Few personal wedding photos + advice on using flashgun

DB_SamX

DB_SamX

DB_SamX

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Thought I hadn't contributed anything to the forum in a while so here are a few photos I've taken at the last two wedding I have been to. Both of them were my friends' so was just shooting for my benefit and to share with our mutual friends. I've received positive feedback from my friends, which makes it more worthwhile.

Both times I was using my D90, Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 (most of the time), 50mm f/1.8 (for details), 50-150 f/2.8 (barely) and Yongnuo 465 flashgun (for dance floor). Shooting RAW, processed in GIMP. Just got LR4 yesterday though.

I'm finding it really hard to get to grips with getting the correct exposure when using my flashgun. I usually judge it from reviewing the image and the histogram, but more often than not, even though I am down to ISO 400, it seems to be down to luck or the image is over/underexposed and I have to recover a lot in PP, which makes the whole image appear noisy and ruining them, as below. I usually have the flashgun aimed up + bounce card and shoot on ETTL. Any tips on how to improve? Got Bryan Peterson's Flash Photography book but not got round to reading it yet.


Sam and Adam's wedding by *SM*, on Flickr


Sam and Adam's wedding by *SM*, on Flickr


Sam and Adam's wedding by *SM*, on Flickr


Sam and Adam's wedding by *SM*, on Flickr


Dan and Joanna's wedding by *SM*, on Flickr


Dan and Joanna's wedding by *SM*, on Flickr


Dan and Joanna's wedding by *SM*, on Flickr


Dan and Joanna's wedding by *SM*, on Flickr


Dan and Joanna's wedding by *SM*, on Flickr

Next contribution should be photos from Dubai from March but not had time to sort those photos yet.
 
Yeah, all of them were in AP. I can see what you mean about dof; I never really go down to the lowest f number just so I can get some better sharpness around f/4 but I can try going a bit lower and play around.

If I switch to manual shooting, is the power of the flashgun best controlled manually as well, and I check the metering myself before taking the shot? Also, if I wanted to allow the ambient light to dominate the scene for a more natural effect, would it be best to get the flashgun to provide less power (say 1 stop's worth)? I presume I would have to compensate for that by having a slower shutter speed to gain that extra stop?
 
DB_SamX said:
Yeah, all of them were in AP. I can see what you mean about dof; I never really go down to the lowest f number just so I can get some better sharpness around f/4 but I can try going a bit lower and play around.

If I switch to manual shooting, is the power of the flashgun best controlled manually as well, and I check the metering myself before taking the shot? Also, if I wanted to allow the ambient light to dominate the scene for a more natural effect, would it be best to get the flashgun to provide less power (say 1 stop's worth)? I presume I would have to compensate for that by having a slower shutter speed to gain that extra stop?
Click to expand...

No.

TTL with give you some variation in exposure from shot to shot (unless you lock it like with Nikon, not sure if Canon does that), but you also get variation in manual settings due to the flash to subject distance constantly changing (even when bounced) so TTL is actually more accurate imo...
 
DB_SamX said:
Yeah, all of them were in AP. I can see what you mean about dof; I never really go down to the lowest f number just so I can get some better sharpness around f/4 but I can try going a bit lower and play around.
Click to expand...

The reduced DOF would more than compensate for any loss in sharpness in terms of the overall quality of the image. The internet seems to have spread the myth that sharpness is everything in photography when it really isn't

An Exception said:
@ Paul
Manual camera setting's then TTL for the flash component.

I normally have my camera set to ISO 1000, 1/100, F2 + TTL
Click to expand...

I'd second that, I use similar settings and it generally produces great results when the light drops.
 
a1ex2001 said:
The reduced DOF would more than compensate for any loss in sharpness in terms of the overall quality of the image. The internet seems to have spread the myth that sharpness is everything in photography when it really isn't
Click to expand...

A professional photographer who works in Hessle just outside of Hull told me the same thing a few weeks back. He just got a catalogue contract and got that because he doesn't sharpen everything so it pops. Supposedly a softer shot is far more preferred for portraits atm!

His words not mine :P
 
An Exception said:
@ Paul
Manual camera setting's then TTL for the flash component.

I normally have my camera set to ISO 1000, 1/100, F2 + TTL
Click to expand...


that is what i do too, but sometimes ill switch to M flash too

im normally in darker rooms though so would drop my shutter speeds to about 30-50 depending on the ambient light
 
Last edited:
James J said:
A professional photographer who works in Hessle just outside of Hull told me the same thing a few weeks back. He just got a catalogue contract and got that because he doesn't sharpen everything so it pops. Supposedly a softer shot is far more preferred for portraits atm!

His words not mine :P
Click to expand...

I made this thread back in March in TP.
 
Ah this is interesting stuff, as I'm also trying to get to grips with flash photography.

Sorry to threadjack a bit, but hopefully the answer will benefit the OP too:

In manual mode with ETTL/TTL, how do shutter speed/aperture/ISO all interact with ambient and flash lighting? I've been lead to believe that bigger aperture means more flash exposure (how does this translate?), and shutter speed controls ambient. I have no idea what ISO would do besides allowing the faster shutter speed while keeping ambient up?

Also, flash compensation in camera (Canon) combined with TTL, does that just reduce/increase flash power to balance lighting between foreground flash and background ambient?
 
Devrij said:
Ah this is interesting stuff, as I'm also trying to get to grips with flash photography.

Sorry to threadjack a bit, but hopefully the answer will benefit the OP too:

In manual mode with ETTL/TTL, how do shutter speed/aperture/ISO all interact with ambient and flash lighting? I've been lead to believe that bigger aperture means more flash exposure (how does this translate?), and shutter speed controls ambient. I have no idea what ISO would do besides allowing the faster shutter speed while keeping ambient up?

Also, flash compensation in camera (Canon) combined with TTL, does that just reduce/increase flash power to balance lighting between foreground flash and background ambient?
Click to expand...

In M with ETTL you basically juggle 2 things.

1 - Flash will light your foregound subject.
2 - Your M settings, includes ISO controls background ambient light.

Keep in mind a few things when doing this.

1 - shutter speed, you still need to keep your shutter speed high enough or you will get motion blur, especially if you have the ISO high enough. Second Curtain sync may help if you want to use that.
2 - when shooting with a light source behind you, i.e. Disco light, this can cause over exposure.
3 - balance the ISO with room ambient light level. You are basically balancing between enough background with ISO noise.
 
Devrij said:
Ah this is interesting stuff, as I'm also trying to get to grips with flash photography.

Sorry to threadjack a bit, but hopefully the answer will benefit the OP too:

In manual mode with ETTL/TTL, how do shutter speed/aperture/ISO all interact with ambient and flash lighting? I've been lead to believe that bigger aperture means more flash exposure (how does this translate?), and shutter speed controls ambient. I have no idea what ISO would do besides allowing the faster shutter speed while keeping ambient up?

Also, flash compensation in camera (Canon) combined with TTL, does that just reduce/increase flash power to balance lighting between foreground flash and background ambient?
Click to expand...


a good way to do it is to get the exposure you want for the background/ambient first, then swtich on the flash and balance the flash power to get a good exposure on your subject

Flash compensation would increase or decrease the flash output , meaning the exposure of your subject

if you want more ambient light in for the background, lower your shutter speed.

as Raymond says watch the shutter isnt too low (if you have lots of ambient light) otherwise if your flash is your main light source a low shutter isnt a problem as the flash exposure will freeze the motion
 
At my last wedding I started shooting with Manual flash as well as having the camera on manual, I just used rear curtain sync and tweak the flash output as I went. It turned out to be the better selection of evening wedding photos I'd ever done.
 
I have had a lot of success indoors with tv mode set to 1/200 -250 and use the iso to regulate the lens being wide open.

I have never had any need to set the camera to manual as that's only for the background and I've never had issues metering it correctly using av or tv.

Always use TTL and use flash compensation where required. So never needed to fire that manually either in normal use.

Mastering canon flash photography is by far the best book I've read on speedlite use far better than any of that peterson pap :D
 
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