I need some advice please

[khenn]

Here is a sample picture from a church where I will be doing a wedding. I am not a professional, but I have done several weddings. This will be my first wedding with this type of situation. The bride and her party will be entering through this door. Notice the very bright background. How will this effect my pictures, and how can I correct it? Will exposure lock do the trick?

Also, here is another off topic question. Do you recommend using shutter or aperture priority or something else for weddings?

http://www.bluemtnoutdoors.com/photography/images/categories/Weddings/zoom/sample.jpg

Thanks

[J.A.F. Doorhof]

Hi,

Use a lock on the bright area and use a flash to fill in the dark areas.

BUT....
Take notice on the guide number of the flash, the onboard will not do much if the subjects are more than 5 mtrs away.

Greetings,
Frank

[khenn]

J.A.F. Doorhof wrote:
Hi,

Use a lock on the bright area and use a flash to fill in the dark areas.

BUT....
Take notice on the guide number of the flash, the onboard will not do much if the subjects are more than 5 mtrs away.

Greetings,
Frank


Maybe I should also mention I am using a 10D with a 550ex on a flash bracket. So, flash should not be a problem.

[dmalek]

jump to this page :

http://mogsplace.net/photography/famille

this is my sister's wedding with EOD 10D without flash, shot at ISO 400 mostly.

i tried to avoid the light in the frame

david

[khenn]

Will I get better results with evaluative or partial metering?

[scottbergerphoto]

If you use flash, the camera's meter will read the ambient light and try to balance the flash lighting the foreground with the ambient light. In this situation the camera meter will see alot of light from the background tending to cause underexposure of the foreground. Why not have someone stand in the spot you plan to take pictures of the couple getting married and try varying degrees of flash exposure compensation (minus) till you get what you like. You should put the flash on a flash bracket and use the Canon "Off The Shoe Cord 2" to maintain full E-TTL. This will reduce the flattening effect of the flash. If you do this method, it doesn't matter which metering you use as long as you use the same metering you tested for. I have found that strong backlighting is tough for a camera meter and usually requires some testing or flash bracketing.

[D60DIETER]

Very good idea,

one add to it. Take persons with white!!! and black clothes!!! You know.

[robertwgross]

khenn wrote:
Will I get better results with evaluative or partial metering?


That is the mystery question.

The standard wedding problem is that the bride may be wearing a solid white gown, and the groom may be wearing a solid black tuxedo. That dynamic range will stress every photographer and camera. If you have a relatively large metering area, then it is more likely to take everything into the averaging. If you have a relatively small metering area, then it will get just the white, or just the black.

So, when I shoot the couple together, I shoot with evaluative. When I shoot just one or the other singly, then sometimes I switch over to partial.

However, that is going to change as you move from one background to another, so you may have to experiment.

I was shooting a wedding and reception last month, and there were lots of indoor trees with Christmas tree lights covering them. I was surprised how much difference that made as a background.

Also, you might stop and ask yourself this question: "If the exposure is off slightly, would I rather have the white dress too white, or would I rather have the black tux too black?" [ hint: this is not a perfect world ]

---Bob Gross---

[robertwgross]

khenn wrote:
Here is a sample picture from a church where I will be doing a wedding. ...

What would happen if you step to the side slightly?

You can still get the shot of the couple framed by the doorway, but you will only get part of the bright outside light.

The disadvantage is that you will have to time it more perfectly when they are exactly in the doorway.

---Bob Gross---

[khenn]

This will be where the Bride and her father enter. It looks to me like they should block most of the bright light, but you may see some of it up around their heads. Probably if I have them enter the church and stop at the first pew, they will block even more of it, especially if I stay kind of low.

[billfranklin]

Hi Khenn,

This situation is always tough. You do need to test ahead of time to see what will give you the best results. You might try program mode with flash to see if the camera will handle the light, but it probably will not give a really good picture. In the pictures posted above, a faster sutter speed would have controlled the background light.

In most cases like this, I will always use a manual setting and set the f stop for my flash, say f8. For your situation, I would also set the flash on manual and cut down to 1/2 or 1/4 depending on your distance from the subject. This usually gives me an f 8 reading, or if your don't have a flash meter, check the histogram.

Once you get a good reading on your subjects at whatever f stop you use, then set the sutter speed to control the background light. All you have to do here is point the camera at the background, and see what setting the camera uses in program mode. Set the sutter speed then at whatever is needed to match your f stop. For example, if the camera says the background is 1/60 at f 16, then you would need to set your manual shutter speed to 1/125 at your f8 setting. Hope the helps.

The thing you have to remember is the sutter speed controls the background when you are using flash.