 Nicole Boenig-McGrade |
Wedding at Sunset Hi, I have been asked (for the first time) by a friend to take some wedding photos for her, which is held outdoors an hour before sunset, south-facing, overlooking a river and otherwise surrounded by city buildings in the distance in other directions. I have decided to use the SLR camera instead of Digital, as it only gives me 72dpi. I would appreciate anyones suggestions as to the best film speed? flash or no flash? filters? and any other tips you may have.... Thank you very much for taking the time and effort to respond and I wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year. Nicole.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
If the sunset is going to be in the background, using a flash will keep them from being a silouette and allow the sunset to be not so bright that you loose all the colors in it. You should be able to shoot 200 speed with out having to worry about a sync speed that's too slow. And if you use a flash, a warming filter could help because light from a flash is many times a little on the blue side. And it may not look right to have a sunset in the background and a slight blue tint to the people.
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Nicole Boenig-McGrade |
Hi Gregory, thank you for taking the time to respond. Is it best if I invest in a flash other than using the inbuilt flash? My friend has just asked me if it could take black & white photos for her. Are filters best best for them too, or just different types of film speeds? Is a softening filter best used with black & whites for weddings or none at all? So many questions and so little time... Thank you again, Kind regards, Nicole.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
A new flash would give you more power and versatility. I don't know how far away from these two people you're going to be taking their picture. You could do it with the on camera flash, but, like I said I can't say who's going to be where. The best scenario would be if you can afford a flash and a light meter, but that's up to you. If I had both of those, I would try taking a reading off part of the sky a little bit away from the sun, making sure that the shutter speed is at or below the sync speed, and since it's sunset I would recommend below, then seeing what aperture it is, I would then set the camera's aperture to 1&1/2 stops more open than that number. Then I would set the flash so that the light from that would give the same aperture on the couple as the number that's 1&1/2 stops more than the reading I got from the sky. (in other words, camera sync is 1/200. Put the shutter speed at 1/60, then aim the camera at the sky and see what the reading says. Say it's comes out to be f/8. Then I would set the camera so that I shoot 1/60 at f/4.5. Then I would set the flash so that the flash on the couple reads f/4.5.) For insurance purposes, you can shoot several pictures at lower shutter speeds to make sure you get good color in the sky. The reason why I said to set the aperture 1&1/2 stops more open is that when you take a reading with a cameras meter off of something like a sky during sunset, a camera meter looks at everything as tries to make it that 18%percent gray that you may have heard about. Which you could say is like a regular picture with no real brightness or darkness, just everything even and neurtral. And a sunset with all those bright oranges and stuff would come out a little too dark. So you open up to make the colors look better. Those black&white, filters can be used to change the contrast. When people do their own black&white there are contrast filters that you use to give you that crisp black&white, but those are used in printing so you don't have to use filters that change your exposure when you take pictures. Most labs just print black&white straight, no filters, and they end up just regular looking. But if you needed to use a filter while you were actually taking the picture, an orange filter is what gives you the normal contrast for black&white. But then you're looking thru the camera at everything orange, and you have to adjust your exposures. Now if you do the black&white digitally, then you can adjust your own contrast. Softening filters just depends on what you like. If you like the effect, then I don't see any advantage of it working with color or black&white.
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Nicole Boenig-McGrade |
Wow, Gregory! Thank you so much for all the info, now it's a matter of "processing" it. I'm going to the venue tonight to check it out a couple of days early and give it a little practice run. Thank you again, you have been most helpful! May you have a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year! Cheers from Down Under, Nicole.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
How'd it turn out?
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I never thanked you for your advice on this, but it works really well. Here was the result of an engagement shoot at sunset.
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