Upcoming photo shoot

[NILOLIGIST]

I have been asked to photograph a very small and informal wedding. The groom is much darker than the bride (like night and day), I am thinking I should expose for him? If I expose for her he will be too dark right ? Or do I have that backwards?

Any help, suggestions or shrugs are NEEDED!!

NiL,

[robertwgross]

The normal wedding problem involves a groom wearing a black tuxedo and a bride wearing a white gown. In general, the clothing takes up more of the frame that just face color. That is enough dynamic range to complicate getting a correct exposure.

To look at the problem another way, if you are trying to shoot white snow with zero exposure compensation, it will end up looking kind of a murky gray. If you use +1 or +2 exposure compensation, it looks like normal snow. A piece of black cloth can be shot with -1 or -2 exposure compensation to look right.

---Bob Gross---

[Vegas Poboy]

you said it correctly, use flash & check the histogram on some test shots. You may want to set the flash on manual so you won't overexpose her but yet get enough light to get detail in him.

[G3]

This is going to depend on if you are shooting outdoors or indoors. If you are shooting outdoors use fill flash and meter for the subject off a gray card and use that for the "correct" exposure, then bracket one stop in either direction.

If you are shooting indoors with ETTL flash you will have to take into account what color dominates the shot...for instance, if you are shooting the bride and she is wearing a white wedding gown, then the gown will be the biggest factor in the shot. The meter will try to average the shot with all that white in it. It may end up exposing the gown correctly and everything else will be underexposed. You can tell by the histogram how it did. If the data in the histogram is shoved all the way to the left and there's a gap on the right side, then open up a stop and shoot another one. As long as all of the data in actually in the histogram and not jammed up against the right or left side, it can easily be corrected in Photoshop.

One other tip. Get your flash off the camera. Use a Stroboframe or some other flash bracket. Try to bounce the flash off the ceiling if you have a fairly low, white ceiling to work with.

[NILOLIGIST]

Thank you all.

NiL,

[scottbergerphoto]

Good luck Nil!
Scott

[mjordan]

With dark skinned people, as with dark tuxes, black dogs, or other dark material, it's not how much light you blast them with from the front that brings out the detail. It's how you light them from the side. Side like is used on dark people to create the specular highlights that lighter skin reflects with frontal light. So if you can, meter normally (or maybe a 1/2 to 3/4th over) and skim some light across from the side. Either reflected light, a off camera flash or side sunlight. This is the same for a white wedding dress. If you skim light across the front of it, you will bring detail out that you won't see with just frontal lighting.

Mike

[NILOLIGIST]

I will give it all a try. If they don't come out good, don't expect to see them. LMAO

NiL,

[G3]

I will give it all a try. If they don't come out good, don't expect to see them. LMAO

NiL,

But that's the ones you really need to post, so you can get some ideas of how to correct it next time.

[NILOLIGIST]

hmmmmmmmmmm

NiL,

[defordphoto]

Well, the nice thing is you now have the wide(r) dynamic range of the MKII so post processing should be easier than say, with a 10D.

[NILOLIGIST]

That is for sure. And...Another excuse to buy a new lens. My next few purchases are...

70-200 L 2.8

85 1.2

135 2.0

That should hold me. Don't know the order yet. I am booked to shoot a dance festival next month and will be getting one for that. Oh, the worries I have. LOL

NiL,

[msvadi]

The groom is much darker than the bride (like night and day), I am thinking I should expose for him?
NiL,

NO!!! it's always the bride ;)

[Dans_D60]

Yes…The primary objective is images of the bride and her party.

Also, direct midday sunlight can be challenging. Here is a proof sheet web site for a wedding I shoot last weekend in California. 90F and the wedding were scheduled between 11:00AM – 2:00PM. The worst time to shoot. Can’t change the environment and one just needs to do the best they can. Even a fill flash has difficulty in this situation.

http://www.pettusphoto.com/perkins

[psk4363]

Hi NiL,

Why not invest in a good quality light meter? Then you can take an incident light reading from the position of your subjects. Transfer the readings for Tv and Av to the camera in manual mode and fire away.

Whites will come out white, blacks will be black, etc with no exposure adjustment necessary as you would have to if you relied on the camera's (reflective) meter reading.

Providing the light source remains constant you can leave the settings intact - if it changes take another reading!

Cheers,
Barry

[robertwgross]

Why not invest in a good quality light meter? Then you can take an incident light reading from the position of your subjects. Transfer the readings for Tv and Av to the camera in manual mode and fire away.


It takes too long to transfer information from the light meter to the camera.

During an outdoor wedding like Dan showed, things are popping quickly. There are subjects moving toward the camera, away from the camera, in and out of shadows, ...

About the last thing that I want is one more piece of external gear to slow down the operation. As it is, one camera can "talk to" one flash unit and get something pretty close.

---Bob Gross---

[psk4363]

Hi Bob,

Too long to transfer readings to the camera? This is the most important day of the bride's life and her images should be as perfect as possible at the taking stage.

I can agree with you that if you pop on a dedicated flashgun then that combination will do very well - especially for the informal type of shot where there's a lot of movement as you rightly point out. However,for the more formal type of shot, I would always recommend taking your time and getting the exposure spot on rather than relying on post-taking adjustments.

Barry

[AzzKicker]

Weddings are a hard gig to shoot. I'm not pro and I dont do photography for a living, only a hobby. My cousin got married and it was pretty fast, no time to find pro photog etc. So I told him I'd do it for him with the understanding I'm no pro LOL.. he said sure. He just wanted to pics to have to remember the day. So I said OK. I had my Rebel, 420ex flash and a few lenses. I actually took a lot of GOOD PICS, but a lot came out dark due to E-TTL not doing its job right. I wish I had my FEC hack that time. The best PICS came out when using BOUNCE flash. Unfortunatly most of wedding pics were taken with a HIGH roof :(.


The best thing is just CHECK that HISTOGRAM. If you can wing a stationary area to take photo's rig it so you can plug a LAPTOP to camera and you can see right away how pics came out instead of looking at small lcd on camera.

[NILOLIGIST]

Thank you all, keep the suggestions coming. I will think about getting a light meter too.

NiL,