Wedding tips.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

I am taking lots of candid shots for my friends wedding on Saturday, mainly at night, to capture the atmosphere.
I will be using my 350D with the 430EX and an omnibouce flash diffuser, I have also bought another 2GB card, and I am shooting in RAW.

I need some tips please.

1. Do I need to increase the Flash exposure to compensate for the diffuser?
2. If I take a picture of a few people round a table, can I increase the f-stop to get them all in focus, will the flash be able to cope with this?
3. Could I ue the DEP setting on the dial to get everything in focus, is it reliable?
4. Could I get away with just using the 50mm f1.8?

Any other tips?

[Zone]

Different situations will dictate when you use it and when not and what effect you are trying to achieve.

Personally I would fit it when doing closeups to soften shadows on faces under the chin around the nose and where overall flash power isn't nessasarily needed, remember you will lose around 2 stops of the flashes output maybe more when its fitted so if you're subjects are further away and you need the power I would remove it.

As usual I would suggest having a play at home prior to the event and set up similar situations to the ones you're expecting and see what results you get, experimentation is always best and practice makes perfect.

[wabbitt]

1. Increase the flash exposure compensation a stop or two to take into account for the diffuser, or increase exposure compensation on the camera. Either work pretty well.

2. I would be wary of reducing the aperture in dimly lit rooms. If you are fairly close to the group at the table, then try not get over F-6 as the camera will try and lower the shutter speed to try and get the full exposure. This will result in some blurring (yes... even with a flash). Since you said you are using a 50mm prime, then I'm assuming you wouldn't be that close to the table aswell which will make things more difficult.

3. Never used DEP. !!! Sorry.

4. Two problems here. 50mm is a good lens to get nice portraits. It will however, make it difficult at the wedding. Since you want to capture candids, it's normally good to be a little distance away from the people you are capturing. I find it better to have a longer lens. Maybe around 80-100mm. This way they won't immediately spot you taking a photo, and therefore won't change their characteristics.

The other problem is if you fully open the aperture to 1.8 then you can guarentee that only one person in the group will be in focus. I made this mistake initally with a f2.8 lens, and suddenly realised that I wasn't getting the groom and bride in focus at the same time.

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I really recommend that you get a decent zoom. My workhorse lens is a Canon 17-85 IS lens. The IS gives me a couple of stops of help with regards to the aperture. I find this lens covers 90% of what I need on the day, from a nice big group shot to picking out a single person in the middle of a crowd.

I also purchased a Canon 70-200 L lens and tried it at a wedding this weekend. It was excellent at picking out a single subject from a decent distance. They didn't even know I'd taken the photo afterwards.

The other thing you mentioned is that you will be shooting in RAW. Great idea for the fact that you can play with exposure afterwards, etc. However, you will find it a pain in the backside when it comes to converting them all later... honest! Even with RAWShooter, or CS2 Adobe Bridge conversions.

I tried a wedding in RAW and it took ages to get everything across. I'd recommend that you shoot in fine JPEG, and check your histogram to make sure eveything is exposed correctly in the first shot. It'll save you masses of time later.

I'm sure other people will have their views, but to be honest, I've taken photo's at over twenty weddings now and I feel you'll struggle with just a single 50mm lens and your only zoom is your feet.

[h4rri]

Originally Posted by wabbitt

I feel you'll struggle with just a single 50mm lens and your only zoom is your feet.

I love that bit

Just to add if you shoot in just RAW you will need to convert every photo and as wabbitt says that will take an age. If you shoot in both JPEG and RAW then you will only get 50-60 shots per Gb

I would say go JPEG fine and shoot lots, and as seems to be the concesus practice at home first. Good luck and enjoy the day

[tomson]

You don't need to adjust your flash when using a diffuser - the camera will adjust automatically. Where you might have problems though is if you meter against something white (brides dress for example) - then you'll probably need to make adjust manually. Take a test shot, check your histogram and go from there.

Similar to what wabbit says above - I was never enamored with the 50/1.8. I prefer an 85mm or summut longer (usually use a 80-200 2.8 L for candids).

[wabbitt]

Originally Posted by tomson

You don't need to adjust your flash when using a diffuser - the camera will adjust automatically.

Maybe it's just my 20D, or 580EX.

I always find shots underexposed when shooting indoors with dim lighting. I always over expose the shot by at least a stop.

One other thing that killed me on Sunday was the bride and groom thought it was an excellent idea to have hundreds of highly reflective helium balloons on every table. Looked lovely!

That made the metering on the camera just go mental. Lovely, nicely bright balloons. Horrible, dark underexposed people. It was like having mirrors all over the place. Ouch!

[tomson]

Originally Posted by wabbitt

Maybe it's just my 20D, or 580EX.

I always find shots underexposed when shooting indoors with dim lighting. I always over expose the shot by at least a stop.

Weird - my 580 (and 350D/20D/30D) usually nails it. You using a stofen Omnibounce?

Reflective ballons are horrible - i've had a few shots where the flash has hit one and either flared badly of screwed with the metering.

Another thing I hate is marquees with bright white, billowy ceilings - they're never easy to get right.

[wabbitt]

Yep... Stofen it is. I'd love to take the thing off, but the shadows are just too harsh to be honest. Even bounced.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Originally Posted by Zone

set up similar situations

I am not wearing no wedding dress.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Thanks for the advice.

I offered to take some shots, so he wasn't expecting any so I am not under any pressure to get loads, I will be getting drunk anyway.
I though it would be a good practise, I did one last year with an old Fuji 6900 and most of them came out pretty well, but that had a half decent zoom.

I may try and borrow a zoom from someone, anyone near Peston???

I will have to wait for a new lens, I have just bought a 10-20mm sigma, no good for weddings.

[wabbitt]

10-20 no good for weddings!

Pah... they are excellent.

If you get the chance to do a confetti throwing shot, they look fantastic.

Also, if you are taking photo's of a lively table, a nice wide angle will get everybody in the shot. Hold the camera high over the table whilst they are having a laugh.

Wide angles work really well for certain shots, and you can guarentee that not one person in the room will get the same shot.

Take it along.

[tomson]

Agreed - you could get some great dance floor shots with it too.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

OK the 10-20mm is coming with me.

thanks.

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

Got my omnibouce today, need to get some practice in. It says the best way is to tilt the head 45 degrees.

[wabbitt]

That's good for getting rid of your harsh shadows a bit then.

When you tilt your flash at 45°, you will effectively be bouncing your flash off a ceiling (or wall)

A couple things to check.

a) is there a ceiling to bounce off? Sounds stupid, but if you are outside, or in a church with a high ceiling, then pointing your flash at 45° will basically just put catchlights in their eyes, and will have little impact on lighting.

b) check the colour of the ceiling. Is it white or at least a light grey colour? If it's blue or red, etc., you will be lighting your subject with this colour light and it can throw off your white balance metering.

Apart from that the diffusers are great. It will also (slighlty) soften straight on flash too.