Filters for outside wedding..

[dutchin]

hi guys, i went to a workshop the other day and it was suggested to me that when im taking outside shots at a wedding in the sunlight i should try using a ND4 filter, in particular the cokin p-series., does anyone else use filters for outside weddings? what have your experiences been? i will want to use my flash for fill in, how would this work along side the filter? camera is a 400d and flash is 430ex.,

cheers!

[GPR1]

The only reason I can imagine using an ND filter in this situation would be to get a different exposure combination that the lighting didn't allow. All the ND4 does is decrease the amount of light entering the camera. It would give you a slower shutter speed, larger f-stop, or higher ISO than you could otherwise obtain.

Greg

[Big Mike]

When shooting outdoors with flash, one concern may be max sync speed. In normal mode, the flash & camera won't work properly with shutter speeds higher than 1/200 (I think that's your camera's max sync). So one solution would be to use an ND4 filter to bring the shutter speed down, without having to close up the aperture more than you want to.

The other option, is to use the high speed sync mode on the flash. This pulses the flash, allowing you to use a faster shutter speed...but it also reduces the range and eats batteries faster. Of course, use an ND4 filter will also reduce the range and eat batteries.

I would suggest a polarizer for shooting outdoors.