Syncing a MacBook Air with another Mac

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I invested (at least that's how I justified it to the wife) in a new 11" MacBook Air (1.6GHz / 4GB RAM/ 128GB SSD spec) for Xmas.  I wanted a machine that I could use to run my business in the event of my primary Mac Pro failing, but also portable and powerful enough to be able to take to weddings and start the post-production workflow (ie importing to Lightroom and rendering previews with my standard development settings.)

As soon as I switched on the MacBook Air it was recognised by my Aiport Extreme Base Station and was able to access the Mac Pro. This allowed me to transfer most of my key data. So far, so good.

I had quite specific requirements for email though (and I was not interested in a mobileme account with Apple - for numerous reasons.) I use Gmail in conjunction with Apple Mail and store all my client enquiries and emails in On My Mac mailboxes - of which there are hundreds. I've therefore always used Gmail as a POP server. Gmail is unable to replicate the nesting of mailboxes that I have in Apple Mail and is therefore of no use to me in IMAP mode. I wanted both computers to be able to receive email, but for the MacBook Air to mirror the way I store emails on the Mac Pro.

I copied the Home/Library/Mail folder and the com.apple.mail.plist file found in Users/Home/Library/Preferences from the Mac Pro to the MacBook Air. Set up like this, however, the two computers are in competition to collect mail from the Gmail server - messages can be only collected once. The trick is to add 'recent:' before the email address and user name in Mail-Preferences-Accounts. As follows (to avoid any misunderstandings):

Email address: recent:yourname@gmail.com
User name: recent:yourname@gmail.com

Both computers will now receive all emails - that are sent to you and that you send.

I then purchased ChronoSync, a very useful piece of software which allows for the synchronisation of folders and files between Macs. I set it up so that the Mail folder and com.apple.mail.plist file on the Mac Pro are replicated at the end of the day on the MacBook Air (not a bidirectional sync) - it only copies over files that have been changed so it takes less than a minute to synchronise.

I also use Chronosync to keep other important work-related folders synchronised. I could have used it to synchronise iCal and Contacts but there is a more sophisticated way of doing this. These programs are designed so that changes can be made on two computers and then merged during synchronisation. With Chronosync one file would overwrite the other and hence only changes on one computer would be kept. Numerous pieces of software are available to take advantage of this functionality but I opted for the free version of SyncMate.

So now both computers have all my key data in the format that I'm used to and I have full control over how this happens.

Please feel free to share your Mac syncing experiences.

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Lightroom 3 for wedding photography

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I've just processed my first wedding with Lightroom 3 and I'm very impressed with the new version. It features an updated Adobe Camera Raw processing engine which provides a subtle, but noticeable, improvement to image quality. My initial impression is that there is also better recovery from highlights (though I've not had the inclination to carry out any proper control experiments).

There's a slicker import dialogue and the rendering of standard previews is faster, as is flicking through images in the library module.

The standout new features are in the development module - automatic lens correction profiles to deal with vignetting, chromatic aberration and distortion etc and a manual transform tool to minimise the effect of perspective distortion (I really like this as I often shoot very wide in compact venues). Applying a lens correction profile to an image seems to slow down some subsequent tweaks - particularly cropping and rotating. Be aware that currently many lens profiles are built in for RAW files but less so for JPEG.

Noise reduction and sharpening are improved over Lightroom 2 but I still intend to use my existing workflow - exporting to Photoshop for noise removal with a NeatImage plugin (with automatic detection of the ISO setting) followed by sharpening. The vignette option offers a lot more control too.

Tethered shooting was possible in Lightroom 2 with the watched folder option but it's a lot more straightforward in the newer version - though I doubt many wedding photographers will be making use of this. Copyright watermarks can now be applied on image export.

I'm still very disappointed that they've not bothered to add flash exposure compensation settings, which is fundamental exposure information after all, to the displayable EXIF data (and after I'd personally requested it on their new features suggestion page too!) If Aperture can, why can't Lightroom?

If you want to play music with a slideshow you can no longer access iTunes playlists, only individual audio files on your hard drives, and only one per slideshow! Definitely a retrograde step. To play more than one song you need to stitch audio files together - which I did this morning using an excellent piece of freeware called Audacity. Hopefully this situation will be remedied in a forthcoming update.

Many people have been struggling with the performance of Lightroom. I've never had any major performance issues but I've been using a reasonably powerful machine for the past 4 years - a 2006-vintage MacPro with two 2.66 GHz dual-core Intel Xeon Woodcrest processors and 9Gb of RAM.

I have Lightroom set to work in 64-bit mode. Apparently you need more than 4Gb of RAM to see a difference, though I have no idea if this is true as I'm not removing RAM for the sake of comparison!

When importing photos I apply a series of custom development settings and ask the program to render standard previews - it means you'll be waiting at least half an hour if you import 500 photos but once you're done it allows you to whisk between images in the library module. If you forget to do this on import just select all the images and then go to library - previews - render standard previews. The previews are stored adjacent to your catalogue file in Previews.lrdata. In catalogue settings - file handling you can chose the preview quality and size (depending upon the size of your monitor - I choose medium quality at 2048 pixels) and the length of time that these are stored (I choose one week). Do make sure though that they match the size of the area you view the photos in. With a 30" Apple cinema display I have an area of about 2000 x 1400 pixels left for image display after taking account of all the menu windows. Hence it's worth setting previews to 2048 pixels.

To improve performance in the develop module you need to go to Lightroom - preferences - file handling and then camera RAW cache settings. By default it's set to 1Gb, but increasing this (up to 200Gb in Lightroom 3) means that, as you flick between images displayed in the develop module, they're being loaded from your hard drive rather than being freshly rendered. You can move the cache to any hard drive - I have it where the operating system is since this disc is always spinning and ready for action.

Another useful tip. When you're in the develop module go to view - view options and untick the show message option at the bottom. You can make changes to your images whilst the loading dialogue is displayed but I always seem to wait until it's finished before I do - this removes that distraction.

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Shooting in strong sun

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I've just received the above image of me 'in action' at the recent wedding of Lucy and James at The Burlington Hotel in Folkestone. The sun was very strong, undiffused by clouds, and there was only a small patch of open shade for the group photos. Unfortunately, when I lined myself up to take the shots I had the sun shining directly into my lens, causing significant flare and loss of contrast. We had a look in the hotel and managed to find a poster made of stiff cardboard which I then asked a guest to shade me with. It worked a treat.


And an example of an image shot this way.

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Exporting metadata from Lightroom

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I used to publish a selection of photos from every wedding with associated EXIF data but had to give up as I was doing it manually and it took ages. I subsequently received many e-mails from people asking if I could reinstate this feature so have been looking at a more efficient way of doing it.

I quickly found a method for doing most of what I wanted to do with Apple's Aperture. Using the wonderful Automator software that comes with the MacOS it's easy to extract some of the metadata from shots in Aperture's database. However, this doesn't include the lens used to take the shot nor the flash exposure compensation - even though this data is accessible in Aperture under extended metadata. Shutter speed also comes out as a decimal so I had to export it to Excel to convert it. Not very slick.

I really wanted a method that works with Lightroom, my software of choice, but couldn't find anything. I therefore contacted Jeffrey Friedl, whose Export to Facebook plug-in I use, to see if he knew of anything. He pointed me in the direction of The Photographer's Toolbox which features plug-ins written by Timothy Armes and includes LR/Transporter which is exactly what I required.

It only took a couple of minutes to set-up and get the output looking like this:

1/1250, f/1.6, ISO 200, ‒ ²⁄₃ EV, Did not fire, 85 mm, EF85mm f/1.2L II USM

Unfortunately there's a small gremlin currently corrupting the exposure compensation data (it should read -2/3 above). I've contacted Timothy and am waiting for a response.

The only data I get regarding flash is did fire/did not fire as Lightroom is unable to extract flash exposure compensation. Please add this feature Adobe!

So at the moment some manual input is still required but it's a lot quicker than it used to be. As a result, I'm steadily working my way back through blog posts and adding EXIF data and some shot analysis.

I've already received lots of positive feedback on this so I'll continue!

My website: Wedding Photographers in Kent

Adobe Lightroom 3 beta

Just to let my fellow Lightroom aficionados know that the beta version of Lightroom 3 is available for download. There are some nice new features, of which you'll be able to find plenty of details elsewhere, but I was most interested in performance. On the basis of my scientifically-robust performance-measuring methodology (stopclock in one hand whilst moving between images in Lightroom with the other) I'm pleased to announce that there seems to be a further improvement with this latest version.

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Weddings at Leeds Castle

The above two shots were taken a minute apart on Saturday at Leeds Castle. The first uses purely ambient light and lacks drama - details in the sky have been lost and the subjects' faces are poorly lit. I therefore decided to liven things up with a bit of off-camera flash.

I asked the chauffeur of the Rolls Royce to hold a 580EX II Speedlite fitted with a Lastolite micro Apollo. This was set to slave mode and then triggered with an ST-E2 transmitter. The flash head was rotated so that the light could be directed at the couple and the wireless sensor at the transmitter.

Ambient light was underexposed by 2 stops and flash exposure compensation of -2/3 stop was used.

My website: Kent wedding photographers

Wedding lenses

My website: Wedding Photographers in Kent

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I first posted on my lens usage at weddings about a year ago so thought it was time for an update. I now take only four lenses with me to weddings in a Lowepro Fastpack 350 rucksack. Two primes - the 35mm f/1.4 L and 85mm f/1.2 L - and two zooms - the 16-35mm f/2.8 L and 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS.

I've analysed my last 10 weddings in Adobe Lightroom. The table below indicates the percentage of shots taken with each lens.

If I could only take one lens with me to a wedding it would be the 35mm f/1.4. The optical quality is stunning, it's incredibly fast, allowing me to work with very little natural light, and it delivers shallow DOF with beautiful bokeh. Plus the AF never seems to miss. The 16-35mm f/2.8 is my second most frequently used lens. The 85mm and 70-200mm lenses require a bit more space for effective use and are therefore more venue-dependent.

It's fairly clear that I love shooting wide. I like to see people in their environments. To do this in a typically compact UK wedding venue often requires the use of a wide angle lens (and by this I mean less that 24mm). The reason for this is that field of view (measured in degrees) for a rectilinear lens drops off rapidly with focal length: FOV = 2arctan(x/2f), where x is the diagonal of the sensor in mm and f is the focal length in mm. Thus 16mm gives a FOV of 107 degrees, 17mm gives 103.5, 24mm gives 84, 35mm gives 63, 50mm gives 47, 70mm gives 34, 85mm gives 29 and 200mm gives 12. Even the difference between 16 and 17mm is visually striking.

The downside with the 16-35mm lens is perspective distortion, but a touch of vignetting can reduce this distraction.

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Snow Leopard and Adobe Lightroom

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I've just installed Snow Leopard on my Mac Pro. Apparently, it optimises multicore performance and so I was optimistically hoping for an improvement in the performance of Adobe Lightroom. My initial impression is that there might just be a slight improvement - though it could be wishful thinking clouding my judgement! Canon EOS 5D Mark II RAW files seem to take no more that 4 seconds to load in to the develop module as opposed to an occasional previous wait of 6 seconds.

Please share your experiences. The performance of Adobe Lightroom is still my bete noire!

My website: Kent wedding photographers

A corrupt Lightroom catalogue

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I was just finishing off the post-processing for Saturday's wedding this morning when we had a very brief power cut. I restarted the computer and relaunched Lightroom to be greeted by:

Lightroom encountered an error and needs to quit. There was a problem reading one of the Lightroom catalogues.

Aaaarghh!!!

I experienced a brief moment of optimism when Lightroom offered to repair the catalogue but, alas, the operation was unsuccessful. It then instructed me to use a recent back-up copy. I'm reasonably conscientious at keeping my catalogues backed-up but the most recent version was from Saturday morning, and therefore did not contain Sunday's post-processing efforts.

After 30 mins of tinkering, and elevated blood pressure, I managed to recover my work. I created a new catalogue, used 'Import from catalogue', chose the corrupted catalogue and then selected the folder containing Saturday's wedding. The photos were imported together with the sidecar file containing the Lightroom edits. I got an error message when I reached the photo I'd been editing when the power cut occurred, but on restarting Lightroom all the edited photos were present. What a relief! I then imported the remaining unedited wedding photos into the catalogue.

The power supply in Sandwich is a little flaky - we've had about 10 cut-outs in the three years we've lived here, but this is the first time it's impacted on my work. And hopefully the last. Immediately after I'd resolved my Lightroom issue I went to the online Apple store and bought myself an uninterruptible power supply - an iDowell iPack UPS 1000VA. It provides power for about 15 mins in the event of a power cut and fully integrates with the Mac's built-in power management software. This means that the computer can be instructed to shut down when the unit's battery power reaches a certain level - critical if I'm not present when the power cut occurs!

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FTP publishing issues with Blogger

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For those of you who publish your blog to your own domain using FTP, rather than being hosted by Blogger, you've probably encountered problems uploading images from time to time. Apparently this is due to communication issues between the webhost servers and Blogger. The images do end up on your server but the information required by Blogger to generate the html code is not returned.

One solution is to publish to a custom domain using Blogger but this has to be to a home directory rather than a subdirectory, which is probably what most of us use, eg www.davidfenwick.co.uk/blog

It's been so bad this week that I've been publishing my photos manually. Here's the procedure I came up with:

1. Uploaded images are stored on your server at blog - uploaded_images. Select a unique image name for your new images.

2. Export photos from Lightroom with your Custom Name - Sequence specified and resized to fit 400 x 400 pixels.

3. Paste the following HTML code into your post for each image. You need to specify the domain name, image name and pixel dimensions for each image (shown in bold). Blogger normally generates two jpeg files for each image - one for displaying in the post (resized to within 400 x 400) and one with the original pixel dimensions for displaying if you click on the image within the post. Since our image has already been sized correctly we can use a single jpeg file.

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.domainname.co.uk/blog/uploaded_images/ imagename.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="http://www.domainname.co.uk/blog/ uploaded_images/imagename.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>

It doesn't take too long to do this, though it's obviously not ideal, but it does avoid the irritation of seeing the 'Your file upload is taking longer than expected' error message!

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Depth of field calculator

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A nice little widget for calculating depth of field from Canon. I know there are plenty of these around but I thought this one was particularly well done.

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Minimum focusing distances

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Part II of Stephen's question today (in italics). My responses are in plain text.

My brother and I were trying to take a photo of a passion flower in the garden, he with his Nikon D3 with 24-70mm f/2.8 and me with my Canon 5D MkII. Now I had perhaps argued incorrectly that I could get a sharper shot with my 85mm f/1.2 L II than he could with his zoom but his shots were better and I'm prepared to be corrected on the technical reasons as to why.

Lots of factors affect sharpness. The 85mm counts against you since you'll need a faster shutter speed to counter camera shake (at least 1/focal length). Also the minimum focusing distance of the 85mm lens is 0.95m which means the flower will occupy a smaller amount of the sensor compared to the 24mm lens which can focus much closer to the subject (the Canon version of this lens can be focused only 38cm from a subject). When you expand it to be the same size in both shots your image quality will suffer (though as you point out, the 5D Mark II is higher resolution than the D3 so this complicates matters). For a given aperture your image will have lower depth of field at 85mm compared to 24mm because of increased magnification.

See my blog post on factors affecting depth of field.

I wanted to get the whole flower in focus therefore I figured I needed a DOF of 40mm, so by using the handy iPhone App 'Simple DOF' I dialled in 85mm lens, 1.5m focus distance and then increased the f/stop until it told me I had a DOF of about 40mm. Sounds straightforward to me but in practise the shots were disappointing.

You may know that the DOF is 40mm but you need to know exactly where to focus. DOF extends in front of, and behind, the focal point but it changes with focal length! Also the DOF calculation is only a guide. You've not given yourself any margin for error.

My brother then questioned why I was using my 85mm stopped down to f/2, when I could have just used another of my lenses at f/2.8 and perhaps got the same shot.

I would have the lens stopped down to at least f/8 for a shot like this (to ensure sufficient depth of field and good sharpness) and had the camera on a tripod for real image crispness. f/8 - 11 is the sweet aperture range for most lenses (above this the image deteriorates due to diffraction).

So, a quick visit to my local camera store and they suggested some interesting explanations to me:

1) "perhaps your 85mm lens is back-focusing, as most Canon lenses do, you should calibrate it using the micro-focus adjustment procedure." - One to investigate perhaps.

Microadjustment is worth doing with the 5D Mk II (since resolution is so high and the differences are visible) but is unlikely to be responsible in this situation.

2) "when using a shallow DOF at such a close focus distance the diameter of focus is very small, what you should have done was stop down to f/8 at least." - This one really surprised me, I have always thought about the settings required to get the DOF (i.e. 40mm in example above) but never thought that I needed to think about how the diameter of the focus area is affected.

I assume they're referring to the fact that the DOF will be shallow at wide apertures - see earlier.

3) "why did you use your 85mm lens when the minimum focusing point of your other lenses is shorter, therefore making it easier to get the shot?" - this one annoyed me after spending near £2k for a prime lens I thought I'd use it as I had expected it to be sharper.

I agree! The 85mm f/1.2 L lens is probably the best portrait lens in the world (and a favourite of mine, along with the 35mm f/1.4 L) and it's therefore designed for taking shots of head-sized objects! If I were doing the flower shot I'd have reached for my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens first of all, followed by my 24-70mm f/2.8 L (which can serve as a substitute for a macro lens since its minimum focusing distance is only 38cm).

Hope this helps.

All the best,

David

My website: Kent wedding photographers

On aperture

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Part 1 of a question from Stephen today.

Hi David,

I'm a regular reader of your blog - which is fantastic BTW - and had a discussion over the weekend on various photographic matters. I thought you would be the perfect person to enlighten me and perhaps a blog post might come of it?

Firstly lets take the subject of lens aperture. If you take a 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens and set it to 70mm at f/8, would that be the same size aperture, and therefore capture the same amount of light as a 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM set at 70mm at f/8? Now when I thought about it I did wonder whether manufacturers had a 'standard' aperture size to conform to thereby making any lens set at f/8 equal?

Thanks in anticipation,

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the feedback.

Aperture is a unitless measure (rather than a size) - it's the focal length of the lens divided by the diameter of the diaphragm. It correlates with light-gathering ability.

As you change the focal length on your zoom lens, the diaphragm has to change to maintain a constant aperture. Not all lenses do this equally well though - L-series Canon lenses vary by only 1/3 of a stop over the focal length range which is pretty good.

f/8 at 70mm on both 24-70 lens and 70-200mm lenses means they will have the same diaphragm diameter. They won't be letting in precisely the same amount of light however. It will be close but lenses vary in their ability to transmit light - it depends upon the number of elements within the lens, the albedos of the materials used and probably lots of other factors too.

Yours,

David

My website: Kent wedding photographers

One lens to do one job really well!

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I had a great question from a reader yesterday.

Hi David,

I hope you don’t mind me emailing you out of the blue, I always enjoy reading your blog and thought I would push my luck with the following question. Anyway, I have an interesting event coming up and if you can spare the time I would really appreciate any thoughts you may care to offer as you are without doubt the most qualified person I can think of on the matter!

My brother Rob is getting married next April and I'm hoping to get some nice pictures. I should stress that I’m only a keen amateur. I will be using a Canon 450D which has a cropped sensor, the lenses I have at present are the Canon 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 and Tamron 70-300mm f4.5-4.6 (this may change to Nikon kit in due course but the principle of the question doesn't really change).

I know that there is nothing especially poor with my lenses, however I’m thinking that as it’s going to be such a special day I might hire a top-notch lens to firstly increase my enjoyment of the day and secondly to hopefully obtain some better pictures!

My thoughts are that I would only wish to carry the camera with lens attached as I don’t want the hassle of changing lenses nor do I fancy spending the whole day with the unused lens in my pocket or carrying a separate bag with it inside. Just a camera and lens seems right. I’m guessing at this stage your bracing yourself for the inevitable 'which lens to take' question however there is a bit of a twist! ….

I'm probably going to be concentrating on taking candid portraits and especially so of my 3 year old nephew and so I’m not interested in taking pictures of the same thing that everybody else captures. Things like the the wedding vows, speeches, aisle walk etc are not important as they will be well documented by others, plus it’s my brothers wedding and I want to watch the important bits with my eyes and not through a lens!

I’d rather come home with only a few pictures that stood out rather than 100s of pictures of the usual quality. Question is how do I achieve it!! Obviously an f2.8L zoom would seem to fit the bill for a great all rounder but I’m thinking one step ahead of that (or at least I think I am!). I'd rather have a lens that absolutely excelled at one particular type of picture than having a jack of all trades, master of none type lens and so I’m thinking of specialising in portraits with good bokeh on the basis that nobody else apart from the professional will have an f1.2 lens in their bag to achieve it and he she wont be pointing hers where I’m pointing mine. Therefore my plan should result in me producing portraits with unique characteristics, i.e. bokeh.

I think my plan a good one, at least in theory!!!

My thoughts are that the following lenses would fit the bill:

50mm f1.2L USM (80mm on cropped sensor)
(small, compact, light, inconspicuous, great for leaving camera with other people for moments I can’t hold it and comfortable when the camera is around my neck).

Or

85mm f1.2L II USM (136mm on cropped sensor)

I know that you must get hundreds of which lens questions but I really have tried to work it out myself, I’m just stuck on the last bit and interested on whether you think an amateur (and the AF) could handle an f1.4 with a 50mph kid or would I be better off with an f2.8 zoom.

Any thoughts you might have on a lens choice would be very much appreciated and obviously I appreciate that you are a busy man so there is absolutely no rush for any response you may care to give.

Best regards

Andy

Hi Andy,

Many thanks for your positive feedback.

I love receiving questions - particularly when they're as well-thought out and eloquently written as yours is.

I think your analysis is absolutely spot on. One lens to do one job really well.

However, rather than hiring a 50mm f/1.2 I would suggest you buy a 50mm f/1.8 - they're about £80 at the moment.

It's not an L-series lens but the optical quality is absolutely stunning. In terms of value-for-money it's Canon's best lens. You'll be able to have a good go with it before the wedding - shooting at wide aperture close-up to a subject requires a bit of practice - and you'll be able to enjoy it after the wedding too. You may need to start using focusing points other than the centre - focus-recompose can leave your subject out of focus.

Keep me posted with what you do.

All the best,

David

Any other suggestions for Andy?

My main website: Kent wedding photographers

Flash photography - The Hot Shoe Diaries

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I've just finished reading The Hot Shoe Diaries by Joe McNally and highly recommend it to those who love lighting with flash. It's written in a very casual, chummy style (in a similar vein to Scott Kelby's books) which I found a little grating at times, but it's packed full of useful information, with plenty of case studies and detailed notes on set-ups. Joe comes across as a very likeable, down-to-earth chap.

He has a no-nonsense approach to shooting: aperture priority with evaluative metering, letting the camera get him into the correct ballpark for exposure and then using exposure compensation to adjust; using TTL metering for flash and then flash exposure compensation as required. Those who regularly read my blog will know that that's exactly how I like to shoot.

One last observation. As I always suspected, but never liked to explore in too much detail, Nikon's creative lighting system (CLS) seems to have a real edge over Canon's system. One feature I would love to have with my Canon set-up is a single button to be able to disable flash for a shot, as opposed to having to turn the flash unit off - simple but incredibly practical. If there is a way to do this, please feel free to enlighten me!

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Wedding Photography - exposure values

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Continuing on from yesterday's post.

Thanks for that detail David. So just to clarify - you did not use flash in that shot? I'm not too clear on what the thinking is with point 1 in your reply. I'm keen to know at what point you decide to turn off your flash outdoors. For example, in your full length portraits of the couple (over 100mm focal) would there be any point using flash on a bright day? I'm guessing the shutter speed would always be above the flash sync, so would even FEC +2 give enough power to make a difference?

Thank you, Neil

David, was there a reason you went with f/8 for this shot? With the crowd in a level line you could have gone wider right? Underexposing for ambient is difficult in daylight as the shutter speeds become so high, the Speedlite HAS to work in high-speed sync mode, reducing its range a lot - I think about 7ft is your limit. David what do you think?

Peter

Hi chaps,

Thanks for the comments. I'll address them one by one:

1. No flash was used with any of the group shots.

2. To address point 1 in my original reply let's look at some hard exposure figures (also check out my post on exposure values for some background info). To expose correctly for faces in the group shot (the subject) required 1/125, f/8.0, ISO 100 (we'll ignore the exposure compensation tweak) - this equates to an exposure value of 13. If I had wanted to expose correctly for the sky (the background) the exposure would have been in the region of 1/4000, f/8.0, ISO 100 - an EV of 18 and a 5-stop smaller exposure than that required for the group shot. If I'd wanted a bit of drama I would have needed to underexpose in addition. If I did so by a further 2 stops (ie 1/8000, f/11, ISO 100) the subject matter would now be 7-stops underexposed - and I'd have to make up this difference with my Speedlites! This is a huge amount of light which is beyond their capabilities. Their output is further limited under these conditions since the X-sync speed on my camera is 1/250 so we'd have to set the Speedlites to high-speed sync (FP) mode which reduces power output to about 1/3. Also the smaller the aperture of your lens the harder the flash unit has to work - and we're at f/11!

3. Using flash outdoors is a judgement call based upon the factors I mentioned in the original post - primarily the exposure balancing required and the subject area that needs to be lit (both of these determine the amount of power output required).

4. I probably could have used flash with the couple shots to just add a 'kiss of light' - I was shooting at f/2.8. Speedlites have a Fresnel lens for focusing light (up to a focal length of 105mm on my 580EX IIs). Having said this, I would probably have taken the flash off-camera though and had someone holding a Speedlite just out of frame and directing the light for me.

5. Flash units are quickly overwhelmed outdoors!

On to Peter's comments:

6. f/8.0 - f/11 is generally the sharpest aperture of a lens. If I can, I try and shoot groups at this aperture as well as the crowd-pleasing wider apertures!

7. High-speed (FP) sync mode reduces output to about 1/3. Range will depend upon the aperture you're shooting at but it probably won't be far from the figure you suggest.

Hope this helps! All the best, David

My main website: Kent photographer

Wedding photography - sunny days

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Sunny days without a cloud in the sky (particularly when the sun is low and there's no shade available) create demanding conditions to shoot in - check out the original post regarding the placement of the sun in the above shot. It prompted a few questions.

Hi David,

Did you also use flash when shooting into the light in this shot? Couldn't you underexpose the ambient to bring out the sky and flash light the group for more drama?

Ta, Neil

Hi Neil,

Many thanks for your comment. I should have addressed this issue in my initial post.

As you rightly point out, underexposing for ambient light and then lighting the subject with flash is a great way to add drama to a shot.
The factors to consider when doing this are:

1. The difference in exposure between the subject and the background.

2. The subject area that needs to be lit.

3. The number of shots that need to be taken in this situation.

In my example above, all of these factors were against me applying this technique.With the sun at full tilt mid-afternoon there was at least a 5-stop difference between the sky and the faces of the guests and I had to take lots of large group shots. Lighting wedding groups evenly under these conditions is beyond the three Canon 580EX II Speedlites I have in my bag! To have a few shots without the sky being blown out (there were no clouds but the sky was a lovely blue away from the sun) I shot a few groups with sidelighting. A blue sky is a more manageable middle-grey tone. I hope this all makes sense. Feel free to post further comments.

All the best, David

My main website: wedding photographer in Kent

Wedding photography - exposure technique

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

Another question:

Hi David,

What's the best way to expose faces in bright sunshine when shooting towards the sun? It's really hard to judge on the LCD screen (shooting wide angle full length portrait for example). Would you suggest spot metering is the way to go? How do you manage blinking highlights and histogram information in this scenario?

Thank you

Tim

Hi Tim,

I'm not suggesting that what follows is the 'best' way, it's just 'my' way. It doesn't matter how you expose your shots as long as it's accurate, reliable and efficient.

I have to say I never spot meter at weddings - too time consuming and easy to get wrong in a high pressure situation. I prefer exposure compensation and do it on 'instinct'. I certainly wouldn't claim that all of my shots are perfectly exposed but I haven't lost a shot due to an exposure error for over a year.

I quickly judge if the scene is lighter or darker than middle grey, or is backlit as in the scenario you mention, and then compensate accordingly. This happens in an instance - I'm unconciously competent at this now. But occasionally I might underexpose if I want to guard highlight details or overexpose if I want more detail in the shadow regions.

I don't have a formula that I follow - it's on a shot-by-shot basis. I may have a quick glance at the LCD screen after an occasional shot (the 5D Mk II produces high resolution thumbnails which are pretty accurate) but I rarely check the histogram. Again, due to time considerations.

This is probably not much use to you but it is honest!

All the best,

David

My main website: Kent wedding photographer

Wedding photography - the confetti shot

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

Another question:

Hey David,

Looking at your galleries, I can't see any pics of the bride exiting the church and the confetti shower etc. I'm interested to know your tips for photographing this sequence, does autofocus have difficulty with all that stuff flying around. Do you switch to AI Servo mode? Do you walk backwards while using single shot?

Thank you

Tim

Hi Tim,

I always take a shot of the bride and groom walking down the aisle after the ceremony. I generally use my 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens in one-shot mode (occasionally AI servo), shoot at f/4 with a kiss of flash, and keep the shutter speed above 1/100 by adjusting the ISO speed, whilst walking backwards! I've not had problems with autofocus in these situations. If the church is really dark the AF-assist beam of the 580EX II will kick in.

At many civil venues, couples don't actually exit the building but move to another room for drinks. So there's no opportunity for the pose outside the building and they obviously don't bother with confetti!

With church ceremonies I take a shot of the couple exiting the church and will post it online if the venue is photogenic - a surprising number of churches seem to be in a permanent state of scaffolding. Bear in mind also that I only post 20% of shots.

Even with church ceremonies the confetti shot only occurs at about 30% of weddings. I've included an example from Louise and Adam's wedding last year, which was a traditional church affair.

All the best,

David

My main website: Kent photographer

Wedding Photography - In the church

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

More recent questions:

Hi David,

I'm interested in how you approach lens changes at a wedding. What sort of strategy do you have for each lens usage? How do you handle church weddings where you are not permitted to move around - stick with the 24-70?

Thanks!

Robert

Hi Robert,

I change lenses a lot. I have a Lowepro rucksack loaded with all my lenses on me at all times. Even if the vicar is very strict this allows me to discreetly changes lenses without problem. During the ceremony I use the 16-35 f/2.8 as the bride and her father enter, then switch to the 85 f/1.2 and 35 f/1.4 for the exchange of vows, the 35 f/1.4 for the signing of the register and then back to the 16-35 f/2.8 for the exit. Being familiar with the ceremony procedure means you're not changing lenses at key moments.

Hope this helps.

Yours,

David

Hi David,

Yes that's very helpful. Many thanks. This is a really good blog btw. What is your cue for making it to the exit in time if the vicar doesn't like you to move? Would it be okay to take flash shots before the ceremony starts generally? I'm shooting my first church wedding in a few months - and I've got a stern vicar to deal with. Any other tips appreciated!

Robert

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your positive feedback. The vicar ought to invite you to photograph the signing of the register. Shortly after this will be the exit from the church. Try and establish the ground rules for photography with the vicar before the wedding. There ought to be no problem with using flash before the ceremony but, unfortunately, it's impossible to generalise about what's acceptable. See previous posts on the behaviour of vicars!

Good luck!

Yours,

David

My main website: Kent photographer