On board light for a wedding

[Nelson Cardoso]

I'm going to be shooting my first wedding... not something I want to get into but since it's for family, I want it to look good. I think I'm setup for audio... wireless lapel and shotgun mics... my davis and stanford provista tripod with FM12 plus wheels. I have a portable green screen for interviews and anything else spontaneous I might run into... etc etc.... but for lighting... I'm kinda stumped. I have softboxes I can use for some of the contained areas but i wanted something soft for the steadyTracker shots through the crowds dancing and other similar shots. I have a canon light that was recommended, but I find it very harsh and I don't have any control over it's output. Does anyone have recommendations... model??? brand??? Is there such a thing as a camera-top light with a softbox? Keep in mind... price matters... this is a free gig.

Thanks to all in advance.

Nelson Cardoso

[Don Palomaki]

On camera lights are almost always harsh, but try low watage, around say, 10 to 29 watts max, with a soft diffuser on front. That will help out to 10 feet or so.

I've used a SonyHVL-20DW2, has 2 ten-watt lamps in it. The dual lamps help soften shadow edges a bit. Powered by standard Sony camcorder battery.

[Don Bloom]

this is a topic that has been beat to death over the years right here at DVI but the short answer is just about any light will take a soft box and since you already have the Canon light, why not just soften it up with either a softbox OR a layer or 2 of ToughSpun or some other diffusion material. Since its a free gig why spend more money for something you're not going to use a lot.
Most cams today will work just fine with 20W - 35W with a softbox, depending on how dark they make the reception
Don

[Dale Guthormsen]

Go to varizoom and look at their new on camera light. has dimmer on it and doors runs up to 45 if i recall, but they are not cheap.