Kent Wedding Photographer - Personal Skills

For further photography-related information check out my compendium of tips.

I had another great question from George Bain this week (keep 'em coming George - you're a good source of inspiration for blog posts!):

David,

What are your tips for relaxing your subjects for a shoot? You are regularly praised for this ability - do you slip something in their drinks? :)

George

Hi George,

I'm incredibly charming, charismatic and witty (modest, also) which helps. ;-)

People skills are diffcult to teach but are absolutely essential to success as a wedding photographer. Reputations are readily tarnished.

Some thoughts connected to your question:

1. You really need to like being with people. If you're not naturally gregarious and prefer the solitude of landscape photography then shooting weddings may not be for you.

2. Although this sounds obvious, don't forget how important the day is to your clients. It's easy to become blase when you do a wedding every weekend.

3. Leave your ego and attitude behind. Don't be a prima donna.

4. You need to adapt your interactions to the client. Some are incredibly chummy, others more distant in their dealings with you. Establishing a good rapport and trust is crucial though.

5. People usually look terrific. Tell them! Also, show them how good they look in the photos. Let them see a few shots on your digital camera's LCD. People are generally surprised at how good they look when their picture is taken by a good photographer with top quality kit.

5. Make people laugh. A bit of witty banter generally helps but, again, you need to judge your clients carefully.

6. You should also be helpful and efficient in your pre- and post-wedding interactions.

Yours,

David

There's an old adage in business: if you do a good job your customers may tell 4 of their friends, if you do a bad job they'll tell 30 of their friends!

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photography in Kent

Time of sunset by UK postcode

For further photography-related information check out my compendium of tips.

I found this incredibly useful web-based sunset calculator the other day which allows you to determine the time of sunset based upon UK postcodes - much more convenient than other calculators which use latitude and longitude! This is very useful information for a wedding photographer and allows you to help the bride and groom plan their itinerary for the day, such as an appropriate time for group photos to take place.

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photographer

Wedding Photographer Kent - High ISOs

For further photography-related information check out my compendium of tips.

I had some great questions from a reader yesterday:

Hi David,

I'm intrigued by your use of high ISOs in a lot of the photos on your weddings page. I have an intense dislike of flash (I don't actually own one, I much rather use primes with small apertures) , but am shooting several weddings for the first time this summer. Several of your shots are even 3200 ISO, which presumably means very high noise on prints. Do you use a noise reduction program when you post-process? And is there a particular reason you shoot up to 3200 ISO, as I have had several people claiming I shouldn't really shoot over 800 when I do the weddings in the summer?

Thanks for your great blog by the way.

Regards

Charlie

Hi Charlie,

Light levels tend to be very low at wedding receptions. I set the ISO at a level that will allow me to shoot at a range of apertures and keep the shutter speed at around 1/100s (people tend to be quite animated at weddings!) - this ISO level changes as I move from room to room. If I shoot extremely wide for a few shots (I use the 35mm f/1.4 L and 85mm f/1.2 L primes a lot) I could drop the ISO for these but I tend to keep it constant for the sake of speed.

I shoot RAW, process in Lightroom and use NeatImage (incredible program) to clean up digital noise. I can print these shots at A3 and above - they look great.

95% of my shots use flash - check out the catchlights in people's eyes. I absolutely LOVE flash (provided it's done well!). It adds another dimension to photography. It is difficult to master though - you need to juggle two exposures at the same time, get to grips with flash gels to alter the colour temperature of the light etc. But it's well worth it.

It's all about the quality of the light. You might be able to expose correctly for ambient light with wide apertures but if the quality of light is poor there's little point. Once you master flash you ALWAYS have good light with you - absolutely liberating.

Yours,

David

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer at The Bell Hotel, Sandwich

1/125, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 0 EV, -1 FEC, 29mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/160, f/3.2, ISO 3200, 0 EV, -2/3 FEC, 16mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/160, f/3.5, ISO 3200, 0 EV, -2/3 FEC, 16mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/160, f/3.5, ISO 3200, 0 EV, -1 FEC, 16mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/320, f/4, ISO 1600, 0 EV, -1 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/160, f/5.0, ISO 1600, 0 EV, +1 FEC, 22mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/250, f/1.4, ISO 1600, +1/3 EV, -1 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/400, f/1.4, ISO 1600, 0 EV, -2/3 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/80, f/3.5, ISO 3200, 0 EV, -2/3 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/125, f/2.8, ISO 3200, +2/3 EV, -1 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/100, f/2.8, ISO 3200, 0 EV, -1 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/125, f/1.4, ISO 1600, +1/3 EV, -1 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/125, f/1.4, ISO 1600, 0 EV, -1 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/100, f/1.4, ISO 3200, -2/3 EV, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

Here's the second installment of Tracy and Paul's wedding photos, set at The Bell Hotel, Sandwich - check out the full wedding gallery.

The usual rules applied - ISO at 1600 or 3200, full colour temperature orange gel on the flash inside, flash exposure compensation for close portrait work. The Bell Hotel unfortunately has many rooms with both tungsten and fluorescent lighting so the green-magenta tint slider got a good workout in Lightroom!

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer in Action

I wasn't the only photographer at work on the jetty at Broadstairs on Saturday. Another couple of fellow enthusiasts were out, and one of them, Theodore, sent on the shot above of me 'in action' - see more of his work at Fyodor Wed Fotografi.

Take note of my braced action stance!

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Wedding Photographer in Broadstairs, Kent

1/160, f/2.8, ISO 800, 0 EV, 24mm (24-70mm f/2.8 L)

1/80, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 0 EV, -1 FEC, 70mm (24-70mm f/2.8 L)

1/250, f/1.4, ISO 800, +2/3 EV, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/100, f/5.6, ISO 640, +2/3 EV, +1 FEC, 16mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/100, f/2.8, ISO 1600, -1/3 EV, 70mm (70-200mm f/2.8 L IS)

1/100, f/2.8, ISO 160, +1/3 EV, 0 FEC, 35mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/125, f/5.6, ISO 640, -1/3 EV, 22mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/800, f/4, ISO 320, +1/3 EV, 0 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/320, f/4, ISO 200, +2/3 EV, +1 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/3200, f/2.5, ISO 200, -2/3 EV, 0 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/8000, f/1.4, ISO 200, -1 EV, +1/3 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

1/1000, f/2.8, ISO 200, +2/3 EV, 70mm (70-200mm f/2.8 L IS)

1/125, f/5, ISO 200, +1/3 EV, 70mm (70-200mm f/2.8 L IS)

1/250, f/6.3, ISO 200, -1/3 EV, 15mm (15mm f/2.8 Fisheye)

1/400, f/6.3, ISO 200, 0 EV, 15mm (15mm f/2.8 Fisheye)

I had the pleasure of photographing Tracy and Paul's wedding at the Holy Trinity Church, Broadstairs and The Bell Hotel, Sandwich on Saturday. I've finished processing all the shots from Broadstairs so thought I'd publish a selection on the blog today. The wedding gallery will be published online in a day or two.

The light and the sky were both magnificent on Saturday, probably the best I've seen this year. The Church was also reasonably well-lit - I didn't have to use ISO 3200 for once. The downside was the Arctic conditions - it was absolutely freezing! Tracy and Paul chose to have some portraits and group shots on the jetty. Combined with the wind chill factor down by the seafront I'd have estimated the temperature was below freezing. Tracy lasted for about 40 minutes wearing just her wedding dress in these conditions and didn't complain once - very impressive. For their honeymoon they've gone off for 2 months to climb mountains all round the world - these are tough people!

I had great fun balancing the ambient and flash light for the portrait shots. Check out the exposure and flash compensation figures. I've had a few queries regarding tips on this technique - I'll publish a post on flash exposure compensation very soon.

Thanks to Charlie the surfer for joining us for a few shots. This could be the beginnings of a new movement in wedding photography!

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer in Broadstairs

1/200, f/11, ISO 200, 0 EV, 16mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/500, f/11, ISO 200, 0 EV, 16mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/125, f/11, ISO 200, 0 EV, 35mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

1/1000, f/2.8, ISO 100, +2/3 EV, 200mm (70-200mm f/2.8 L IS)

1/320, f/8, ISO 100, 0 then -2 & +2 EV, 16mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

I shot a wedding in Broadstairs and Sandwich yesterday - I'll post a selection of photos in a few days. In the meantime I've posted a few images from Broadstairs beach that I shot before the wedding started. The light and sky were wonderful but it was unbelievably cold. One of the surfers told me that the sea was a tolerable 12 degrees Celsius - it was just the walk out that was painful!

The bottom of the 5 images is an HDR shot and was processed using Photomatix Pro.

Check out more of my photography here: Kent wedding photographer

Wedding Photographer in Kent - Wedding Album

I've just finished Kim and Chris' wedding album - a selection of pages are shown above. I always like to receive the clients' approval before uploading to the printer in the US - have a look at the electronic proofs that I sent them.

Check out more of my photography here: Kent wedding photographer

Kent Wedding Photographer - Cloning in Photoshop

For further photography-related information check out my compendium of tips.

I'm just putting an album together for Kim and Chris whose wedding I shot recently - check out their gallery.

I let clients decide which photos should be included in their albums and Kim and Chris chose the above shot of one of their ushers at the Church gates - unfortunately, it also features a pair of traffic cones! I normally try and physically remove any distractions before taking a shot but it was raining hard and there was no dry spot to rest my camera. I decided to take the shot anyway and then clone out the offenders in Photoshop in post-production.

The clone stamp tool in Photoshop is incredibly powerful but very easy to use. Sample pixels by clicking on your image with the alt-key pressed and then click and paint these samples into a new spot on the image. If you tick 'aligned' in the toolbar it fixes the spatial relationship established between the sample point and first painting point for all future painting actions. If 'aligned' is not ticked the cursor returns to the original sample point for all future painting actions. If you put 'caps lock' on the cursor changes to a crosshair, which allows for more accurate painting. I tend to keep the brush very soft unless I have to clone up to an edge. The trick to good cloning is frequent sampling. If the image has very distinctive areas, try to avoid cloning them repeatedly as the resulting patterns tend to be easily noticed.

It would be great if Adobe Lightroom had this functionality - the current clone and heal tool is very limited.

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Wedding Photographer in Kent - Quotes

If you're a potential wedding client looking for a quote the information I require is:

1. Your planned wedding date.

2. All locations that I'll be required to attend (eg bride's home, ceremony venue, reception venue, photoshoot location) with, ideally, postcodes to eliminate any chance of confusion.

3. The length of time I'll be required to cover. If you're not sure, just let me know the time of the ceremony, time when food is due to be served (if known), plus a feel for the events you want covered. From the classic wedding repertoire these can include:

Bride preparation

Groom, best man and ushers having fun before the wedding

Arrival of the bridal party

The ceremony

Candids of post-ceremony congratulations

Formal group shots

Bride and groom portrait session

Candids during pre-dinner drinks

Speeches

Cake-cutting

First dance

Evening reception

But feel free to fully customise your wedding day!

Once I have this information I can then provide you with a couple of quotes.

Without wishing to sound too much like a salesman I'll just point out that I now have over 40 weddings booked for 2009 and that 2010 is booking very quickly. Please contact me via my website if you want to enquire about my services.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer - Exposure Compensation

For further photography-related information check out my compendium of tips.

1/400, f/2.8, ISO 1250, -1 EV, 200mm (70-200mm f/2.8 L IS)

1/80, f/2.8, ISO 3200, +1 EV, 16mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

Since including EXIF data with photos I've had a few questions about exposure compensation. Before reading the following I recommend you first check out the posts on metering and exposure, exposure values, and an earlier post on exposure compensation.

Cameras meter using reflected light and are programmed to assume that the average reflectance for a scene is 18% (equivalent to a middle grey tonality). The result of this is that all scenes will have middle grey tonality unless you compensate for, or bias, the exposure.

If a scene is darker in tone, you need to reduce the exposure so that the scene remains darker, and is not over-exposed as middle grey.

If a scene is lighter in tone, you need to increase the exposure so that the scene remains lighter, and is not under-exposed as middle grey.

Most scenes do have mid-grey tonality (which is why cameras are programmed this way) but the essential skill to develop is to recognise when they don't. A couple of examples for you.

In the top shot I felt that tones darker than middle grey predominated so I reduced the exposure by one stop (-1 EV) to avoid over-exposure. In the bottom shot lighter tones predominated, so I increased the exposure by one stop (+1 EV) to avoid under-exposure. It takes time to get a feel for how much to adjust exposure by - like many things in life, it's a question of practice.

An alternative method is to spot-meter a small area in the scene which has middle grey tonality. Whichever method you chose, however, requires you to develop your eye for tonality. This is an essential skill to develop as a photographer. It truly does lead to enlightenment!

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photographer

Wedding Photographer Kent - weekend off

1/125, f/2.8, ISO 100, -1/3 EV, 150mm (70-200mm f/2.8 L IS)

Having battled with rain for the past month's weddings, I have a Saturday off and the light is fantastic - typical! The sky was like a giant softbox today - a photographer's dream. Emily and I went to the park with her new scooter, where I took the above shot (which is completely untweaked). Let's hope it's like this for next Saturday's wedding.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer - Lowepro Camera Bags

Choosing camera bags is a tricky business, particularly when you start to build up a bigger collection of kit. None ever seem to be quite right and each generally requires a degree of customisation. It's for this reason, along with their reputation for being solidly-built, that I've bought Lowepro bags - they feature padded dividers which can be rearranged within the bags using velcro attachements. I've bought three Lowepro camera bags for transporting my gear safely - the choice of which I use depends upon the requirements of the assignment. The biggest is the Stealth Reporter D650 AW (top) which is attached to my wedding photography trolley. I've removed a lot of the internal padding which allows me to get a huge amount of kit in - check out the wedding photographer's camera bag post - and gives me instant access to all my lenses during a wedding shoot. If I need to be more mobile, during the bride and groom portrait shoot, for example, I put a smaller selection of kit in a Lowepro Fastpack 350 (bottom right). I also use this for assignments which require a small amount of kit, such as venue photography. For times when I need a good amount of kit but still need to be highly mobile I use a Lowepro Vertex 200 AW backpack (bottom left). The bag is on the heavy side but does offer robust protection.

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photographer