Wish Me Luck: Today's the Day!!!!!

[MDJAK]

I've been waiting for today, June 10, 2006 for quite a few months now. I'll be doing my first wedding today. The couple responded to my ad on craigslist. We met in person thereafter, I scoped out the hall, and I'm ready.

I just cleaned the lenses I'm taking with me:

1. Starting out with the 85L. I'm meeting the bride in her matron of honor's house for some shots in various stages or readiness.

2. I'll switch to the 24-70L when I get to the reception hall.

3. I'll try some photojournalistic shots inside without flash by mounting my 135L.

4. If I can gather up the courage to round everybody up for a large group shot, I'll stand on a chair (I was going to get a speciality ladder but didn't) and use my 17-40.

5. I also brought my 70-200L just in case.

I've packed two of my bags. My large backpack has my 70-200, my camera and the Custom Bracket; the bracket is quite difficult to pack.

My Thinktank waist bag, which I'm going to carry on me, has my extra memory cards (10 gb in all, though I brought my epson viewer just in case), extra camera battery (both are fully charged) and the 17-40L, 24-70L and 135L.

Was contemplating bringing my studio lights and setting up sort of a corner portrait spot, but it seems like just too much work. I should be able to do portraits just handholding and bouncing the flash.

Well, that's about it. As my post title says: Wish me luck.

Thanks for everybody's help and for putting up with me.

Mark

[Rachellebee27]

Good luck!

[Ronald S. Jr.]

I've packed two of my bags. My large backpack has my 70-200, my camera and the Custom Bracket; the bracket is quite difficult to pack.

Gah, don't I know it! I always just carry it. Good luck!

[CateUK]

Good Luck! You sound very mentally prepared!! Post the pix when you're done!!

[Claire]

Good luck! Don't forget to tell us all about it later and post pics!!!

[Don Powell]

Maybe a little late, but I wish you the very best of luck. Post some shots.

[tim]

85L is a bit too long for inside prep shots even with full frame, go with the 17-40 or 24-70 IMHO. I'm getting a 30mm prime for that on my 20D. Good call on not using studio lights for your first wedding, I use them sometimes but not always.

Good luck! :)

[MDJAK]

Well, it's the next morning and I survived. I'm currently downloading close to 10 gigs, copying them to two separate external hard drives.

The reception hall was, in a word, DARK. They had almost every light turned off, just like a disco. Only the DJ's strobes were lighting up the place.

Needless to say, I'm not happy with some results I've looked at thus far. I've looked at 4 gigs so far. the 580ex lit the participants, but not much else.

My settings were between ISO 400 - 640, f2.8 most of the time, and TV 60-250, all in manual mode.

Perhaps the only thing that would have helped would have been two more flashes on rolling stands, but that would have required at least one assistant, perhaps two.

I'll post some examples in a bit.

Thanks
mark

[song4themoon]

You could have cranked the ISO as high as possible. Did you try that?

Cant wait to see some images!

[MDJAK]

Would that have brought up the background and the lighting in general? I wish I knew that. I didn't want to go too high because I didn't want the noise that accompanies that. I thought higher ISO in these situations just allows the flash to throttle back a bit so as to save batteries. Tell me I'm wrong.

mark

[sageone]

Were you shooting in jpeg or raw???

[MDJAK]

raw.

And I just tried bumping the ISO in my house and I see that it would have definitely helped.

I'm cursing myself now.

:cry:

[song4themoon]

cranking up the ISO will allow more light to get into the picture. So yes, it will lighten everything up and then the flash in addition should be enough.

The noise really arent too bad on ISO 1600 and with flash together should be hardly noticable, but even if.... often the noise adds to the picture.

Also you might not even have needed 1600, maybe 800 would have done it? Not sure how dark it was

[MDJAK]

Well, thank god for raw.

Here's a link to some photos I posted. These are very quick PS, on an older version with a beta camera raw release. My main computer is down. I'm waiting for Dell to replace it. For the third time.

http://www.pbase.com/mdjak/wedding06&page=1

C&C, please.

mark

[Claire]

I'm gonna take a look as soon as I'm online properly tonight. :)

How did you feel during the wedding?

[R_Metzel]

I think those turned out nice Mark. Nice job.

[Rachellebee27]

Those are great! I think the one of the flower girl that's really grainy would look better a little darker.

[MDJAK]

Thanks for the feedback.

Claire, I was not as nervous as I thought I'd be. I've done as much reading as possible, and quite a bit of practicing in advance. Also, as there was no ceremony and no formal shots to speak of, it was quite a bit easier than it otherwise might have been.

I can say that with the shots coming out a lot darker than I wanted them to, and seeing the histogram all the way left, I was not happy as things were going along. I'll say it again: Thank goodness for raw. I was able to improve almost every shot.

mark

[tim]

Not bad for a first attempt! The ISO/aperture/shutter controls the background exposure when using a flash, the flash just does the foreground, that's essential to know. Of course you can bounce and light most of the room, but you'll need an ISO of perhaps 800 to do that.

[MDJAK]

Well, I know it now, and obviously should have known it then.

At least with RAW I was able to save what would have otherwise been dark pictures.

mark

[tim]

Don't forget the shadow highlights tool in CS2, when the image is opened in 16 bit mode, can do great things.

[In2Photos]

Don't forget the shadow highlights tool in CS2, when the image is opened in 16 bit mode, can do great things.

I am finding this to be one of the best tools for tricky shots and I have to thank Tim for pointing it out to me.

Mark the shots look pretty good. I think the best one is of the couple dancing as she is putting her arms around him. Great capture.

[LuisE]

I think most of us are scare to use hight ISO , not sure why since we have seen very nice photos posted here even at 1600.
REgarding to the photos, you got nice shots MDJAK. Congratulations for your first wedding.

LuisE

[Rachellebee27]

I think most of us are scare to use hight ISO , not sure why since we have seen very nice photos posted here even at 1600.
REgarding to the photos, you got nice shots MDJAK. Congratulations for your first wedding.

LuisE

I think it's because it's hard to check if they're turning out alright, at least that's my main reason, asside from getting caught up in other things.