 Shirley Bittner |
Ambient Light Meter I've been selected to photograph my friend's wedding this weekend. Yes, I'm nervous ;-) I have been offered by another photographer friend to buy an ambient light meter, Minolta III, just wondering if anyone has any opinion on this ie. do you think it will help me out? Or should my digital camera be able to figure this all out using the spot metering? The offer is $150Cdn, wondering if this is a necessary purchase.
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Mark Feldstein |
Greetings Shirley: The answer to your question, in part anyway, I think depends on what kind of flash you plan on using and how you plan to use it. The Minolta III is ok but it's a somewhat older version of the Minolta Flash Meter IV or even the IVF which are more versatile for measuring ambient light in incident and reflected modes and flash and averaging readings as well. You can score a clean used Minolta IV for less than 100 bucks at e-bay usually and a IV F that has a few more bells and whistles for about $50 bucks more. But off e-bay, I doubt you'd get it before the weekend AND have time to learn how to use it. Renting one at this point might be a good option if you already know how to use one. Spot metering for shooting groups and even portraits isn't really such a hot idea unless you're trying to solve a specific problem in a particular scene. And of course, knowing how to use fill-in flash in these situations is really important to nailing exposures including scenes outdoors where you need to accurately record ambient light AND avoid deep shadows on your subjects, especailly around the eys. The other problem I see is learning how to use a meter effectively in about 3 days. While it's not especially difficult, it can be trickey and using new equipment on a critical gig, especially a wedding, is kinda like sticking the ole fork into the toaster and pretty risky business anyway. Take it light ;>)
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Denyse Clark |
Hi Shirley- I have to agree with Mark (hi mark!)... getting a new piece of equipment JUST before an important shoot can actually make things worse. I shot my first wedding last minute for a friend, and found that trying things I wasn't familar with gave me the worst results!! I don't know what camera you have, but I have the canon rebel xt and it has a fairly good built in light meter. I took Natalie Howe's advice for the formal portraits (another BP member) and used Av mode set to f/8, got in close to the face and got a meter read by pressing the shutter 1/2 way- then flip over to Manual mode and set it to f/8 and whatever the shutter speed you just metered was. Weddings go fast, so it's not always possible to do that. When it gets hectic, I tend to just stay on Av and try to avoid tricky light whenever possible! Shade is your friend, and use some fill flash. If you're inside in low light, it's a little tougher. I use an external flash unit up on a flash bracket which helps with shadows & red eye. If I get stuck I go to automatic mode - the light might not be the nicest but you get the shot! Hope it helps!! And I hope you'll load some shots after the wedding and let us know on this thread so we can check out the results!
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W. |
Denyse and Mark are right, Shirley. Weddings don't wait for the photographer. You won't have time to use that meter. In fact, even changing a full card or batteries (bring spares!) will be time constrained. So, maybe that meter is a good buy, I dunno. But it will be counter-productive for the wedding, this weekend.
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Shirley Bittner |
Thanks for the feedback. I have a Canon 30D, and an older Canon 300 (the first model whatever that was) I'll bring it along to have as backup...something is better than nothing. I was going to use my 50mm f1.4 for most of the indoor shots, and then perhaps put my 24-70 f2.8 on the backup in case I need wider shots, or maybe the 17-35...haven't decided that yet. I will use a flash, seems to be appropriate to use it, so I will...it's a speedlite 550. We used to have a local shop that rented out equipment, but no longer & I'm always spending so much on every 'favour' I do when taking photos, that i've drawn the line this time. I have been managing the bride/groom's expectations constantly by reminding them I'm not a pro. It's a small wedding, so I hope they are a freindly bunch and will be a bit patient with me :-) I can't get over how many people are instilling such worry in me. I'm trying to script out the flow of the ceremony so that I can plan where to position myself to capture the key moments, and looking a a ton of photos to get ideas on how to pose the bridal party. I'm hoping that I'm doign all that I can to be as prepared as I can be,w ith my skill level.
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Shirley Bittner |
Oh and yes, I went out and picked up more flash cards, 8GB in total. Lotsa extra batteries, picked up a small fanny pack to keep the flash cards in, so that I have them on me, when I need to replace them (no pockets in my suit :-(
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W. |
Here's a must-have accessory, Shirley, but budgetary neutral... Look up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNCmuExlHvM
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Denyse Clark |
A good amount of fear with push you to do your best, but don't let it consume you. You're thinking it all through, and it's a major factor in your sucess. You remind me of ME the week before my first, and it all turned out fine. You can do this!!!! Wow 8 GB of memory. I shoot with 2 GB and don't fill it, so you're MORE than covered. And batteries, yes bring extras but personally I've never gone through more than 2 sets in a full day. People kept scaring me about how many I would go through and the first time I bought like 10 sets, haha. I hear lots of recommendations for using the 50mm prime for indoors. The 24-70 should be good for the rest, what do you guys think? I use 28-105 and w/ the digital conversion it's not quite wide enough, but it works.
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Shirley Bittner |
sorry, I meant to type I have a 17-85 with IS...it's pretty wide..(I do have the 24-70 as well but prefer the wider angle of the 17-85).
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Mark Feldstein |
Wellllllll, the 17-85 is a good lens but I wouldn't use it below 35mm because if you have a tendency to try and pack the frame, anyone at the outermost portions and 17mm are probably going to appear like you shot them in the Fun House of Mirrors. I also would be reluctant to use that 24 - 70 below 35 for the same reasons. (Anyone besides me remember that?) The 85 end of the lens is handy for doing a little half-height portraiture and of course using it in the normal range of about 50mm. But avoid the temptation to go below 35 and wear your track shoes so you can move quickly for framing. Fanny packs are good, Chirpas are better.
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Shirley Bittner |
thanks M...so good composition a must, got it. thx.
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W. |
Pardon my ignorance, Mark, but what is a "Chirpa"?
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Mark Feldstein |
A Chirpa, (a/k/a "shirpa" (sp???) is an individual whose services are retained to haul one's equipment from location "A" to "B" or something equivalent. In photography parlance, Chirpas are also known as photographic assistants who tend to take more abuse than rental cars rented from Newark or San Francisco Airports. M.
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Shirley Bittner |
Oh, you mean a sherpa...
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Mark Feldstein |
Ok Shirley, sing along.... "You say Sherpa, I say Chirpa, I say Chirpa, you say Sherpa, Chirpa, Sherpa, schlepper, whatever....let's call the whole thing off..."
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Denyse Clark |
Glad it went well- it IS an incredible amount of work & stress!!!! I feed on that personally, sicko that I am. LOL Hope to see some of your favorite shots loaded here in the upcoming weeks!!
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Shirley Bittner |
here you go...a sample of the big day... http://www.photoshoots.bittnerdesigns.com/wedding/
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Denyse Clark |
Shirley- they had confidence when they asked you, and BOY WERE THEY RIGHT!!!! Stunning work, they must be THRILLED!!
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Shirley Bittner |
Thanks :-) Yes, they seem quite happy with the results. Phew! Looking back I would have kept a cheat sheet with me of the shots I wanted to take, as I'd forgotten some of the shots I wanted to take until I was driving home thinking...darn, which I'd done this, or done that. It doesn't hurt that this couple are so gorgeous, can't make them look bad if you tried.
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Denyse Clark |
I do the cheat sheet shot list!! It definately helps. Yeah, they really were quite a nice looking couple and you captured them beautifully. Looking at your gallery, it's not a surprise though! Thanks for sharing, I'll be looking at them again for inspiration. I've got weddings starting to book for next summer. Yeah!!
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