Creative lighting for first dance photos

Part of an article from our photography tips website. One part of the wedding day that I really love to photograph (actually I love it all, but for the sake of this article one part I really love) is the first dance and father/daughter, mother/son dance. Normally these are in the reception venue where the lights come down, creating a nice dark room. I love to think of dark places as a nice blank canvas ready to create whatever vision is in my mind.

There are a couple of things I normally do at reception venues to create artistic light. With an average size room what I will usually do is put 2 lights on opposite corners of the dance floor. One will be an alien bee B800 which produces a lot of light. If you are looking for a nice and portable monolight, these alien bees are great. We have used 3 of them in the studio for about 6 years, they are reliable and priced very well. Check them out here: http://www.alienbees.com

To read the full article click here: Creative photography lighting