I am the first to admit that I really don’t like flash – but at a wedding, your flash will become your best friend and if used correctly, will give you beautiful images. If you are going to be photographing weddings often, I would recommend that you buy the most expensive, most advanced and most powerful flash that you can afford. It will save you so much time in the end and as a professional photographer, time is money. It is also advisable to have a diffuser cap on your flash.

Flash is good for several reasons:

(1) flash can freeze action – this is ideal when the bride and groom walk out of the chapel and you want to capture the confetti shots

(2) perfect for the first dance as it has a known light strength so it is controlled and constant

(3) it can be used to correct colour – so it can be very useful for those sunset shots (if you expose for the bride’s face without overexposing the sunset, you won’t have any colour casts on th ebride’s face, but will still have the beautiful sunset in the background)

(4) it is important to understand that flash will expose for a specific distance so when doing those group table photos that everyone wants at a wedding, you need to ask everyone to move and get close together or your lighting will not be even

(5) Bouncing flash can be very useful if you have a white ceiling – this allows you to spread the light more evenly and gives a nice soft light. Watch out though for bouncing on thatch as this will give a colour cast and that is the last thing you want when photographing a wedding – especially the bride!!!

All in all, weddings can be tricky to photograph, but with a bit of experience and a good flash you will be a professional wedding photographer in no time!!!