Wedding lens and flash.. please help!

sapearl wrote in post #5393499
Did you use the rechargable batteries or the throw-aways? The rechargables will give you very very good life and recycle relatively fast between flashes. I keep a couple of sets with me for each wedding and I never exhaust all of them.

Stu, I suspect he had AAs in the camera, not a flash.

Ah.... could very well be. I haven't had my morning coffee yet .

tim wrote in post #5393569
Stu, I suspect he had AAs in the camera, not a flash.

sapearl wrote in post #5393584
Ah.... could very well be. I haven't had my morning coffee yet .

Make it Irish

tim wrote in post #5393569
Stu, I suspect he had AAs in the camera, not a flash.

I misunderstood as well. Since he mentioned slow flash recycling, I assumed post referred to flash batteries, not camera batteries .

I like the way you think Tim .

tim wrote in post #5393589
Make it Irish

So, we don't have any pictures yet?

I use the flash with white card attached with a rubberband. I only use a diffuser for close up shots outdoors these day. Too harsh otherwise. Every bride's had blue eyes and I can't deal with the pp later stuff for that.

But the 50 1.8 is not the world's worst lens, just really not the best. Still think for weddings, even if it's just for family and a favor, etc., etc., the better the gear, the less work later. But you still have to do your homework and practice. I messed up on the exposure of my son's winning piano recital and didn't chimp for when the lights were turned on and overexposed his pictures. I finally took moment to check and sure enough, every one of his 5 shots was overexposed. Corrected it and kept on shooting. Makes a world of difference using the right lenses and flashes. The 430 with Energizer rechargeables are not a bad combo. I use that on my 40D almost all the time indoors.

Gurry wrote in post #5390833
i also tried bouncing off the wall beside me, and i found that the wall i was bouncing it off of, that side was more bright, then the other side, i also just tried this in the room, so you mean bounce it behind me? how would the flash be angled then? i know it goes straight up, then 1 more click its kind of pointing a bit backwards, or do you mean, turning the head 180 degrees?

You're combing two different techniques and in this case, that's not a good thing.

When bouncing off the ceiling .. if the light falls at too shallow of an angle to your subject, the eyeball and brow create a shadow under the eye that makes your subject look tired. So when I bounce off a ceiling at relatively close distances, I tend to try to bounce behind me a little bit.

When bouncing to the side, the entire IDEA is to get more light on one side than the other (look at my pictures again, you'll see the same thing). This creates the "window light" look and gives depth to your subjects. Since the light comes from the side, there will be no bags under your subject's eyes either.

Bill

ahh i see, another thing, its suppose to be cloudy and raining on the wedding day, witch is going to make it harder to shoot as i dont have the sun's help anymore, any tips for this type of weather?

Actually, with a nice soft, diffuse and even, overcast you can get some very pleasantly lit photographs. Really, harsh direct sun is the bane of a lot of photography. Give me even and open shade any day and I will create some lovely photographs. It should actually be easier to get evenly lit photos.

Gurry wrote in post #5398543
ahh i see, another thing, its suppose to be cloudy and raining on the wedding day, witch is going to make it harder to shoot as i dont have the sun's help anymore, any tips for this type of weather?

should i do straight direct flash still outside on an overcast day?

Yes - that will work in most situations, but you may have to adjust FEC+ or - from time to time which would be normal.

The flash won't care if it's sunny, shady or rainy when shooting outdoors when it is set to AUTO-ETTL. It's job is to just "auto fill" according to Canon specs. As long as you have a good basic camera exposure working for you, the flash should only throw in just a little bit to brighten up shadows. This is why so many people like to use the camera in Manual mode for certain work.

Gurry wrote in post #5400807
should i do straight direct flash still outside on an overcast day?

Gurry wrote in post #5400807
should i do straight direct flash still outside on an overcast day?

You're getting to this point where you seem to want to try to memorize the "correct" technique for each situation and you're going to fail hard. This is photography, not math. There is no "correct" way, there are just billions of different ways the light can hit your scene and you need to have the experience to know what to do to get the results you want.

I simply cannot stress enough that you need to get off the computer and get out there and shoot. There is little more anyone here can do for you unless you've got a test photo that didn't work out for you for some reason and you'd like to ask us what went wrong.

You've got very little time left and thousands of photos to take, download, and process in that time. You need to shoot, make a mistake, realize that you've goofed, find the cause of the mistake, and identify the action that would have prevented that mistake so that you know for next time.

But once won't do it. Any good photog will tell you that he/she has screwed up COUNTLESS times - including screwing up the same things over and over again until it finally becomes second nature to them. I've been screwing up heavily 16 years and I figure I've got at least another 10 to go before I'm at a level where I'm truly comfortable in any situation.

Bill

Outside in cloudy weather you don't really need flash. Use a little as fill, if you like. Outside light generally has to be direct, as there's nothing to bounce off, unless you use an umbrella or a person wearing a white shirt - and i'm not kidding about the white shirt. It works, but isn't really worth the bother outside.

Gurry wrote in post #5142601
yea i guess i should have stated when the wedding is, its april 26th, just over a month to go.. i know time is ticking and priceless for me. so, so far on the list as far as buying goes, at least 8 gb card, to go with the 2g, and prob not worth throwing in the 512, but back up like that doesn't hurt, and the 430ex flash, just not sure on a lens or what, some people say dont buy a lens, some people say zoom lens, some people say wide angle lens. hard to choose with all these idea's and peoples preferences. but i know for sure, about the flash and now the card. thanks. and well, one of the most important things on top of the whole list, Practice, read, practice, practice, read some more, and umm practice? lol

also ive been looking on e-bay for pricing and what not, anyone know any good stores online that have good prices and that ship to canada ontario?

OK Gurry, so it looks like the wedding was this past weekend. After 6 weeks and 163 messages of advice and support...don't keep us in suspense! How did the wedding go Saturday?

Got me curious too Gurry .