Brothers wedding

[unlimited6986]

I wasnt the Photographer (Was the best man). But my bro told me to bring my gear and take some pics. Heres some of the bride dancing. Let me know what you think.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3353/3216019817_b181f317e0.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3337/3216019259_c9ed5c1b66.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3437/3216020741_171fb232a2.jpg


Also how do you get it so the shadow isn't so visible? I bounced the off the ceiling and sometimes off the side walls.

Thanks for looking

[viet]

They look technically good, did you have the bounce card / catch-light piece pulled out or the stofen type diffuser on? that's the only thing I could think of that affected your shadows.

To get less profound shadows, bounce backward behind you a little bit, that way you'll get enough fill & a more even light source.

[unlimited6986]

Yea i had a stofen on my 580ex. I think i might have accidentally had it titled foward just a bit.

[collierportraits]

To get the shadow less visible, increase your exposure so that the flash will be closer to the ambient light (which will make it less visible) So, in other words, if you're shooting at a 100th of a second, increase your exposure to a 30th of a second, which will then require less flash to light the subject and it will be closer to the ambient light. Sorry, bad explanation, but does that make sense?

[Svetlana]

Collieportraits, could you please explain that again? I can sort of understand the concept but not quite..???

[mpistone]

What he's saying is that if you change your exposure from, say, 1/100 to 1/30, you have the same flash (the whole burst of flash is within both of those exposures) but more ambient light, so the shadows won't be as noticed. But doing that will essentially make your flash less effective, it'll look more like you just used ambient light for the shot.

I'd suggest a diffuser, or get a way to put your flash off-camera.

[viet]

What he meant was balancing the ambient with flash to be as close to even as possible.

To each his own style, but I find that under expose the ambient half a stop or full stop helps with a more dramatic shot of a dance between couples, and really reduces the shadows if there's any.

Don't mean to steal your thread, but here's what I mean by under exposing the ambient a bit and add flash to fill in to pop out the subject(s) & make it look a bit more dramatic. EXIF is intact if you want to peek at the tech info. Lemme know if you want me to take off the image.

Father & daughter dance.
http://www.vietfotos.com/sample/090117_05.jpg

[unlimited6986]

Ok i no exactly what you guys are saying. I just gotta bump the SS to like 1/30 1/50. I was the best man so i couldnt take my flashes Off Camera. Just had to gran my camera and flash and shoot quick.

[viet]

Ok i no exactly what you guys are saying. I just gotta bump the SS to like 1/30 1/50. I was the best man so i couldnt take my flashes Off Camera. Just had to gran my camera and flash and shoot quick.

Be careful not to bring your shutter down too much or you'll risk introduce motion blur. I normally keep my shutter anywhere from 1/40 ~ 1/60 and up with flash and bump up the ISO instead.

[collierportraits]

Well, actually Viet, it depends upon how much ambient light there is. Sometimes when ambient light is lower, the flash will actually freeze the motion anyway, but you're right, you do need to be careful of that. When there is enough ambient light (see below) you'll get some blur, plus the flash 'stops' the action. In that case, ambient 'blur' adds to the image a little. Here's a father/daughter dance shot at 1/30th of a second at f4, ISO 400. There is certainly some ambient blur but the father/daughter are really sharp. But you get the sense of movement... see his foot. This is shot flash on camera bounced. (Probably 580 set to fire at about -1/3 or -2/3 flash exposure - ETTL)

[rodddy]

Viet,
Thats a great image. Can you comment a little more on your setting. Did you bounce flash, dial down the flash etc.?

Thanks, Rodney

[viet]

Viet,
Thats a great image. Can you comment a little more on your setting. Did you bounce flash, dial down the flash etc.?

Thanks, Rodney

Rodney,

Thanks, and I'd like to answer your question here rather than PM in hopes that it'll help someone else as well.

I shoot at least 90% of my weddings in manual (both camera & flash). I believe that shot was done at 1/4 power of the Sigma 500DG flash (bought off here on the forum). I normally leave my flash bounce behind me a bit in case people have deep eye sockets so I can have a proper fill in them. The most frequently made mistake that new shooters have is bounce straight up or in front of them, this is fine if the subjects don't have deep eye sockets or if you need to shoot further from a distance.

I always try to leave my shots with the EXIF info intact so others can see & maybe learn from them. You just need an EXIF viewer to see it. I use Firefox and they have this extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3905)to do just that.

Here's the EXIF copied from that one image:

Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D
Image Date: 2009:01:17 16:18:15
Flash Used: Yes (Manual)
Focal Length: 135.0mm
CCD Width: 6.58mm
Exposure Time: 0.0063 s (1/160)
Aperture: f/2.0
ISO equiv: 1000
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: Manual
Exposure Mode: Manual

[rodddy]

Thanks Viet I'll be keeping this in mind on my next wedding. 1/160 shutter, it must have been pretty well lit even at 1000 ISO f2.0

[randplaty]

Good shots, I would definitely bounce the flash to the side (not off the ceiling) ... especially in that room.