Barn weddings are probably one of the most difficult venues to photograph. If you aren’t comfortable with your flash, they can be extremely stressful and you most likely won’t be happy with the results. The reason why they are so challenging is because they are filled with wood and you cannot bounce your flash, otherwise, you’ll end up with an orange cast on your subjects.

After photographing several barn weddings over the past few years, I’ve learned my way around how to properly light the space. My secret? Shoot through umbrellas!! By using shoot through umbrella, you are creating a lot of soft, WHITE light. That’s the key, the light is white, and while hit your subject as such. If you choose to bounce your light off of the wood, the color of the wood will cast onto your subject, most likely making them look like  Oompa Loompas. And nobody wants that!

I also recommend using an on-camera flash with either a white card or some sort of white diffuser because usually barns are very dark, and one OCF won’t cut it! If you’d like more information on my full flash set up, head on over to this post!

If you are curious about learning more about flash photography, grab my FREE “How-to” guide for capturing night portraits here!