Tips needed for Wedding photo's

[yelvertoft]

Originally Posted by Saphire

Thank you Duncan,Stephen and Adey for your help it is appreciated. What I am really after is help and guidance in setting up a digital camera not film for reasonable wedding shots, rough exposer settings for the white wedding dress, is it better to underexpose or overexpose, spot metering for the dress, that type of thing Is it better with digital indoors to use a tripod and not use flash and correct colour on the computer. Just basic things to get reasonable exposers. With most non professional cameras being a 1.6 crop what would be a good size lens to use. I would like this thread to be useful starting point for others, not just me, to come too for guidance on the above things rather then having to keep asking.

Despite being a die-hard jpeg shooter, I think this is one occasion where using raw capture will have benefits. Before everyone jumps on this and says "all the pro wedding photographers shoot jpeg", I say yes, they have tight time limits to work to in order to get the proofs out. They also have a lot of experience in how to shoot weddings (one hopes).

As Adey has said, white dresses and black suits are a nightmare for light meters. They also make it very difficult to get the exposure compensation right - what's right for one part of the scene will not be right for the other. Using raw capture will give greater flexibility to apply exposure compensation and correct the white balance after the event. Remember, you can always brighten things up if they are a bit dark. Once you've burnt out detail from over-exposure you can never get it back. I'd suggest spot metering from a white dress, not applying any major exposure compensation, perhaps 0 or 0.3 positive compensation and letting it look a bit grey to begin with. This can easily be brightened up in post-processing and you won't have blown out the detail.

You ask about using flash/tripod for indoor shots. Using flash is a fine art in itself, just ask Don. If you are using built-in flash units, you will not get anything like the same results as a pro using off-camera units and reflectors etc. Unless you have the gear and/or a lot of experience in this area, prepare to be disappointed. Another reason to leave this kind of things to the pros in my book. I'll leave it to someone more experienced with flash to expand on this area. You'll also find just about every pro will use a tripod for indoor and outdoor shots, this is just plain common sense for those staged shots where you have control over the subjects.

Which lenses to use? Depends very much on your style and what kind of pictures the bride and groom are expecting. Large parties need either wide angles (and a remarkably large number of steps back), or superb organisational skills to squeeze people in. I think you'd use a variety of focal lengths, depending on what kind of picture you are taking. Overall, a typical 18-55 kit lens (on a 1.6 crop factor dSLR) is likely to cover most of the kind of situations you are likely to need.

Duncan

P.S. There's an extensive article in this month's "Digital Photo" magazine, specifically on shooting weddings.

[Saphire]

Thank you Duncan your explanation is very easy to follow. Fortunately I will have plenty of chances to try some of these things out before the big day. Shooting in Raw is fine by me as that is what I normally use anyway for all the mistakes I am bound to make I think this is the best option.

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by Saphire

Thank you Duncan your explanation is very easy to follow. Fortunately I will have plenty of chances to try some of these things out before the big day. Shooting in Raw is fine by me as that is what I normally use anyway for all the mistakes I am bound to make I think this is the best option.

Christine,

I will start with a couple of questions.

Church or Registry Office ?

At the wider end what lenses do you have ? Can't end up doing a Manjeet fishtank job with your bigma.

As Duncan says flash will be important. Ability for off camera flash essential. What flash kit have you got ?

This is definately a shooting RAW job. Have you tried RAW + JPEG Basic before. As this is not a high speed shooting environment it may help in deciding the editing regime, just takes up a bit more card space ?

I'll stop before I get carried away.

Don

[Saphire]

Don.

Neither Church or Registry its in a licenced Stately home, a very small room to seat about 40, not very bright.

Lenses I own a Canon 18-55, 75-300 and 170-500.

Flash built in flash, and a very cheap slave plus another slave http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...9&d=1135985441.

I have not tried shooting Raw+Jpeg so will give that a go tomorrow.

Christine

[Christine]

Gosh,I guess I will have the prospective bride read this thread!!!.My friend just wants some casual shots,as it is her daughters 2cnd marriage(so I guess "white" will hopefully not be on the agenda!!!).She does not want the hassle of sorting through 100 odd photos to decide which to keep etc.
Lenses which could be used,Tamron 28-300,a very clear lens when used with a 300d,a 60mm Macro(not sure as to this one-I have been practising on the dog!!),and the 18-55 kit lens.The 20d has gone off to be cleaned,and the 350d will follow when the 20 returns
My main problem is judging the distance,being unable to crouch down to take shots of bridesmaids(I think the brides 2yr old daughter ,may be a bridesmaid),and also the main query,which basic setting to use.RAW is definitely out,I have not used this prog yet,so whether to use,P,auto,or portrait,and whether or not to use the 550 EX flash unit(I think that is the one) or the cameras own built in.Someone did suggest it may be better to have the unit pointing in the air,rather than bent over.
I will suggest to the bride that I send the prints to Photobox,and I am only accepting a token donation for our local Inshore Rescue.
I am just not very good with indoor shots,and I think determining which prog to use is the main query.Just wish I had someone to practise on,apart from the dog-who is black!!.

[Christine]

Large hotel in the Lake District,is the venue,no,not a church thankfully,all my Carol service shots were a disaster,red-eye,and blurry.I was at the back of the church using a Canon 70-300 on full zoom.the Tamron is a much better lens,well it seems to be,when attached to the 300/350.The shots are crystal clear,esp outdoor ones,and ones in good light indoors.

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by Saphire

Don.

Neither Church or Registry its in a licenced Stately home, a very small room to seat about 40, not very bright.

Lenses I own a Canon 18-55, 75-300 and 170-500.

Flash built in flash, and a very cheap slave plus another slave http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...9&d=1135985441.

I have not tried shooting Raw+Jpeg so will give that a go tomorrow.

Christine

Christine,

18 - 55 will be fine. My opinion, loads of kit will only increase stress levels and result in missed pics.

Forget about built in flash. With a guide No. around 12 it is just no powerful enough and red eye is almost guaranteed.

Found a pic of your flash side on http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...8&d=1135985434

Bare minimum you need the Stofen attatchment ( the white bit in this pic ) available from Jessops. May need to take your flash there to confirm a fit. http://www.worldphotographyforum.com...0&d=1134942009

If I remember correctly this flash is not TTL. Please confirm that. Latest systems are ' fire and forget ' but older units require a bit of practice. So we may need to tailor advice on this.

Don

[Adey Baker]

Originally Posted by Christine

...My main problem is judging the distance,being unable to crouch down to take shots of bridesmaids(I think the brides 2yr old daughter ,may be a bridesmaid),and also the main query,which basic setting to use.RAW is definitely out,I have not used this prog yet,so whether to use,P,auto,or portrait,and whether or not to use the 550 EX flash unit(I think that is the one) or the cameras own built in.Someone did suggest it may be better to have the unit pointing in the air,rather than bent over...

...I am just not very good with indoor shots...

...all my Carol service shots were a disaster,red-eye,and blurry...

Christine, re-read my post, especially this bit: '...if you're not fully familiar with the workings of your camera then don't even think about it...' and decline the invitation to shoot the photos, suggesting that you don't think you can do justice to such an important occasion or something equally diplomatic. Take along a compact camera and just use it on full program mode and do some 'unofficial' shots to supplement the official ones.

[Saphire]

Don.
The flashgun is purely a slave gun I couldn't justify buying a TTL one for the odd occasions I would use it. I have made a cover to go over the built in flash for my macro shots. I will probably make one to go on the slave as well, (I am a cheapskate). I do have a grip bracket for the slave so it can be attached at the side of the camera.

[Don Hoey]

Originally Posted by Saphire

I have not tried shooting Raw+Jpeg so will give that a go tomorrow.

Christine

Christine,

I cannot do this, but it would be interesting to know if it is beneficial. You should be able to load jpeg basic very quickly. If the numbering is logical with the RAW file you could put a cross on any dud jpegs.

My camera can however do what a lot of todays can't ...... TIFFS. You can have a tea break while the image loads to your card

Don