Wedding photographer?

Lesco

Lesco

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Tony
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While I was at my daughters wedding over the weekend I was chatting with the official photographer about this and that, and he was a very helpful guy and answered all my questions whilst he had a moment in-between shots.

I noticed that every time he took a photo, afterwards he pointed the camera at the ground and clicked one off for some reason, why is that?? I've never noticed that before?? is this some trick of the trade?? or is there a bigger reason for this??

thanks in advance for any help and advice....
 
Are you sure he wasn't just 'chimping' the back of the camera?
 
There's a photographer near me that does this all the time. He shoots events for the newspaper. I've seen him many times aim at the floor and then recomposing on the people he's shooting. A flash exposure trick? I don't know ... but it looks odd when he does it constantly.
 
exposure lock on a midtone floor maybe, sounds a bit strange though...
 
one of life's mysteries by the sounds of it LOL..
 
Odd behaviour if he was actually taking a shot of the ground, but it's not uncommon to meter off green grass etc. for a neutral tone.
 
When taking photos for work I will often take a photograph of the sky/floor etc, so when I look back at them I know I had moved from one area to another.

example: Did a some photographs of a 15 new build warehouses the other week all looked the same, for what I was photographing. The shot of the sky/ceiling told me I had moved from one building to the next.
 
jpw said:
Odd behaviour if he was actually taking a shot of the ground, but it's not uncommon to meter off green grass etc. for a neutral tone.
Click to expand...

Maybe to use for white balance reference later on? Not sure if it would help or not.
 
A friend is a pro and she does this all the time, but I've only seen her do it with flash to adjust the flash exposure. I'll ask her next time I see her, I've never thought to ask.
 
i often refocus to check its working all ok by doing something similar.
 
This is normally metering to find a mid-tone (Grey) so not to under or over expose the shot to much....Bride and Groom are dark and Light next to each other and can cause under or over exposing the subjects...try it out....get a White/Black & Grey object...set to spot metering and meter on the White then take a shot, then meter on the Black object and take a shot, meter on the a grey object then take the shot. (make sure each shot have all 3 object in the photo so you can see the camera over/under expose the objects until you meter the grey...

Post your results....

Dan.
 
I would also suggest to set metering/wb or similar, but seems odd to do it between every shot...mind you, I often takes lots of pictures of the floor.... usually because I have dropped one camer down to my side on the rapid strap, picked up the other, the 1st one is still turned on and grips shutter button hits my leg :lol:
 
It might be he's metering off a medium tone, or he might be shooting a blank frame, I used to do this as a press photographer to devide jobs on a roll of film (if it was a just a few pics) the other more lightly options is he's looking at the histogram or the image on the cameras screen.
 
Maybe they had OCD?
 
Daryl said:
Grass can be used as a grey card.
Click to expand...

Many years ago when taking pics I would use the back of my hand and take a reading from that using my light meter.

I had already "normalised" my pics using this method and knew that with about 1/2 stop underexposure I would get perfect results at weddings etc.

Much easier than carrying a grey card etc.

.
 
He could be doing any of the things suggested above, but my guess is also that it's a mid-tone exposure check. I've only seen sports photographers doing it, but it works for anyone and is a very accurate way of maintaining correct exposure in changing light, eg clouds. It's basically the same as taking an incident reading, but should be even more accurate off the histogram.

Basically, you first set correct exposure, by whatever means. Then with those settings, shoot a constant mid-tone that is always going to be available, fills a large area of the frame, and is in the same light as the subject. That's usually grass or tarmac or a wall or something, but gravel would be fine.

Then with this test shot, note the position of the histogram. Reference a distinct peak, and see exactly where it sits. Then if the light changes, take another shot of the grass/gravel/tarmac and if necessary adjust exposure so that the reference peak is back where it was before. Perfect exposure restored :thumbs: The peak doesn't have to be in the middle, can be anywhere, but around the middle or to the right a bit will be most accurate.

On the other hand, I think a lot of photographers just take a shot of the ground to separate groups of images, as mentioned above. I've certainly got more pictures of my feet than any other subject LOL

Edit: you don't have to take a picture to make this check, unless you want to check the histogram exactly. After you've set correct exposure, just point the camera at your reference tone grass/wall etc, and note what the exposure meter reads. Using spot mode is good for this, and say it reads +0.3 in the viewfinder. The when the light changes, go back to that reference tone and adjust exposure so it reads +0.3 again.
 
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The only time I've see people do that and have done it myself is between similar events (e.g. 300m, 500m Speed skating race) at a sporting event so that they can distinguish between them.
 
Did he definitely fire off a shot or half press and press AE lock button to fix exposure?
 
Sounds like a mid-tone check to me.

I used to do it, and then AE-lock the exposure for the actual frame - but moved on to shooting most of my groups in manual exposure having shot one and got it right by checking the histogram and making an appropriate manual setting from that.
 
HoppyUK said:
He could be doing any of the things suggested above, but my guess is also that it's a mid-tone exposure check. I've only seen sports photographers doing it, but it works for anyone and is a very accurate way of maintaining correct exposure in changing light, eg clouds. It's basically the same as taking an incident reading, but should be even more accurate off the histogram.

Basically, you first set correct exposure, by whatever means. Then with those settings, shoot a constant mid-tone that is always going to be available, fills a large area of the frame, and is in the same light as the subject. That's usually grass or tarmac or a wall or something, but gravel would be fine.

Then with this test shot, note the position of the histogram. Reference a distinct peak, and see exactly where it sits. Then if the light changes, take another shot of the grass/gravel/tarmac and if necessary adjust exposure so that the reference peak is back where it was before. Perfect exposure restored :thumbs: The peak doesn't have to be in the middle, can be anywhere, but around the middle or to the right a bit will be most accurate.

On the other hand, I think a lot of photographers just take a shot of the ground to separate groups of images, as mentioned above. I've certainly got more pictures of my feet than any other subject LOL

Edit: you don't have to take a picture to make this check, unless you want to check the histogram exactly. After you've set correct exposure, just point the camera at your reference tone grass/wall etc, and note what the exposure meter reads. Using spot mode is good for this, and say it reads +0.3 in the viewfinder. The when the light changes, go back to that reference tone and adjust exposure so it reads +0.3 again.
Click to expand...

I do this if the light is continually changing at the rugby games I cover, especially on a windy cloudy days when the sun is sometimes behind the clouds and sometimes not. I take a meter reading of the grass and shoot a frame. I then look at the histogram and look at the image on the rear screen, If it needs some compensation i note the compensation. If I notice the light changing, I take another reading from the grass and automatically apply the compensation. then carry on shooting.
 
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