For further photography-related information check out my compendium of tips.
Emma and Matt's wedding gallery, photographed in The Garden Room, Bromley Civic Centre, and Bromley Football Club, is now online.
My website: wedding photographers in Kent
Monday, 6 July 2009
Wedding photographers in Bromley
My website: Kent Wedding Photographers
For further photography-related information check out my compendium of tips.
For further photography-related information check out my compendium of tips.
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6 comments:
David, I'm trying to get the hang of outdoor flash in strong sunlight. With stong shadows on the face, I find I need a good puff of flash to make a difference, but then my shot is overexposed. Any tips on this?
Many thanks!
Hi Roy,
It can be very tricky to get the balance right. The variables you have at your disposal are:
1. exposure compensation - it often helps to dial down ambient exposure by at least one stop when your subject is in strong sunlight to avoid burn out.
2. flash exposure compensation (FEC) - this depends upon distance to the subject and the overall tonality of the metered scene and, in particular, the tonal difference between subject and background. I often dial up to +1 in strong sunlight.
3. zoom setting on your flash unit - typically 24-105mm. You can focus your flash output on the subject's face giving you a bit more control.
4. flash diffusion - I use a Lastolite micro Apollo to soften my flash output.
5. the aperture you shoot at. The larger the aperture, the smaller the effort required by the flash unit, leading to faster recycling times and more consistent flash output.
You're going to have to conduct some experiments. Put your subject in an appropriately sunny spot and then try various settings. Be warned that Adobe Lightroom does not read FEC settings but Apple Aperture does.
It's not an exact science - there's a good bit of instinct involved, particularly when you're on the hoof!
All the best,
David
Hi David, I love these long distance full length portrait shots with the bokeh backgrounds. I'd like to know your method of composing these.
Because I use the middle focus point on faces, I get a face in the middle of the frame and the feet chopped off usually.
Do you change your focus point for full-length portraits or focus and recompose? Or maybe just focus on their body? At F2.8 I'm guessing the face is best target?
Many thanks!
Hi Daniel,
This is an excellent question.
Composing these can be tricky. I do change focus point for full length portraits but there is a much greater risk of being unable to focus, or being out of focus, then when using the central focus point.
This should not be the case and highlights the biggest weakness of the 5D Mark II in my opinion - its limited AF system. Apparently Nikon's AF system is vastly superior - for both accuracy and number of AF points. I would love to have reliable AF points towards the edges of the frame.
The problem is even worse when shooting close-up at wide aperture. Often it's only possible to achieve good focus with the central point and then I have to crop in post-production. Not ideal at all.
The shot above was taken at f/1.2 with the 85mm L lens - it's very easy to get it wrong. The trick is to find an area of good contrast (but which is in the same focal plane as the eyes obviously!) and never to focus and recompose. If I'm shooting faces only I generally target eyelids.
Hope this answers your query - feel free to come back to me.
Yours,
David
Thanks David,
I've not even tried the other focus points on my 5D2 but sad to hear it's so unreliable at wide apertures.
I would then assume things improve above F2.8 (where added sensativity of the middle focus point is not critical).
Thanks you
Hi Daniel,
The problem with AF is not a function of the aperture that is used, it's just that any errors with AF will be clearly seen at wider apertures since the DOF is so small.
When the camera focuses it is always doing so at the widest aperture that the lens allows, in order to let the maximum amount of light in. So even if you stop down to f/8.0 your 24-70 f/2.8 L will be focusing at f/2.8 and taking advantage of the additional AF sensors.
Yours,
David
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