Wedding Reception Lighting

A lighting kit is a good idea to have on hand at any wedding where there is even a slight chance of rain.
Most videographers use an on-camera light for those dark receptions, but what if the ceremony at the same location gets moved from an outdoor setting to indoors because of weather? Well, that on-camera light isn't going to cut it. Especially if they set-up right in front of a large window or glass paned door. Recently, I was at just such an occasion where the lighting kit proved necessary. The rain forced the ceremony indoors in front of a large glass paned door. This is typically a difficult situation to overcome, because it takes a great deal of light to bring up the lighting level high enough indoors to compensate for the outdoor lighting, and not get a blown-out look. I balanced my camera for sunlight and used a 1000 watt fresnel with a blue gel and a 500 watt light with no gel on either side of the ceremony to get a good mix of daylight and tungsten. Along with the indoor lights turned up, this created a nice balance of light and color.