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Comments
- When bouncing light indoors, ceilings may be higher than in homes.
- It is desirable to have your flash overwhelm the available indoor light, otherwise white balance becomes unpredictable.
- I almost always use direct flash outdoors in daylight to fill shadows on a sunny day, and add contrast on a dull day. It is not easy to add power to the sun. Use bl-ttl with camera set on manual, and the highest shutter speed that will sync flash, and close aperture / reduce ISO to where you are not overexposing the daylight.
- Shooting TTL, a more powerful flash will not fully drain it's capacitor on the first shot, This gives you much faster recycle for a followup shot. At weddings this really matters, since some events happen quickly. Entry of the wedding party pairs, and dance sequences in particular. If you wait for a 4-5 sec. recycle you will miss half of them.
I no longer do this professionally, but still do several each year. If I was still professional and shooting many more, I would invest in a (probably 3) quantum 150 ws unit(s) for the power and fast recycle and save on everything else until this was done. SB 800/900 (or third party equivalent, I have heard good things about yongnuo) are adequate, but I would not go with less.
It is easy for people who do not actually do something, or do it occasionally and casually to imagine how it is done.
Those who do it regularly and whose families and customers depend on them, typically evolve similar approaches because they work in a wide range of circumstance.
Since I was not the least expensive photographer (by a lot) , 'good enough' was not good enough.
You do not have to do this all at once
Nikon N90s, F100, F, lots of Leica M digital and film stuff.
I use it for wildlife shooting at 3200 or 6400 on a D810.
For weddings I use single bounce, or multiple direct lights, usually at ISO 400 to get faster recycling in TTL flash.
.... H
Nikon N90s, F100, F, lots of Leica M digital and film stuff.
17-55mm 2.8 on one camera
70-200mm 2.8 on the other camera.
If you can't afford the Nikon versions, go for 3rd party alternatives.
Flashes: SB-600/700 w/ lots of extra batteries.
Tips:
Do not use primes unless you absolutely need it because the lighting sucks (in which case you might be better off just using flash).
Try to use as much ambient light as possible (crank up the ISO to the most usable levels if you have to); only use flash as a last resort.
End of Discussion.
Source: Done many weddings/events.
To be honest, the bride would probably have been happy with the results from higher ISO's, but I need to feel happy when I am handing images/albums over.
@spraynpray - Thanks. So far ISO for the setting above was between 640-1200. I will try to limit to 800.
Personally because of the cost of equipment and having the proper stuff I would try to find someone to work with for a while and save up to get what you need. You need backup stuff and extra batteries for bodies, flashes and memory cards. I don't think I would ever go in with a single body. Two bodies not only gives a backup, but can be used for another lens so you don't have to switch lenses as much. You could do with a more powerful flash and a diffuser. You could of course buy third party stuff to keep costs down a bit, but in the end it will still cost a bit. Although I personally wouldn't use the 18-140 myself I know pistnbroke does...I think you need another lens to use for portraits and I wouldn't use the 35 myself. I really think you probably need to spend around $1500 (conservative) to $2000 USD to get what you really need. Portrait lens, flash, batteries, memory cards, diffuser, possibly extra body.
If you have the opportunity spend some time with someone shooting a wedding, help someone or try to get on as a second with someone else. It will help you learn and figure out what you really need. I did one wedding as a half favor as I knew the brides dad and it really was a ton of work. It is something that can easily upset people if you don't get it right. There is money involved and also memories of a lifetime you can't miss. Good luck with your endeavors though and hope it works out.
As an aside, I was wondering though, since i see it mentioned a lot (online), does the 35 mm f/1.8 help ''improve'' composition or photographic skills in general?
Check out the Yongnuo 568ex.
It might do for you and is $ 102 at B & H
I have not used it, but there is an interesting review at:
http://www.martincphotography.co.uk/flash-head-head-nikon-sb-910-vs-yongnuo-568ex/
Good Luck .... H
Nikon N90s, F100, F, lots of Leica M digital and film stuff.
If you going to do the task of "Taking Wedding Photos" you should look at the requirements of the task and the results needed. Then you should look at what you produce that can fulfill the requirements. Obviously you are limited in what you can produce. If the client knows what you can produce and accepts that and is willing to pay for that work ... Then all is good. Of course the more(features/quality) you can produce the higher you can charge.
The minimum requirements would be
* You turn up. take some photos, and hand it to them.
* You did a good job. They are happy to recommend you to your next client.
I think its as simple as that. Note there is no requirement of what camera, flash, Lenses, Light difusers etc etc ....
Of course the devil is in the detail. !
1) You turn up. You must ensure that You or a backup person turns up. That is why you must ensure that you can be there or make alternative arrangements with another photographer to take over the job. AND have a second photographer with you.
2) Take some photos. You cant if your camera or lense fails. So all wedding photographers have a second or third camera( and lenses )
3) Hand it to them. Here you have to make sure your workflow is up to scratch. with backups and processes.. to ensure that You HAVE a copy to hand over in a reasonable time frame
4) You did a good job. - Here is the results of the first 3 items! AND all the pre-work you did.. Selling your service with the correct expectations.
5) They are happy! (get them to write a reference.)
You get paid ! Well .. I think many get paid first :-)
All this talk about F2.8 lenses or F1.4 primes etc is just not that important.
So my recommendation is that you should have at least 2 lenses that are capable of taking the whole event by themselves if the other fails.. and Your Flash that can bounce that is within your budget and then make sure you are able to do the pre-work and able to follow through! ( note you can take a whole wedding with only the 35mm ! )
Working with a more established Photographer was a great suggestion as once you are ready to work for yourself you have someone whom you know may be able to take over for the times you have to pull out. working in partnership with another photographer in the same position as you would be great too as they will have a camera so you have a backup person and tools.
Being a photographer is a lot like being a Christian: Some people look at you funny but do not see the amazing beauty all around them - heartyfisher.
Software can help. The inexpensive 35mm f1.8 lens is sharp. Get two people to dress in typical Indian wedding clothing. At night shoot with your SB400 or a more powerful flash. In the daytime shoot with the SB400 flash to fill the shadows. Take all the following photos in daytime and nighttime and keep them.
1. Set camera to A priority ISO 800 and shoot two people full body at f1.4, f2.0, f2.8, and f4. See which you would want to use during a wedding to get bride and groom both in focus.
2. Keep camera set to A priority and shoot the same two person full body scene a ISO 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1,600. Look at the color saturation and grain. Use the denoise feature of your post processing software. Using the software you already have see how high an ISO you can use and still be happy with the results. You will notice colors fading as you go up in ISO.
3. Once you determine your maximum ISO set your camera to that ISO and shoot the same two people again but this time switch between the various Picture Controls options your body gives you. VIVID brings the colors back up. But look at the skin. VIVID often makes the skin too red. I use Standard but have gone into the Standard sub-settings to sharpening +8, contrast +1, saturation +1. You have many Settings and sub-settings to adjust to produce just what you like.
4. Determine the minimal shutter speed you can handhold to stop both your shaking and the subject's movement. You may already know that from general photography.
5. Set camera to your preferred ISO and Picture Controls and shutter speed and take photos of your two subjects (and of one alone) standing quite some distance in front of a background. Take full lengths shots at f1.4, f2, f2.8 and f4. Take 3/4th length shots at the same f-stops. Don't go closer than waist up since a 35mm lens on DX can distort the face when shooting headshots. Crop a full body shot down to a head and shoulders portrait shot. Notice the "bokeh" at each f stop you used to find the f-stop and cropping which will give you that look. We are replacing the expensive f2.8 zoom with software. As long as we can drop the image down to half or slightly more than half and still have good quality, we are "zooming" with our software cropping feature. That 35mm f1.8 lens is very sharp. You should be able to produce sharp images which can be cropped quite a bit. "Bokeh" improves with greater distance between subject and background so you can improve "bokeh" by careful subject to background distance.
6. Get some sort of white cardboard card and on one side write daytime and on the other side write nighttime. Then write down all your preferred settings for each time of the day. Notice your camera has a U1 and U2 setting. If you are mostly going to be shooting night weddings set U1 to those preferred nighttime settings and set U2 to your preferred daytime settings.
7. Now you know what your camera and lens can do for you. You know the limitations of your equipment. Be sure to have at least one extra battery for your camera. If you can get a battery grip you can load two batteries into your camera. Look into rechargeable batteries for your flash. These are good ones. http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Advanced-Individual-Rechargeable-Batteries/dp/B00JHKSMJU/ref=dp_ob_title_ce Get your two friends together again, dress them up and have them pose in the basic positions you will be expected to quickly capture during a wedding as events unfold. Can you quickly get your camera setting set right? Can you quickly move back for forward to get the framing right? In other words can you quickly and competently do your job without interefearing with the pace of the events going on? If not, keep practicing with your friends until you can do so.
Finally, you are in a position to be able to judge accurately just what you and your equipment is competent to produce for your intended clients. Also, by the time you go through all these steps and practice many set-ups with friends you will feel more competent to offer the service you want to charge for. Finally, get two big SD cards and shoot many hundreds of images per wedding so you have plenty to select from in post processing. Set your camera to shoot RAW to one card and Large JPEG Fine to the other. Now you have both to work with in post-processing. Learn when you should use continuous high and continuous low shutter settings to blast off many photos to catch that one great expression. Learn what is most important to brides so you can please them by getting those things right for them.
Good luck! Hope these thoughts and ideas help you.
The only thing I would question would be the SD card. I use my CF card as the main card and the SD card as a backup, both with raw. I suppose a backup of JPEG would be fine if you can live with the reduced flexibility in post. I think that you could have raws and jpegs written to both cards if you really wanted to.
I learned this the hard way when I watched the photographer for my wedding drop his card. Since it was a 5D Mark II there was only one card. He had to reshoot the whole wedding.
Before Two card slots were available, I used much smaller cards (sized to about 100 frames) and swapped them more often so I would not lose everything if one failed. Now I put a 64GB card in each slot, set to backup (raw in both), and almost never need to change them in one event.
When I upload, I batch process them all to jpg (while I sleep) which gives me the same result as in-camera jpg's for quick use.
On a D810 when shooting wildlife, I set the SD slot to jpg (CF to raw) because the fastest SD card (currently 95 mbs Sandisk) is slower than the fastest CF (currently 1066X Lexar) card, and jpg writes faster. so the SD can keep up in clearing buffers.
For events that is never an issue, flash recycling is the main timing problem.
An external battery pack on an SB800-900 etc, helps with that but is a nuisance. The 800 can take a fifth battery, but never use 5 alkalines, only NiMh, since alkaline voltage is too high and will damage the flash.
.... H
Nikon N90s, F100, F, lots of Leica M digital and film stuff.
I always have two cards in the camera (though not as a backup, but to be filled in serial order) but AFAIK, d7000 takes only SD cards. I googled this as well today and some other discussions also talk to this confusion but say that it is only SD cards and not CF. I shoot some RAW but due to file size, fine JPEG most of the time (so it's good to hear that its OK to shoot jpeg).
As an aside, if i delete something from one card (if both are set to direct write for the same image), will it delete from the other as well?
Thanks for the tip about not using NiMH batteries in sb800. Also checked, panasonic eneloop are available here. I also saw the same brand 'eneloop' made by Sanyo as well, at about half the price. Do you think they are OK or is panasonic the 'original' eneloop?
Sanyo's may be older and the chemistry has a limited shelf life (5-8 years typically) .
Nikon N90s, F100, F, lots of Leica M digital and film stuff.
Also, with two cards, if you delete one, you will not delete the other. Don't bother with that until you are in post.
One more question - is the nikkor 80-200 f/2.8 a good lens for handheld shooting with D7000 for such settings (weddings / events after darkness?). They sometimes come up as used copies here. The 70-200 is more expensive even when bought used.
Have you considered a 50 1.4. They are cheap and ideal in low light, though you have to be careful with depth of field.
Flash can be used to increase the light, but tradeoffs here as well. Single gun on the camera can produce hard shadows, multiple guns and brollys/softboxes are a logistical nightmare at an event unless you have assistants.
So raising the ISO. Yes, you will get noise. You can upgrade your camera and gain a couple of stops. Trade your D7000 for a D7100 get a stop, probably $500 delta. Trade up to the D7200 get two stops, probably $800-900 delta. For $200 you can get the best NR software on the planet and get 3-4 stops. It will work with every lens and camera you will ever buy. You can trial it for 30 days, so don't take my word for it.
There is nothing wrong with the lens and camera you have. Many folks, including our own @pistnbroke have made five or six figures of cash shooting weddings with that exact combo