Exposing for a wedding dress - Tips needed

Dman

Dman

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Right, a familiar story here, my good friend is getting married in June and aren't bothering with an official tog as they're on a strict budget. I've offered to take some shots in and outside the church as a favour (I'm also the best man, so this should be interesting!).

Anyway, they know I haven't done a wedding before so the pressure is off, but I'd love to do a good job for them. Assuming the bride wears a white dress (It's going to be white or cream), I'm concerned about blowing the highlights if it's a sunny day. I'm reading a whole host of different things on the net, some say dial in -EV compensation, some say +EV.

I seem to recall Guy (I think) saying he meters for the dress and overexposes by around 1 2/3 stops (or something similar to that). Is that right? Would this be the same if it's overcast on the day? And what about in the church? Would all this change if she goes for a cream dress? I don't like using flash so will be using the available light, I just need to make sure I'm aware of any differences between being in the church and being outside.

I know how these threads usually go, so I'd appreciate it if we could stick to the questions raised and not turn it into a typical TP wedding thread.

Thanks.
 
The white dress will make the camera "think" it is measuring more light than it actually is so you normally over expose by one to three (lots of dress) stops depending upon how much white is in the shot (in my experience), to compensate for this.
It will indeed be similar on overcast days though less of a problem to a degree as the scene contrast will be alot less

I normally use an incident reading (light failing on subject as opposed to light relfecting off subject) to get it spot on.

You have fast lenses at your disposal so available light shots with the ISO bumped up inside should do the trick. If i was you I'd use fill in flash outside even if it's with your pop up unit, I know some people poo poo this but it gives good results if you lower the flash output level by a stop.

One more thing - Good luck with the speech :)
 
Thanks for that. I do have a light meter (Sekonic L-408) but have only ever used this under studio lighting and have no idea how it works outside with natural light. Likewise with flash, I'm only used to using flash heads indoors, I have an SB-400 but have hardly ever used it, I've never managed to master it for use outdoors.

Forgot to say, I'm also hiring a 70-200 2.8 for the day, which I'll be using in the church.
 
why would you offer if you don't know how to do the job - is that fair to the couple? Serious question.
 
D-man, don't worry about it. Yes, a bright, white dress will fool the camera into underexposing in most instances but it's no different to any other situation where there's a bright object playing centre stage.

If you're shooting studio-esque (with lights or where you have shedloads of control over time etc) then a light meter is a good idea but when you're shooting quickly it's just not ideal; use intuition, bracket (if you van) and just get to read your camera and what it's thinking.

The hardest part about weddings is the timing and organisation; pressing the shutter is the easy bit....
 
awp said:
why would you offer if you don't know how to do the job - is that fair to the couple? Serious question.
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Read my original post again. I know you always feel the need to be negative on these threads, but I've clearly asked for people to stick to the questions raised. If you can't do that, kindly leave this thread alone.

Thanks
 
specialman said:
D-man, don't worry about it. Yes, a bright, white dress will fool the camera into underexposing in most instances but it's no different to any other situation where there's a bright object playing centre stage.

If you're shooting studio-esque (with lights or where you have shedloads of control over time etc) then a light meter is a good idea but when you're shooting quickly it's just not ideal; use intuition, bracket (if you van) and just get to read your camera and what it's thinking.

The hardest part about weddings is the timing and organisation; pressing the shutter is the easy bit....
Click to expand...

Thanks, had considered the bracketing route to give me added security. As we're only talking a few shots inside and outside I won't need to buy extra cards, so this is probably the sensible approach.
 
ok - just don't bury your head in the sand. good luck!
 
I don't mean to be pessimistic as I hope it goes well BUT I've been best man a couple of times and I've shot a few weddings and I really don't think the two mix very well.

You could be better off teaching someone some basic composition and giving them your camera, I've found shooting RAW and (depending on situation) using -ve exposure comp gives more than enough room to work with for getting back detail in dresses. Fill in flash can be nice but if it's a bright day you need to think about the max shutter sync, especially as the D90's native ISO level is ISO200.

If you must do both, I would concentrate on only doing one thing at a time, I think it's better to do one job well than two jobs half baked.

Good luck :)
 
It's a very relaxed affair, although a church gig it's low key and my duties as best man aren't what they would normally be. This couple went down the whole house/kids route and are now at the stage where they just thought they'd get married as they've been together for so long. Their son is presenting the rings so I'm not needed for that. It's just an hour of photo's, the bride arriving, the walking down the aisle/ceremony and the group shots afterI'm doing.

To be honest, I'm looking forward to it. The pressure's off and it's a chance to get some experience that I wouldn't usually be able to get and help my best mate out at the same time. I just wanted to clear up about the dress thing, which I think I'm now pretty clear on.

How do you get on with weddings on the D90?
 
The D90's a new acquisition, I used a D60 for my first 'proper' gig (they are very good friends but they didn't have any other 'togs so I had to do the whole groups/ordering people around/running up and down stairs type thing) and it was perfectly fine, better ISO performance would have been nice for the evening but the 35mm f1.8 helped (a nifty fifty would be a good addition to your kit list if you don't have one). Also, the venue (Marwell Zoo!) was good as it had low ceilings I could bounce the flash off.

I have since helped out at a wedding with the D90, doing the afternoon/evening shots as the pro tog was only commissioned for the day, I really appreciated the better AF system and ISO performance. This should help you too as in a church you probably won't be using a flash (and you'll have nothing to bounce off anyway).

Also, the metering in the D90 is great and I would be perfectly happy to allow the camera to think for me (with the headroom of RAW) in all but the trickiest situations. So, I would probably set it for Auto ISO up to 1600 (with minimum shutter speed the same as the max length of the lens), exp comp to -0.3 or -0.7 (thinking of the dress), aperture priority or program and using bounce flash where possible (the SB400 is fine for this).

Having the camera set like this will allow you to enjoy the day and think of the photos, not working the camera.
 
I went from a D60 to a D90, the ISO performance is so much better on the D90. I have the 50 1.4 and a 30 1.4 as well as a 28-75 2.8, so along with the 70-200 2.8 I'm hiring I'm confident I've enough to work with within the church.

Cheers for the input.
 
Hi, you all seem to be missing the point ! a white dress does not fool the meter into anything.
Light meters are set to measure at an 18 percent grey - if you meter white and do by the meter it will be grey - if you meter black and go by the meter it will be grey.
you need to understand how the meter works,if you want white to be white add about a stop,if you want black to be black under expose by about a stop and a half.
The trick is to get a woman in a white dress and a man in a black suit and get them both right without having to mess around in photoshop ! !
 
Tom King, thanks for the egg-sucking tips ;) :thumbs:

I know what you mean but in reality adding a set amount here and there isn't always the best option whatever you're shooting; it's totally dependant on the reflective light levels in the scene and what else is around the subject (in this case a wedding dress), be it something dark like a black suit or something highly reflective like another another white dress. You have to adjust accordingly :)
 
i would agree with the dialing in of +/- ev depending on what you think is needed at the time. You know the couple better than anyone, and i am sure you have made them aware of what to expect, if you beat that, and deliver a good speech, you will be loved forever.

If you dont, then only you will know if she will understand. Can you try to get to the church at a similar time of day to do a few test shots first, just to give you a rough idea of what you are playing with?

Good luck mate.
 
Leeb said:
i would agree with the dialing in of +/- ev depending on what you think is needed at the time. You know the couple better than anyone, and i am sure you have made them aware of what to expect, if you beat that, and deliver a good speech, you will be loved forever.

If you dont, then only you will know if she will understand. Can you try to get to the church at a similar time of day to do a few test shots first, just to give you a rough idea of what you are playing with?

Good luck mate.
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Yeah, they both fully understand what to expect. I offered, saying I'd quite like to have a crack to see what I can do at a wedding, I'm actually really confident in doing a good job, it's just that I've read many different things regarding the dress. As I said if it's not me, it's not anyone as they're not budgeting to include a tog.

I'm going to the church the weekend before at the same time to test the lighting and get an idea of where to position the groups after. It's a 3pm wedding so at least not being shot in the midday sun.

I may even have my D700 by then :D
 
To get the correct colour in the dress, use a grey card (or a white card, either will work). If your camera can set a custom white balance then it's easy to do before the shots so that all subsequent shots will be corrected in-camera.
Remember to re-do the white balance every time the lighting changes.

If you don't want to set a custom white balance on the day, just take a pic of the white/grey card at an opportune time in each lighting location and you can correct them later in photoshop, it's easy to do.

Using a grey/white card will allow you to have the same correct colour dress in all your photos. :)
 
User Name said:
To get the correct colour in the dress, use a grey card (or a white card, either will work). If your camera can set a custom white balance then it's easy to do before the shots so that all subsequent shots will be corrected in-camera.
Remember to re-do the white balance every time the lighting changes.

If you don't want to set a custom white balance on the day, just take a pic of the white/grey card at an opportune time in each lighting location and you can correct them later in photoshop, it's easy to do.

Using a grey/white card will allow you to have the same correct colour dress in all your photos. :)
Click to expand...

I've got a lastolite grey card that I use for studio stuff, so doing a custom reading isn't a problem for me.

Cheers
 
Dave, I did my first wedding as a main tog on Saturday in much the same circumstances. It is a good idea to do as you are doing and research to the nth degree so good on you and good luck. It might be worth using bracketing for the important shots so giving you that little bit of scope should something go wrong with your calculations. Worked for me as the day was the brightest sunniest day and it was horrible for the light.
 
I normally just shoot and see, the dress is hung there, static so you take a look on the screen and adjust your settings to compensate.

This shot comes out practically like it out of the camera, bar tiny bit of rotating and crop.

Sometimes it doesn't NEED to be white.

img77961.jpg


more traditional kind of shot.

image3124.jpg
 
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