New Wedding Book

[John]

Here's the link to our latest wedding shoot:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1291209

This was shot at Windermere on Saturday and was great fun to do. The weather was fantastic, and so were the people!

[Theo Dibbits]

Very nice. I am sure they will be delighted with it.
A lot of time and effort goes in to creating such a big album

I have just finished a book for some friends of ours and it would have been a lot quicker if I had known what I know now.
Maybe we should put "Creating a photo book" on the syllabus.

If you are thinking of using Blurb for a book upgrading to photo quality paper is free until the 4th of May by using promo code FREEPAPER1

Theo

[Paul Jones]

Very good, John

[John]

They were delighted I'm glad to say. I was only sorry there wasn't any more time to use some more of the fantastic rooms in the hotel. Apart from the piano and chess board pictures there were hours of potential creative shots, but unfortunately we need to be realistic and get the shots done first that the couple want and expect.

[Andrew Shepherd]

John - Very impressed. The lighting looked low at times (particularly the indoor shots) and I'd be interested to hear how you coped with that challenge, i.e. high ISO or flash or tripod?

Cheers

[John]

Flash was only used outdoors for fill-in so indoors it was down to high ISO as a last resort and tripod where possible. In fact, it was really only the piano and chess images that allowed the use of a tripod. Weddings move at a furious rate and there's little time for messing about with equipment.

In terms of ISO I had to go to 800 in some instances, but wherever possible I used the native ISO of 200.

I find flash kills shots when used as the main light source, so I try to avoid it. Outside, it's essential for some shots, especially when the sun shines, but it's not the main light.

[Andrew Shepherd]

Hi John - thanks for that - I've got another wedding in May and it's all indoor and I totally agree about using the flash, unless you can bounce and light up the whole room. Did you have much noise at ISO 800 or was is OK? Did you remove it afterwards in the processing?

I did one shot with a tripod (of all guests on a staircase) and asked them all to stand very still - which worked just. I then asked them all to wave and, as you can guess, it was a complete disaster - what a Muppett

Cheers

[John]

Up to 800 ISO the Pentax K20D is OK and I don't do any noise reduction processing afterwards. I shoot JPEG Premium Quality by the way, using the Daylight setting.

200 ISO is best, with 400 not very far behind. But a sharp grainy shot would always be better than a noiseless blurred one.

Without seeing a venue it's difficult to generalise, but I've never found light to be a problem. I use a 16-45mm f4 lens for almost all the shots, although for this one the 12-24mm was used for the restaurant tables. A 50mm f1.4 is usually reserved for available light evening disco shots, again no flash, but lots of terrific coloured lights and movement.

Just to add to that, I do carry my studio lighting in the car just in case. If it came to a really bad weather situation and I needed lots of guest photos I'd be inclined to set that up in a corner somewhere and just feed people in and out of the "set" - it hasn't been needed yet though.

[PhilipHowe]

Andrew, I was in the Natural History Museum last week and the upstairs dinosaurs are really dark. I used ISO800 f/4 and could capture basically what the eye could see.

ISO1000 and 1200 were kind of OK, depending on subject 1600 wasn't too clever. I also set my flash gun to manual on the lowest setting with diffuser, ISO800, F4 and could capture a lot more details in the walls.

My point about the tiny bit of flash is that it might help to just stop tiny amounts of blur, oh, and better results by turning the IS off your lens, so it doesn't start hunting.

[Paul Jones]

Just to add that the links on the ADAPS LINKS page might be helpful.... in particular, check out Neil van Niekerk's flash photography tips:

http://neilvn.com/tangents/flash-photog ... ing-flash/

[paulinefisher]

I have recently had the loan of Neil van Niekerk's book ON - CAMERA FLASH, I can highly recommend it, I am sure it would be of use to any wedding or portrait photographer. (aspiring or experienced).