Lighting is an important ingredient for wedding photography. Unlike most other areas of professional photography, weddings require all types of lighting, all on the same day, such as window light, outdoor lighting, bounce lighting, and multiple electronic lighting. Each type of light has its drawbacks but also offers opportunities for creative work. In order to appreciate fine lighting, study the works of the master painters. Notice how the artists were acutely aware of lighting and light direction; shadows fall as they would in a naturally lit scene. They understood the difficulty in trying to make a two-dimensional. Increasingly, electronic flash equipment, with its automatic thyristor circuitry, is being used as the easy way to photograph a wedding. Some photographers boast that they can shoot a whole job at f/8, allowing the flash unit to do the work. Unfortunately, this type of lighting is really noticeable and unappealing.
The two broad categories of lighting discussed below are: existing light and electronic flash. Existing light consists of natural light and the light sources encountered, such as lamps or chandeliers. Electronic flash or strobe lighting...