Wedding nervousness (long-ish)

[Patrick 10D]

And it's not even my own wedding!

I am going to photograph my first wedding tomorrow - and I am slightly stressed about this! However, it is a favor to a friend, and he and his future ex-wife know that I am purely an amateur.

My 10D is outfitted with the Canon battery grip, I have 2 X 512 MB flash cards, EF 50 1.4, 17-40 L, 28-135 USM, 550 EX, a tripod, extra AA batteries and I will bring my iBook with me to proof some of the images as I go. One the equipment side, I think I am ok.

The wedding ceremony, the reception and wedding waltz (first dance) will be held in a small barn with three windows + 2 large barn doors in the open position and no artificial light (no electricity). It will also be about 90F and humid. I was there last week to check everything out and go through what needs to be photographed. That made me even more nervous, but thankfully, Finnish summer weddings are usually very "wet" ...

No one can tell me how to get the flash photography right, although reading some earlier threads about low light wedding photography has helped.

I guess my main question is about image size/resolution. I am wondering if there is any point to shoot on Large/Fine?

I have given a few CDs burned with pictures this size to friends that have then complained that they could not really view the pictures because they were so huge. Would Medium/Fine (1600 X 1200, or whatever) work? I plan to simply burn ALL of the pictures that I take to CD, and give it to the newlyweds (no PS). They get to decide what to print.

And if anyone has any words of encouragement, please feel free to post!

Thanks in advance.

Patrick

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

Hi,

I'm no real expert.
But here it goes.

1.
Always shoot RAW, or in other words the best possible quality. Enlargement WILL be ordered so you will need everything the camera has to over.

2.
ALWAYS check with the info key if you haven't blown out white parts of the scene, especially the dress of the bride.

3.
Use a flashlight, aim it at the roof (if not to high) at an angle so the scene is lighted by the reflection.

4.
Try to stay within the 100-200 ISO range (with flash this should work).

5.
Always remember that you have once chance and one chance only, so you better use that continues shooting to be sure one shot is the best, nothing is worse than the main picture to be one where the bride or groom had his/hers eye's closed.

6.
Watch out for shooting with backlighting, use a fill-in flash at that time.

7.
Direct use of flash can create very harsh and flat shots, use an angle (as in point 3).

8.
Buy or get Autofx Dreamsuite, you can create wonderful dreamy shots with a few mouseclicks, they always work very good.

9.
Have fun.

Greetings,
Frank

[wcapald]

Hi Frank,

I'm a full time wedding photographer using 10D's. Here is my web site www.pictureweddings.co.uk ... just to see waht is possible. Brilliant camera....

I always shoot Fine JPEG. The quality is superb and unless you need to take out an insurance policy you don't need to shoot RAW. Even if you blow a highlight RAW won't get you out of trouble. The secret is to use the histogram and check, check check all the time. Keep whites inside the RH axis otherwise your whites will have no detail. No point shooting lower quality as CF cards are so cheap now.

I always meter 1-1.5 stops open off the dress or spot read the flesh tone of my skin, (use the hand) and open 1 stop. Result - perfect exposures. I never use a light meter, but I use the histogram. I always shoot manual now as well although Aperture priority is fine, as long as you don't let blacks and whites fool the camera.

Always use the central focus point never multi-point

When using flash, bounce it wherever possible off light coloured ceilings, walls, never straight on unless you have no choice. If you have the 550 or a Metz use both guns, the front for fill, and the head for bounce light.

When the couple are walking in or walking out change your focusing to follow the subject, then change it back afterwards. Always use the green light to check to have focus locked.

And most of all be confident, enjoy yourself and your couple will be more relaxed with you. If you smile they will, and you will get better pictures.

Have FUN!

Wayne

[ineke]

use option "Preview with Info" so that from the histogram you know if any part of the picture is over/under expose :-)

Godd luck!

[Andy_T]

... browse through the forum, there are some more 'wedding' threads here

... take a look on Wayne's website for inspiration (these are truly great pictures there!!!)

... carry all replacement/backup stuff you have (film camera, small digital, ...)

... load every battery you have and take the charger with you

... Have a monopod ready for low-light action shots

... as already mentioned, have fun

... and don't forget to post some of the results afterwards!

Regards,
Andy

[Spinners]

I always meter 1-1.5 stops open off the dress or spot read the flesh tone of my skin, (use the hand) and open 1 stop. Result - perfect exposures. I never use a light meter, but I use the histogram. I always shoot manual now as well although Aperture priority is fine, as long as you don't let blacks and whites fool the camera.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Wayne.. love your gallery!! but a few questions.

What do you mean by "stops open" .. you mean use a larger aperature or a smaller one? Higher Fstop or lower Fstop. i usually meter the dress and stop down 1 to 1.5 stops. when using my 420EX,

when I use my light kit, i take a meter reading and step down 1.5. Do you just use spot metering from your camera on everyshot? and how do you not use direct light? cant bounce light in every church!

thanks for letting me pick your brain!

[Jinx]

My first wedding as a second shooter (just tagging along and not paid) is tomorrow as well. As for white balance (10D) do you always set it on the flash setting for inside shots?

Thanks

[wcapald]

Hi Spinners,

If you go back to the basics of how cameras work, any camera will be fooled by a white subject or a black subject into either stopping down the camera or opening up the camera in terms of exposure when you meter off these subjects. So clever wedding photographers know they have in front of them (usually all day) a "light meter anchor" in the form of the girls dress, (usually white). So to obtain correct exposures I just spot read off the girls dress and open up 1-1.5 stops , usually "speed" rather than "aperture".

A "stop" is the term given to the increments between lets say 125th to 60th, or F8 to f5.6. Full stops of light being let into the camera. If you go back to Ansel Adams he developed the zone system and thats a whole new ball of wax, but caucasian skin sits on the zone system at one stop beyond zone 5 (grey card) which all cameras try to average to when metering.

So guess what, the camera closes down one stop on most skin tones, so just open up one stop when metering in the same light as the subject and hey presto you have a perfect reading. My beloved Sekonic lightmeter hasn't seen the light of day ever since the D30, D60 and 10D cameras all provided us with instant checking of the histogram to check exposures.

Without digital I would never have enjoyed photography as I do today, taking on really difficult lighting situations and shooting hand held on lenses in churches wide open at F1.8 and shooting on ISO800 or ISO1600 to get real ambient mood in your photographs. (I use NeatImage to remove the noise - brilliant software)

Don't miss the next exciting episode of how to exploit your 10D and enjoy your photography and get perfect results every time...

Wayne

[Spinners]

Histograms are great, but the dont really tell you if your picture is properly exposed all the time (at least thats been my exp.) I have had some really nice looking histograms and crappy shots. Also histographs really are useless in flash situations where your indoors. mainly because the backgrounds are normally dark. so you get a high reading on your low shades.

maybe i just dont know how to read them.. but my understanding of them is that they just tell you the amount of a given shade. from left black to right white.

so what theres alot of black in the picture. that could be good or bad.

your thoughts?

[cowman345]

Spinners... the most useful thing I've found in histograms on the 10D is that they're accompanied by a tiny image which flashes any areas that are blown-out making it very obvious you have overexposed the shot. Secondly, even without the flashing... if a histogram has data running off either side, it's a good indication that you have under- or overexposure. A "good" histogram will have no spillover on either side.

-dave-

[clos]

Patrick,

I hope all goes well tomorrow.

In reference to your question about picture size for your customers CD.....

Most people have screen resolutions of 800x600 pixels. If you resize your pics to this size it will fill the entire screen of most of your custmers. If you resize appropriately you will not see a degredation in picture quality while protecting your pics from being reproduced to high quality prints.

The next most common common screen size is 1024x768, these users (assuming you resize to 800x600) would still see reasonably sized pics but it would not necesarily fill the screen.

Those that have higher resolution monitors are more technically savvy and are aware of higher screen resolution behavior. Don't need to worry about them they now what they are doing.

I hope this helps. Let us know how the wedding went.

-Clos

[Miles]

I am also unsure as to how to determine the colour balance for inside pcitures. Is selecting the pre-programmed tungsten lighting mode enough?

Thanks,

Miles

[wcapald]

So Patrick how did it go????

[cubfan]

Tungsten is ok for available light pictures but I use the flash setting anytime I'm using any artificial light sources such as a flash unit or studio strobe. You can filter them more in PS.

[Patrick 10D]

wcapald wrote:
So Patrick how did it go????

I think that it went well! Thanks for asking.

I took about 350 pictures, but I haven't been able to load them into my computer - I left my battery charger at the wedding location ...

This was my first experience using the 550 EX and based on this experience, I need to learn more!

Anyway, if I get some of the images uploaded somewhere, I will post the URL.

Thanks again for all of the advice - printed out notes were with me!!

Patrick

[wcapald]

Hi Patrick,

hope you enjoyed the first outing. A bit challenging isn't it?

When you get the chance next time you are downtown, have a look for one of the newest card readers on the market - its a Firewire CF Card reader, as opposed to the normal USB readers. It will download a 1GB Microdrive in minutes rather than half an hour. It will speed up your workflow rather than downloading from the camera.

I did a wedding on Saturday, been correcting them today and just done the web site upload. A bit too sunny for the best photography so we were chasing clouds all day or the shade under trees. Here is the link..

http://www.pictureweddings.co.uk/html/amyjohn.html

Have fun.

Wayne

[Andy_T]

Wayne,

... simply great pictures!

Regards,
Andy

[sigler]

Wayne,

WOW! Great pictures.

A question:

What do you offer your clients in terms of prints? Do you send out for prints, or do you create albums for them?

I'm looking for a place that will create photo albums of my digital prints.

Thanks!

Sigler

[wcapald]

Hi Sigler, just dropped you a reply. I have all my magazine albums made in Australia. I'll send you details. Wayne