Wedding Photos, which metering system to use?

[John Tan]

Just test it a few shot before the actual action if possible and compensate it if needed. Digital SLR allow you to shoot by trial and error on the spot. Of course if timing is allow when there is difficult lighting - try to avoid strong backlight & careful with the white gown too!- the image will not look good even u had correctly compensate in term of colour.

 

[Virgo]

I'm sorry, missed out the line 'if it's very fair or very dark'. OK totall agree on this. :sweat:

DO NOT METER off the face if it's very fair or very dark. Your exposure will be out.

Metering itself is a complicated subject, and being in the middle of a wedding doesn't help either.

The first thing you must absolutely get right is how your camera meters in DIFFERENT modes, and know when to use them. Partial, evaluative and center-weighted will all give different results when there is an off-centre light source (eg light or window). When you're moving around, eg tea ceremony, these light sources change in size relative to the frame and in intensity. Unless you're in manual mode, the compensation dial will have to keep turning to adjust to the frame. Takes a bit of experience (read: trial and error) to know how much to dial and when.

Another alternative is to use a grey card and fix the camera in manual mode. And stay alert for lighting changes.

Do a search on 'weddings' here. i think you'll turn up quite a lot of reading material, on both exposure and flash exposure for Canon systems.

 

[meng]

Think that it might be better if you consider both the ambient exposure and flash exposure. Right now, it seems that all or almost all of the suggestions are based on ambient exposure.

 

[dzulhjdzaid]

did my first wedding shootz 10yrs back...with Minolta 5xi..SUPERB!!
my last wedding shootz last few dayz...with D70....okie OKIE onli..

 

[rainman]

Take note of ur white balance...meter using ur bounce card...
For me I will choose bounce flash.