My Friend's Wedding - The correct settings?

[Skye Tan]

I would highly advice you to conduct a test prior to the shoot. This would allow you to understand how your camera and light function together and would definately help you assess your situation better.

Conducted a test based on the followings:

Bounce light
(find high ceiling for example void decks or shopping mall alleys and get a friend to pose for you)
a) - 2m Ceiling test
- one normal exposure and one +1 stop exposure
- with and without bounce card
(test the entire shoot using wide angle len and then normal lens)

b) - 4m ceiling test
- one normal exposure and one +1 stop exposure
- with and without bounce card
(test the entire shoot using wide angle len and then normal lens)

Direct flash
(find a hugh space and get a friend to pose for you)
a) - do exposure based on the nearest and furthest point which you would probably be taking. Try with a wide len and a normal len, one normal exposure and one over.

From my test on neg, I find that over 1 stop is often desired in my kind of work. But that depends on individuals. Doing a wide angle len test also help you to understand how you light works in relation to your equipment. things to watch out for is things like is there a dead point where the lights can't reach? and is the shadow quality desired? Is there enough space to stand backward (for group pictures) and can the lights cover the entire group evenly?

ask youself questions like this when you conduct the test. and make sure you have a piece of paper to record every single test you conduct so you can do a comparision.

Good luck to your shoot.

 

[_BEE_]

Dear All,

Thanks so much for all the responses. The important duty was completed with no major hiccups. I managed to borrow my friend's Canon 10D with 2 lenses and a Canon flash with diffuser. I was so glad I used the digital SLR as I could re-take those shots which were lousy.

The daytime one was a horrendous experience. Everything happened so fast. I encountered a little mishap as the flash died on me during the most crucial moment, when the groom arrived and I was locked outside the door and I couldn't reach for a fresh set of batteries. Oh man! That set of pictures were quite bad. No all can be used. And most of the pictures for the daytime turned out very overexposed as I do not have time to think on the settings and I used up to IOS 800 for some of the shots.

The dinner was much much better after experiencing the daytime event. I was more prepared and as most of the shots were posed, and the fact that my friend did not have a cake-cutting thingy (that means 1 major thing down), the pictures were much better, as in very normal.

As to the composition, artistic feel, etc, I would say, extremely normal.

It was a good experience anyhow and I valued your comments and suggestions and I actually have all of them in my PDA. (I "revised" the notes whenever I have the time when I was on that "assignment".)

Thanks folks.

Appreciate.

Bee

 

[catchlights]

Dear All,

Thanks so much for all the responses. The important duty was completed with no major hiccups. I managed to borrow my friend's Canon 10D with 2 lenses and a Canon flash with diffuser. I was so glad I used the digital SLR as I could re-take those shots which were lousy.................

You are shooting film or digital for this wedding?

If you are shooting digital, during daytime indoor is ISO 400 or higher, outside is ISO 200 or lower, when in doubt, shoot P mode and RAW.
Always have extra flash batteries, camera batteries and CF cards with you. (in your pockets or whatever)


Hope this help.

 

[Virgo]

You are shooting film or digital for this wedding?

If you are shooting digital, during daytime indoor is ISO 400 or higher, outside is ISO 200 or lower, when in doubt, shoot P mode and RAW.
Always have extra flash batteries, camera batteries and CF cards with you. (in your pockets or whatever)


Hope this help.

10D is a digital SLR.

Bee, the most difficult part in wedding photography is to get the best angle. You'll have no time to adjust settings, grab for batteries and such, because if that moment and angle is lost, it's lost forever!

I'll leave the settings to you, as I know that by now, you should get the settings right. If not, then you better practise more! For angles, you need to practise, practise and also look at other's work. Not to copy theirs, but improvise on them, and create a style of your own. A tip I can give you is that when you have spare time during your wedding, check on your batteries and other accessories. Change them if you must, even if they still have power. This is what I do. At least you won't have to search high and low for spare batteries and such.

All the best for you future wedding shoots.

 

[catchlights]

The original poster mentions she has and intends to use film camera, the wedding event is two days event.


But she didn’t mention she used film or digital for the day event, and only mention using digital for dinner event just now.

So I was curious is she using digital camera for all two days event?

 

[kensh09]

Is it a good idea to shoot in raw for better post editing?

 

[catchlights]

Is it a good idea to shoot in raw for better post editing?

In theory.. yes.

 

[kensh09]

In theory.. yes.

i guess i have to switch to raw already...always shoot in jpeg last time....

 

[jimtong]

I think 1/30 or 1/45 shutter is too slow for action or event posting shot.

I would think 1/60 with flash is a minimum safe limit.

Personal preference.

1/30 is ok. How fast can thing move during actual day event?

This speed also allows background to brighten up.

 

[catchlights]

i guess i have to switch to raw already...always shoot in jpeg last time....

I don't shoot raw for weddings.

 

[catchlights]

I think 1/30 or 1/45 shutter is too slow for action or event posting shot.

I would think 1/60 with flash is a minimum safe limit.

Personal preference.

1/30 is ok. How fast can thing move during actual day event?

This speed also allows background to brighten up.

No hard and fast rules for what speed to use, sometime I use 1/15s for shooting ambient of the ballroom, using 1/8s for shots with movement effect, using 1/30s for table shots, using 1/60s or 1/125s for yum seng shots on stage.

As what fatjp says.... Personal preference.

 

[fatjp]

No hard and fast rules for what speed to use, sometime I use 1/15s for shooting ambient of the ballroom, using 1/8s for shots with movement effect, using 1/30s for table shots, using 1/60s or 1/125s for yum seng shots on stage.

As what fatjp says.... Personal preference.

1/60 is to prevent camera shake , me got a pair of shaky hands. :cry:

Nervous sometime when i see people especially those very beautiful ones. ;p

 

[catchlights]

1/60 is to prevent camera shake , me got a pair of shaky hands. :cry:

Nervous sometime when i see people especially those very beautiful ones. ;p

Not all shots has to be no camera shake...

 

[jimtong]

No hard and fast rules for what speed to use, sometime I use 1/15s for shooting ambient of the ballroom, using 1/8s for shots with movement effect, using 1/30s for table shots, using 1/60s or 1/125s for yum seng shots on stage.

As what fatjp says.... Personal preference.

Yes, agree. Also depend on the effect you want, hand shake effect can sometime put you into the action as you view the photo.

 

[roger_over]

Do we need to follow the shutter speed of 1/focal length rule if we are shooting indoor with flash. In another words, is there going to be handshake if we are using focal length of let say 200mm at shutter speed 1/60 sec @ f/5.6 with flash?:dunno: Pls enlighten!

 

[vbs1979]

Do we need to follow the shutter speed of 1/focal length rule if we are shooting indoor with flash. In another words, is there going to be handshake if we are using focal length of let say 200mm at shutter speed 1/60 sec @ f/5.6 with flash?:dunno: Pls enlighten!

actually it depends on how steady yr hands.

For me at the settings which u stated, i will have hand shake. I will use 1/125, f6.3, ISO 800 instead.

 

[catchlights]

Do we need to follow the shutter speed of 1/focal length rule if we are shooting indoor with flash. In another words, is there going to be handshake if we are using focal length of let say 200mm at shutter speed 1/60 sec @ f/5.6 with flash?:dunno: Pls enlighten!

Your flash is the main light now, it will register the subject to form an image, as for sign of handshake, it depends how bright is the ambient, the brightest of the ambient the blur will be more obvious.

 

[roger_over]

Your flash is the main light now, it will register the subject to form an image, as for sign of handshake, it depends how bright is the ambient, the brightest of the ambient the blur will be more obvious.

Apologize for my poor understanding. :embrass:

Knowing the flash can only light up the main subject and the ambient light is actually dependant on the shutter speed, aperture and ISO, am I right to say that the main subject will still be sharp (freeze by the flash) regardless of what focal length I used, particularly if the shutter speed used is slower than 1/focal length and knowing that the ambient will/might be blur.:think:

 

[Virgo]

i guess i have to switch to raw already...always shoot in jpeg last time....

Don't think it's a good idea bro, unless you have gigs and gigs of memory cards. I shoot purely in jpegs, which is good enough for development to prints.

 

[Virgo]

Not all shots has to be no camera shake...

Agree with catchlights. Sometimes it's good to have some motion in the pics to bring out the mood, depending on the style you're trying to portrait.