Re-Post Metering

[UK_Terry]

I think i read somewhere that the best Metering method for the D30 is to set it to the Centre-weighted option and not the Evaluative option for best results.
Can anyone shed any light on this statement.
Thanks

I am doing a friends wedding this saturday (never done before) any tips?

[SteveB]

Terry,
On the day take a reading of the bride's face,leave it on manual setting.Do make sure your white balance is set correctly and try to use raw if poss.Any cock ups can be post remedied after as long as the exposure hasn't burnt out the highlights.I use a Metz flash set to one stop down from the brides reading to fill in shadows.Plenty of cards,charged camera battery/s and flash batteries if used!
Steve

[UK_Terry]

Thanks steve

i will be using the550EX that came with the D30.
was thinking of leaving the white balance on auto (as i don't really know a lot about it).
will use the Raw have a 128mb 64mb and a 16mb CF cards.
but can download to the laptop betwwen the church and the reception (i Hope!!!)

Terry

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Terry,

If you plan to shoot raw, which I think you should, then your CF cards are only going to give you, may be, 60 shots. I've have never shot a wedding, but 60 seems like an awfully low number to me. You've got guests arriving at the church, groom standing waiting nervously, bride arriving, walking down the aisle, sermon, vows, The Kiss!, signing the register, bridesmaids, standing outside the church, bride and groom, happy couple and family, happy couple and guests, etc., etc., etc. And all this is going on in dodgy light.

Whether you can download to your PC or not (and who's gonna be taking pictures while you're doing that?), it's not clear from your post whether you are the "official photographer", but... I would go to your favourite camera store and invest in some more memory.

I would also take some time tomorrow (Friday) to play with the 550 and see how the images turn out. I can't tell you what to do, I'm still working out how to use mine. :) But I do know that the D30+550 is no point-and-shoot, get-perfect-exposures-every-time combo.

Also don't forget to set CF12, so you can use the set button to change ISO on the fly and minimum handheld shutter speeds with the D30 should be 1/(focal length x 1.6).

Good luck,

[UK_Terry]

Thanks Roger
i think i will need a lot of luck.

weather tommorow is meant to be ok so maybe light will be ok.

yes i am the official (free) photographer as funds are very limited.

was thinking of using the "P" mode and altering the speed as and when needed but have read in the manual that is not possible with flash attached. am now thinking of using TV, i will have the flash on even for the outdoor shots...... will the flash set shutter speed automatically?.
as i said never done a wedding before so hope and trust in camera settings are what i am relying on.

there are not a huge amount of guests , but will take your advice and get another 128mb CF Card, that will give me another 30 odd shots.

although i was thinking of using the best jpg for the indoor shots and that will increase the amount of available shots


what do you think?

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Terry,

WRT flash, I think Steve's advice about manual settings is probably best. It occurred to me that may be you could get one of the female guests to pose for you in the church so you could get a reading in different places and see what the results look like beforehand. It might be easier then to use flash compensation, if you see the histogram going off one way or the other with fixed manual settings.

Not a bad idea to switch between raw and JPG, but my guess would be that JPG in good light is better. If the light is poor inside, you might get more noise with JPG. Definitely use raw for the "key" shots to give yourself more latitude to fix 'em (if needed) in Photoshop.

Good luck again and let us know how it went.

Cheers,

[SteveB]

Do remember that your shutter speed should not exceed 180th of a second unless you've enabled your flash/camera for a greater speed.Try to choose the centre meter point and make sure that when using flash the metering is on the imporant part of the shot ie.persons face.The 550 can over or under expose if allowed to meter off such things as white dresses or black suits.Pre flash is not always a viable option as people see the initial flash and think you've taken the shot and try to wander off!
Lots of candids work well too,especially small tots,get the best man on your side as he knows most people present and can call them as and when needed.
Bet you have a good time and you'll soon get into the swing of things,
God luck,
Steve

[UK_Terry]

11.20 pm now and i've read the camera and flash manuals twice each.
taken some test shots and..................well i hope their better tommorow (2.30 pm...our time)

off to bed now, as i am seeing flash spots before the eyes.
Thanks for all the advice....if any turn out decent. i will post a couple on the web page.

have decided to go and buy a 256mb CF card tommorow...with the plan take a lot more...chances are some will be ok.

[UK_Terry]

well the day went OK, a few hiccups were experienced with the flash inside (slow shutter speed was set using AV switched to P but still came out a little darker than i expected iso 200 set) but overall i think the B&G will be happy with the photo's.

thanks for suggesting getting more memory i went out and bought a 256 in the morning.

took 110 without downloading to the laptop all in RAW....used the 256 (67) 128 (32) and 64 (11 with space to use).
Now busy converting to Tiff with Breezebrowser. and then a little enhancement in PS to do.
only used 35 -80 but really wish i had a wider lens.

any advice on which would be better

sigma 17 - 35 or the newer 15 - 30.

[Roger_Cavanagh]

Terry,

Glad to hear it all went reasonably well. And it's amazing what magic you can do with Photoshop. :D

I expect to see you post your favourite image sometime.

WRT to the lenses, you might check these sites for info:

http://www.photodo.com/index.html
http://www.photographyreview.com/defaultcrx.aspx

For myself, I have not been entirely happy with the performance of the 28-70 Sigma that I have. I would have liked to get the Canon 16-35, but cannot afford it at the moment. So I've chosen another route: I've ordered the Canon EF20 f/2.8. It's not L glass, but does get a reasonable rating on Photodo and very high user satisfaction scores on Photography Review.

You might also like to do a search on Fed Miranda's D30 forum. There has been a lot of discussion over the past few weeks about wide-angle.

Regards,