When do you shot manual and aperture priority in the wedding?

[maxheadforever]

This is for the wedding Professional who has shoot more than 20 weddings? When do I shot with manual and aperture priority? I read some people would bracket the shots for a wedding? I would like a total control and not guessing if it will turn out! Please help.

Thank you

Wayne

[picturecrazy]

You can do a good job using either M, Av, Tv, or P. Shoot in RAW format so you can fix the exposure goof ups that Av/Tv/P will give you, or if you forget to change settings in M.

There is no good formula for when to use which mode. Just go with what works for you. I personally shoot M 99.999% of the time, with the odd time switching into Tv. I've even totally disabled Av/P/Bulb modes on my cameras so it's faster to switch between the two.

[form]

I use M almost always but on rare occasions I may switch to Tv for quick changing light levels.

[yoyoer13]

^ how did you go about disabling those modes????

Just out of curiosity?

[Peacefield]

Many of my shots have dramatic lighting and for that I need to do spot metering. It's too obnoxious to exposure lock so I just use M, spot meter on the element I want properly exposed, and shoot away.

[picturecrazy]

^ how did you go about disabling those modes????

Just out of curiosity?

You can only do that on the 1-series models. One of the many features that makes them an absolute joy to use. It had better have good features because the size and weight really suck.

[tim]

Shoot manual when light levels are constant, or flash is your main light. Shoot Av when the light is changing rapidly.

[maxheadforever]

I have done some street photography and notice action happen very quick and no time for the right exposure and I feel bad using AV. Is there people do bracketing on wedding? I can see it on still!

When I use flash I notice there is too much flash over the subject and I try to shot half a stop under exposure and have a plus half stop on my TLL flash to balance the subject. Is this common for wedding Pro out there?

I would like to get it right instead of PS, I use PS a lot but less work is better!

Thanks

Waynwe

[tim]

What's important is the image, your metering mode and everything else is irrelevant. Only camera nerds care if you use manual or not.

With flash you can either use it as fill flash (google it) or the main light. Either way you need to use your FEC to control the flash. At weddings i'm always thinking about the flash to ambient ratio, as well as light temperatures, and of course taking a great photo.

[PhotoMatte]

If you're experienced enough with your camera, shoot in Manual mode all the time. There are few times I shoot in any other mode, even with constantly changing lighting conditions. That being said, I do shoot with my on-camera 580EXII in E-TTL mode when I'm outside but will put it in manual mode (or use FEL) if I'm doing portrait shots in consistent lighting. If you're not using a flash unit, you can get away with shooting in Av mode (even if you are using flash, I guess; just make sure you have the high speed sync enabled), as long as your ISO is set correctly so you can use whatever aperture you like.
Here's a great site where you can get some great examples:

http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

[PhotoMatte]

I have done some street photography and notice action happen very quick and no time for the right exposure and I feel bad using AV. Is there people do bracketing on wedding? I can see it on still!

When I use flash I notice there is too much flash over the subject and I try to shot half a stop under exposure and have a plus half stop on my TLL flash to balance the subject. Is this common for wedding Pro out there?

I would like to get it right instead of PS, I use PS a lot but less work is better!

Thanks

Waynwe

Wayne, check out this site:

http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/

[neil_r]

If you have to ask, then don't do the gig.

[maxheadforever]

Hi Matte,

Great web link and thank you so much, it is just tricky when there is a sudden change of light location from inside to outside.

Thanks

Wayne

[maxheadforever]

Just wonder how you would learn from it? Don't you ask questions to improve?

[stathunter]

Wayne,
I shoot in M mode all the time-- when doing sports work sometimes I change but all wedding work for me is in M.
Once you get used to it--- you really do not want the camera making the decision. I think I am smarter than the camera.......... scary.

[radiohead]

Av mode. Suits me, why change.

I rarely use manual, and control my (generally very accurate D3) camera's exposure by +/- EV and using spot where needed. If I'm using flash as my primary light source I'll switch to manual.

[PhotoMatte]

Hi Matte,

Great web link and thank you so much, it is just tricky when there is a sudden change of light location from inside to outside.

Thanks

Wayne

Wayne,

Neil's site has taught me so much. Glad you checked it out. Neil is also part of Flickr and is always on there, answering lighting questions directly.

[maxheadforever]

Wow, this guy is great! I have learned a lot from him and still needing more. I have learned how to use studio equipment but shooting on site and it is tricky. Now I have to find out more on the Canon 580 Ex II auto metering; I wish he is in Canada for a workshop!

Thank you so much!

[tim]

Forget auto on the 580 II, just use ETTL.

[PhotoMatte]

Wow, this guy is great! I have learned a lot from him and still needing more. I have learned how to use studio equipment but shooting on site and it is tricky. Now I have to find out more on the Canon 580 Ex II auto metering; I wish he is in Canada for a workshop!

Thank you so much!

Unless you're shooting a Mark II, you won't have access to the auto-mode of the 580EXII anyway; like Tim said, just use E-TTL (and/or E-TTL2)

[tim]

Unless you're shooting a Mark II, you won't have access to the auto-mode of the 580EXII anyway; like Tim said, just use E-TTL (and/or E-TTL2)

You can use auto (aka external metering) on any camera body, have a read of the manual. ETTL2 is in all modern camera bodies, you can't switch back to ETTL1.

[Shooting]

I shoot manual in every instance except outdoors and then it is either aperature priority or Program mode.

[Neil van Niekerk]

Hi Matte,

Great web link and thank you so much, it is just tricky when there is a sudden change of light location from inside to outside.

Thanks

Wayne

Hi there Wayne ...

It isn't necessarily as difficult as that. In fact, you are already on the verge of it realising this ... you just mentioned that there is a sudden change in light in moving from one scenario to another. So you already know that you need to change your settings.

And in anticipating this, you can already bias your settings to where you know you should be.

eg, when stepping out the door, you immediately change your ISO from what you were using, let's say 800 ISO .. and dial it down to 100 ISO.

And since it is bright sunlight outside, you can already set your camera to the Sunny 16 rule.

But instead of 1/125th @ f16 @ 100 ISO ...
you can set something more sensible like 1/250th @ f11 @ 100 ISO

Why 1/250th ? Well .. that's max flash sync speed, and there is something very sweet happening at that specific spot when you use flash.

So there, without really thinking about it, you've set your camera to within a 1/3rd or so of the correct exposure, while stepping through the door.

As I mention on this page in the section towards the bottom:
Being ready is being half-way there.
http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/7-metering-techniques/

Now about why max flash sync speed is a good choice for many situations where we are using flash in bright lighting conditions, read this page:
http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/2008/12/13/max-it-out/

best of luck

Neil vN

[Neil van Niekerk]

oh, and hi there PhotoMatte .. and Guy! :)

[tim]

Nice to see you here Neil, thanks for all the great info on your site and sharing your knowledge on the forum :)

[PhotoMatte]

oh, and hi there PhotoMatte .. and Guy! :)

lol, you found me here, as well :) i've been linking your site whenever someone asks me a really good lighting question.

[jeev]

Neil, Thanks for sharing all the great info on your website..bw!

oh, and hi there PhotoMatte .. and Guy! :)

[tim]

I believe Neil is writing a book.

[radiohead]

oh, and hi there PhotoMatte .. and Guy! :)

Hi Neil, good to see you here :)

[dithiolium]

Av mode. Suits me, why change.

I rarely use manual, and control my (generally very accurate D3) camera's exposure by +/- EV and using spot where needed. If I'm using flash as my primary light source I'll switch to manual.

Hi. AV mode outdoors I use a lot. When indoors AV mode will expose the shot accordingly, and the flash is a sort of fill. That leads to really long shutter speeds 1/30, unless I use ISO 1600+. Its not hard to handhold 1/30, just end up with too much people movement. Aperture larger than F4 is not always ideal due to DOF.
What's a useful balance you have used? AV mode with E/C -2/3 flash +1/3? etc. I use Manual indoors a lot, want to try AV.