Struggled with Wedding Reception Photos

[dcsmith40D]

I used the 50 1.8 in order to try and get decent shutter speed. I struggled. I posted this picture in hopes someone could tell me if the ghosting on this photo is due to camera shake or too slow of shutter speed or something else.

Thanks

David

[Wilt]

The EXIF shows 1/30 f/2.2 (you could have used the faster apeture setting) With a bunch of dancing guests, who are maybe doing a typical fast moving dance that young adults do, it is no wonder it is blurred from the ambient light being recorded with the slow shutter speed. Besides DOF is very shallow with that wide aperture, another cause of blur of a different type.

[dcsmith40D]

Originally Posted by Wilt

The EXIF shows 1/30 f/2.2 (you could have used the faster apeture setting) With a bunch of dancing guests, who are maybe doing a typical fast moving dance that young adults do, it is no wonder it is blurred from the ambient light being recorded with the slow shutter speed. Besides DOF is very shallow with that wide aperture, another cause of blur of a different type.

Yes, I could have used 1.8. I was worried about getting any depth of field. I know that there has to be something to make my photos better. You did point out one of them. What about the 580 ex II? I set it on ettl and the camera on av. Should I have gone manual on both the camera and the flash? I was not the photographer, but, the father of the bride. I often thought if this man gets a lot of decent photos, I'm impressed. He by the way was using 5D with 24-70. The 24-70 is what I have been wanting next. I don't see how it would have helped though.

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by dcsmith40D

Yes, I could have used 1.8. I was worried about getting any depth of field. I know that there has to be something to make my photos better. You did point out one of them. What about the 580 ex II? I set it on ettl and the camera on av. Should I have gone manual on both the camera and the flash? I was not the photographer, but, the father of the bride. I often thought if this man gets a lot of decent photos, I'm impressed. He by the way was using 5D with 24-70. The 24-70 is what I have been wanting next. I don't see how it would have helped though.

In AV mode with an f/1.8 lens and low light, your Av will doom you to the Canon engineers' incompetance at choosing too slow of a shutter speed for the moving subjects you have...ergo Manual setting of camera will allow some controlled degree of ambient light capture while limiting the motion blur (at the expense of background being darker). OTOH, focusing the viewer's eyes on the young lady in focus, while throwing the other characters into a darker background would be nice for that shot!

An exceedingly poor edit done in about 10 seconds, just to give the idea of darkened background...


The choice of flash itself will not improve background blur issues in Av mode.

[dcsmith40D]

Am I understanding you to say that I should shot @ 1.8 and meter for shutter speed and leave the flash on ettl? Or, would I expose underexposed and allow the flash to make up the difference?

Thanks for the Help.

David

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by dcsmith40D

Am I understanding you to say that I should shot @ 1.8 and meter for shutter speed and leave the flash on ettl? Or, would I expose underexposed and allow the flash to make up the difference?

Thanks for the Help.

David

The general technique is to pick your aperture (for DOF control reasons), have the camera suggest what shutter speed, and increase (less light) the shutter speed by -1EV, put the flash into ETTL, aim focus and shoot.

Of course you have to consider if the combo of f/stop and shutter speed are giving you the right degree of motion stopping needed, the right brightness compared to the main subject, the right DOF control, etc etc etc. That is where the ISO value becomes yet another control element to consider.

[eelnoraa]

I agree with Wilt. Basically, Av is not the best mode to use for this kind of situation. Try using M, set SS to at least 1/100s for your 50mm lens (to minimize camera shake), set aperture value to f/4 for whatever you think you need the DOF to be. Witht this, the background exposure will be fixed, your e-ttl canon flash will adjust the power automatically for the foreground.

[dcsmith40D]

Originally Posted by eelnoraa

I agree with Wilt. Basically, Av is not the best mode to use for this kind of situation. Try using M, set SS to at least 1/100s for your 50mm lens (to minimize camera shake), set aperture value to f/4 for whatever you think you need the DOF to be. Witht this, the background exposure will be fixed, your e-ttl canon flash will adjust the power automatically for the foreground.

That is the part I haven't gotten. Tell me if I am understanding you wrong.

You are saying that even though I had set my manual controls grossly underexposed, the e-ttl will make the necessary adjustments to expose the subject right?

[Wilt]

Originally Posted by dcsmith40D

That is the part I haven't gotten. Tell me if I am understanding you wrong.

You are saying that even though I had set my manual controls grossly underexposed, the e-ttl will make the necessary adjustments to expose the subject right?

Precisely

The exposure which uses available light and flash is truly TWO in one. You control one part independently of the other part. They share some common elements of control (aperture, ISO) but they have independent parts (shutter speed below the max flash speed makes no change to flash, but changes ambient contribution). EC affects auto mode, or aligning the manual indicator to the left of '0' controls ambient, FEC controls flash balance.