How do you use WhiBal from a church balconey for altar lighting?

[Bill Artman]

Hello;

I received my WhiBal today. When photographing a wedding ceremony from the balconey or the back of the church with available tungsten light, maybe quartz spotlights, etc. shinning on the altar, how do I use the WhiBal?

If I hold the WhiBal at arms length it will not be at the altar where the light is. I could try to hide it somewhere in the altar area where the light will hit it but I don't think that's very feasible. I don't think I can photograph it before in the altar area before the ceremony starts because most churches re-adjust the lights right before the wedding starts.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks - have a great day!

[imagesphoto]

Do both, before the ceremony and then after. I don't recall lighting changes in churches prior to ceremony, at least not in our area.

[MichaelT]

I agree. Take some WhiBal shots before and after. And if you have an assistant, have he/she hold the card just before the ceremony starts right at the alter.

An ExpoDisc will give you an averaged Wb for the room, but will not give you the alter lighting which is what you want, unless you have a zoom that can zoom in close enough to elimnate all of the other lighting, but that is a boit awkward to do with the EXPo disc, since you cannt see what you are shooting, and you do not know what you shot when you view the ED file.

[jkane]

i assume you shott with an assistant. if so, just have them shoot the whibal card prior to teh ceremony.

or if you shoot the bride and her father from the front of the church, just grab the whibal shot then.

[sclamb]

If you are going down to the alter to take shots before and after the wedding, you could just as easily go to the alter and take the light reading with the ExpoDisc. Using the Expodisc is no more or less convenient than the WhitBal approach.

[MichaelT]

IMHO the WhiBal is more convenient and accurate because....

--only the light falling on the WhiBal will be measured, the ED will integrate all light.
--you do no need to remove your lens shade
--you do not need to mount the ED or have the correct size ED
--you end up with a reference shot in context, not a gray blob that has not contextual information.

sclamb ...
I am happy to have an open discussion, but the purpose of this forum is to discuss the best ways to use WhiBal and how to understand it best.

If you wish to simply say to use ED, then please do this on their forum or on DPR.

I am the first one to suggest when ED is a better or good choice as i did in this thread. I do not need to use my time, money, and bandwidth to promote ED where a WhiBal is better.

Please use discretion and realize where you are before you post.

Again, open discussion is fine. meaningless ads are not.