Hats off to wedding photographers!

gramps

gramps

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Had a family wedding at the weekend ... eldest grand-daughter, and a great occasion but I was asked to take a photographic record of the event in addition to the pro photographer who was hired to do the main shoot, (we agreed in advance how I could 'work' in order not to make a nuisance of myself).

The initial results of my efforts needed quite a bit of work, (colour casts due to mixed lighting etc) ... and though appreciated by family and friends, I'm going to be working on them quite a bit more before I'm happy :D

Now how do the real pros end up with such fantastic continuity of image colour and quality despite the variations in lighting and other conditions they must face? Obviously practice and experience but what are the key elements?
 
There are many elements gramps with the first being to get as much right in camera as possible when taking the shots. I tend to expose to the right and 'pull back' in PP as this helps to reduce noise particularly with poorly lit churches. As to differing lighting there is not a lot that can be done about it as I have shot at venues that have had four different light sources all at varying temperatures, I use Auto WB for the majority of my shots and then correct the RAW files in LR so the skin tones are correct/pleasing to the eye. There are times when I use gels and specific WB for B&G portraits e.g. full CTO gel with Tungsten WB or 1/2 CTB gel with manual WB set to around 7.5-8k.

For me the key is processing the images consistently, as an example I often use off camera flash for the speeches (camera and flash in manual) and set the WB to flash. I have found when coming to process the shots that this gives quite a cool effect so I set the WB in PP on the first shot and synch the rest of that 'batch' to match. Hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs btw! ;)
 
Hacker said:
There are many elements gramps with the first being to get as much right in camera as possible when taking the shots. I tend to expose to the right and 'pull back' in PP as this helps to reduce noise particularly with poorly lit churches. As to differing lighting there is not a lot that can be done about it as I have shot at venues that have had four different light sources all at varying temperatures, I use Auto WB for the majority of my shots and then correct the RAW files in LR so the skin tones are correct/pleasing to the eye. There are times when I use gels and specific WB for B&G portraits e.g. full CTO gel with Tungsten WB or 1/2 CTB gel with manual WB set to around 7.5-8k.

For me the key is processing the images consistently, as an example I often use off camera flash for the speeches (camera and flash in manual) and set the WB to flash. I have found when coming to process the shots that this gives quite a cool effect so I set the WB in PP on the first shot and synch the rest of that 'batch' to match. Hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs btw! ;)
Click to expand...

Same here - red walls, brown ceiling, yellow and orange lights. There's just nothing you can do in those situations other than correct after the event.

Just a quick question about using off camera flash for the speeches... where are you putting your flash / flashes and are you using any modifiers? It's something I've been considering recently and would love some advice :)
 
Same for me - just a whole lot of tweaking in PP to get a consistent finished colour and tone range. And it's not just the lighting conditions....I could get two different shots at the same time from two different lenses, so it's another thing to think about.
 
Hacker said:
There are many elements gramps with the first being to get as much right in camera as possible when taking the shots. I tend to expose to the right and 'pull back' in PP as this helps to reduce noise particularly with poorly lit churches. As to differing lighting there is not a lot that can be done about it as I have shot at venues that have had four different light sources all at varying temperatures, I use Auto WB for the majority of my shots and then correct the RAW files in LR so the skin tones are correct/pleasing to the eye. There are times when I use gels and specific WB for B&G portraits e.g. full CTO gel with Tungsten WB or 1/2 CTB gel with manual WB set to around 7.5-8k.

For me the key is processing the images consistently, as an example I often use off camera flash for the speeches (camera and flash in manual) and set the WB to flash. I have found when coming to process the shots that this gives quite a cool effect so I set the WB in PP on the first shot and synch the rest of that 'batch' to match. Hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs btw! ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks Colin, definitely not teaching me to suck eggs!
When I took them off of the card and onto the PC I felt pretty anxious about getting much worth using but after a lot of work in CS5, particularly with WB, I think I have a set worth the family's trust!
I'm not sure I could face it every weekend though :)


alanmossdan said:
Same for me - just a whole lot of tweaking in PP to get a consistent finished colour and tone range. And it's not just the lighting conditions....I could get two different shots at the same time from two different lenses, so it's another thing to think about.
Click to expand...

Yes, I noticed not only differences in colour balance with lens changes but also with the same camera/lens but different angles.
My main hassle in not being the organising tog was of being at the wrong angle and/or having people/fixtures etc in the wrong place for the photo (architrave out of head etc :( ).
 
ajax_andy said:
Same here - red walls, brown ceiling, yellow and orange lights. There's just nothing you can do in those situations other than correct after the event.

Just a quick question about using off camera flash for the speeches... where are you putting your flash / flashes and are you using any modifiers? It's something I've been considering recently and would love some advice :)
Click to expand...

Hi Andy, I use two Manfrotto Nano stands which are quite light and compact, both flashes have Demb Flip-its on to bounce/diffuse the light. I try and get the lights about 45 degrees to the couple (one each side) and keep the ambient light up where ever possible,

Hope this helps.
 
Hacker said:
Hi Andy, I use two Manfrotto Nano stands which are quite light and compact, both flashes have Demb Flip-its on to bounce/diffuse the light. I try and get the lights about 45 degrees to the couple (one each side) and keep the ambient light up where ever possible,

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

yes helps a lot thank you... I just actually ordered a Flip It this afternoon weirdly!

So are the flashes kind of in line with either on of the top table? I'm just concious of trying not to put them in front of any of the guests tables and blocking their view at all?
 
gramps said:
Had a family wedding at the weekend ... eldest grand-daughter, and a great occasion but I was asked to take a photographic record of the event in addition to the pro photographer who was hired to do the main shoot, (we agreed in advance how I could 'work' in order not to make a nuisance of myself).

The initial results of my efforts needed quite a bit of work, (colour casts due to mixed lighting etc) ... and though appreciated by family and friends, I'm going to be working on them quite a bit more before I'm happy :D

Now how do the real pros end up with such fantastic continuity of image colour and quality despite the variations in lighting and other conditions they must face? Obviously practice and experience but what are the key elements?
Click to expand...
You have to be fairly good at nearly anything photography, without thinking. Once you have that covered of, you need to stop and look at what is going on, and be able to consistently make good choices in your approach. I suppose this comes down to experience.

Gelling flashes, thinking about PP whilst shooting, avoiding noise, finding good light, all help
 
Daryl said:
Turn the image into Black and White like most togs do.
Click to expand...

It's surprising how many people do this... ok the odd pic where you can't get it quite right no matter how hard you try is something most of us use this 'technique', but I've seen weddings where 90% - 100% were all in B&W because the tog just clearly had no idea how to fix colour casts.

One of the things I taught myself early on was to 'see colour', which might sound like an odd thing to have to teach yourself as we all see colour... but to be able to look at an image and think "too much yellow, a bit too much orange, and tiny bit too much red' takes a lot of learning IMO
 
gramps said:
..

Now how do the real pros end up with such fantastic continuity of image colour and quality despite the variations in lighting and other conditions they must face? Obviously practice and experience but what are the key elements?
Click to expand...
I don't think I end up with anything 'fantastic' but here's my tips:
(this depends on good technique for exposure)
It's the old 'elephant burger' We don't have 1200 photo's to correct - we have maybe 10 or 12 lighting 'situations' to balance. SO pick a shot from the bridal prep room, try click white balance - tune if necessary - save. Then copy those settings to all the other prep shots. Do this for all the parts of the day prior to even doing your selections.

Then it's simple to open the odd shot and correct minor exposure, do shadows and highlights and if they don't look sharp I'll check the sharpen slider to see if they're OK (all sharpening is done in PS). I then do the selection and batch to JPEG.

All the above is probably easier in LR - because I tend to do further editing in PS that some would do as a batch in LR - but I do like top open every delivered image in PS and run through a few things.
 
Daryl said:
Turn the image into Black and White like most togs do.
Click to expand...

Nearly all my stuff gets delivered in colour and B&W but i never don't deliver a colour image because I can't make it look good in colour.
 
Hacker said:
Hi Andy, I use two Manfrotto Nano stands which are quite light and compact, both flashes have Demb Flip-its on to bounce/diffuse the light. I try and get the lights about 45 degrees to the couple (one each side) and keep the ambient light up where ever possible,

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Which Demb's do you use Colin ?
 
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