Good stuff as always, Rei.
Iām actually supposed to take some photos at an outdoor wedding in San Francisco in two weeks. My wifeās cousin is getting married, and I was volunteered. Luckily, they donāt expect much, because I told them how bad I suck. They just didnāt hire a photographer, and asked me to take some pics. I still feel pressure though.
This helps out though. Iāll bring a reflector. Would a second flash be needed outdoors?
I wouldnāt bring a reflector since you have the 550EX. However, you might want to use the reflector to learn the concept of filling in the shadows. Then learn how to use the 550EX to do the same thing. In a situation like a wedding, you donāt want to be elaborate, but rather, you want to be portable and quick.
Regardless of using a reflector or a flash, the concept is still going to be the same, and the flash is going to be easier and quicker to set up.
The main thing that you have to do is capture about a dozen ākeyā shots. I will go over the key shots and how to do them when I get time over the next few days.
The two hard parts about the wedding are 1: having a backup plan to still get the images if you have problems with your primary camera, and being able to easily transition between your primary and backup camera. 2: having a good rapport with the entire wedding party so that everyone is comfortable and smiling while you are up in their grill and taking photos.
Thanks. Luckily, Iāve met a lot of the brideās side of the family before, so I should be okay with taking their pics. The things that concern me are: (a) I am not experienced so Iām afraid of making a lot of mistakes (but hey, you get what you pay for, which in this case is nothing), and (b) set up for group shots. So, to state the obvious, the Sun would be the key light and the 550ex would be for fill, correct? I wasnāt sure if I needed to use a reflector, because I can only shoot off-camera flash with my 430ex using my 550ex as a master. I guess if I use a diffuser I should be good? I look forward to the key shots youāre going to post.
Unfortunately, I have no backup cameraā¦ Iāve been told that the bride isnāt really concerned with āprofessionalā level of work, since this kind of seems to be an afterthought on her part, so Iām probably just going to walk around and do my thing.
And once again, Iād like to thank you for all the knowledge youāve been dropping in this thread. If thereās anything I could do for you, let me know!
Correct, the sun is key, the 550 is fill. The best thing for a diffuser is going to be a better bounce card. But you only use that indoors anyway. General rule is indoors always bounce the flash with a diffuser, outdoors always use direct flash.
As for the back up camera, it isnāt about being professional. It is about āshit happens.ā
So, Iām going to troll flickr to show you examples of the key shots. Here is the first one.
The rings.
You got the 430 as a slave right? Try doing this setup ahead of time, so that you can nail it on the big day without much trouble. You will need this list of equipment.
-Off-camera flash
-Bible
-Indoor location with a table
Open the bible, and place both rings in the seam. Set the 430 as slave at a low angle on the table near the top of the spine. Barndoor the 550 so that you donāt get any bleed from it, and set it as master.
You should end up with something like the following.
If you have both rings, and they are different sizes, you can get a nice heart inside a heart shadow.
http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v73/14/109/738735470/n738735470_545266_2102.jpg
any questions?
I am definitely going to try that, Rei, those shots are awesome.
On that first one, it looks like they used some Spanish Lord of the Rings book instead of a bible. All I see is Spanish and the name, āAragornā. Haha.
Okay, so Iām going to make a large post here about the wedding photography thing. Because I donāt know how much time Iām going to have to give you examples of the key shots, and how to get them, so I will give you an overview, and elaborate on whatever you want me toā¦
Basically, you have to make yourself a shot list of the key shots, and print it on an index card, and as the day progresses, check off each shot that you got. The main reason that you want to do this is because you donāt want to miss shooting specific people that are special to the bride and the groom. Also, some key shots wonāt exist, and some shots that you didnāt think of will exist. If there is any way to get a FULL schedule of events to base your shot list on, then that will make your life easier. If the bride and groom are relaxed about this photography thing, then you might not want to bother them.
So, like I said, you are going for about a dozen good shots, and if you do 2 or 3 dozen key shots, then at least a dozen of them will be good enough to do 8x10s ofā¦ and you also have to have large coverage of ādetail shotsā so that you have āclip artā to work with later if you want to create some professional quality albums and multiple image frames.
Here are the must have shots:
The rings.
The first kiss
The first dance
Cutting the cake
Here are some other key shots:
The couple before the wedding (Also called engagement photos)
The couple during the wedding
The couple after the wedding
The bride preparing
The ushers ushering
The Groom waiting
The ring bearer(s)
The bridal party
The groomās party
The bride and the maid of honor
The groom and the best man
The wedding party
The brideās family
The groomās family
Every single person that walks down the aisle, while they walk down the aisle
Every different grouping of flowers
The guest book
The aisle
Something Borrowed
Something Blue
Something Old
Something New
Every favor
Everything that has the bride and groomās name on it and/or the date
If anyone cries, excluding infants, then snap off a shot of it
The bubbles (used to be throwing rice)
The maid of honor toast
The best man toast
The bride and father dance
The groom and mother dance
The money dance
Throwing the bouquet
Throwing the garter
Again, if you do half of those shots, and enough of them will be good enough (even if you have to fix a few things in post) that you will get enough to do an album and some 8x10s.
The most important thing is to get everyone smiling, and to get an idea of what the bride and groom MUST have, and make sure you get that plus some. Here are some links to read to help you out.
Photographing into hard sunlight:
http://planetneil.com/tangents/2008/06/13/into-hard-sunlight/
(Planetneil.com is good stuff by the wayā¦)
Photographing into sunset:
http://forums.popphoto.com/camera/board/message?board.id=8&message.id=25756
General Wedding photography tips:
An old ābookā on general posing portraits:
http://groups.msn.com/Asktheoleproaboutphotography/joezeltsman.msnw?pgmarket=en-us
Make sure you check out chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 15
Examples of wedding photography done outdoors for you to get ideas from:
http://oneperfectmoment.com/blog/category/destination-wedding/
Remember when I posted this:
Well, I did my sonās one month old portraits, and I busted out my old school setup that I used āback in the dayā when I was starting out.
That is the muslin backdrop that I made for 10 bucks, the old pair of 420EX flashes and a pair of shoot through umbellas.
And pics:
If anyone wants to see more shots of my son, Iām glad to share them, but I donāt want to flood the thread with baby pics.
Thanks again! Those links you provided will be invaluable. I already tried the ring/book shot that you posted earlier, and I get the concept, just need to practice it a bit more.
Thanks for the pics of your old setup. I actually finally got my setup together, but Iām still tightening it up, because I ran into a few problems.
Iād dyed the muslin without any ātie dyeā type patterns so it would be consistent throughout, and I think it worked out fine. I built a stand out of PVC pipes, but the DIY instructions I was using turned out to work better for a background that was not so wide (good for about 48" as opposed to the 90" I was trying for), so it fell, haha. I did a makeshift substitution for the top and used a 48" piece of PVC and just draped the muslin over it, and hereās what I got.
This one turned out to be a lot darker than I originally thought. It looked okay on my home PC monitor, but here at work, it looks kinda dark.
This one seems really dark.
Again, those are just test shots of the new setup. I know it needs work, just wanted to show you that I am taking baby steps! I need to find something better to hold up my reflector, and I forgot to use the cereal box snoot on the 550ex. I should probably invest in some clamps. I should have better pics this weekend, once I figure out the best settings to use. Iām going to be testing out this little setup (if Iām satisfied with how it looks) at a co-workerās little event for her parents.
And, yeah, sorry for making this the āBaby photographersā thread to everyone else.
Oh, and howās fatherhood going? Your son looks healthy, looks like heās starting to lift his head in that last picture? Congrats again!
Those are dark. When I bring them up on my lab machine, they are definitely underexposed. Check out your histogram, and you can tell that it has nothing in the highlight area. I brought the exposure up two and a half stops and got this:
Compare the histogram between yours (on top) and my corrected version (on bottom).
Donāt trust your monitor unless you use calibration equipment. (I use the SpyderPro). If you have Photochop, you can use the Adobe Gamma Loader as a ghetto calibration tool.
Either way, trust the histogram, and not the monitor.
From what I can tell, since your lens is wide open and you are two and half stops under, you need to kick up the amount of light. Move the flash closer to the subject. In fact, it should be so close that it is just out of frame. Same goes for the reflector. Also, make sure that the 550 head is zoomed to 105mm. The other thing you can try is bumping up the iso to 200.
Also, the white balance is funky. Are you using automagic white balance? If all the light is coming from your flashes, then you should dial the white balance to āflash.ā
Finally, on the ring thing, if the shadow isnāt crisp enough to form a heart, then zoom the head to 105 and make sure you donāt have any diffusers on the flash, and that it is as close as you can get it to the ring without it being in frame.
So, yeah, fatherhood is great so far. He was lifting his head on the day he was born, and he already rolled over on his own, so he is well on his way to being big and healthy.
As soon as I can get him to do a fireball motion on his own, the SF training begins.
I saw that the march issue of rangefinder has lots of stuff about shooting weddings in it.
http://www.rangefindermag.com/magazine/Mar08/index.tml
Yeah, Iām using auto on āFlashā. I had some Fluorescent light in the room though, maybe I should try gelling both flashes? As far as the underexposing goes, I think I shouldnāt have turned the flash power down so much. This was my initial test shot.
I thought it was too bright, so I toned down my 550ex a little, I think down to -1. Iāll try moving the flash closer, and the reflector. Now that I have the setup there, I should be able to play with it a lot to get good results. And Iāll make sure to check the histogram.
Thanks for the link, too!
How old is your son again? Thatās great if heās already strong enough to lift his head. And rolling already. Its kinda scary at first though cause I always thought my daughter was going to suffocate in the middle of the night. Good luck with the street fighter training, my daughter loves grabbing the controllers when Iām playing something, so donāt start him off too soon or youāll never get any playtime when SF IV drops!
That exposure is spot on, but the you have spill on the backdrop (the shadows created by the 550). I say do whatever you did on that photo, snoot or barn door the 550 and that would be an excellent starting point.
When you do -1 on the 550, if the 550 and the 430 are in the same flash group, both of them will go -1. If you want more power from the 430 versus the the 550, you have to put them in different flash groups. So you assign the 550 to flash group A, and the 430 to flash group B, then set the ratio.
Ah, I see! Yeah, I had the snoot for it, I forgot to use it. Iāll try that out. Thanks!
Damn I ALL MOST CHOKED! Too funny!
Just wanted to bump.
Thanks again, Rei, for the links and info you gave me. I didnāt do an awesome job at the wedding, but I think I did okay. Iāll post some sample pics once I finish processing them.
While I was out in the Bay Area, a friend of mine (who is also on SRK) gave me a tour of Lucasarts/ILM/Lucasfilm and Skywalker Ranch. I was able to take a few pics, so Iāll post some here, or at least after I make sure its okay to post them. I took a picture of the Viggo painting from GB2! It was awesome!
What are you using to process?
Many okay pictures can be saved by recropping. Also, if you have some pictures that have color problems, make them black and white, and they look instantly more artistic.
I use lightroom, and I do a few passes. The first pass is to delete all the misses and unsalvageable. The second pass is to re-crop, eliminate redeye, adjust color (or turn into black and white) and do any other touch ups. The third pass is to cull out duplicates. The last pass is to re-organize the pictures. I make sure that all the pictures that are sequential and tell a story are in order. Then I export it all to DVD and save for web out of lightroom and that should be it.
Oh, and be careful when you process those Viggo pictures.
Iām using Digital Photo Professional. Only because thatās what the camera came with. Iāll keep the suggestions in mind, I think the color came out okay, I gelled the flash with 1/4 CTO for the outdoor shots and some of the indoor shots (tungsten and daylight). But Iāll have to check it out when I process.
On a lot of my shots, I got some weird readings on the histogram. I tried to make sure that the spikes werenāt at either of the extremes, but there were still spikes close to the white for most of them. Hopefully I can fix it during processingā¦
And trust me, Iāll make sure that I have a fire extingusher close by when I process the Viggo picsā¦ I felt like Venkman when I was shooting the pictures, haha.
Iām more fucking concerned why you have a spykids poster in that room.
OC