Calling all wedding photographers !

Shimmyhill

Shimmyhill

Shimmyhill

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A while ago i asked for some advice on taking wedding pics and im after more.

I am doing a friends wedding, no pro just me :eek:

What im after is any advice or technique you have found to work well, i have been practising and ben to a few weddings as a normal person with camera and got some decent results.

My friend is happy with what i normally shoot quality wise but i am on a time restriction as i have to go on hols and leave fairly early on !!!

Where i lack most knowledge/confidence is with using fill in flash, should i look to use it to avoid shaddows etc etc.

Just getting more nervous some any help will be received gladly !
 
I'm probably best not to give advice as I'm not a pro or ever been to a wedding but, I would say , stick to what you know and are good at, don't try and leanr new things really fast and then mess all photos up becuase you weren't used to the new style.
 
Do you have onboard flash or a seperate flashgun? this will be "the decider" on whether it will be using flash or higher iso!
 
mrk said:
Do you have onboard flash or a seperate flashgun? this will be "the decider" on whether it will be using flash or higher iso!
Click to expand...

I have an 550ex flash - been practising with it lots but only on single people, my concern is how to use it for wider shots with more people in frame.

Is the technique the same ?
 
Just aim up, kee the flash on it's most powerful settings and keep the camera in AV or full manual, I usually leave the shutter at around 1/80sec and set the aperture accordingly, the sigma flash is always on full power and the camera calculates the rest - always get nice even light.

Bounce the flash from upwards though to get the most light around as possible and use RAW because images will come out slightly underexposed which is what you want then you can bump up the curves in RAW later to bring out those contrasty colours and details

You can also use higher iso without much problems, the last wedding I did was at 400/640 and 800 iso and they turned out fav - you have canon so higher iso should be even easier :p
 
There was a good 26 page special on videoing weddings in The DigitalVideo Techniques magazine ,issue 8. Had lots of tips ,it covered preparation,kit list,the rehearsal,positions , the ceremony , storyboard and loads of other things .It even gave you a free disk with a few video & sound tracks , together with a couple of printable DVD covers. Well worth a read if you can still get , it was a couple of issues ago.
 
ahhh fill flash.

right first of all this is a nightmare. no right or wrong way to do it but its not easy, plus there are 1,000,001 ways to attack it.

I think Mrk is talking about flash light indoors, which is a different kettle of fish (and far easier i find)
-For indoors (and assuming you have a ceiling to bounce off) aim the flash up, set the FEC on the flash to +2/3, manual mode, 1/80 @ F5.6 and snap away. Thats a combo I use regularly for consistant results.
- with that way of doing things, dropping the shutter down or opening up the aperature lets in more ambient (artificial light for tungsten bulbs etc), giving you an even light (less need for flash) and backgrounds will be brighter.

For general outside fill flash I generally use AV mode. on a bright day use ISO 100 (or lower). Set your aperature to something like 5.6 or 7.1, dial in -1 1/3 of flash exposure compensation on your flash (this is the magic number!) and you are all set. point the flash straight at the subject, no diffuser needed.

Now outdoor fill flash at a wedding this is slightly harder - mainly due to the stark difference in the white of a bridal gown and black of the grooms tux.

This is where the debate starts....mainly due to metering.

I normally use evaluate, but many people stick to partial as they say that the white dress knocks evalaute all of the place. I dont find that too much.

If you are happy using manual mode, a good way to meter (assuming you dont have spot metering or a light meter) is dial in your aperature, for a very sunny day say F11 or F16, point up at the sky, note the shutter to give you spot on exposure, dial that into manual. and shoot. This will give you great blue skies and a great look. balancing the flash is an art, but results are good.

The main thing in all this is keep an eye on the histogram. If the light is changing, dont get caught out. take your time getting the first shot right, if it works, and light is constant then stick with it.

Another gem I've just thought of is P mode. for point and shoot flash work its great. try it. takes the worry out of fill flash.

other pointers:

keep an eye on the shutter, if it goes greater than 1/200 you will need to use high speed shutter (HSS) on the flash - this greatly reduces range and chomps up batteries

on the subject of batteries...get decent ones. Energiser 2500 mAH batteries are great. take loads with you.


phew...!
 
candid shots are in, they like that a lot at the mo
the biggest things I've seen pro photographers do badly is group shots
outside group shots with half the group under the shadow of a tree, that was classy.
have seen some really nice indoor setups, double reflector flashes linked to a 1DmkII and a prime lens
anyway logitisics are as important as the camera
lots of batteries, and media
scout any locations first if possible
and take a list of the groups you want to shoot, and if you need to be in one of the groups, setup a tripod too :)
 
Cheers for the advice guys :)

Its the metering im most worried about, however i suddenly have a feeling that the bride will not be in white - could make that much easier.
 
when i done some snaps at my cousins wedding a month ago I worried about getting the right exposure, I found it a lot easier than I thought it was going to be though

All i done was to take a few test shots in AV then compensate accordingly till the histogram looked good , once I got the right amount of compensation i just kept that set and shot away
Once or twice I had to tweak things but most of the photos turned out fine
 
Hey I was in the same boat as you last year !!!!

Best advice, get a good flash !!!!!!!!!! the ONLY 2 things I can tell you is, LEARN HOW TO USE IT PROPERLY, i only got mine the day before and I hadnt learned how to use it properly by then, so give yourself a good few days

2nd, TAKE 100000000000's OF PICS !! and GET LOADS OF MEMORY FOR YOUR CAM and a laptop copy them all over when your cam card is full, i also took a DVD writer to back up files when I was there, I got my own little room setup laptop and dvd writer :D

And dont be afraid experiment, take some experitmental shots and then take some more normal ones, and your sorted, here is my 1st ever wedding photos shots below :

http://www.athp56.dsl.pipex.com/images/Photography/pinkywedding/index.html

out of 900+ shots I took that day, id say around 125 or so were awesome 'pro' quality ones, the rest were either blurred smudges or ya 'normal' happy snap ones
 
Backup up your media cards as soon as you can too.

I use one of those 40GB portable hard drives and then this is copied to a laptop for double backups.

My wife and I use a couple of 5D's set to full manual with a 580 EX flash. These tend to eat 2GB media quite quickly, hence we have a stack of them. Practice with the hardware as much as you can within different environments. Don't be afraid of taking loads of shots. Even if you don't think the shot will work - JUST SHOOT! You will be surprised at what you sometimes capture.

Some very good advice in the previous posts.

And good luck on the day and enjoy it!
 
Hey smimmyhill good luck with the wedding shoot.
Just thought i would post my experience of my brothers wedding shoot. I was not the main photographer as you will be, but i did get shots that the main photographer didnt get.
Try, as said previously get as many shots as you can because they will all count, and take plenty of batterys for the flash, i unfortunatly didnt have enough and had to refer to the onboard which was not good enough imo. :(
 
morgan said:
got any samples?
Click to expand...

He posted a link to his photos.

I didn't look at them all but what I saw were good. Especially those with the sunlight beaming through the roof windows! :D

That is some cake cutting knife they had? :eek:
 
Well the wedding was on the 30th and i survived it (just)

Just for added pressure i had to dash off and go on holiday straight after i finished the pics.

The sun was terrible, it was so bright and due to time 1.00 there where shadows from all angles. I struggled with fill-in flash as i could not get the sync speed slow enough for the 300D so lots where overexposed (hi-speed sync on the flash didnt appear to help ????)

I did however do one with flash and one without so i have some good useable pics but shadows not helping.

I learnt an awful lot, firstly dont do weddings !!!! ;) but the main thing was you really need to have some practice runs (not posible as i was not going to do this wedding due to holiday but worked around it, however this left no time for practise runs) Fill in flash was essential and i need to do lots of practice in this area. I need a better body for flash sync and ideally a faster lens (24-70 ex sigma let me down with focusing) However it was a great learning experience and i am enjoying editing the photo's. The couple are really pleased with the images so far so its all good.

I also found you really need to be organised with the format of picture taking, ideally having met and discussed exactly what pics need to be done - due to timing issues this was not done and it added pressure on the day.

I will add some pics as i process them but here is one for starters, it gives an idea of where i struggled with the lighting :

Pic%20%20Tini%20mum%20BMaid%20Nic.jpg
 
I'm no expert as I've never used one but that shot looks like it would have benefitted from someone holding a reflector to get more light on the faces.
 
ranarama said:
I'm no expert as I've never used one but that shot looks like it would have benefitted from someone holding a reflector to get more light on the faces.
Click to expand...

I agree, a deflector and fill in flash would have made my day.

I know the issue with fill in flash now so i have defi learnt something !
 
saw a pro at a mates wedding, 1ds ( I think) cheapo flash and a piece of white card and an elastic band for a flash difuser/deflector, single small lens too

seemed to work a treat
 
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