3 PM Wedding Facing West With No Shade

[jnksherman]

Hi Everyone,

Hopefully my posting title explained my dilema. I will be shooting a wedding for experience and as a gift for my wife's father who is getting re-married. It is at a fairly new house where the front (where the simple ceremony is) faces the west. They are starting 3-4 pm(ish). They tell me there are no mature trees or really any architectural elements that can block or diffuse light. Any ideas how to handle this? Get as many as I can during the ceremony then take them somewhere else on the property for some posed shots maybe. I've never shot a wedding and this won't be a very traditional one to start with as far as schedules go (getting ready, ceremony, dining, toasts, cake, dancing, etc.) Here is my gear and what I've ordered so far for this and some other jobs coming up. Thanks for any advice or pointing me to some other useful info. Regards - Jeff

Canon EOS 20D
2 x 1 GB Sandisk UltraII Compact Flash
1 x 4 GB Sandisk UltraII Compact Flash (BACK-ORDERED)
Canon Kit Lens 18-55mm
Tamron 28-75mm f2.8
Speedlight 420EX
BG-E2 Battery Grip
Lexar Media Compact Flash Card Reader (FIREWIRE)
DynaTran At-6703 Pro Tripod (BIDDING ON EBAY)
Lowepro Backpack (One the AW Models, Can't Recall the Number)
DynaTran Photo Studio Light Stand Support (BIDDING ON EBAY)
DynaTran Photo Lightdisc Reflector Holder (BIDDING ON EBAY)
Dyna Tran Photo Portrait Lighting Kit DP-2497K (BIDDING ON EBAY)

[BLINN]

Wow, you have more stuff then I do. Look at it from their point of view (b&g). Try to capture the story of their day, the events that lead up to, and take place afterward. Small wedding are a great place to start. I am sure they will love it. Keep in mind that at that time of day the light changes quickly. good luck.

[jamiewexler]

During the ceremony, underexpose the scene and blast the heck out of it with fill flash. You might want to try AV mode with -1 EV comp +1 FEC. (Try to experiment with the best settings before the wedding. Your 20D automatically subtracts 1 stop from the ambient exposure when you turn the flash on in AV mode. That might be enough to not blow out the sky but you'll need to experiment to see how much fill you'll need)

After the ceremony try to get them in the shade for formals...even if you have to a take them all to a park down the street!

[bpuppy]

For some of the shots, try shooting INTO the sun. Crank the fill flash and try to get interesting halo effects or hairlighting using the sun.

It might not work, but hey, when life hands you lemons ...

[jnksherman]

Thanks for the input thus far. All good stuff. I like the experimental idea of shooting towards the sun with a fill flash. I'm working on getting a light stand with a reflector holding arm as well, but I suspect this will be more of a pain then anything since I'll be working by myself. Keep the ideas or experience coming please. Thanks.

[BLINN]

Hire or begg someone to be your assistant.

[tim]

Definitely have the sun behind them, otherwise people will be squinting. The sun also makes a great back/hair light. Fill flash is essential, diffuser a little if you can. The flash will be the main light for the people so FEC of 0 or more will be needed.

[scattashot]

get a good quality polarizer that will reduce the glare from the oncoming sun

[scattashot]

use a reflector to block the sun and cast a shadow for the formal shots but this will only work for closeups

[llaamaboy]

Everyone is soooo correct.
Put the sun behind the people. Watch for flair - even to the point of someone shading the lens with matt board or something. (At 3 PM you may not have to worry about that, but as the sun sets, it will become more of an issue if you stay in the same spot.)

If there is any way to keep the fill one stop below the brightest medium sized area in the backgound, you will be fine.
I have done more than a few weddings in 105+ temps. outsite in the bright sun. I had ISO 100, set the camera to 250/F11 and filled at F8 - F8.5. We just let eveyone drink a lot of water, kept telling them how great they were doing and they would not be able to see how hot it was in the Photos. It always worked out.

Any chance you can upload a shot here?

[Wazza]

Can you shoot more side on? Like North or South, with some lighting from the side, rather than full backlit.

Definately shoot RAW, fill flash, know how to control the metering for shots also.

[llaamaboy]

Can you shoot more side on? Like North or South, with some lighting from the side, rather than full backlit.

Definately shoot RAW, fill flash, know how to control the metering for shots also.

Wazza ... Why RAW? (Im new to digi and am just asking for learning sake.)

[Wazza]

Raw saves a lot more hidden data, which can be edited without loss of quality. A RAW on a 20D allows +/- 3 Exposure compensation to correct images, and heard it's higher for other bodies such as 5D?

There's also tricks like the Highlight contrast slider in a RAW converter like RawShooter Essentials, which changes the top overexposed levels, and magically brings them back to a more pleasurable viewing.

[Andy001z]

Have to add, just met a pro wedding photographer at the weekend (very good). He works in Digital and uses JPG, as he has 20years under his belt as a photographer and I guess knows his stuff and does not need the extra ino in the RAW. However do note that working with RAW will add to your post prosessing time.

good luck

[Wazza]

Yep, if you know how to shoot perfectly exposed shots straight out of camera, and 20 years exp, this would be fair.

In the past year, I shot my first 9 months on digital on JPG, and then changed to RAW about 5 months ago, and have never looked back. Another reason I like RSE, is the fact it has some ok noise reduction in it, and easy white balance correction. A lot easier than fixing up in photoshop 7. I'll have to wait some time before buying CS2, and having all the extra benefits, and buy Noise ninja.

[jnksherman]

Thanks for all of the great info. I've been staring at a shopping cart at B&H Photo for days now waiting to pull the trigger. I just added the Canon 50mm f/1.4 to the list and what I think is a really decent Bogen | Manfrotto tripod setup. Still working on the wife to justify the purchases. I tell her "Hey, that's cool, I'll use my dad's $20 vivitar tripod that I inherited with one leg that doesn't really lock for my $1600.00 camera. I won't be too upset when it crashes onto the concrete!"

Anyway, thanks again for the input. I expect to shoot in RAW because I don't have the 20 years experience yet. I'm excited to experiement with some of the techniques everyone has mentioned.

On a side note, last night I was offered an opportunity to shoot at an ESPN telelvised boxing match at a local gaming casino. How can I turn that down? Experience is gained by doing and screwing it up a couple times right? :D

[Wazza]

Good stuff on the new purchases, and congrats on that new gig. the 50 1.4 should be nice for tight head/shoulders crops with a punch going into their head. gmen has posted some good series in Sports. :)

[llaamaboy]

Thanks for the info... back to the reading.

[VanceW]

Absolutely shoot RAW, and if you feel really adventurous, change your color setting's to aRGB so that you can capture more colors. :)

Can't add anything more to what the others have already suggested.