If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
Marisa wrote:
Randall Ainsworth wrote in message . .. In article , Marisa wrote: I'm going to take wedding pictures in a few months and I've only done two other really small weddings. I'm lookin for any advice as to how to best use my equipment, what type of film, filters, etc..and any techniques/advice you can give me for taking wedding pictures- indoor and outdoor. I will be using a Nikon N80 SLR camera and have a Nikon lens 28-80mm as well as a Quantaray lens 100-300mm. I also have a promaster FTD 7000M flash, which I'm not too familiar with. Any suggestions for the best results would be greatly appreciated... You're asking questions that you shouldn't be asking for this type of job. So anyone else have any suggestions that are helpful? Are you the primary photographer? If you are, make up a list of specific shots you want to get. There is a sample list at http://www.weddingtips.com/the-list-photo.html which may help you. Be sure to talk to the Bride and Groom to see what photos they would like. The shots you need will determine which lens you use. Although, I'd use a 28-105mm as the primary, with your 100-300mm for a few specialty focus shots. For most shots, I'd suggest using Aperture Priority to keep the DOF small to reduce annoying background elements. The lighting will determine what film and filters you use, and if you use the flash. I'd prefer not using the flash, as is can be a little distracting. You won't see the flash because of the mirror blackout, but everybody else does. If you do elect to use the flash, a diffuser is highly recommended. Time will be your enemy during the wedding, especially when you need to reload the film or change lenses. Keep a few rolls with you, and the rest easily accessible in your bag (wherever you put it). If you have another camera body, that will be a big help. Study up on group poses, and scout out locations around the wedding or reception sites when you arrive for a good location for the posed portraits. Talk to the B&G before the wedding to see when they want to do the group portraits, most prefer right after the ceremony before the reception. For indoor weddings, work with the B&G and the staff of the building/church to see what lights will be used. Some locations may have stage lighting or spotlights. Used carefully, these can be helpful. If you use your flash, is it powerful enough to bounce off the ceiling or walls? If so, what color paint is used, as it will affect the color of the bounced light. For outdoor weddings, will the wedding be under any shade? Direct sunlight will produce hard, un-appealing shadows. Fill-flash would be the easiest way to solve this, although shade would be preferable. A gazebo usually makes the nicest location for outdoor shade. If you're lucky, the outdoor weddings will be partly cloudy, giving plenty of soft light, without hard shadows. For the posed shots, you can use a reflector, but you won't be able to use a reflector for the majority of the shots. There are a lot of tips on the internet for wedding photography, just search on your favorite search engine. Finally, a word of warning: Wedding photography is tricky and emotional. If you mess it up, that's what will be remembered: that you messed up their wedding memories. However, if you can do a good job, they will be forever grateful. That's what Randall was trying to tell you. -- Whatevah / Jerry Horn Jerry {at} Whatevah.com (working address) Freelance Photography and Web services. spambait: |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Marisa wrote:
Randall Ainsworth wrote in message . .. In article , Marisa wrote: I'm going to take wedding pictures in a few months and I've only done two other really small weddings. I'm lookin for any advice as to how to best use my equipment, what type of film, filters, etc..and any techniques/advice you can give me for taking wedding pictures- indoor and outdoor. I will be using a Nikon N80 SLR camera and have a Nikon lens 28-80mm as well as a Quantaray lens 100-300mm. I also have a promaster FTD 7000M flash, which I'm not too familiar with. Any suggestions for the best results would be greatly appreciated... You're asking questions that you shouldn't be asking for this type of job. So anyone else have any suggestions that are helpful? Hi Marisa, The two previous responses a gently saying that weddings are so important to the participants that botched pictures are not an acceptable risk. Weddings really need someone who does not have to ask these questions, someone who has worked previously as an assistant to a professional wedding photographer. If you are not familiar with lighting, then you probably should not be shooting the wedding. Lighting is one of the most important issues. A wedding deserves off-camera lighting attended by an assistant. Given the need to move around, wireless communication between the camera and lights would be preferable. Go to a photo supply store, rent some lighting, and go to the church a couple weeks in advance and take some pictures to learn what you need to do at the wedding. Really good lighting allows you to use slower film, get greater depth of field (as you can stop down the aperture) and higher quality images. Never underestimate the importance of the lighting. Example: Photographer A shoots a scene with powerful off the camera lights. The background is lit, there is no red eye and the subjects are not overly-contrasty. Photographer B shoots the same scene with an on-camera light only. The background is black or just a grissly brown, there is red eye everywhere, and the faces of the subjects are glaringly lacking in color. Your Proflash will not do the job. I have repeatedly declared in this newsgroup that I do not consider 35 mm the format of choice for weddings. Weddings photographers I know all prefer 6x6 medium format - and the Mamiya C30 in particular. You get 3x the surface area on the film, and that can make up for a lot of errors itself. Whatever the format, you need at least two camera bodies, so that your assistant can be taking out exposed film and loading fresh film while you continue to shoot. All this while the assistant is adjusting the lighting., Note, your assistant should expect to work hard that day. Whatever the camera, don't use a program to determine the aperture and shutter speed. Your brain has to decide if the depth of field is going to be narrow or wide, whether elimination of movement is more important than depth of field. If you leave it to the computer you will probably have fast shutter speeds and narrow depths of field. Optics are critical. I doubt either of your lenses open up wide enough to accommodate a dark church. What do they open up to? f/3.5? Prime lenses are better than zoom lenses at accommodating weak lighting conditions. For instance, f/2.0 or f/1.4. The Nikon will have good optics, but the Quantaray? The Japanese were the first to use the term "bokeh" - it means the quality of the out of focus image. This determines the acceptability of an image. If the out of focus part goes into a doubte or blurred image, that is bad. If it gently softens that is good. You need to study the images you have made with the Quantaray to see if it is useable for this critical situation. Then there is the choice of film. ....... Read a book of wedding photography. Francis A. Miniter |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
Marisa wrote:
Randall Ainsworth wrote in message . .. In article , Marisa wrote: I'm going to take wedding pictures in a few months and I've only done two other really small weddings. I'm lookin for any advice as to how to best use my equipment, what type of film, filters, etc..and any techniques/advice you can give me for taking wedding pictures- indoor and outdoor. I will be using a Nikon N80 SLR camera and have a Nikon lens 28-80mm as well as a Quantaray lens 100-300mm. I also have a promaster FTD 7000M flash, which I'm not too familiar with. Any suggestions for the best results would be greatly appreciated... You're asking questions that you shouldn't be asking for this type of job. So anyone else have any suggestions that are helpful? Hi Marisa, The two previous responses a gently saying that weddings are so important to the participants that botched pictures are not an acceptable risk. Weddings really need someone who does not have to ask these questions, someone who has worked previously as an assistant to a professional wedding photographer. If you are not familiar with lighting, then you probably should not be shooting the wedding. Lighting is one of the most important issues. A wedding deserves off-camera lighting attended by an assistant. Given the need to move around, wireless communication between the camera and lights would be preferable. Go to a photo supply store, rent some lighting, and go to the church a couple weeks in advance and take some pictures to learn what you need to do at the wedding. Really good lighting allows you to use slower film, get greater depth of field (as you can stop down the aperture) and higher quality images. Never underestimate the importance of the lighting. Example: Photographer A shoots a scene with powerful off the camera lights. The background is lit, there is no red eye and the subjects are not overly-contrasty. Photographer B shoots the same scene with an on-camera light only. The background is black or just a grissly brown, there is red eye everywhere, and the faces of the subjects are glaringly lacking in color. Your Proflash will not do the job. I have repeatedly declared in this newsgroup that I do not consider 35 mm the format of choice for weddings. Weddings photographers I know all prefer 6x6 medium format - and the Mamiya C30 in particular. You get 3x the surface area on the film, and that can make up for a lot of errors itself. Whatever the format, you need at least two camera bodies, so that your assistant can be taking out exposed film and loading fresh film while you continue to shoot. All this while the assistant is adjusting the lighting., Note, your assistant should expect to work hard that day. Whatever the camera, don't use a program to determine the aperture and shutter speed. Your brain has to decide if the depth of field is going to be narrow or wide, whether elimination of movement is more important than depth of field. If you leave it to the computer you will probably have fast shutter speeds and narrow depths of field. Optics are critical. I doubt either of your lenses open up wide enough to accommodate a dark church. What do they open up to? f/3.5? Prime lenses are better than zoom lenses at accommodating weak lighting conditions. For instance, f/2.0 or f/1.4. The Nikon will have good optics, but the Quantaray? The Japanese were the first to use the term "bokeh" - it means the quality of the out of focus image. This determines the acceptability of an image. If the out of focus part goes into a doubte or blurred image, that is bad. If it gently softens that is good. You need to study the images you have made with the Quantaray to see if it is useable for this critical situation. Then there is the choice of film. ....... Read a book of wedding photography. Francis A. Miniter |
#15
|
|||
|
|||
(Marisa) wrote in
om: Randall Ainsworth wrote in message . .. In article , Marisa wrote: I'm going to take wedding pictures in a few months and I've only done two other really small weddings. I'm lookin for any advice as to how to best use my equipment, what type of film, filters, etc..and any techniques/advice you can give me for taking wedding pictures- indoor and outdoor. I will be using a Nikon N80 SLR camera and have a Nikon lens 28-80mm as well as a Quantaray lens 100-300mm. I also have a promaster FTD 7000M flash, which I'm not too familiar with. Any suggestions for the best results would be greatly appreciated... You're asking questions that you shouldn't be asking for this type of job. So anyone else have any suggestions that are helpful? Well, there's a couple of issues that come up with a post like yours. The primary one is, you haven't asked any specific questions, but in essence an essay question about wedding photography in general. This is a bit like saying "How do I raise kids?" Better off if you pick a specific topic and deal with that. If you can't narrow it down to a specific topic, there's no really good place to start, and it leads one to assume that you'll need to be told *everything*. In such a case, you're not likely to learn enough from a newsgroup post to make you an effective wedding photographer for a shoot you've already booked. Wedding photography is a field teeming with pitfalls, so the chances become very high indeed that you'll get caught by at least one, if not quite a few. And when it comes to the emotional value that is typically placed on wedding photos, the blowback you're likely to receive could be significant - lawsuits happen more often than people like to believe. And a second issue is, there's no "right" way to go about it. Different photographers have different approaches, many tailored to the individual locales that they work and the clientele they're likely to encounter. For instance, having shot numerous weddings on strictly 35mm film, I disagree entirely with Fracis Miniter - if the client buys it, 35mm works fine. And for approaches like photojournalism and candids it can't be beat. Style is all your own, and that's part of the package you sell. This includes what you use for lighting and the films you prefer. So without even an indication of that, again, it's hard to point you in a good direction. A large family formal in a big church takes a whole different approach from a B&W bridal shot by a window on the stairs. So narrow it down a bit more, and in the meantime, hit http://www.aljacobs.com/welcome.htm and scroll down to weddings. He doesn't cover everything, and neither will anybody else, but it's a good start. Good luck! - Al. -- To reply, insert dash in address to match domain below Online photo gallery at www.wading-in.net |
#16
|
|||
|
|||
In article , Marisa
wrote: It's not my day job or anything , just something i'm going to do as a favor. A sure way to turn a friend into an enemy. |
#17
|
|||
|
|||
In article , Marisa
wrote: It's not my day job or anything , just something i'm going to do as a favor. A sure way to turn a friend into an enemy. |
#18
|
|||
|
|||
Bad answer, especially if your going to be their only photographer.
Favor or not people are going to expect an incredible amount of skill on your part, if your the only photographer. Aside from all the responses concerning lights, appropriate cameras.... whether you are able,... etc consider how your going to evenly light the whole bridal parties faces without shadows. Consider what you would do as the bride comes down the aisle and your flash does not fire. Consider what you will do when none of the people are ready or are milling around waiting for you to set up to do what seems like endless amounts of group pictures. (Are you good at getting people to cooperate)? Read your reply below again. Think about how you will deal with those people if you have problems and your gear doesn't cooperate. Consider what you will do when you run out of film or are close to the film roll end and realize you have too few frames left for the next sequential series of pictures that surpasses the frames you have... at the very least you need two cameras and two flashes,...if you are the primary photographer. In article , (Marisa) wrote: It's not my day job or anything , just something i'm going to do as a favor. -- LF Website @ http://members.verizon.net/~gregoryblank "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918 |
#19
|
|||
|
|||
Bad answer, especially if your going to be their only photographer.
Favor or not people are going to expect an incredible amount of skill on your part, if your the only photographer. Aside from all the responses concerning lights, appropriate cameras.... whether you are able,... etc consider how your going to evenly light the whole bridal parties faces without shadows. Consider what you would do as the bride comes down the aisle and your flash does not fire. Consider what you will do when none of the people are ready or are milling around waiting for you to set up to do what seems like endless amounts of group pictures. (Are you good at getting people to cooperate)? Read your reply below again. Think about how you will deal with those people if you have problems and your gear doesn't cooperate. Consider what you will do when you run out of film or are close to the film roll end and realize you have too few frames left for the next sequential series of pictures that surpasses the frames you have... at the very least you need two cameras and two flashes,...if you are the primary photographer. In article , (Marisa) wrote: It's not my day job or anything , just something i'm going to do as a favor. -- LF Website @ http://members.verizon.net/~gregoryblank "To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."--Theodore Roosevelt, May 7, 1918 |
#20
|
|||
|
|||
I'm going to take wedding pictures in a few months and I've only done two other really small weddings. I'm lookin for any advice as to how to best use my equipment, what type of film, filters, etc..and any techniques/advice you can give me for taking wedding pictures- indoor and outdoor. I will be using a Nikon N80 SLR camera and have a Nikon lens 28-80mm as well as a Quantaray lens 100-300mm. I also have a promaster FTD 7000M flash, which I'm not too familiar with. Any suggestions for the best results would be greatly appreciated... Thanks, wedding photography isn't brain surgery. there has been plenty posted on the what and how of wedding photography, read back on google.groups one thing I recommend is that you shoot a engagement portrait. This is like a dress rehearsal. They get a preview of what they could expect from you, and more importantly, they get a clue about what they need to do on their part of the image making. This really gives you a lot of help on the wedding day. I recommend a tripod for the formal shots, you can use a slow shutter speed and pick up detail in the background, this makes the images look so much better and the added exposure to the background makes it much easier for the lab to print. Bright white dresses against a really black background is very hard to for both the camera's and the lab's auto exposure routines. film is film, what kind of paper does it get printed on, what paper does your lab run? filters? are you shooting color neg? then forget filters |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Anyone ever arrested for taking a photo in the U.S.? | JohnCM | Digital Photography | 24 | June 28th 04 08:22 PM |
wedding photography scam??? | Sumjo Yoo Donoe | Medium Format Photography Equipment | 3 | June 23rd 04 03:19 PM |
Wedding photography scam?? | Sumjo Yoo Donoe | Medium Format Photography Equipment | 0 | June 23rd 04 12:39 AM |
How to start into wedding photography ? | [email protected] | Photographing People | 23 | April 29th 04 10:05 AM |
Wedding Relief - Wedding Relief | The Warrior | Photographing People | 0 | October 17th 03 02:14 PM |