| Author | Thread |
|
|
06/28/2004 08:30:36 AM · #1 |
Iâm shooting my first official wedding on the 4th. Iâll be using a hacked 300d, 420ex Speedlight, the 18-55mm kit lens & a Sigma 75-300. They only want a few shots in the church with most of the pictures taken outside by the pond.
Hereâs the tricky partâ¦
Weâll be outside at high noon, so I have to put the subjects in the shade â no problem, we have 3 locations picked out. The âproblemâ is that 2 of the 3 locations have the pond (with fountain) in the background making for a VERY bright backdrop. Other than a fill flash and shallow DOF, are there any tricks I can use to counter the bright background?
I also had the thought of using a gold pocket bouncer, thinking the warmer light might help; what are your thoughts on this?
|
|
|
|
06/28/2004 08:33:35 AM · #2 |
| I can't offer any advice on bright backgrounds, but in the church I'd be suggest being very wary of short shutters producing soft shots. Good luck, hope it goes well. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 08:47:48 AM · #3 |
Jim, a polarizer will help greatly for the fountains.
Take notes for me, 'cause I have to shoot a wedding the following weekend, and I have basically the same setup. I'm particularly interested to know how the hacked firmware works out with the 420ex inside the church. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 08:50:23 AM · #4 |
| im really new at the wedding lighting issues too, so not sure if this helps or is even reasonable. I hate flashes but you might try using one anyway. A photo reflector can help..but you need someone to hold it. Put the camera on a tripod and take two shots...one exposing for the background the other exposing for the people and layer them in photoshop? Adjust the exposures of one image using layers in photoshop? Ive had a couple of weddings where the men had very very dark skin and white suits..using a flash indoors!..now thats an exposure nightmare. :) I would love to hear a bit of advice on all of this myself. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 08:58:07 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by grigrigirl:
Ive had a couple of weddings where the men had very very dark skin and white suits..using a flash indoors!..now thats an exposure nightmare. :) I would love to hear a bit of advice on all of this myself. |
Again, I know nothing about wedding photography, but for dark indoor conditions without flash (eg. sports, in my case), I've personally found there's only one solution - good quality wide-open glass. :-) |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 09:02:42 AM · #6 |
The Polarizer's a good idea to keep the reflections in the background to a minimum. Does anyone think this wouldn't be a good idea? I'm not sure what kind of affect it would have on the subjects.
I'll let you know how it goes. Unless it's a complete flop and I'm too depressed to get out of bed the next day, I'll post some of the shots.
Originally posted by scalvert:
Jim, a polarizer will help greatly for the fountains.
Take notes for me, 'cause I have to shoot a wedding the following weekend, and I have basically the same setup. I'm particularly interested to know how the hacked firmware works out with the 420ex inside the church. |
|
|
|
|
06/28/2004 09:08:56 AM · #7 |
| Just thinking.. Unless you're very short of money, it may be worth getting your hands on a Canon 50/1.8. It's nice wide-aperture, high quality glass. I think that would be good for group portraits and single/pair portraits too? Also in the church you'll be able to use it as a last resort of it's a little dark and you decide against your flash.. Just an idea. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 09:10:14 AM · #8 |
| I once used a polarizer filter on a group of people outdoors in the shade with bright background...it helped greatly with the background...but I hated the effect on the people. Maybe i needed to adjust white balance? It made their skin and clothes really wacked out colors. I had a very hard time with it. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 09:14:44 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by grigrigirl:
Put the camera on a tripod and take two shots...one exposing for the background the other exposing for the people and layer them in photoshop? Adjust the exposures of one image using layers in photoshop?. |
Good point and maybe you dont even need a tripod because there is a setting in the 300D where you can shoot continously 3 shots with different exposure. If you´re not familiar with the technique take a look at this.
Polarizer can also come in hand. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 09:34:34 AM · #10 |
And I'm sure this goes without saying, but you'll want to overcommunicate to everyone that the lighting is problematic and what you're doing to fix that problem for them so that they know what is going on and support your efforts. If you make it sound like they've given you an impossible challenge, but that you have the skills and experience to know how to deal with it, they'll think you're a hero when the shots turn out great. :-)
|
|
|
|
06/28/2004 10:53:42 AM · #11 |
Shoot with a fairly open aperture, say f4 or 5.6, set the shutter speed to exposure correctly (or maybe +1/2 to 1 stop) for the bright part of the scene and use the High Speed Sync setting on the flash. Make sure you set the sync speed to auto.
If you can, use a tripod and the off camera cord so you can hold the flash up as high as you can, directed down on the subjects.
Message edited by author 2004-06-28 10:54:43.
|
|
|
|
06/28/2004 10:57:05 AM · #12 |
| If your flash works as a strobe, you can rubberband a piece of paper over your camera flash...so that it still fires enough to set off the strobe...then have someone else holding the strobe flash behind an umbrella...maybe? |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 10:58:48 AM · #13 |
I wish I could pull that off, but I just bought the flash, zoom lens & remote. Since this is my first wedding I'm only making $100 for showing up (I'm not banking on too many prints either).
Originally posted by PaulMdx:
Just thinking.. Unless you're very short of money, it may be worth getting your hands on a Canon 50/1.8. It's nice wide-aperture, high quality glass. I think that would be good for group portraits and single/pair portraits too? Also in the church you'll be able to use it as a last resort of it's a little dark and you decide against your flash.. Just an idea. |
|
|
|
|
06/28/2004 11:29:27 AM · #14 |
Take some generic pictures without them there. Expose for the fountain. Paste in these generics as a layer behind them in the others and basically combine the exposures as someone else said. Just take a lot of empty shots and you'll have plenty to work with. :)
M
|
|
|
|
06/28/2004 11:40:25 AM · #15 |
Polarizer for a Moonlight shot? Someone is kidding here,camera will need 15 seconds for the shot and humans are moving !
Do you have 50 mm f1.8 lens? Oh, you don't :-(
There is Sigma 2o mm f1.8 lens with 82 mm glass for those kind of situations.
BHPhoto
Message edited by author 2004-06-28 11:48:43. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 12:03:55 PM · #16 |
| Although the moon may be out at high noon on the 4th, I doubt that will be much of a problem. ;-) |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 12:12:26 PM · #17 |
If you have a really bright background, shallow DoF, or polarisers aren't going to help at all. Shallow DoF may help blur it out, the polariser will help you get a slower shutter speed, but neither really do anything for the situation you describe.
You can do a couple of things - expose for the people, not the background. This means not using matrix modes on your camera. It means setting the exposure for the people - either by metering them with a handheld meter, or using a partial/ spot meter and getting close and metering off something mid grey - or metering on something of a different tone and compensating for it.
Fill flash is probably a good idea, particularly if you are shooting outside on a sunny day. I'd dial it down either by one or one and one half stops.
Depending on the subject (i.e., how many people vs how much bright background etc) you may want to go ahead and open up one stop over the metered value for the ambient exposure - effectively your subjects are going to be back/ rim lit by the fountain so you need to compensate for that, particularly if they are in shadows. It'll be relatively difficult to balance the shadow and bright background, depending on how far appart the light levels are - your flash is what you need to help balance out the difference- if its more than 5 stops from the shadow black tones to the highlights in the water, you are going to have to decide what you want to blow out or block up.
This shot is somewhat similar - a very bright background and a back lit subject. Opening up one stop over the center weighted meter reading helped balance the exposure for the subject.
For comparison - this is what happens in the same location letting the camera meter select the exposure, in matrix metering mode:
The best advice I can give you though is get out there in similar conditions, with a helpful friend and practice getting it right, so that you have the confidence to do it when the wedding rolls around - you don't want to messing around with your camera and flash in front of the people you want to look good - you need to be paying attention them at that point - not your equipment.
If you are using a bounce/ reflector, it should be roughly 2 to 3 times the area of what you want to reflect the light on to - so for a group portrait, you are going to need a big reflector. For a head shot of a single person, something around a metre across is great, anything smaller and it is difficult to get even light, without blinding the subjects.
Message edited by author 2004-06-28 12:16:50.
|
|
|
|
06/28/2004 12:46:59 PM · #18 |
Great advice Gordon. I will note this for my next such shooting situation.
|
|
|
|
06/28/2004 02:26:07 PM · #19 |
| Gordon, Thanks for the detailed reply - 'very helpful and much appreciated. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 03:41:37 PM · #20 |
| Best advice I can give is shoot in RAW mode. I do interior photography for posh properties. I always had huge problems with white balance from sometimes 3 different light sources. Also under over exposed shots were easy from the meter readings. I started to shoot RAW and 'develop' in C1 Rebel software. In an instant these problems were resolved, you can compensate by almost 2 stops on exposure with almost no effect on image quality. It also allows you to get perfect white balance or even warm or cool things down to exactly how you want it to look. Try doing this well in Photoshop without other unwanted problems. C1 Rebel costs about £30, buy it and try it before the wedding, it could save your life :) |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 03:49:38 PM · #21 |
Don't forget to set your custom white balance with a Kodak gray card.
Let us know how it turns out. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 03:53:01 PM · #22 |
| If I am in a controlled environment where I have can take my own sweet time, I shoot a few JPEGs and when I think I have got it right I switch to raw. But in situation where it could be the only shot I shoot RAW. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 04:47:23 PM · #23 |
I would recommend not to use flash in the church, as that is generally considered grossly inappropriate; set the camera to ISO 1600 and shoot with available light. I have been doing wedding photography for the past 3 years or so, and never had to use a flash during the ceremony.
Also you don't have to put your subjects in the shadow, use a ND filter to slow the shutter to about 1/125 and use a fill flash about 3 stops over the metered value while compensating the exposure by going one stop under.
Message edited by author 2004-06-28 16:48:51. |
|
|
|
06/28/2004 06:08:45 PM · #24 |
Originally posted by mavrik:
Take some generic pictures without them there. Expose for the fountain. Paste in these generics as a layer behind them in the others and basically combine the exposures as someone else said. Just take a lot of empty shots and you'll have plenty to work with. :)
M |
Great idea, but what are the chances that the lighting will be the same on the different days, or at different times? What if you take the empty shots on a sunny day, and the wedding day is a cloudy rainy one?
|
|
|
|
06/28/2004 06:25:38 PM · #25 |
I was told that my shots were overexposed based on some landscape shots in my portfolio (see link below). I am a newbie to all this but I have a friend getting married July 18th and I promised to do some amature shots for her, but I would like them to be the best I can do. Since her dress, flowers, and candles will all be white, I am worried about this exposure thing (which i know nothing about). Any advice about my camera settings, raw mode, etc? Its an inside wedding. Should I try the bracketing (where you take 3 shots of exposure)? I am sorry I am so new to this, but I never had experience with a 35mm or any camera for that matter. I just got mine in January and am really interested in learning. I made #7 in the last challenge, so I must not be that bad? i hope! lol
Thanks in advance for any advice
Dana
|
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 06/17/2025 05:06:44 PM EDT.
