 Marty |
Outside Wedding at High Noon How do you get the best photos of an outside wedding at noon? There are no trees for shaded photographs during the ceremony ... it's a garden. Any special precautions for bright sunlight? Or special filters for either sunny or cloudy weather?
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Kerry L. Walker |
You might try using a polarizer, but I would pray for clouds.
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Christopher A. Vedros |
You also might consider using a flash to fill in shadows on faces and in eye sockets.
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Chauncey R. Huffman |
If you have someone to help you, you could always try to use a scrim or some kind of diffuser to soften the harsh light a little bit. Even though the light will be directly above the subject, maybe you can figure something out. I would be testing some different ideas now so you can be prepared. Good luck!
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Barbara Wenneberg |
You might want to go there a few days ahead with a friend. Have the friend be the stand in for the wedding and take shots. If you are using digital and have software on your computer you might be able to go home and digitally alter the light so the pictures don't come out too bad. Good Luck!!
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William Koplitz |
Use a flash, it's the only thing you can do.
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Maria Melnyk |
Chances are that the bride and groom know nothing or little about photography, or they wouldn't be having their ceremony outdoors at high noon in the first place. I just did a ceremony like this last month, and my beautiful pictures turned out yucky because of the harsh shadows on the faces. Also, whenever the bride and groom faced eachother, the groom was squinting in the sunlight, and the bride was in the groom's shadow. So her face came out dark. Half the bridesmaids were in the sun and half in the shade due to a building overhang. Fill flash helped only a little, but not enough to make the photos look good. For this sort of thing you need cooperative subjects, and a very cooperative minister. You must explain the situation thoroughly to the bride and groom and bridal party ahead of time. If you don't, when they get their pictures back they will think that you didn't do a good job. Perhaps they will re-think and either rent a large canopy, or else they can work with you to set up some kind of large diffusing material over where they'll be standing. Or you can just pray for an overcast day. If you can talk with the minister ahead of time and explain things to him, he should be willing to at least turn the bride and groom the right way to make sure they are both in the shade or both in the sun. Same with the bridal party. The minister can ask them to move or turn during the ceremony, but you can't. One photographer I used to work with refused to photograph ceremonies outdoors under an open sky for this very reason. He was an artist at getting his clients to make other arrangements.
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Maria Melnyk |
Oh, one more thing. I didn't notice Kerry's answer before. I used a polarizer only one time for photographing people (only because I forgot to take it off!), and I didn't like the result. The sky was too dark for a pleasing portrait, and it didn't eliminate the squinting or the shadows. It's fine to use, though, when the people are very small in the frame. Then you get a nice-looking photo.
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Aaron Reyes |
fill flash. also nice to use a skylight filter like a 1a or 81a. gives people's skin a slight tan and blocks uv as well. even at high noon a fill flash will save you. experiment with a friend on a sunny day to find the right FEC... ps: hope you have an external flash and not just onboard. it's the only way to fly!
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William Koplitz |
I'm not speaking of fill flash, use the flash as the main and the ambient light as the fill, it's your only chance. Throw diffusion material over the flash head and don't worry about filters, those can be easily done in photoshop. Leave the polarizer off. Also, test your set up a couple of times to make sure it will do what you need it to do. This is not an insurmountable problem. You just need to be aware of your shadows. It's their wedding, your job is to make a record of it no matter what the conditions.
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Jennifer S |
My wedding wasnt outside, but all my pictures were taken outside. Luckily for me and for my photographer, there was no sun all day- my pictures came out perfect!! But one thing I noticed is that he used a flash with a mini-softbox over the flash. This is what I planned on using myself for weddings I guess because that stuck out to me all these years!! My pictures indoors came out great too. Good luck!!
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Aaron Reyes |
i prefer to use a 1a filter. less work in photoshop for a slight warmth. just a suggestion. I use an omnibounce to diffuse. could check out a lightsphere. i've heard good things. or some other light box of some sort. nice tips william. agree with no polarizer. unnecessary. good luck!
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Kerry L. Walker |
I guess my idea of using a polarizer was incredibly dumb! To tell the truth, I have never used a polarizer when shooting people, unless they were an incidental part of the picture. William has the right idea. Use the flash as the main light, not as fill. You are going to have to overpower the ambient light. The following advice is based on what I would have to do using the equipment I have (Pentax 645N, max. sync. speed of 1/60). If your camera has a higher sync speed, this may not apply, at least not to the same degree. Use a slow film (or low ISO on digital) and carry at least one ND filter, preferably two (1 stop and 2 stop) so you can get the reading to be lower than your max. sync. speed and so you can use as large an aperature as you need to eliminate the background when you want to.
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William Koplitz |
I answered assuming you were shooting digital. If ever you needed a reason to shoot digitial this is it.
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Kerry L. Walker |
Why?
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Marty |
THANKS for responses!..My camera is FILM Canon EOS 630 /CanonZoom 35-80mm Normally shoot w/ContaxG-1,TLA140 flash(prefer no-flash in general)& 2 fixed lenses..45&90 w/hoods/no filters. I am Mom-of-Bride & feel more comfort. w/old Canon..LENS not as great as CarlZeiss, but rangefinder makes me a bit nervous,and, no Zoom.The heaviness of the Canon helps steady my hands? Flash is Vivitar2800 bounce flash (gift) 2 weeks til wedding..Practicing at noon with different angles...should I get more reliable flash? Are there ways to diffuse the light outside by covering the flash?(have red/blue/clear flash covers..too saturated) Can I use a baggie? to diffuse) Always Use 800asa w/out flash..now, 400. Usually Fuji..but am trying kodak high definition and kodak B&W color-processed,both 400. Should I go lower for more clarity? I'm multi-tasking..Ceremony outside Sept9th/noon in a small public garden lasts Less than an hour..rain?clouds?bright sunshine? I need to be ready for all Light! (I AM familiar with taking pictures..not Pro) I also have a P&S Yashica T4Zoom to bring along w/different asa film so in the short time period, directly before the ceremony, I have alternative Ways to capture the event: Canon? Contax? Yashica?
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Kerry L. Walker |
Canon will do fine. Flash is fine. Suggest you get a softbox (Lumiquest is a good one). It will diffuse the flash but won't cover flash sensor. Try the Kodak Portra 160NC film. Both softbox and film are available at http://www.bhphotovideo.com/ Best suggestion? If you are the mother of the bride, HIRE A PRO and enjoy the wedding.
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William Koplitz |
1. Digital allows you to change the curve (contrast) and color balance of the image in the camera and this makes it better in handling wide ranges of contrast and mixed lighting situations, especially if you photograph in the camera's native format. 2. You can review the shoot while you are still on the job. 3. You are not at the mercy of film producers and color labortories. The requirement of digital is that you should be comfortable with computers.
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Wayne Smith |
I have had this situation. Be very careful about positioning of the subjects and use fill flash. With digital (which I have not yet used for weddings), experiment for the best fill ration and adjust as needed. It should never be obvious you are using fill except for special effects. Use as large an aperture as possible with your max flash sync speed to throw background as soft as possible to bring attention to the real subjects.
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Maria Melnyk |
Dear Mom of the Bride (and everybody else), Do NOT use High Definition film. You need a low-contrast film for this: either Fuji NPS (or the new Pro 160S), or Portra 160NC (not VC, but NC). Or Agfa Optima, but that costs a little more, and I think the others are better anyway. There is also such a thing as a low-contrast filter that helps with harsh sunlight. I borrowed one once and just took one photo with it, but it looked like it helped a little. However, I think Tiffen discontinued it. Not sure. Don't use 400-speed film in bright sunlight either. You can, but why use a low-light film when you can use a finer-grained lower-speed film? Plus, you might unnecessarily have to stop down where a wider aperture would have been preferable. Just a general question to Marty: Does this ceremony have to be in an unshaded garden? You, being mother of the bride and by now well aware of the problems a photographer might encounter, might suggest that the bride & groom hold their ceremony in a place where their photos will turn out nicer. Perhaps you could just do the after-the-ceremony photos in the garden, when lighting could be more controlled with diffusers and/or reflectors, and the subjects' positioning as well. Hey, I just thought of something!! Marty - can you put up two large reflectors at the sides and angle them toward the bride and groom? What does everyone else think; would this help? Now, a few questions for everyone else. I'm confused about two things: overpowering the main light would mean underexposing the background, in other words, underexposing the garden. I don't know if this is a good idea, but then again, I've never done that. The other thing is the use of diffusers over the flash. I've never tried this outdoors. How would this help eliminate shadows better than undiffused flash?
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Marty |
Thankyou EVERYONE for your responses..The wedding was wonderful! I used FujiReala100.CanonEOS630/ Canonzoom36-80mm.Vivitar2800flashfill-in.Backup,Yashica T4-Zoom P&S. Shot 5 rolls before the wedding w/different types&speeds @ Noon to see whatworked best.felt100 was best.Wedding was in outside garden. 12:35-1:00 including after-ceremony pictures.(not much time) My daughter (the bride) asssured me I was the only photographer to be there. or I would've simply Enjoyed! Wow! It was all I could do to keep the 20 or so guests OUT OF THE PICS! They were everywhere! with their "cameras". I faced the bride,groom,& Mayor (who married them) & all these relatives kept moving about BEHIND the couple! With so many years of experience I was somehow able to pay Attention to the short ceremony AND compose shots that excluded the other "photo-nuts!" who til this day have shared None of their photos. When I got my film developed there was an entire bunch missing..(8) negs came out clear With edge numbers..thought maybe I shot too fast& flash wasn't in-synch? It WAS the shutter though. There was some weird sappy goo on a few of the "leafs".??? The YashicaT-4zoom gave me some great pics under the shade of a willow tree..I have over 60 photographs to work with.. Do I not have some angel that allowed all my pics of the actual wedding to work out? and all of you who helped me out before hand.. ThankYou!
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