the bride's faces, and adjust the white balance by looking at their skin. As the wedding bands go onto the fingers, both hands are sharp; the groom's dark skin is clean and warm, the bride's face natural. No guest turns to look.

Common mistakes

Summary

Shooting in a dim hall starts with asking about the ceremony's rules and choosing fixed positions to shoot from without interrupting the ceremony; then a fast lens, a shutter speed that freezes movement and an ISO rising up to the limit you found with a noise test on your own camera are used together, and the shutter's sound is turned down. Exposure and color are set for the faces; dark skin isn't underexposed in the dark and brightened afterward, but exposed correctly at the moment of shooting.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will find your own camera's limit in dim light and shoot like at a ceremony.

1. In a dim room, photograph the faces of two people of different skin tones at several ISO values and set your own limit by examining the faces at the size you will use.
2. In the same room, expose a face correctly once, and once underexpose it by two stops and brighten it in editing; compare the two frames.
3. At a family dinner or a small gathering, shoot a few frames without flash, in silent mode and without moving from two positions you chose in advance.

Check yourself

• Do you know your own camera's noise limit?
• Did you see the difference between a correctly exposed face and a face brightened afterward?
• Were you able to work during the shoot without distracting anyone?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. How do you find out whether flash may be used at a ceremony?

• A) The photographer decides alone
• B) The official and the family are asked before the ceremony starts
• C) You look at what other photographers do
• D) It is tried during the ceremony

2. How does a noise test differ from a general ISO limit?

• A) It is set on your own camera, at the size you will use and with faces of different skin tones
• B) It always gives a lower value
• C) It is only done in daytime
• D) It removes noise completely

3. What is the drawback of underexposing a dark face in a dark hall and brightening it afterward?

• A) The file gets smaller
• B) Sharpness increases
• C) The color noise in the shadows grows and the skin gets blotchy
• D) The white balance corrects itself

4. If the camera's metering is fooled by bright chandeliers, what is the exposure set for?

• A) The chandeliers
• B) The darkest corner of the hall
• C) The purple light on the wall
• D) The faces

Answers

1. B — The rules change with the venue, the official and the family; asking in advance protects the ceremony.
2. A — Noise changes with the camera and the size of use; the test shows the real limit.
3. C — Brightening also enlarges the color blotches in the shadows; correct exposure gives cleaner skin.
4. D — Face priority exposes the most important area of the scene correctly.

Summary card

• Etiquette first: flash, position, movement, sound; ask the official and the family.
• Choose fixed positions in advance; move in quiet moments.
• Fast lens + freezing shutter speed + an ISO limit found by testing.
• Silent shooting; do a banding test in the hall's light.
• Exposure and color for the faces; don't underexpose dark skin in the dark and brighten it afterward.

Bridge to the next lesson

The civil ceremony is over, the signatures have been made. The couple has only twenty minutes before dinner, and the album's most looked-at frames will be shot in these twenty minutes. The garden is large, the light is changing fast, the couple is tired and a little shy. Your friend wonders where to rush in so short a time and how to direct them. Twenty different frames in twenty minutes: is it possible? The next lesson takes up fast location choice and direction in the couple shoot.