 Tyrone Walter |
wedding reception Ok, I've got to take some good photos at a wedding reception. I'm an amateur and all I have is the K1000, 50mm 2.0, 100-300 zoom lens and flash. I dont think i'll need the zoom but any advice for just making sure some simple candid shots come out good would be appreciated. It's going to be at night and I believe indoors, could be in the backyard also. I know my equipment may not be the glamorous but any advice on just getting 20 or so good pics would be appreciated. If the equipment isnt good enough for this then I plan on renting a Canon EOS ELan 7E and a 28-80 zoom. looking forward to some advice. thanks
|
|
|
|
||
|
Jeff S. Kennedy |
Are you shooting color or b&w? What's the lighting going to be like? What do you plan to do with the images (enlargement? how big?)? When I shoot receptions (if there's enough light) I like to use high speed b&w film. But if you want big enlargements that may not be the way to go. If you are going to use flash I suggest some sort of bounce attachment and ideally a flash bracket. If not the bracket at least a bounce attachment though. Consider draging the shutter to allow ambient background light to record in the shots. This way you won't end up with pure black backgrounds. There's no reason your 50mm lens & K1000 shouldn't be just fine. That 50mm lens is faster and probably sharper than the Canon zoom anyway.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Denyse Clark |
Jeff, what can you tell me about 'dragging the shutter'?? I have been asked to shoot a friends wedding this weekend and I am nervous about the low light situation at the reception hall. I want to avoid the black cavelike background. I have a Canon Rebel G and plan on using my 28-105mm lens. I have a 420 speedlite flash and a flash backet. I'm using Porta 400NC and some Porta b&w film. No enlargements over 8x10. Thanks!! :)
|
|
|
|
||
|
Jeff S. Kennedy |
Denyse, dragging the shutter is the term for shooting with flash at a slow shutter speed. In essence the f-stop you choose matches the flash exposure and your shutter speed is set for the background exposure (or close to it). Figure out what f-stop you will be using with your flash. Then, using that f-stop, meter the ambient light to determine what shutter speed you will need to expose for the background. Often you don't need to match it exactly. I prefer to have my subjects stand out from the background so I like it to go darker anyway. Don't worry if you're shutter is something like 1/4. Your flash will help freeze motion. But that's another reason I like to underexpose the background some. If your flash is perfectly balanced with the ambient you will get more noticable motion blur. So I like to have my flash be 1-2 stops brighter than the background so that it is definitely the main light. I hope that makes sense. If not let me know.
|
|
|
|
||
|
Denyse Clark |
Thanks for the info!! I looked in my flash manual and it explained how to use my flash to accomplish what you described. I tried it out at the wedding... now I'm just waiting for my prints to come back. I'll let you know how they come out!
|
|
|
|
||
|
Jeff S. Kennedy |
Waiting for your prints to come back? Oh wait, I remember doing that back in the olden days of film. ;-)))
|
|
|
|
||
|
Denyse Clark |
Hardcore film user for sure :) Well, I had lots of trouble w/ this technique unless people were very, very still! It worked great for cake cutting, very pleasing ambiant lighting. Thankfully I knew enough to go w/ other settings for most of my shots that I was more comfortable with, and I think the wedding was a success. Thanks the the input!
|
|
|
|
||
|
Jeff S. Kennedy |
And see I really like using the technique during the dance BECAUSE of the motion. That's the beauty of art/photography. Its very subjective.
|
|
|
|
||
|
This old forum is now archived. Use improved Forum here
Report this Thread |
||