I need your help!

[inness]

DorkUnderwater wrote:

thanks that was very helpful. I have started to prepare. I got a package with official forms, checklists. I talk with the bride online and meeting next week,they have 100+ guest. She seems very friendly, just hope the groom isn't an bottom.

This is a lot of work! I have also found a forum online and am looking through amazon for a book too or maybe the library has one.

Thankfully I have enough time until August. I still find it tricky though doing white shots, for instance white birds, swans, and doves, sometimes have that blue vignetting, not sure how else to fix this besides lowering exposure comp.

and what is a general minimum aperture for lenses inside a church? 2.8? 1.7? would a prime work (but that might require cropping?).)

My oh my you are stubborn:lol:. if you need to ask these kind of questions I would think you have not got what it takes ( yet ), I did one for a friend once, and they are still my friendbut I wont be doing another thank you very much, go to the church in question, speak to the vicar ( priest ) ask if you can take some photos when there are nobody there at the same time of day as the wedding if you can, that will tell you before hand if you have the right kind of lens, take a couple of mates and shoot some frames, good luck you will need it

Bob

[algold]

DorkUnderwater ,

could you, please, show some examples of your work? I'm really curious. It's a long time till August, but you're asking too many very basic technical questions.

Good luck,

Alex

[GoCubs]

DorkUnderwater wrote:

sometimes have that blue vignetting, not sure how else to fix this besides lowering exposure comp.

Actually I believe you should be doing the exact opposite and overexposing those subjects by 1/3 to as much as a full stop.

[eric s]

GoCubs is correct.
Your camera will try to turn things neutral grey. If it's too dark it lightens it, if it's too light it darkens it. This is an absolute... all camera metering systems will do this.

The only question is how it decides how "light" or "dark" it is. That is why you can change the metering mode. I don't know the camera you have, so I can't be specific. But Canon cameras have 3 metering modes.

One mode is where it only uses the very center of the image to sample the light and decide how to set the exposure.

The 2nd mode uses the entire image, but considers the center of the image more important ("gives it more weight" in the calculations.)

The 3rd mode just considers all of the image evenly.

So if you have a very bright white object (say a wedding gown) standing in front of a brown wooden building you will get in each mode (roughly):
1 - An under exposed image. It will try to make the dress grey, so it will give it too little light making the white into a gray.
2 - Maybe a properly exposed image... maybe not. Depends on how bright the white is, and how dark the wood is.
3 - Probably an over exposed image. The dark wooden background will probably dominate the image and it *might* try to lighten it so the background is nearer to grey and therefor the white dress is blown out with little detail.

Some cameras are better than others at picking exposure. You need to learn how your camera will behave in different modes and then learn how to use exposure compensation to correct them when they will get it wrong.

Absolutely go to where the ceremony will be held and talk to the person in charge. Learn if you can use a flash. Learn where people will stand. Learn what the light will (hopefully) be like. Learn where people will be when. If you want good results, you *have* to do this type of thing.

This is why I keep saying "wedding photography is HARD". It isn't just about taking the picture. It is also about being ready and prepared TO TAKE the picture.

Get a friend to dress in a black shirt. Stand them next to a person wearing a white shirt. Practice taking pictures of them and look at your results. Use exposure bracketing to see what the different settings produce. Study and Learn from the pictures.

Eric

[DorkUnderwater]

well heres my better work : http://argofoto.zoto.com/galleries . haven't updated it in a while so a car show for friends that i did and a classroom shoot for a professor (he's makin a brochure for the college) aren't in there. i'm basically going to practice but these people have their 2nd wedding they just said and so want more candid shots, a few traditional but not many.

[invaderzim]

Like you, I am a budding amatuer and was asked to take the wedding photos for one of my wife's friends. I checked out enough forums to realize that jumping in was NOT a good idea. I took all of my equipment however and dida complimentary wedding shoot at their wedding. They like the photos better than the pro and that did my ego well.

however, i need to figure out how the heck you do the prints... send them out? and to who? or do you print them out yourself?

any help is welcome as i am really getting into this big time

thanks

[eric s]

Believe it or not, Costco, Walmart (and probalby some other big stores like that) have some fairly good printing equipment and the price is cheap.

The problem with them is that you are more dependent on the skills of the (probably untrained) staff than you might like. Some might do a good job on one day, and then you'll get bad pictures the next when a new person runs the machine.

I would definitely do some simple test prints with them and look at what you get. I know some people (Pros even) that swear by those places. And others get horrible results. I think its much more store and employee dependent than you might think.

Eric

[invaderzim]

thanks Eric.... i have just printed some pretty decent pictures (4X6) from the wedding I mirrored with a pro. now the problem that i am having is that the crops... or size .. some of the pictures wont allow the "shot" I took... does that make sense? some of the area i need in the picture is not there.. after cropping,,



sigh

[MrPogo]

There are two main options: use a print size that matches the ratio of the images (probably 8x6), or add borders to the relevant side(s) of the image and cut them off once the photo is printed.

[Wirraway]

Dorkunderwater

Well I just looked at your site and viewed the wedding photos, If those people paid you $500 for that effort they are crazy, heads cut off, under exposure and dire composition makes for the unadulterated mess this finished up as.

Lets hope that some relation with a point and shoot was there as it could not be any worse than this.