The new Pocket Wizards

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For further photography-related information check out my tips for photographers.

I love off-camera flash and, in the past, have used an ST-E2 transmitter to trigger my 580EX II Speedlites. It works reasonably well provided you can maintain line-of-sight between the ST-E2 and the flash units and it's not too sunny - the reason being that the ST-E2 uses infra-red light to communicate.

More reliable radio-based transmitters from Pocket Wizard have been available for a long time but these could not transmit any E-TTL metering information. The flash units therefore had to be in manual mode - fine if you stick with one set-up, but a hassle if you want to move quickly between set-ups.

Last year, however, Pocket Wizard released the MiniTT1 (which sits in the camera's hotshoe and acts as the transmitter) and FlexTT5 (which attaches to the Speedlite and serves as the receiver, though it can be used as a transmitter too). These units can communicate E-TTL metering information - lots of background info is available at Pocket Wizard's website.

The firmware has evolved significantly over the past year as glitches have been ironed-out (the units can be readily updated since they feature USB connections) and recent reports suggested that they were now working well with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II partnered with fast lenses. I therefore decided to take the plunge and treated myself to a MiniTT1 and 3 FlexTT5s.

The key selling points of these units are:

1. Reliable radio frequency-based triggering.

2. Transmission of E-TTL metering information.

3. Improved flash sync speed for cameras due to optimised flash timings - termed HyperSync.

4. Improved high-speed sync (FP-mode) flash performance - again due to timing optimisation of Canon's existing algorithm. Apparently this can offer an additional stop of flash power.

With a Canon EOS 5D Mark II working with 580EX II Speedlites I've found:

1. Triggering is reliable but the 580EX II emits radio interference which limits the range of these units to 28m. An insulating 'sock' is available to improve the range.

2. Metering is less accurate the further away you place the flash units from your camera - you need to keep a very careful eye on your images. These units challenge Canon's E-TTL algorithm - the camera is having to judge flash exposure with a blip of pre-flash a long way from the camera.

3. The flash sync speed of the 5D Mark II is 1/200 (it's slow since it's full-frame). Pocket Wizard claim that it can sync at 1/250, or even 1/320, with their system before having to switch to high speed sync (which dramatically reduces flash power output). It doesn't work with my 5D Mark II though. This might be because my camera has seen a lot of action and the shutter is sluggish as a result - Damien Lovegrove has also observed this.

4. I've not tested for improved FP-mode performance but it's on my to-do list!

An ST-E2 can be popped into the hotshoe of the MiniTT1 and then lighting ratios can be transmitted as well - although only between groups A and B.

I took the units out for a test run last weekend with my friend Lucy. She's a keen photographer and was eager to practise her posing skills for her forthcoming marriage (which, I'm pleased to say, I will be photographing).

Alas, it was diabolically cold, with a Siberian wind blowing in off the sea, so we didn't stay for very long. The shot above was taken whilst tweaking the set-up - it's not great but shows what can be done. We'll have another go later in the year - probably during August!

It was liberating to be able to place the flash units exactly as I wanted, have them trigger reliably, and be able to adjust flash exposure from the camera. Definitely a useful addition to the camera bag.

My website: Kent wedding photographers

Voice-activated light stands

This clever bit of technology allows you to position your lighting with pin-point accuracy. You don't even need to take them along in your kit bag - there are always plenty lying around at any wedding.

Happy New Year to all!

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Wedding Photography Kent

Finally got a call from Cameraworld yesterday saying that my Canon EOS 5D Mark II would be delivered on Monday. No battery grip or spare batteries until the New Year though. I don't think it's unfair to say that Canon was a little premature with the announcement of this camera.

It's not worked out too badly, however. If the camera had arrived earlier, I wouldn't have been able to process any RAW shots anyway, as Lightroom and the Adobe digital negative (DNG) converter have only just been updated.

Note that Adobe are no longer updating either Lightroom 1.4 or Photoshop CS3 with RAW support for recent camera releases. Instead you'll need to use their free DNG converter utility.


I've got a wedding tomorrow and then the last of the year on Tuesday. I'll probably take the 5D Mark II along to the latter as back-up for a quick tryout.


This is my 200th post having only started the blog in April 2008. I hope my blogging stamina will maintain throughout 2009!


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Wedding Photographer in Kent - starting-out kit

I had the following great question from a reader yesterday:

Hi,

Just been looking at your blog, which is excellent. I wonder if you might extend a bit of advice to someone looking to dip a toe into the wedding photography ocean?

I’m making myself available to friends of friends (ie weddings I wouldn’t be invited to myself) who otherwise wouldn’t have a wedding photographer (perhaps couldn’t afford one). At the moment, I have a Canon EOS 350D with a couple of cheapish lenses. I wouldn’t consider myself under any pressure to product fantastic wedding shots and I’m certainly not looking to make a career of this at the moment. However, I do want to produce the best work I can and have some funds available to buy some new kit.

I was really wondering what I should spend my money on. Is the key to good wedding portrait photography through a good camera or good lenses (or both)? In other words, should I spend my money upgrading to a better camera (eg secondhand 5D, 1D etc), or should I purchase some decent EF lenses that would be compatible with my 350D (eg L lenses)?

I’ve already got a decent flash (580EX). It would be useful to take some advice from somebody who’s been there and from looking at your gallery, producing some great shots.

I appreciate you will be busy, but would welcome any advice you might be willing to give.

Many thanks in advance.

Marcus

Obviously there's no right answer to this question. Here's my take on it.

Although digital cameras with smaller sensors have a crop-factor which is to the benefit of cheaper lenses I would be tempted to buy a secondhand Canon EOS 5D since this will allow you to handle lowlight situations - the bane of wedding photographers. The larger pixels on the sensor give a much better signal-to-noise ratio allowing you to shoot at high ISO. Unless of course you can be certain that you'll be shooting in well-lit venues on bright days! Partnered with your 580EX Speedlite you'll be able to handle nearly all lighting conditions.

Obviously a 5D will not work with EF-S lenses. You could pick up a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens, which is incredibly fast and has superb optics, for £60. You could shoot a wedding with just this.

Sigma also make some great lenses - check out the 24-70mm f/2.8 EX DG.

There are a few Canon L-series lenses which don't break the bank. The Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L (though you'll need to crank up the ISO setting to give you at least 1/200s at f/4.0 when shooting at 200mm in low-light levels) and the Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L are both worth checking out.

As always, comments are most welcome.

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Kent Wedding Photographer - Canon 35mm f/1.4 lens

I bought the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 L lens earlier this year and have no regrets for doing so – the image quality from this lens is stunning, in terms of sharpness, colour and contrast.

I wanted a very fast wide angle lens for low-light wedding photography to complement my 85mm f/1.2 L lens. I grappled with the dilemma of whether to buy the 24mm f/1.4 L or 35mm f/1.4 L and decided on the latter as it’s a more general purpose focal length – at 24mm perspective distortion becomes an issue. Although 50mm is regarded as the ‘standard’ focal length I think 35mm corresponds more closely to human vision – or mine at least!

The lens is beautifully constructed but is light. It features ultrasonic motors for rapid, silent focusing and supports full-time manual focus. The lens focuses very quickly in low light and I find it more efficient and reliable than the 24-70 f/2.8 L zoom lens. On the full-frame EOS 5D vignetting (darkening towards the corners of the image) is visible when the lens is wide open (f/1.4) but this is easily corrected in Lightroom or Photoshop. As the aperture is reduced from f/1.4 to f/2.0 there is an increase in sharpness but I regularly shoot at f/1.4 and find the results sufficiently sharp for my purposes.

I process at least 700 wedding shots using Lightroom most weekends on my 30” Apple Cinema Display (which is pretty unforgiving in exposing image flaws) and, as I work through the images in the development module, those from the prime lenses stand out. You would expect this from first principles, on the basis that the optics of the lens should be close-to-perfect for this single focal length, but it is reassuring to see it in practice.

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Wedding Photographer in Kent - EOS 5D Mark II

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II is now shipping in limited quantities and some stock is available in the UK. Keith Cooper at Northlight Images has done a terrific job of keeping everybody up-to-date with developments - check out his 5D Mark II news page.

I'm hoping for a call from Cameraworld about my pre-order today. Fingers crossed!

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer 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.

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Wedding Photographer in Kent - Apple Display

This is a follow-up to my initial post on the problems I was having with my 23" Apple Cinema Display. I phoned AppleCare in the UK last week to complain that my £600 monitor had started misbehaving after only 15 months. I was initially told that there was nothing that could be done, but I took a deep breath and calmly, but assertively, put my point across. I can't remember precisely what I said but it was along the lines that if Apple are going to charge premium prices for their products they ought to be lasting for many years. I also pointed out that the Apple forums are full of threads regarding issues with this particular display and that Apple should take responsibility for flawed products. I was put on hold for 20 minutes while the representative spoke with the Customer Services department but the upshot was that Apple agreed to sort out my monitor for free. I took the display along to my local authorised Apple repairer and they replaced it within 24 hours. If you're having problems with your Apple gear I hope you'll be inspired to give them a call and complain!

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Kent Wedding Photographer - NiMH batteries

I use nickel metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries for all my kit - they're economical and green. I bought mine from the wonderful 7dayshop (as indeed does Damien Lovegrove, the well-known wedding and portrait photographer, who I saw remove a pack from his camera bag in one of his lighting tutorial DVDs) who sell their own-branded batteries and chargers at very low prices. I purchased 2800 mAh (milli Amp hours which reflects the capacity of the battery - the bigger, the better) batteries and a smart charger which charges quickly, optimises battery life by not overcharging and can detect bad cells. A good tip is to keep your batteries in groups of four. Use them and charge them together, so that they wear out at a similar rate, since problems can arise when combining batteries of differing quality. Bear in mind that NiMH batteries lose their power quite quickly, so remember to recharge all of them before an assignment.

For flash photography they offer another advantage. Since they possess a low internal resistance they are able to transfer their charge to the flash capacitor much more quickly than alkaline batteries, leading to reduced recycling times (up to twice as fast) - the time you have to wait for your flash unit to recharge.

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Kent Wedding Photographer - UDMA cards

In anticipation of the imminent arrival of my Canon EOS 5D Mark II (I'm in an optimistic mood today!) I've just purchased four 8Gb SanDisk Extreme 'Ducati Edition' compact flash cards. These have a transfer rate of 45Mb/s, using the ultra direct memory access (UDMA) protocol which the 5D Mark II supports. This allows fourteen 21.1 megapixel RAWs, at 3.9 frames per second, to be shot in a single burst.

You don't want to be waiting for your camera to catch-up when you're shooting a wedding.

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Kent Wedding Photography - 5D Mark II Noise Profile

1/1600, f/2.8, ISO 25,600, o EV, 62mm

I've finally been able to play with some shots taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and am very, very impressed. A friend sent me a selection of files shot at the highest ISO settings on the camera - 3200, 6400, 12800 and 25600. The low levels of noise are astounding.

The above shot was taken at ISO 25,600 and has had digital noise removed using NeatImage. To my eye the result is as good as, or maybe even slightly better than, the EOS 5D at ISO 3200 - a 3-stop gain. This means that I'll be able to shoot weddings in the darkest churches with apertures of f/4.0 or even f/5.6, giving me a much greater depth of field. This is very good news.

I have my fingers crossed that I might be able to get my hands on a 5D Mark II in November!

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Kent Wedding Photographer in action

1/100, f/2.8, ISO 3200, -1 FEC, 24mm (24-70mm f/2.8 L)

A huge mirror at the wedding reception venue on Saturday provided me with the opportunity to take a shot of myself in action (contrast is poor due to lens flare). As you can see, I dress quite plainly, but the advantage of this is that I'm not afraid to get dirty. If the shot requires me to lie on the floor, I do!

In action you can see:

1. A Lastolite micro Apollo light modifier - a portable softbox.

2. Hiding behind which is a 580EX II Speedlite.

3. A Custom Brackets digital Pro-M kit - allowing the camera to be rotated between portrait and landscape formats.

4. A Canon EOS 5D with BG-E4 battery grip.

5. A Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L zoom lens.

6. A CP-E4 battery pack.

It's not light but serves to tone the photographer's upper body (optimistic view) and cause backache (realistic view).

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DIY Kent Wedding Photography

This device could be the biggest threat to wedding photographers yet devised - as long as the subjects don't mind having an outstretched arm in every photo!

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Wedding Photographer in Kent - Monopods

I always have a monopod strapped to my photography trolley. I tend to use it during wedding speeches and sometimes for candids of guests shot outside, both occasions when I shoot with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS lens.

I'm currently using a Manfrotto 685B Neotec monopod - it's a well-designed and elegantly-constructed piece of kit. The headline is the automatic Neotec locking system - no twisting or tightening of clamps required, just extend the legs (whilst standing on the foot pedal to keep the monopod firmly grounded) and they lock automatically. To contract the monopod you release a safety lock with your small finger and then squeeze the palm trigger with your other three fingers - this allows for one-handed operation. It also features a suction foot cup for floor stability and a leg warmer (carrying a cold monopod without one of these is not a pleasant experience). The monopod is light, but able to support 8kg of kit, and has a good height range of 71-166cm.

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Wedding Photographer Kent - CP-E4 battery pack

I use my 580EX II Speedlites in 75% of my shots but typically I only add a "kiss of flash", with flash exposure compensation dialled down by at least 2/3 stop, and this often allows me to use the same set of batteries for a whole wedding, particularly during the summer. As the winter months draw on, and light levels drop, my flash units have to work a lot harder so I break out the Canon CP-E4 external battery pack. This unit takes 8 AA batteries (I use NiMH rechargeable batteries which recycle more quickly), which in conjunction with the 4 AA batteries in the flash unit, means you have 3 times as much power at your disposal. The key benefits are faster recycling times and longer usage between battery changes. The flash unit also seems to stay cooler (which makes sense, though I've never seen any hard facts to back up this observation).

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Wedding Photographer in Kent - Favourite Lenses

I've just read an article in the Canon Professional Network's October 2008 Newsletter on Favourite Lenses for Weddings.

In his wedding kit bag (no doubt carried by his photographic 'caddy'), renowned wedding photographer Joe Buissink has two EOS 5Ds with 24-70mm f/2.8L and 85mm f/1.2L (his all-time favourite) lenses, and two EOS 1V film SLRs with 16-35mm f/2.8L and 70-200mm f/2.8L lenses.

He's obviously read my recent post on Lenses for Wedding Photography!

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

Apple Cinema Displays

I'm a huge fan of Apple's products - premium-priced but well-designed and built and with resulting longevity. I've got a Mac running my mini music studio (another passion) which is over 10-years old.

I've just had my first problem though. I bought a 23" Apple Cinema Display (£600) last year and declined to purchase the 3-year Apple Protection Plan (£69). The products are so robust and I treat them very well so why bother? Wrong answer this time. Last week the screen remained ominously dark when I switched on the computer so I took it to the Apple Shop at Bluewater. They couldn't get it working with its power supply but, by complete chance (and in retrospect very good fortune), it was tried with a power supply for the 30" Cinema Display they had to hand and it worked fine. They therefore concluded my power supply was at fault and ordered a new one for me. I returned 3 days later to try this out but the screen still refused to work. I was asked to leave the screen with them and told that if it was at fault Apple operated a full-unit replacement only and it would cost me £400 for a new one with a limited 90-day warranty. Not ideal.

I needed a screen straight away (and also realised it was probably a good idea to have a back-up) so I bit the bullet and invested in a 30" cinema display (with Apple Protection Plan this time). Outrageously expensive but a magnificent bit of kit and with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels perfect for photo processing.

I got a call from the Apple shop the next day to let me know they couldn't get my screen working so I suggested they try a power supply for a 30" display. They called back shortly after to say the screen worked perfectly. For some reason my old screen seems to require more power now - any suggestions as to why are most welcome.

I just need to buy myself a new power supply then - so I seem to have got off relatively lightly. I haven't checked the price yet but, knowing Apple, I'm sure it will be in 3 figures.

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Wedding Photographer in Kent

Even though the Canon EOS 5D Mark II has yet to be released its impact is already starting to be felt. Vincent Laforet convinced Canon to loan him a pre-production model last weekend and used it to shoot a short film in high-definition. Check it out here - HD film.

The results were so impressive that a lot of people struggled to believe it was shot with just an SLR camera. He's therefore just released all the original RAW files for download and inspection. Read the ongoing saga in Vincent's blog.

It will be interesting to see the impact this technology has on wedding photography. Roll on the release date!

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Canon 5D Mark II

An exciting day for wedding photographers who use Canon equipment - the EOS 5D Mark II has finally been announced and with a stunning specification - 21.1 Mp with ISO from 50 - 25,600. Another 3-stops in ISO sensitivity over the 5D (and matching the Nikon D3)! This opens up the possibility of shooting in a very dark Church at f/4.0 or more, no more ultra-shallow depth of field. Image size will be 5616 x 3744 pixels, giving increased forgiveness with cropping. The shutter is engineered to give 150,000 exposures (compared to the 5D's 100,000 - a longer usable life). It will feature the 1D's well-received highlight tone priority feature, great for dealing with wedding dresses in bright sunlight, and a much improved screen (3.0 " TFT LCD, 920,000 pixels, automatic 3 level brightness adjustment, 170 ° viewing angle, dual anti-reflection - 'Clear View') and live TTL display of scene from the CMOS image sensor - 'Live view'.

I'll also be able to double up as a videographer now with the high definition movie recording feature. The price is £2300 and it should be available in November.

Key Features

New 21.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved EOS Integrated Cleaning System (E.I.C.S.)
New Full HD 1080 resolution movie recording
3.9 frames per second continuous shooting
High performance DIGIC 4 providing superb image quality
Maximum 310 large JPEG images in a single burst with a UDMA card
3.0″ VGA (920k dots) Clear View LCD
ISO 100-6400 (expansion from 50 up to 25,600)
9 AF points + 6 Assist AF points

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Extension tubes

For a more in-depth discussion of macro photography and magnification rates check out John Shaw's 'Closeups in Nature'.

Extension tubes increase the distance between the optics in the lens and the digital sensor. This allow the lens to focus at a closer distance to the subject, hence increasing its size. An approximate magnification rate is given by total extension/focal length - immediately this tells you that greater magnification rates are achieved with shorter focal length lenses. 

Since there is only air between the end of the lens optics and the sensor I bought the cheaper Kenko extension tubes which come as a set of three - 12, 20 and 36mm. They allow the lens to communicate with the camera body so that autofocus and metering are not affected. With my 100m f/2.8 (a true 1:1 macro lens) putting on all of the above extension gives a magnification rate of .7-fold. 


The extension tubes can be used in conjunction with the extender I discussed in the previous post. If you attach extension to the lens first and then subsequently add the extender you will multiply the magnification by a further 2x. I took the photograph of the fly with a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens, 68mm of extension and a 2x extender!

Another result of adding extension to a lens is that minimum and maximum focusing distances are reduced. The former can be beneficial. I often use my 85mm f/1.2 L lens indoors with an extension tube to reduce the closest focusing distance of 0.95m - I can then take advantage of its excellent low-light capabilities in confined spaces.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer Kent